Kara Lennox - The Good Father

“Oof, I think you grew while we were gone!” Jane said as she set Kaylee down. “I guess Aunt Sara hasn’t let you miss any meals.”

But Kaylee wasn’t listening. Her eyes were for Max, and his were for her. He picked her up and swung her into the air. “Oh, my gosh, am I happy to see you.” He hugged her, too, and Kaylee threw her arms around him with abandon. The look of pure bliss on the little girl’s face did Jane a world of good.

Given Kaylee’s attachment issues, Jane had worried about how she would fare with both her mother and Max gone for five days. But Sara, who had happily agreed to care for Kaylee during the honeymoon, had reported that she handled it fine. A daily call from Jane and Max had reassured Kaylee that she hadn’t been abandoned.

Sara met them at the door, so eager to hug them that she barely let them inside. “You all look great! How was Jamaica? I’ve always wanted to go there. Reece, let’s go there next vacation.”

Reece was right behind her, also with a hug for Jane and a hearty handshake and thorough shoulder-pounding for Max that ended in one of those quick, self-conscious guy hugs.

“Step aside, the party can start now,” came a voice from behind Jane.

She whirled around and found Cooper and Allie right behind her. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Just a little gathering,” Sara said innocently. “Since you guys wouldn’t let me throw you a big wedding, I did the next best thing. A party. You know how I love parties.”

“Oh, Sara.” Jane hugged her friend again.

Others soon arrived-Eddie and his wife, Rhonda; Carol and her new beau, Reggie; friends, neighbors and people Jane and Max had never even met-they all showed up to toast the newlyweds and enjoy Sara’s fabulous buffet.

Minutes earlier, Jane had been exhausted from traveling and was looking forward to retreating with her newly reengineered family to her cozy beach house. She and Max had bought the house that Kaylee had so loved when she and Jane were looking for a place to live, and after a bit of sprucing up, it would be everything a home should be.

But she was touched by her friends’ efforts on her part, and her fatigue lifted as she sampled everything on the buffet and celebrated her marriage with her friends. Who would have guessed that in a few short months she would go from divorced, destitute and jobless to having so much!

Max had healed her broken heart, but he’d healed her spirit, too, and allowed her to blossom into the person she was meant to be. Kaylee was also thriving now that she had the fatherly love she had so desperately needed.

Jane exchanged a look with Max across the room and her heart swelled with the love she saw in his eyes. She’d caught a good one this time.

Max couldn’t help grinning as he returned his attention to Reece, who was excited about the 401k plans he’d set up for all of the Remington Agency’s employees.

“Reece,” Sara said sternly as she breezed past with a tray of crab cakes. “That doesn’t sound like party talk.”

“Sorry.” He looked suitably chastised, but when she left, he grinned. “She has eyes in the back of her head and supersonic hearing.”

Cooper joined them and announced in a conspiratorial whisper, “Meet me on the patio in five minutes. Don’t let anyone follow you.”

Reece rolled his eyes, but five minutes later the three cousins assembled on the back patio, where a sharp November north wind kept everyone else away.

“I’ve been saving this bottle for when the last of us fell. Frankly, I thought it would be years before I dragged it out.” He produced a bottle of aged Scotch from a blue velvet bag. Three glasses sat on the patio table, ready to be filled.

“I don’t know why you all thought I was so antimarriage,” Max said as he picked up his glass.

“Oh, only that you said just about every day you’d never get married,” Reece replied.

“A long time ago, when I was young and stupid. I never said that once since I met Jane.”

“No quibbling,” Cooper said as he filled his own glass. “I want you to turn your mind back to the last time we had a toast like this.”

“At your house,” Reece recalled. “Right before you got married to Allie.”

“Right. And do you remember what we said?”

“As I recall,” Max said, “we were all depressed because it was the end of an era. The split-up of the Three Musketeers.”

Cooper nodded in agreement. “But it wasn’t the end of anything. It was the beginning of a new era. I don’t think any of us had any idea how radically our lives would change when we took an innocent trip to Texas to check out the fishing boat Uncle Johnny left to us.”

“Amen to that,” Reece said.

“So I think we should drink to Uncle Johnny Remington. He lived life on his terms. And when he died, he gave us all a great gift. He encouraged us to live our lives on our own terms. Now we all get along better with the family than we ever did when we worked at Remington Industries.”

“It’s all turned out better than I expected,” Max said as he raised his glass. “Even my parents are speaking to me again. A toast to Johnny.”

“To Johnny,” the others echoed.

“And to our beautiful, talented and loving wives,” Reece added. “Without whom we would all be miserable and crabby.”

“Hear, hear,” Max and Cooper agreed.

Max thought a bit before he offered his own toast. But finally he knew exactly what should be said. He raised his glass. “To the new generation of Remingtons. Kaylee and all the as-yet-unnamed children we’ll have, to the great things they’ll accomplish and the adventures they’ll have. Maybe we’ll be wise enough as fathers to let them lead their own lives.”

Reece and Cooper nodded and raised their glasses again.

Cooper grinned. “To…what he said.”

The toasts continued until they no longer felt the cold wind. But Scotch wasn’t the only thing heating Max up. All he had to do was think about Jane and Kaylee, and the fire in his heart burned bright and warm.

Texas native Kara Lennox has earned her living at various times as an art director, typesetter, textbook editor and reporter. She’s worked in a boutique, a health club and an ad agency. She’s been an antiques dealer and even a blackjack dealer. But no work has made her happier than writing romance novels. She has written more than fifty books.

When not writing, Kara indulges in an ever-changing array of hobbies. Her latest passions are bird-watching and long-distance bicycling. She loves to hear from readers; you can visit her Web page at www.karalennox.com.