He turned to Patrick, his stance as steely as his father’s. “Yes, at this late hour. And I won’t be home till late. Good night, Father.” He opened the door.
Patrick grabbed his arm and spun him around, matching his son’s towering height inch for inch. “You will
not
be crawling home at all hours of the morning, out gallivanting with that woman, do you hear? If you aren’t home by midnight, the bolts will be locked.”
A nerve twitched in Steven’s chiseled jaw as he eyed his father with cool indifference. “Then I’ll sleep elsewhere,” he said with icy calm.
Marcy hurried to her husband’s side and placed a gentle hand on his arm. “Patrick, he’s a grown man in college, twenty-one years old,” she whispered.
“And living under my roof, Marcy, enjoying the benefit of an education that
I
provide.”
Steven stepped through the door without looking back, ushering in a gust of warm air that chilled Marcy to the bone. “Good night, Mother.” The door slammed behind him, clipping his words even more than the coolness of his tone.
She slipped her arms around Patrick and laid her head against his chest. His heart was racing and his muscles were stiff. “Let it go, my love,” she said quietly. “He’s not a little boy anymore, he’s a man. We have to allow him some freedom.”
His rib cage expanded with a heavy sigh. “Freedom to thwart us at every turn.”
She pulled away and touched a palm to his face. “We have good children who sometimes go through difficult times. Look at Charity – she’s settled down and hasn’t been trouble since.”
His lips quirked. “That’s because Mitch has to contend with her now.”
Marcy smiled. “Even so, Steven and Katie will both be fine too, you’ll see.”
He released a weary breath and lifted her chin with the tip of his finger. “And you want more children,” he said with a jag of his brow. He bent to brush a light kiss to her lips, his tone thick with sarcasm and more than a little tease. “I swear, you’re killing me, woman.”
She grinned and kissed him back. “I hope not. I can’t raise them alone.”
With a tug of her hand, he ushered her to the staircase, pulling her close to bury his lips in the crook of her neck. “Mmm . . . I suggest you head up and get ready for bed, Marceline, while I lock the doors and turn out the lights. I believe the fine print said ‘whatever I ask.’”
She smiled and started up the steps, then whirled around to hug his neck. “Oh, Patrick, I love you so much – more than I can ever express.”
The edges of his mouth tilted into a dangerous smile while he assessed her through gentle eyes. “Yes, well, I suggest you keep that in mind, darlin’,” he said in a husky tone. He planted a kiss on the tip of her nose, then headed to the parlor with a purposeful stride. “Especially when I come to collect.”
A boulder in his gut. That’s what it felt like as Luke stared out his office window in a daze, oblivious to the blare of horns and the shriek of police whistles that always accompanied Friday-night rush hour. He leaned back in the chair and put a hand to his eyes, legs crossed on the sill and his heart as heavy as the ton of rocks Carmichael unloaded this week.
Come Monday morning, Gabe would be gone – and there was not a blasted thing he could do about it. Luke squeezed his eyes shut, and the very thought forced moisture to well beneath his lids. He swabbed them with the sleeve of his arm, then massaged his temples to ease the onset of the headache that was sure to follow.
It wasn’t fair, he railed to himself. She deserved so much more. More than a ticket on a train bound for the Midwest, more than total strangers to depend on, and certainly more than leaving the only home she’d ever known. He released a halting breath. She deserved what Brady had given him – a chance to get off the streets and learn that not all people were bad. A chance to make something of herself and prove she was more than riffraff. He opened his eyes, allowing them to trail into a dead stare as a knot shifted in his throat. A chance to know there was a God in heaven who actually cared for every matted hair on her stubborn little head.
I will not leave you orphans . . .
Luke thought of the Scripture Brady had given him so long ago, and he gouged his eyes with the pads of his fingers. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to take her himself. Raise her, love her, teach her what Brady had taught him. But neither he nor Carmichael could allow that. Gabe needed a home that was solid and stable, two parents that would give her the love she deserved. And this was a chance for that – a home, a family that could change her life forever.
If she didn’t run away first.
No!
He bolted up, beads of sweat blistering the back of his neck and his breathing harsh and fast. But somehow he knew she would. He gripped the arms of his chair until his knuckles pinched white. She’d run away and be lost forever, alone and vulnerable. The very thought caused fear to feather his spine.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it fear.
His breathing slowed and his gaze jerked up, scanning the heavens. “You said you would never leave us nor forsake us, Lord, but where are you in all of this? Gabe needs you, and I need you. I’ve prayed for months for a good home for her, you know that, and yet there’s been nothing.” He sucked in a deep breath and sagged back into his chair, releasing the air in his lungs as thoroughly as he knew he had to release Gabe . . . into God’s hands. “Forgive me, Lord, because I do trust you. You’ve never failed me, not once since I’ve given my life to you. So I believe you have Gabe in the palm of your hand because you’ve proven yourself faithful to me over and over. And one way or the other, you
always
answer my prayers.”
A knock sounded, and he spun around, spying Katie at the door. His lips quirked into a half smile.
Well, almost always
, he thought as her blue eyes peeked in.
“I’m leaving now, Luke. Is there anything you need before I go?”
Yeah, Katie, a hug would be nice.
Heat singed the back of his neck and he coughed, clearing his throat. “No, I’m good. Have fun this weekend.” His brows pinched in a frown. “Oh, sorry – are you still on confinement?”
She grinned and sidled past the door, closing it carefully behind her with a pretty blush on her cheeks. “Yes, until tomorrow night, that is, when I have my first date with Jack in over two and a half months.”
Luke forced a smile to cover the scowl in his mind. “Lucky Jack,” he said with a tease in his tone, but truer words had never crossed his lips, and suddenly the thought blackened his mood further. Over the summer, he’d made the startling discovery that Katie O’Connor was everything he wanted in a woman, and somehow he’d known it from the age of fourteen. With little or no effort on her part, she had won his affection – from a cold shoulder at the age of ten, to a teasing smile at the age of eighteen – and Luke would give anything to be more than just friends. But they had a deal, and she had a boyfriend, and Luke was a man of his word. The scowl finally won out as he looked away, intent on shoving papers into a drawer.
She hesitated. “Are you sure you don’t need anything before I go? You look . . . tense.”
Tense?
Because two people he loved were leaving his life forever? He blew out a sigh of frustration and wheeled in his chair to stare out the window. “No, Katie, go home. I’m just down about Gabe, that’s all. Go on, get out of here and have fun this weekend.”
Go home to Jack, Katie Rose.
His stomach tightened at the sudden click of her heels, and shock expanded his eyes when she perched herself on the edge of his window. She crossed silky legs and leaned forward, palms flat on the sill and blue eyes sparkling with excitement. Her mouth twitched with a smile, as if a secret hovered behind those full, sensuous lips, and the tease of her proximity triggered his pulse till he thought he couldn’t breathe. A gentle breeze from the window rustled her silk dress, and the scent of roses drifted in the air, warming his blood.
“What’s on your mind, Katie?” he asked, heat crawling up his neck at the realization of what was on his.
“The same thing that’s on yours, apparently,” she said with a mysterious smile. “Gabe.”
His pulse slowed. “Gabe? What about her?”
Katie bit her lip and then grinned outright. “I have a foster family for her.”
He sat up straight in the chair, fingers gripped white on the arm. “W-What? W-Where?” His words tripped over his tongue, moving faster than the hammering of his heart.
Her laughter floated in the air like the sound of hope. “A wonderful family, really – large, well-to-do, and so full of love that Gabe will think she died and went to heaven.”
He couldn’t help it – tears stung his eyes. “Who?” he whispered.
Her gaze was tender as she studied him, the wetness in her eyes matching his own. “The O’Connors of Boston,” she said softly, then put a hand to her chest and blinked back her tears. “Goodness, you think she’ll mind sharing a room?”
He stared, disbelief stealing the air from his lungs. And then in a jolt of comprehension, it whooshed back in, flooding his body with such joy and emotion, he thought he would faint. In one frantic clip of his heart, he swallowed Katie up in his arms and squeezed as if he would never let go, his deep laughter rumbling against her hair. “Woman, I could just kiss you,” he shouted, and then all at once his breathing stilled as he set her back down, suddenly aware of her body pressed against his, the burn of his hand on the small of her back.
Their gazes met, and heat traveled his bloodstream like alcohol, drowning all inhibition he may have felt. He saw the vulnerability in those wide blue eyes, heard the tremulous breathing drifting from those soft, parted lips, and all reason fled from his brain, disarming all good intent. In slow and careful motion, his hands cupped the sides of her face like a caress, his gaze fixed on her mouth before shifting to lose himself in her eyes. He feathered her lips with the pad of his thumb. “Thank you, Katie Rose,” he whispered, “for giving me so much joy.”
He wanted to fight it, knew it should only be a kiss on the cheek, but his body seemed drugged with her. His eyelids weighted closed as he moved near like a man in a trance, compelled to graze his lips against hers. Upon touch, their shallow breathing became one as he nuzzled her mouth with his own. And then, in a ragged beat of his heart, she melted into him with a familiarity that destroyed all restraint. He clutched her body to his, deepening the kiss that just cost him a promise he’d made. “God help me, Katie, I want you – ”
Somewhere in the recesses of their minds they heard it, that gruff clearing of a throat that seemed so very far away. And then harsh reality struck, and Katie jerked violently from his arms as if he had thrust her away.
“I knocked, but I guess you didn’t hear it.” Parker stood with arms crossed in the open door, voice rock hard and jaw even worse.
An unnatural shade of red bled up Katie’s neck and face like a thermometer registering a fever of 105. “P-Parker . . . Mr. Riley . . . it’s not what it seems. L-Luke was just thanking me . . .”
The hard line of Parker’s mouth twisted as his eyes flicked to Luke with a penetrating look. “A simple ‘thank you’ wouldn’t have been enough?”
Luke grinned and looped an arm around Katie’s shoulders, ignoring both the heat at the back of his neck and Parker’s incriminating stare. “Not for this, old buddy. This amazing woman here just found our Gabe a home with an incredible family.”
The anger on Parker’s face fused into shock, and then blossomed into a reluctant grin. “No kidding? Who?”
Luke scooped Katie close and planted a kiss on her head. “Katie’s parents have agreed to take Gabe in, so that should shed some light on the level of gratitude I might have had.”
Parker ambled into the room and plopped into one of the chairs at the front of Luke’s desk, his lips flattened in a near smile. “Nope, but you and I will talk about that later. For now, I think we better let Katie go home.”
Katie slipped from Luke’s grasp with another rush of pink in her cheeks. “I’m on my way,” she said, sounding breathless as she hurried toward the door. She turned, hand on the knob. “Oh, and Luke, Father said to bring the papers by anytime tomorrow. Then you can fill them in on all the details before Gabe moves in on Monday.”
He stared at the woman who had just made him the happiest man in the world. And, if God answered his prayer – could very well do it again. “Thanks, Katie, for everything.”
“My pleasure,” she said, and then flushed again before she quickly closed the door.
Parker’s eyes met his in the inevitable showdown. “I’m happy about Gabe, you know that, but what the devil do you think you’re doing, McGee?”
Luke turned to stare out the window, the smile fading from his face as he steeled himself for his superior’s wrath. He felt the joy seep out of him as he sighed, hands pressed to the sill and shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m in love with her, Parker.”
The words all but echoed in the room, and Parker’s silence confirmed their impact. Luke rotated to face him, then crouched on the sill where Katie had sat just moments before. “I’m through with just friends. I want more.”
Parker hesitated, lips clamped in silent disapproval. “Does she?” he finally asked, watching Luke through veiled eyes.
Luke sifted his fingers through his hair and exhaled. He looked up with a sheepish smile. “Her body does, there’s no question about that. But her heart?” The smile disappeared as Luke’s gaze trailed to the floor. “I don’t know.”
“What about this Jack character – I thought she was in love with him?”
Luke massaged his hairline with the palm of his hand. “I don’t know.”
With a jut of his brow, Parker leaned back in his chair and plunked his feet on Luke’s desk. “You don’t know a whole lot for somebody about to make a fool of himself.”
Luke looked up, rewarding Parker with a half-lidded glare. “I know if she’s kissing me like that, she can’t be in love with any high-society milksop.”
“Milksop? That’s a little harsh, isn’t it?”
Disgust wormed its way into Luke’s smile. “Not on your life – the man’s a wimp. She’s got him wrapped so tightly around her baby finger, he could be a yo-yo.”