The Heiress by Cathy Gillen Thacker

Author:Cathy Gillen Thacker [Thacker, Cathy Gillen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2003-09-11T20:00:00+00:00

“THAT BASTARD,” Daisy said as Tom walked around the deck and disappeared from sight. Unwelcome tears stung her eyes as they heard a car door open and close, then an engine start, his vehicle backing away. “How can he think he can just undo everything with an apology and a request to move on?” she demanded, her voice quivering despite her attempt to appear cool, calm and collected.

Jack scooted back on the chaise and laced a comforting arm around her shoulders. “Maybe because that’s the only way this situation is ever going to get any better,” Jack said gently.

“Of course you would say that,” Daisy fumed as she struggled to her feet. “You idolize the man. Oh, don’t even bother to look surprised,” she said, beginning to pace, as swiftly as her still-sore body would allow. She eased down on the weathered wooden bench that rimmed the edge of the deck. “It’s clear every time you look at Tom Deveraux,” Daisy said, rubbing a hand lightly across her aching middle. “You have this hero-worship thing going.”

Jack clamped his lips together, his resentment about what she had just alleged clear. He swung his legs over the side of the chaise. “Tom Deveraux is my boss, Daisy.”

“He’s more than that.” Daisy let her mouth run on ahead of her common sense. “He’s a…”

“Mentor,” Jack supplied calmly when Daisy’s mental search failed to yield the right word.

“But you wish he was even more than that,” Daisy accused.

Jack grew, if possible, even more exasperated, as he rested both his forearms on his thighs. “I admit I strive to earn his respect,” he said after a moment.

Daisy tilted her head as she continued to study him. “Is it going to be possible to get it back—after what happened between you and me?”

Jack gestured in a way that let Daisy know he had his own lingering doubts about that. “I think the two of us have made a good start in mending fences.” He looked at Daisy steadily. “I advise you to do the same with him.”

Daisy felt her mood turn even more belligerent. “Why should I?” she demanded contentiously.

“Because you started this and that gives you a certain responsibility to see it through to the end,” Jack lectured Daisy grimly. “You can’t just stir things up the way you have and then walk away.”

Daisy folded her arms in front of her defiantly. She hoped Jack would have realized by now he couldn’t make her see her father through his eyes. Because their experiences with Tom just weren’t the same. “I didn’t know what I was getting into when I started my search for my biological parents.” If she had…well, she would have backed off before she had gotten even more hurt than she had been by her abandonment years before.

Jack regarded her speculatively. “What did you think it would be like?”

Something wonderful and heartwarming enough to appear in a family movie, Daisy thought. “I don’t know.” Daisy shrugged. “I always figured my father never knew about me.

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