A Full House

Jake told him, and after a brief pause the voice said politely, “I’m afraid you won’t find anything that cheap in this area. The closest thing I have listed in your price range is a very primitive camp about twenty miles inland.” Twenty miles wasn’t that far to drive to see a woman like Annie Crawford. He logged the information, thanked the Realtor, and hung up.

Annie’s visits became less and less frequent. She was always busy, whisking in and out, cheerful but impersonal, shining—like the sun—on all things equally. Nonetheless, he was secretly smitten with her, and he supposed that just about every red-blooded man she met fell under the same spell. How could they help themselves? Annie Crawford was smart, warm, compassionate and highly skilled in a very challenging profession. As if those attributes weren’t enough, her eyes were a shade of marine blue that made him think of some exotic tropical paradise. Her hair was a thick, glossy mahogany, shoulder-length and pulled back in a simple twist. Annie and her daughter looked enough alike to pass as sisters, but Sally didn’t have her mother’s Australian accent or the bone-deep beauty that only spiritual maturity could give a woman—and Annie Crawford was a deeply beautiful woman.

CHAPTER THREE

ON THE AFTERNOON of his fifth day in the hospital, a little girl walked into Jake’s room. She had pale blond hair plaited in two braids and large, dark eyes. She was wearing denim coveralls and a red-and-black plaid shirt. The sight of her rendered him momentarily speechless. He half believed she was an illusion his mind had created to while away the endless hours.

“Amanda?” He pushed himself onto his elbows, afraid she would disappear, but instead she approached the bed cautiously.

“Daddy?”

“C’mere, Pinch. Don’t mind all this medical stuff. Come give your daddy a big hug.” He reached out for her, and she was very real. She smelled sweet, her cheek was warm and smooth against his, and her chubby arms felt marvelous as they tightened around his neck. He tightened his own arms around her. “Amanda,” he said, his voice choked with emotion. “Ah, my sweet baby girl.”

“Hello, Jake.” His ex-wife stood just inside the doorway, hands clasped loosely in front of her. She wore a white silk blouse, black trousers, a sage-colored linen jacket. Her hair fell in dark glossy curls upon her shoulders and she wore minimal makeup with a touch of lip gloss. She looked fresh-faced, young and beautiful. If she’d gone through the same hell as he had during and after their divorce, it certainly didn’t show.

“Hello, Linda,” he said, reluctantly relinquishing his embrace. Amanda squirmed out of his arms and climbed on the bed beside him, as endearingly affectionate as a puppy.

“Amanda, be careful,” her mother warned.

“It’s all right,” Jake said. “She can’t hurt anything. Thanks for bringing her.”

Linda nodded. “She’s your daughter. She has a right to see you.”

“It’s a long way for you to come. I appreciate it. I’ll pay for your plane tickets.”

Linda shook her head. “Your captain made all the arrangements. A police car picked us up at the airport and delivered us to the hotel and another car brought us here.”

Jake thought about this for a moment. “They must have thought I was going to die,” he said.

“From what I’ve just been told, you almost did.” Linda’s fingers were intertwined tightly. He could tell what a strain it was on her, just being in the same room with him.

“I had a good doctor,” he said.

“Yes, I know. I met her at the nurses’ station. She was the one who directed us to your room. Dr. Crawford, isn’t it? She seems very nice.”

Amanda tucked herself up against him, her little fingers tugging at his bandage. He took her hand in his as a sharp bolt of pain made him catch his breath. “Whoa, you with the quick fingers. Now’s not the time to be pinching your dad.”

“Get off the bed, Amanda,” Linda ordered, frowning.

“No, really. She’s fine.”

“What happened to you, Daddy?” Amanda asked. “Why are you all wrapped up?”

“I got hurt, honey, but I’m going to be okay. What about you? How’s my little Pinch? Still tearing up the house? How’s school?”

“Miss Markham’s very mean,” Amanda said gravely. “She made me stand in the corner.”

“What for? You didn’t pinch anyone, did you?”

“I pulled Jenny Flagg’s hair. Jenny said I didn’t have a father. So I told her I did, and I pulled her hair, and then Miss Markham made me stand in the corner.”

Jake pulled his daughter back into his arms. “You do have a father, Pinch. You have a father who loves you very much. Your teacher had no business making you stand in the corner. You’re my shining angel, you know that, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Amanda said.

“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and don’t you ever forget it. I’m going to call that Miss Markham and tell her a thing or two.”

“Jake,” Linda cautioned with a disapproving look.

At that moment Annie entered the room, brisk and businesslike in a white lab coat with stethoscope draped around her neck. Jake tweaked one of Amanda’s braids. “Amanda Macpherson, meet Annie Crawford, best doctor east of the Mississippi, and west of it, too. Pretty good, huh?”

“Pretty good,” Amanda agreed. She smiled shyly at Annie, and Annie smiled back.

“Hello, Miss Amanda,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you. You look very much like your father, but I suppose lots of people tell you that. I’ll let you in on a little secret, young lady. Your father’s doing so well that I think we’re going to have to sign him out of here pretty quick. We’re going to need this room for someone who’s really sick.”

“Can he come home with us?” Amanda asked with the frank directness of a child.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Well, he needs to stay here for a little longer. But you can visit him as much as you like.”

Amanda stared for a moment at Annie, then shifted her gaze to her mother. “Mommy, why can’t Daddy come home with us? He’s sick and he needs us to look after him.”

Linda’s face was pale and her hands were clenched tightly together. “Amanda, your father’s tired. We’d better let him rest. We can come back tomorrow morning.”

Amanda squirmed to face him. “Are you tired, Daddy? Do you want us to go?”

Jake tugged his daughter close for one last embrace. “You’d better do what your mother says,” he said. “But come see me tomorrow, Pinch. First thing. Promise?”

“I promise, Daddy.” Amanda’s eyes filled with tears. “I want you to come home with us,” she wept as Linda came forward and lifted her off the bed. “We could make you better. Don’t you love us anymore, Daddy? Why won’t you come back home?”

Linda refused to meet Jake’s eyes. She carried Amanda, still crying, out of the room and down the corridor. Jake watched them go and then dropped his head into his hands with a moan of pain that had nothing to do with his injury. He took a deep, shaky breath and expelled it just as slowly. “She’s five years old and Linda and I have been divorced for one year and two months.”

He pressed the heels of his hands to his burning eyes then lifted his head to look at Annie. “I’ve seen Amanda twice since then. The court awarded Linda full custody. Do you know why?” When Annie shook her head, he uttered a bitter laugh. “Neither do I. I have visitation rights, though. I can see her every weekend, for eight hours a day. And that would be a wonderful thing except that Linda decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career.

“I thought she’d eventually come back east, but her career took off and the only thing left for me to do is to go out there. I’ve sent applications to every police department within a hundred-mile radius, but so far, no strong bites.” He gazed out the window at the city skyline. “You know, getting shot isn’t much fun, but I’d go through it all again just to see Amanda. It’s not fair. I’m her father and I should be a part of her life.”

ANNIE CRAWFORD sat in the hospital cafeteria drinking a lukewarm cup of coffee. She couldn’t purge Lieutenant Macpherson’s heartbroken visage from her mind. What if Ryan had fought for and won sole custody of Sally? What would she have done?

Macpherson seemed like such a nice man. From his chart she knew that he was the same age she was, and in the conversations she’d had with him over the past week she’d discovered that he was the only child of an astronomer and a concert pianist who’d decided on parenting somewhat late in their careers. Jake’s father had died several years ago of a heart attack and his mother was nearly eighty years old, in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. She played piano for the other residents, but no longer recognized her son.

“Dr. Crawford?” Annie glanced up, surprised to see Macpherson’s ex-wife standing across from her. “May I speak with you for a moment?”

“Of course.” Annie looked around. “Where’s Amanda?”

“We went out for lunch after we left Jake,” Linda explained. “Amanda wouldn’t stop crying, so I’m letting her visit her father again before we go back to the hotel. She was so upset…” Linda’s eyes dropped, but not before Annie saw the bright shine of tears.

“He’s going to be all right,” Annie reassured her. Linda nodded, fumbling in her handbag for a Kleenex.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes and attempting a shaky smile. “I’m not crying because I’m worried about Jake. I know he’s going to be fine. It’s Amanda. I feel as though I’m being cruel to her, and I suppose in a way I am. I just don’t know how to make it better.”