“No, you’re not!” the child sniffed. “If Mama was alive, then you couldn’t have Daddy. He loved her! He did!” By this time Krista’s body was racked with her uncontrolled weeping, and Erin let her arm reach tentatively around the slim shoulders.
“Don’t touch me,” Krista screamed. “Don’t you dare touch me!” She pushed her chair back from the table and attempted to reach for the wheelchair. Erin knew that the situation was getting dangerously out of control, and she tried to help Krista by pushing the wheelchair in the girl’s direction.
“I can do it myself!” Krista declared, and to Erin’s surprise, the slender girl braced herself on the table’s edge and took a few hesitant steps before falling into her mechanical chair.
They faced each other as if they were opponents on a battlefield. Each one eyed the other distrustfully. Hesitantly Erin drew herself up to her full height, and her lilac gaze rested on her ward for the evening. How was it possible to handle Krista? There was no answer but the obvious.
“Krista,” Erin said, and offered the girl a tissue to dry her eyes. “I want you to know that there’s no rule stating that you have to like me. All I ask is that you give me a chance, an honest chance. And, for your father’s sake, I’m asking you to be, at least, civil to me. Is that so much to ask?”
“I don’t want a new mother!” the girl cried, nearly hysterical.
“I understand that, and…I respect it,” Erin agreed, still holding the tissue out to the child. “No one has the right to step into someone else’s shoes, unless they’re asked. I’m sure that your mother was a very wonderful woman, and that she loved you very much, but, unfortunately, I can’t bring her back to you. Nobody can.” Erin’s eyes had begun to fill with tears as she looked into a face that was much too young to understand death. “I hope you know that whatever happens between your father and me, that I would never attempt to take the place of your mother—that’s a promise!”
Krista stared silently at Erin for what seemed an eternity before taking the tissue and wiping the stain of tears from her cheeks. Assured that the girl was poised again, Erin turned toward the kitchen and hastily wiped her own tears with the cuff of her blouse. She hoped that Krista hadn’t seen her tears or her weakness.
For the rest of the evening, while Erin cleared the table and cleaned the dishes, Krista brooded in a corner of the room, pretending interest in the empty fireplace. Erin offered to build a fire, but Krista had withdrawn back into her shell and didn’t respond to the invitation. Therefore, Erin shrugged her shoulders and acted as if it didn’t matter in the least to her, one way or the other, before turning back to the task of straightening the kitchen. But she sensed that beneath Krista’s cold exterior, the girl had begun to thaw.
Whenever Krista didn’t think that Erin would notice, she studied the black-haired woman with interest. So this was the lady that her father was falling to pieces over. Although this Erin creature was very unlike her mother, Krista couldn’t help but admire Erin’s mettle. Maybe Seattle wouldn’t be quite as bad as she had imagined.
It was late when Kane returned to the apartment house. He parked the car and sat motionless for several minutes, just staring into the darkness of the night. He was emotionally drained to the point of exhaustion, and he had the urge to restart the car and head to the closest tavern. He wanted a drink—make that several drinks—and then he wanted to fall into bed and sleep for days. He didn’t want to face Krista and endure another fight, and he couldn’t face Erin, not now.
He groaned when he thought about the scene at the bank: the evidence, the fear and the anger as Jim Haney explained about the latest development in the embezzling operation. Not only was three thousand dollars missing, but Jim had learned from Olivia Parsons that Erin had met with Mitchell Cameron on the day of his arraignment hearing—the very day the money was transferred from the dividend account. The only good news was that Jim had traced the money’s path and it would only be a matter of days before he had sifted through all of the departmental checks to find one that was out of balance with the general ledger. At last the torture of the unknown would end, and Kane realized bitterly that Erin would be caught.
Erin was sitting in a chair, engrossed in a mystery novel, when Kane let himself into the apartment. Her black hair was wound into a loose ponytail, her glasses were perched on the end of her nose, and her legs were curled comfortably beneath her. As Kane saw her he was reminded of the first time he had seen her, dressed much the same and crouched in a pile of legal documents at the bank. He felt the same, now-familiar male response that he had several weeks ago. He wanted to run to her, to scoop her up in his arms, to crush her against him and to bury his head in the soft warmth of her breasts. Even now, suspecting what he did about her and knowing he was deathly close to the truth, he wanted her as he had never wanted another woman.
“Hi,” Erin greeted him, and pulled her glasses off her face. She laid the book and the glasses on an upturned box that she was using as a table, stood up and stretched. It was an unconscious and provocative gesture that made Kane’s blood heat as he watched the fabric of her clothes mold tightly to her body. Her eyes found his. “Can I get you anything? There’s quite a few leftovers….”
He stood in the doorway, his shoulders drooped in resignation. Though she could tell that he, in his own way, was glad to see her, there was a strange look on his face.
“Are you well?” she asked.
“What?
Oh, yeah. I’m fine,” he responded, and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Were the computer problems that difficult?”
“The what? Oh, no, the computer is fine. But you know how it is, one problem seems to lead to another, and before you know it, the half-hour that you planned to be gone has stretched into three.” His voice was vague, distant, and Erin wondered if he was trying to tell her something.
“How’s Krista?” Kane asked, and dropped to the floor. He grabbed a loose pillow for his head and patted the floor next to him, inviting Erin to sit next to him on the floor.
“We got along fine,” Erin replied, and leaned against Kane, who cocked a dubious eyebrow. “Well, it wasn’t easy—not at first,” she admitted hesitantly. “But we worked things out.”
“Did you?”
“Well, somehow we managed to get by….” Erin’s voice drifted off. Kane seemed remote this evening, and she could see the evidence of exhaustion on his face. She hated to add to his problems, but she thought that he should know about Krista. “Did you know that she can walk?” Erin asked in a near whisper.
Kane stiffened. “What do you mean? Did she actually walk while I was gone?” His voice had lost all of its distance, and his fingers dug into her upper arm.
“Not exactly…”
“But you said…”
“I know what I said. Just listen a minute. Krista and I had an argument. It wasn’t serious,” Erin added hastily, and felt guilty for the lie. “And when I tried to help her to the wheelchair, she wouldn’t stand for it. She braced herself on the table and took two—three—possibly four steps until she made it to her chair.”
“You’re certain?”
“Kane! I was right there—only inches from her! She walked.”