“I had almost forgotten how wonderful it is to hold them for the first time,” she said serenely as she gazed down into the mottled, wrinkled face that she thought was beautiful.
Kerry was touched by the peaceful expression on her friend’s face. Jenny’s conversation was liberally sprinkled with Cage’s name, and Trent’s, and Aimee’s, which was the name she had given her daughter.
Kerry left the room, knowing that she’d seen love epitomized. The Hendrens were filled with it. It shone from them. Kerry celebrated their happiness, but also envied it. Jenny’s contentment with her husband and children only highlighted the emptiness of her own life.
She had lost her mother prematurely. Her father had died in disgrace. Kerry, hoping to rectify some of the wrongs he had committed, had taken on the responsibility of a whole nation. Oh, she had succeeded in her mission, but what did she have to show for it personally?
In a way, she had been as manipulative as her father. She hadn’t resorted to corruption, but she’d been just as fraudulent. People commended her on the tremendous sacrifice she had made. But in her heart she knew that she hadn’t made any such sacrifice. What she had done had been for herself, not for the orphans of Monterico.
She had used them as a cleansing agent to scrub away the stain on her family’s reputation. She had endangered nine children, put their lives in peril, so she could feel absolved and guilt free. It was her way of saying, “Look at me. I might bear my father’s name, but I’m not like him.”
And to whom had she been trying to prove that? To a world who really didn’t give a damn? Or to herself?
She returned to the waiting room. Cage was holding his sleepy son on his lap, while in Spanish, he was describing the new baby to Lisa. The little girl was sitting in the crook of Linc’s arm. One of her hands was resting on his thigh in an unconscious gesture of trust and affection.
It was then that Kerry knew what she was going to do.
Chapter 14
“I wasn’t ready for it, were you?” Cage’s question was rhetorical. The passenger riding in his classic Lincoln didn’t answer him, but continued to stare out the windshield. “When Kerry announced that she wanted to adopt Lisa, I nearly dropped my teeth.”
Cage looked across the seat at Linc. He’d been anything but chatty since they’d left for the airport. His rugged features were set and grim. Cage, as usual, was dri
ving too fast, so the scenery was nothing but a blur beyond the windows. The landscape wasn’t keeping Linc enthralled and silent. No, his sullenness was the product of something else. Cage had a fairly good idea what it was.
Companionably he went on, “What do you think made Kerry suddenly decide she wanted to raise a child alone?”
“How the hell should I know?” The question was explosive, angrily erupting from Linc’s chest. “Why does that woman do anything? She’s a wacko.”
Cage chuckled. “Yeah, that crossed my mind, too.” He glanced at Linc from the corner of his eye. “Sure makes for an interesting lady, though, doesn’t it? That unpredictability.”
Linc made a disagreeable snorting sound, crossed his arms over his chest, and slumped deeper into his seat. “Unpredictability is another word for irrational. I’m telling you she’s crazy. Posing as a hooker. Posing as a nun. What the hell kind of rational person goes around pulling dumb stunts like that? She acts now, thinks later.” He turned to Cage and pointed a warning index finger at him. “Someday her recklessness is gonna get her into a helluva lot of trouble.”
Cage, hiding his smile, thought that Kerry was already in a helluva lot of trouble. Linc O’Neal was “trouble” if he’d ever seen it. Cage liked him better for it. He’d been trouble, too, and had always enjoyed his reputation of being the “bad boy” in town.
It had been a rough night. It showed on both their faces. Neither had shaved. Their eyes were slightly bloodshot. They were still wearing yesterday’s clothes.
But there hadn’t been time that morning for them to return to the house before the commuter plane was scheduled to take off. Linc had insisted that he make this plane and not be delayed any longer. He’d also insisted that he could hitchhike to the airport or call the town’s only taxi service, so that Cage could stay at the hospital with Jenny. But Cage had been equally as adamant about driving him. Jenny and the new baby were inaccessible during doctors’ rounds anyway. After he had dropped Kerry at the house with Trent and Lisa, he and Linc had left for the airport.
The goodbyes Linc and Kerry had exchanged had been brief and polite, with the two of them barely looking at each other. Cage hadn’t had the heart to tell Jenny that Linc was leaving. She would be disconsolate when she found out that her matchmaking attempts had apparently failed.
Personally Cage thought that both Kerry and Linc needed a kick in the butt to bring them to their senses, but he couldn’t very well lecture Jenny and then go meddling in their affairs himself. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to rattle the seemingly unrattleable Mr. O’Neal just a bit.
“I would imagine that Kerry is going to have quite a bit of trouble on her hands. And soon.”
Linc’s feigned indifference slipped. “What do you mean?”
“First with this adoption thing. She’s a single woman. The immigration people specified that the orphans could only be placed with established families so they wouldn’t impose an additional burden on the American taxpayers. I’m not sure that they’ll consider a single woman an ‘established family.’”
“It’s no longer all that uncommon for singles to adopt.”
“No, but it usually takes longer. And, as you know, there’s a time limit on these adoptions.”
“They wouldn’t send a four-year-old orphan back to Monterico,” Linc said.
“Probably not.” Deliberately Cage made his smile too bright and falsely optimistic. “And if they did, knowing how headstrong Kerry is, she’d probably go back with Lisa before she would give her up.”
“Back to Monterico? She’d have to be crazy!”