Reluctant Father. Diana Palmer

don’t smile,” Sarah accused him.

      “My face would break,” he assured her. “Now get your things and we’ll go home.”

      She sighed. “Okay.” She looked up at Meredith. “Will you come to see me?”

      Meredith went white. Go into that house again, where Blake had humiliated and hurt her? God forbid!

      “You can come to see Danielle, Sarah,” Elissa interrupted, and Meredith knew then that Elissa had heard the whole story from King. She was running interference, bless her.

      “Who’s Dan—Danielle?” Sarah asked.

      “My daughter. She’s four.”

      “I’m almost four,” Sarah said. “Can she say nursery rhymes? I know all of them. ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty—’”

      “I’ll give your Daddy a call and he can bring you down to Bess’s house, where Meredith is staying. Bess is my sister-in-law, and Danielle and I go to see her sometimes.”

      “I’d like to have a friend,” Sarah agreed. “Could we do that?” she asked her father.

      Blake was watching Meredith shift uncomfortably. “Sure we can,” he said, just to irritate her.

      Meredith turned away, her heart going like an overwound watch, her eyes restless and frightened. The very last thing she wanted was to have to cope with Blake.

      “Bye, Merry!” Sarah called.

      “Goodbye, Sarah Jane,” she murmured, and forced a smile, but she wouldn’t look at Blake.

      He said the appropriate things as Elissa followed Meredith out the door, but the fact that Meredith wouldn’t look at him cut like a knife.

      He watched Meredith climb in under the wheel of the red Porsche. It didn’t seem like the kind of car she’d drive, but she wasn’t the girl she’d been. His eyes narrowed. He wondered if she was still as innocent as before, or if some man had taught her all the sweet ways to make love. His face hardened at the thought. No one had touched her until he had. But he’d been rough and he’d frightened her. He hadn’t really meant to. The feel and taste of her had knocked him off balance, and at the time he hadn’t been experienced himself. Nina had been his first woman, but his first real intimacy, even if it had been relatively chaste, had been with Meredith. Even after all the years in between, he could feel her mouth, taste its sweetness. He could see the soft alabaster of her breasts when he’d unbuttoned the top of her dress. He groaned silently. That was when he’d lost his senses—seeing her like that. He wondered if she knew how green he’d been in those days, and decided that she was too inexperienced herself to realize it. He’d wanted Meredith to the point of madness, and things had just gotten out of hand. But to a shy young virgin, his ardor must have seemed frightening.

      He turned back to his daughter with memories of the past darkening his eyes. It seemed so long ago that the rain had found him in the stable and Meredith had come in looking for his uncle….