in bold colors. Some of the threads are incredibly strong and durable. Others are impossibly delicate. The result is admirable. But a work of art needs love, as well as admiration.” She lifted her hands. “She’d hate to know I described her that way.”
His gaze shifted to the vivid, blending colors of the wall hanging. “She wouldn’t care for the delicate.”
“No.” Caroline felt a tug of regret, and of relief. So he knew her younger daughter, and he understood her. “It’s old-fashioned, I suppose, but all Will and I really want is to know that she’s happy.”
“It’s not old-fashioned.” His mother had said almost the same words to him about Cal before he’d left home.
With a sigh, Caroline turned to glance at the wall hanging he was studying. “That’s one of my older pieces. I made that while I was pregnant with Sunny. I sold most of my work back then, but for some reason I held on to this one.”
“It’s beautiful.”
On impulse she rose to take it down from the wall. Her fingers slid over it. She remembered sitting at her handmade loom, watching the sunlight play on the colors as she chose them, blended them. With Will in the garden, Libby sleeping on a blanket spread on the grass and a child moving in her womb. The image was all the sweeter for the time that had passed between.
“I’d like you to have it.”
If she had offered him a Rembrandt or an O’Keeffe, he would have been no more stunned. “I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s priceless.”
She laughed at that. “Oh, my agent puts prices on my work. Ridiculous prices, for the most part. I’d hate to think that my pieces will only end up in art galleries or museums.” She folded it. “It would mean a lot more if I knew some of them were being enjoyed by my family.” When he said nothing, she held it out. “My daughter took your brother’s name. That makes us family.”
He didn’t want to feel like family. He needed to hold on to his resentment, to go on thinking of Caroline and William Stone as names in history. But he found himself reaching out and taking the soft cloth.
“Thank you.”
***
The nursery was painted a soft green. An antique iron crib in white was draped with a blanket Caroline had woven in pastels. The room was full of toys, many of which Sam would have no interest in for years. But there were dozens of stuffed animals, ranging from elephants to the traditional teddy bear.
Picking one up, Sunny waited until her father laid Sam on the changing table. “You’re pathetic.”
“Maybe you don’t remember the punishment for sass,” Will said mildly as he unsnapped Sam’s overalls.
“I’m a little too big for you to make me sit in a chair until I apologize.”
He shot her a look. “Don’t bet on it.”
“Dad.” Sighing, she set the bear aside. “From the time I turned thirteen you’ve interrogated every male I’ve brought into the house.”
“I like to know who my daughter’s seeing socially. There’s no crime in that.”
“There is the way you do it.”
Sam gurgled and kicked his feet as Will freed him of his diaper. Will dusted powder on him, enjoying the scent. “I liked you better when you were this size.”
“Tough.” She walked over to rest her elbow on his shoulder. Even at her most rebellious, she’d never been able to do anything but love him. “I suppose you’re going to grill the girls Sam brings home when he starts dating.”
“Of course. I’m not sexist.” Neither was he stupid. “Do you want to tell me that you and J.T. have been spending a few platonic days in the cabin?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so.” He fastened a fresh diaper on his son. Life had been so simple, he thought, when all he’d had to worry about was diaper rash and teething. “Sunny, you haven’t known the man more than a few weeks.”
She stuck her tongue in her cheek. “Does this mean you’ve changed your views on free love?”
“The sexual revolution is over.” He snapped Sam’s overalls again. “For several very good reasons.”
She held up a hand. “Before you start listing them, why don’t I tell you I agree with you?”
That took some of the wind out of his sails. Sunny had come by her argumentative nature honestly. “Good. Then we understand each other.”
“That promiscuity is neither morally or ethically correct or physically wise? Absolutely, I’ve never been promiscuous.”
“I’m relieved to hear it.” Seeing Sam’s eyes droop, Will took him to the crib. After winding up a mobile of circus animals, he laid his son down.
“I didn’t say I was a virgin.”
Will winced—he hated to think of himself as a fusty prude—then sighed. “I guess I suspected as much.”
“Want to make me sit in a chair until I apologize?”
His lips quirked. “I don’t think it would do much good at this point. It’s not that I don’t trust your judgment, Sunbeam.”
She’d never been able to resist him. Moving closer, she took his face in her hands and kissed him. “But your judgment is so much better.”
“Naturally.” He grinned and patted her bottom. “It’s one of the few advantages of hitting forty.”
“You’ll never be forty.” She managed to keep her lips from curving. “Dad, I might as well confess. I have been with a man before.”
“Not that weasely Carl Lommins.”
She made a face. “Give me some credit. And don’t interrupt—I’m making a point. When I was with someone it was because I was fond of him, because there was mutual respect and there was responsibility. You taught me that, you and Mom.”
“So you’re telling me I’m not supposed to worry about your relationship with J.T.”
“No, I’m not telling you not to worry. But I am telling you I’m not fond of him.”
“Well, then—”
“I’m in love with him.”
He studied her eyes. When a man had been in love, passionately, with the same woman for most of his life, he recognized the signs. It was time to accept that he had seen those signs on his daughter’s face the moment she had walked in the door.
“And?”
“And what?” she countered.
“What are you going to do about it?”
“I’m going to marry him.” The statement surprised her enough to make her laugh. “He doesn’t know it yet, because I just figured it out myself. When he goes back east, I’m going with him.”
“And if he objects?”
Her chin came up. “He’ll have to learn to live with it.”
“I guess the problem is you’re too much like me.”
She put her arms around his neck to hug him close. “I won’t like being so far away. But he’s what I want.”
“If he makes you happy.” William drew her away. “He damn well better make you happy.”
“I don’t intend to give him a choice.”
Chapter 10
“It’ll be fun.” Sunny navigated into a narrow parking space under a brightly lit sign that aggressively flashed Club Rendezvous. Jacob studied the winking colored lights with some doubt, and she patted his hand. “Trust me,
