LITMIR.BIZ

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crumbs from sticky fingers and chocolate-rimmed mouths, refilling drinks and trying to ensure the furniture didn’t get soiled. Though she refrained from looking directly at Lucian, she noticed many of the parents had drifted over to chat with him. She swallowed back concern. Was it too much to hope no one else brought up the subject of his mother?

      A frown pulled at her lips. What if he found this evening so unpleasant that he did decide to blockade the door next time?

      No. She sincerely believed that, despite his intentions to thwart Charles’s wishes, Lucian was a good man. Misguided, definitely. A bit selfish and stubborn, maybe. But didn’t everyone have faults? His actions tonight had softened her opinion of him. He didn’t have to lift a finger to help her, but he’d anticipated her needs and acted accordingly. He’d suffered through Ollie’s onslaught with fortitude, nodding at all the right times and answering the boy’s questions with careful consideration. Watching his gentle interaction with Sarah, Megan’s heart had squeezed with a curious longing. A longing she didn’t dare examine.

      Lucian is not responsible for these feelings, she assured herself. It’s just that, with both Juliana and Josh reveling in wedded bliss, you’re dreaming of your own happy-ever-after.

      Besides, Lucian Beaumont didn’t strike her as a man who believed in such a thing. He wouldn’t willingly be any girl’s knight in shining armor.

      * * *

      Lucian bade good-night to the last guest and, closing the door, sagged momentarily against it. He’d survived his first story time. While this evening had had its trying moments, there’d been interesting ones, as well. What surprised him most was how friendly everyone had been. It seemed Megan was alone in feeling betrayed by his absence all these years.

      Going in search of her, he found her scooting a heavy wingback chair across the thick multihued rug towards its rightful place beside the settee. He strode to intercept her.

      “I’ll take it from here.”

      “That’s all right. I’m used to doing this without help.”

      He placed a stalling hand on her shoulder. The warmth of her skin beneath her blouse, the slender grace of her, prickled his palm. He had the ridiculous urge to knead the stiffness from her muscles. “I don’t mind. You’ve been on your feet for most of the night. Why don’t you sit and rest for a few minutes?”

      Her red scarf askew, she reluctantly nodded and, moving away from his touch, settled on the settee. Her hands folded in her lap, her gaze followed his movements as he quickly replaced all the chairs. The lamplights cast a cozy glow about the room, which, with its navy-blue-and-green accents and dark walnut woodwork, gave it a masculine feel that was echoed throughout the house. He wondered if it had ever had feminine touches, or if Charles had removed all reminders of his late wife and his absent daughter.

      When he’d finished, she asked, “How do you think it went tonight?”

      Standing in the middle of the rug, arms crossed, he gave her his frank opinion. “I think the kids are fortunate to have someone who’s willing to give of their time and energy on their behalf.”

      Her chin went up. “I enjoy it.” There was force behind the words.

      On this point, he didn’t doubt her. He’d seen her nurturing touches, the easy care of the children as if they were her own. Affection like that couldn’t be faked.

      “I know you do.”

      Surprised relief flickered in her eyes before her lashes swished down, cutting off his view. She began to pluck at the ruffles on her skirt, her trim, shiny nails winking in the light. “I noticed many of the parents made a point to introduce themselves to you. Was everyone...welcoming?”

      The hitch in her voice lured him closer. She must be thinking of the Tremains and their guileless comments. He eased down beside her on the cushion, a respectable twelve inches away, and rested his palms on his thighs. “They were indeed.”

      Welcoming and genuinely glad to meet him. Effusive in their praise of Charles. He’d had trouble reconciling the man they’d described as good as gold with the cold, unfeeling grandfather he’d envisioned all these years. The discrepancy troubled him. If Charles was the man they made him out to be, why had he ignored his own family? If he regretted the rift he’d created with his pigheaded stubbornness, why hadn’t he come to New Orleans and attempted to make amends? It wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford to travel. And his health problems hadn’t presented themselves until recent years.

      He looked up to find her studying him, trying to decipher his thoughts.

      “I received several supper invitations,” he continued, “as well as a request to come to church on Sunday.”

      Interest bloomed in her expression. She angled towards him. “Will you come?”

      “I haven’t been to church in more than a year,” he admitted. “My mother and I used to attend services together. Then she became ill, and I...” He shook his head, reluctant to think of his beloved mère and her swift decline, the bloom of health stolen from her without warning and without mercy. His wealth had garnered her access to the best medical care available, yet in the end, it hadn’t mattered. No amount of money could’ve prevented her death.

      His utter helplessness had nearly destroyed him.

      “I understand how it would’ve been difficult for you to go, especially since it was something the two of you did together.”

      Megan’s compassion threw him off-kilter. He’d gotten precious little of it back in New Orleans. In the face of his grief, his friends and acquaintances hadn’t known what to say, so they’d avoided the subject altogether. And his father, well, he’d been relieved at his wife’s passing. Gerard was finally free of the unsophisticated mountain girl he’d made the mistake of marrying all those years ago. To him, her love and adoration had been a burden. An embarrassment.

      His hands curled into fists. Shoving down the familiar anger and bitterness that thoughts of his father aroused, Lucian nodded. “I couldn’t bring myself to go alone. Besides, all those years I’d gone in order to make her happy. After her passing, there didn’t seem to be any more reason to go.”

      Megan’s brow furrowed in consternation. “What about deepening your relationship with God? Learning more about His Word?”

      “Relationship? With God?”

      “Haven’t you ever shared with Him what’s on your heart? Your hopes, dreams, failures? He already knows, of course, but He wants us to express it through prayer.”

      He’d prayed before, on occasion, but it had been brief requests for help. Nothing like what Megan was talking about. “You speak as if God cares about the details of your life. I don’t see Him that way. While I believe He exists and that He created this world for our use and pleasure, I find it difficult to imagine He’d bother Himself with our problems.”

      “David wrote in Psalms, ‘O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.’ Does that sound like a God who can’t be bothered with us?”

      The gentle curve of her smile, the utter lack of judgment in her eyes, compelled him to be truthful. “It sounds like you’re much better acquainted with the Scriptures than I am. In fact, I can’t recall the last time I opened a Bible.” He thought of his mother’s black Bible tucked safely in his trunk, a tentative link that eased somewhat the ache of her absence.

      “It’s not too late to start,” she said encouragingly.

      His gaze fell on a small portrait on the side table, one he hadn’t noticed before. Standing, he stepped around her and picked it up, fingers tight on the gilt frame. His grandparents, Charles and Beatrice, in the prime of their lives. And his mother, who looked to be about eight years old, dressed in a simple dress and her dark hair in pigtails. She wasn’t smiling. No one really did for

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