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But that wasn’t it. Not really. It was the certified letter from Janet’s father that arrived today.
My wife and I appreciate your care of Katie during this difficult time. We have, however, consulted legal advisors, and plan to remove Katie to the care and custody of her aunt Diane, our youngest daughter. She’s married, and is willing to provide the kind of family environment Katie has lacked. Though we were estranged from our daughter Janet over the last few years, we feel it’s our duty to secure a stable future for her child.
Despite his earlier resolutions, Zach’s first reaction to such finality was a fierce desire to fight for custody. His second was the hardest he’d ever had to face. Whatever he wanted, no matter how painful it was, he knew he had to think of Katie first.
Tonight he would contact Jerry about a background check on Diane and ask some of his other friends to start checking into her life as well. If she was warm and loving, with a stable family home, maybe Katie would be better off with her.
Even if Zach’s heart lay shredded and bleeding on the ground.
* * * *
ZACH PACED THE NARROW confines of the little house. He’d made supper and cleared the dishes away. Then he left a message on Jerry’s answering machine about investigating Katie’s Aunt Diane.
Katie, scrubbed and fresh from her bath, now sat in the midst of her toys and looked up at him with hopeful eyes. These moments with her were precious, but right now he couldn’t dispel an unaccountable sense of foreboding.
“Stories?” she begged.
He glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. Seven o’clock. The Hathaways should be inside by now, shouldn’t they? He’d called fifteen minutes ago. Five minutes ago. No one answered.
There were a lot of strangers who passed through Fossil Hill because National Forest lands and the incredibly beautiful Rockies were less than forty miles to the west. Still, Molly’s offhand comment about a stranger stopping by for directions had bothered Zach ever since. What were the chances, given the fact that someone had been hanging around town asking questions, that the guy at the ranch had been El Cazador?
He smiled down at Katie. “First, let’s take a little drive and wish Molly and Alex good night, okay?” And while you’re with them, Dana and I need to talk.
Katie had already gathered an impossibly heavy load of picture books for her bedtime stories, and now stood in the middle of the living room with most of them slithering out of her grasp. “Can Buffy come?”
Buffy, her rounded puppy tummy full, lay upside down and fast asleep in a pile of shoes that she’d fetched from the closets. “She looks pretty tired, honey.”
“Please? She likes the car.” Katie appeared pretty tired herself, and now her lower lip trembled. The books all hit the floor. “She’s scared by herself.”
“I’ll get the carrier, then. Can you find your shoes?”
“Wif my jammas?”
At her abrupt, wide-eyed look of delight at something so silly, he spun back on his heel and scooped her up into his arms.
Her damp blond curls smelled of daisies, her dewy skin felt silky—like a fresh, ripe peach. The softness of her, her fragile weight, made him feel as if he could take on the world just to keep her safe and happy and secure.
A wrenching loneliness swept through him as he remembered that he wouldn’t be there every day.
What would she look like in six months, a year? Would he be able to see her as often as he liked? Would she even remember him a year from now? What would she dream of? Talk about?
Already she’d begun to talk more. Whether it had been emotional trauma or a lack of enough stimulation, she’d had so little to say at first. And now she strung maybe six or seven words together in a sentence, her eyes alight with curiosity and excitement over the toys and animals around her. And she’d even started returning his bedtime hugs and kisses with shy efforts of her own. That first wet little kiss, planted haphazardly on his cheek, had nearly made his heart burst.
When she started wiggling, he shook off his thoughts and gave her nose a playful tweak. “You want down, huh?” he growled. “I...don’t think so!”
Giggling, she wiggled her chubby fingers along his neck and he laughed, pretending that her tickles were unbearable.
“Now!”
“Nope! I think I’ll just hold you forever and ever.”
“Even when I sleep?” She pulled back and studied his face.
He’d carried her into the house a few times when she’d been fast asleep, the totally relaxed weight of her like a sack of flour at his shoulder, her cheek warm and soft against his neck. That complete childlike trust had taken hold of his heart and never let go. “Even then,” he whispered.
“Always?”
It would end all too soon. He gently put her down and turned away, suddenly needing distance. “In my heart, Katie. Always in my heart.”
