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Without any further thought, Dex answered. “I promise to take care of Caitlin and to do what I can for her, Mr. Parker.”
Halston Parker released a long, ragged breath, accepting Dex’s promise. He closed his eyes and moments later his breathing became deep and even. Wordlessly, Dex and Caitlin sat in the chairs next to the bed.
Seconds became minutes. Minutes ticked into hours. Before the dawning of a new day, Halston Parker’s breathing stopped.
He was gone.
Chapter 3
T he sun was shining bright in the midmorning sky when Dex and Caitlin walked out of the hospital. It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet, but already the day promised to be miserably hot, which wasn’t unusual for a day in mid-June.
Caitlin squared her shoulders and tried to keep all the grief of losing her father at bay, but found she couldn’t. Swallowing, she blinked back a surge of fresh tears.
“I’m driving you home, Caitlin. Where’re you parked?”
The touch of Dex’s arm around Caitlin’s shoulder penetrated deeply. Sniffing, she angled her head to look up into his eyes. To her surprise, they were filled with compassion, something she hadn’t expected. Feeling a lump form in her throat, she answered in a choked voice. “My car is parked over there.”
When they arrived at her father’s home, Caitlin covered her face with her hands and began crying openly in heart-wrenching, strangled sobs. Dex turned off the car’s ignition, pushed the seat back and gently pulled her into his lap.
“That’s it, get it all out. Everything’s going to be all right, Caitlin. Your father isn’t in any more pain. He’s at peace,” Dex whispered softly, tenderly cradling her in his arms.
When her sobs turned to soft whimpers, she lifted her tear-stained face to his. “Dad didn’t get a chance to see Jordan for the last time,” she said brokenly.
Dex’s hand stopped stroking Caitlin’s hair and back. His eyes darkened. “I gather Jordan means a lot to you.”
Caitlin frowned at his words. She then began wiping her eyes with trembling hands. “Of course. Jordan is my life.”
Dex felt a surge of renewed pain and anger. He had to clamp down on his teeth to keep from lashing out at the thought of her deep feelings for another man. He stared hard at her. “Since he’s your life, why hasn’t he made you his? I would think under the circumstances, he’d be here for you.”
Confusion covered Caitlin’s face. “What are you talking about?”
Dex’s voice was as hard as his eyes and held a steely edge when he continued. “I’m talking about this person named Jordan. Never mind, he’s your problem, not mine. My only concern is the promise I made to your father, and I intend to keep it. I’ll not leave before the services. After that, I have no intention of staying a minute longer. I’ll contact Clayton to fly in as soon as the services for your father are over. If your father’s claim is true, and there’s a possibility that we’re still married, I’ll make sure Clayton does whatever has to be done to legalize our divorce. Then you can continue your life with Jordan.”
Caitlin’s eyes grew wide with startled surprise with Dex’s words. He acted like he didn’t know who Jordan was? But how could he not know? She had written to him so he had to know. But if he really didn’t…
Panic seized Caitlin when she thought of that possibility. She skittered away from Dex and quickly got out of the car.
Dex raised a questioning brow. He watched Caitlin at her front door fumbling nervously with her keys before opening the door and going inside the house.
He tilted his head back against the car seat and closed his eyes, totally bewildered. What in the world was going on? When he’d mentioned the other man, Caitlin had acted as though she was having an anxiety attack. Something wasn’t right, and he intended to find out what was going on.
Dex sighed deeply. He wondered if her actions had anything to do with the letter Dr. Flores had discreetly given to him at the hospital. It was a letter Halston Parker had asked Dr. Flores to give to him. No doubt it was another chunk to add to this bizarre puzzle to which only Caitlin’s father had all the pieces. Instead of reading the letter when Dr. Flores had handed it to him, he had stuffed the envelope in his pocket to read later. He wasn’t ready to read anything Caitlin’s father had written to him. He was still trying to recover from the old man’s claim that he and Caitlin were still legally married.
Fury almost choked Dex. He was tired of playing games. He wanted answers and wanted them now, and he intended on getting them from Caitlin. He got out of the car and walked up to the house.
Caitlin had left the door open and Dex walked inside. He heard her sobs and took the stairs two at a time, following the sound of her voice.
He entered the bedroom at the precise moment she reached for a tan-colored jacket that was tossed across a chair. The masculine decor of the room, smelling of pipe tobacco, had been her father’s. Clutching the jacket to her chest, her shoulders began to shake.
Dex swiftly crossed the room and gently pulled Caitlin into his arms. Once again the need to protect and shield her from pain overwhelmed him.
She tried pulling herself out of his arms, but his hold on her tightened. “You don’t have to take care of this now, Caitlin. Come downstairs and let me get you something to eat before I leave to go check into the hotel.”
She trembled in response to the tenderness in his voice and shook her head against his shoulder. “I—I need to tell you about Jordan, Dex.”
Dex attempted to control the anger renewing itself within him at the mention of the man’s name. “Not now, Caitlin. We’ll talk later. I’ll come back, after you’ve rested.”
“No, Dex. We need to talk now. Jordan is…”
Caitlin didn’t finish the statement. She felt Dex’s body push away from her. Gazing up into his face, she saw a nerve in his jaw twitch. Harsh lines etched his face. Her gaze followed his and came to rest on the picture frame sitting on her father’s dresser.
A suffocating sensation overtook Caitlin. She stepped back out of Dex’s arms. She watched as he walked over to the dresser and picked up the frame. Her breath caught in her throat when he stood studying the photograph of her and the little girl who sat in her lap. He turned to her, his expression stony, his eyes narrowing. “Who’s this in the picture with you?”
Caitlin’s voice was barely a whisper when she responded. “Jordan.”
Dex stared at her in both shock and surprise. Jordan wasn’t a man but a little girl? He gazed at the photograph he held in his hand, closely examining the face of the little girl. He studied the abundance of black wavy hair entwined into two fat braids, the shape of her nut-brown face, the curve of her eyebrows, the thick lashes fanning her eyes and the fullness of her lips. But what really caught his attention was the color of her eyes. They were charcoal-gray. The photographer’s camera had picked up the color perfectly.
A heaviness erupted in his chest. “How old is she, Caitlin?” His question thundered loudly in the room.
Caitlin’s voice was filled with apprehension when she answered. “She turned three on March first.”
Dex’s gaze never left Caitlin as he stared in disbelief. He began doing calculations in his head. If she was born the first of March then she was conceived the end of May, during the first week of their marriage.
Dex’s jaw hardened as his anger escalated. He knew without a doubt he was looking into the face of his child. A child he’d known nothing about. He also had a sinking feeling as to why Caitlin’s father had gone through so much trouble to preserve their marriage, and why Caitlin still used his name.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked in a voice that shook with rage. “How could you not let me know I had a child? What kind of a woman are you to keep something like that a secret? It was just fine and dandy that you didn’t want me, but you had no right keeping the existence of my daughter from me. You had no right at all, lady!”
Anger washed over Caitlin. She stood facing him, her body stiff with indignation. “I didn’t try keeping anything from you. I didn’t find out that I was pregnant until after I’d filed for divorce, Dex. But I did write to you when I found out. How could you think I wouldn’t tell you? She belonged to you as much as she belonged to me. I would never have kept her existence from you. Never.”
A quiet uncertainty lingered in Dex’s stare as his hard gaze touched Caitlin. “I never got a letter from you, Caitlin.”
“But I sent it, and you never responded,” she said louder than she had wanted.
Her statement slashed through him. “I didn’t answer because I didn’t get a letter. If I had, I would have responded.” Dex couldn’t help but wonder if the envelope in his pocket, the one given to him by Dr. Flores, contained the missing letter. How far had Halston Parker gone to keep him away from Caitlin and from ever finding out about his child? Caitlin should have come to him in Australia like she’d promised. He could never forgive her for not doing so.
“For the sake of argument,” Dex said in a controlled tone. They weren’t getting anywhere raising their voices at each other. “Let’s say you did send the letter. Weren’t you concerned when I didn’t write back or call?” he asked curtly.
“No. I assumed you hated me for choosing to stay with my father instead of coming to you. I thought you—”
“You thought I didn’t want my child?” Dex thundered. An incredulous look of disbelief crossed his face. He quickly strode across the room. Snatching her wrist, he pulled her closer to him. “What kind of man do you think I am?” he asked, his dark eyes blazing with fury. “How could you think what happened between us could’ve had any bearing on how I felt for my child, my own flesh and blood?”
Caitlin snatched her hand from him. She tilted her chin and glared up at him. “I wrote you.”
“I have no proof of that. Besides, if I didn’t reply to the first letter the decent thing would have been to write again or even call. They do have telephones in Australia, and you had my number. Something that important deserved a phone call. Your flimsy excuse won’t wash with me, Caitlin. And what about my family? If you couldn’t reach me, all you had to do was get in touch with them. Any one of them would have been more than happy to hear from you.”
“I’d met them only once. I thought they wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me. We were no longer married, and I’d hurt you. I thought they despised me for what I’d done to you. When I didn’t hear from you, I assumed the worst.”
Caitlin struggled mentally for a few seconds, telling herself she needed to make Dex understand. “Can’t you see I had my doubts, Dex? You’re right. I should have known you better. But as far as I’m concerned, you should have known me just as well. The truth of the matter is that we really didn’t know each other at all. Everything between us happened so fast. We got caught up in a whirlwind romance that quickly moved into marriage.”
“If you felt that way, why did you marry me? Why didn’t you turn me down when I asked you to become my wife?”
“Because I wanted to be with you. You swept me off my feet, Dex, and at the time, nothing else mattered, not the short time we’d known each other, nor how my father would react to the news of our hasty marriage. There were so many things we didn’t know about each other.”
Dex’s jaw hardened. “We knew enough. You should have known the most important thing about me, Caitlin. You should have known how I felt about you. I didn’t want an affair with you for those three weeks. I wanted more, I wanted forever. I made the mistake of thinking that you did, too.”
“No, Dex, you didn’t make a mistake. I did want forever. But after you left for Australia, I began having my doubts about a lot of things. And when you didn’t answer my letter, I accepted what I thought was your decision not to want your child. I continued on with my life. But I never once gave up hope that one day you would want to see her. I’ve not once kept Jordan in the dark about you, even when I thought you didn’t want her. She began asking questions about her daddy when she noticed all of her friends had fathers and she didn’t. She knows all about you. Although I didn’t have any pictures of you to show her, Jordan knows who her father is.”
Dex frowned. She was right about not having any pictures. There hadn’t been a lot of time for any. The only photo of them together had been the one his mother had taken when he’d taken Caitlin home to meet his family.
He moved toward the window. He looked below at the empty street. “And just what did you tell my daughter about me? That I didn’t want her? That I deserted her? That I deserted you?” he asked coldly.
Caitlin folded her arms tightly in front of her. “No,” she replied softly. “I never gave Jordan the impression you were a terrible person, or blamed you because the three of us weren’t together. When she began asking about you, I told her you worked in a country far away, and that maybe you’d come back to see her one day. She accepted that.”
Dex took a minute to put a cap on his anger before turning to face Caitlin. “And when she got older, and I didn’t show up, what lie would you have told her then?”
Caitlin met his cold gaze head-on. “Whatever was necessary.”
A strained silence saturated the room as Dex stared at Caitlin. “Where’s she now?”
Caitlin took a deep breath, her thoughts in chaos. She looked at him. “She’s with Marsher Logan, Dad’s neighbor. She took Jordan with her to visit her own little granddaughter who lives in the country. They’ll be back tomorrow.”
Dex thought about Caitlin’s response. He would get to meet his daughter for the first time tomorrow. He continued looking at Caitlin. His anger escalated. She had stripped him of three years of his daughter’s life because she hadn’t chosen his love over her father’s. Angered beyond control, he stormed past her and out of the room.
Caitlin blinked rapidly, losing control of her emotions. She bit her lower lip as Dex’s words came back to haunt her. He was right. She should have known he would not have turned his back on his child. But then, he should have known she would not have deliberately kept their daughter’s existence from him.
Leaving her father’s room, she closed the door behind her and went into her own bedroom. Once there, she began pulling off her clothes. She felt tired, drained and depleted of all strength and logical thought. And to make matters worse, her head had begun to ache. Emerging from the shower minutes later, she slipped into a nightgown. Her father was gone, her daughter was away, and the only man she had ever loved totally despised her.
Once again she succumbed to her tears.
Dex paced the living room in quick angry strides. Coming to a stop, he pulled the letter Dr. Flores had given him from his pocket. Opening the envelope, he was surprised to find not the missing letter—the one Caitlin claimed she’d written to him about his child—but another letter. It appeared to have been written by Halston Parker and was dated over a week ago.
Moments later, after reading the letter, Dex’s jaw tightened. If Caitlin’s father’s words could be believed, there was a possibility that Caitlin could be in some kind of danger.
The letter stated that Halston Parker owned a piece of property near Eagle Pass; land that had been in the Parker family for generations. Halston had recently received offers on the land, which he’d repeatedly turned down. Not long after that, things began happening to him that had vindictive overtones. He’d reported the incidents to the police, but after the police investigation turned up nothing, they’d dismissed them as teenagers’ mischief.
The letter further stated Caitlin didn’t know anything about what had been going on since she’d been living in Fort Worth. But there was little doubt in Halston Parker’s mind that whoever had been after him to sell would now begin harassing Caitlin. He had ended the letter pleading with Dex to protect her.
As Dex refolded the letter and stuffed it back in his pocket, he couldn’t help wondering if any of what he’d read in the letter was true, or was it just another ploy by the old man to get him and Caitlin back together. As soon as he had some free time, he would pay a visit to the local police to see if there had been an investigation as Halston Parker had claimed. But first he had to make a telephone call.
Dex picked up the receiver of the phone that sat on a nearby table and punched in a few numbers. He needed to talk with Clayton. Hopefully, he would be able to give him some legal advice. The phone was answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Clayton. It’s Dex.”
“How are things going?”
“Not too good. Caitlin’s father died a few hours ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Please convey my sympathy.”
“You can do that yourself,” Dex replied bitterly. “I need you here as soon as possible. There’s a legal matter I need to discuss with you.”
“Oh? What’s up?”
“According to Mr. Parker, the divorce papers Caitlin and I signed four years ago were never filed with the courts.”
“What? I don’t understand. Why?”
“He told the lawyer that Caitlin and I no longer wanted a divorce.”
“If what you’re telling me is the truth, you and Caitlin may still be married.”
Dex sighed deeply. “I was afraid of that.”
“If you still want to end your marriage, it won’t be a problem since you haven’t lived together in four years. Under the circumstances, a judge may agree to make it effective the day of the original divorce.”
“There may be a problem with that. There’s something else I think you should know.”
“What?”
“Caitlin found out she was pregnant a couple of months after I left for Australia and she’d filed for a divorce.”
There was a pause. “What are you saying, Dex?”
Dex beamed proudly. It was late in coming but he was announcing the existence of his daughter to his family for the first time, and he felt every bit a proud father. “What I’m trying to tell you is that our parents have another granddaughter. And you, Clayton, have another niece.”
“What! I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it.”
“I take it you didn’t know about her.”
“Of course I didn’t know about her!”
“All right, all right, just take it easy, Dex. Did Caitlin say why she didn’t tell you?”
“She claims she wrote me when she found out she was pregnant.”
“And I take it you don’t believe her.”
“I didn’t get a letter, Clayton.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean she didn’t send one just because you didn’t get one. You yourself have complained about how lousy the mail service was in Australia. Just give her the benefit of the doubt.”
Dex’s frown deepened. Clayton always had had a soft spot where Caitlin was concerned. “I don’t know if I can do that. Because of her, I may have lost too much already.”
There was a brief silence. “Just don’t be so hard on her, Dex. She’s going through a lot right now. The last thing she needs is for you to make things worse. What she really needs is your support, not your anger. Lighten up. Now tell me about my niece. What’s her name?”
