time, one time, that her father had ever yelled at anybody. He was cool and unruffleable. Cold and heartless.
The front door opened back up and her father looked at Mackenzie, expressionless. Then glared at his wife.
Rachel said, “I’m going inside. I don’t want to hear another lecture today. Come in when you’re ready.” She looked at Mackenzie and rubbed her belly. “Try to make it today.”
Mackenzie followed hesitantly, watching her father as he came and took Rachel’s arm to help her inside. He said, “I told you I would get her.”
“I was getting bored waiting. I’m on a time crunch.”
He escorted them to the kitchen table, waiting patiently for Rachel to sit. He gestured Mackenzie into a chair and brought her a cup of steaming coffee and a chocolate-covered palmera.
Rachel made a face at the water he gave her, although she snatched up the flaky pastry and took a big bite. She said, “The doctor says another week. I don’t think he knows what he’s talking about.”
Luke said, “You’re only hoping he doesn’t know.”
She nodded decisively, then said to Mackenzie, “I’ll be forty next year. I’ve already told your father that this is the last time I will do this. If he wants more children, he’ll have to trade in for a younger model.”
Luke smiled, bending down to kiss his wife’s hair before sitting down beside her. “And I’ve told her that this is my last one as well.”
Rachel said, “And for some reason I don’t believe you. Every man wants a son.”
“Three girls.” He smiled. “Three girls who could take over the world by sneaking up behind it. That is no poor legacy.” He cocked his head, thinking. “Maybe that’s what I’ll name this one. Legacy.”
Rachel snorted. “Over my dead body.”
“Oh, my dear. That could be arranged,” he said and Rachel laughed.
“Are you still plucking that tired old string?” She shook her head and patted his knee. “Old dogs.”
His eyes twinkled over the rim of his cup as he took a sip.
Rachel looked longingly at his cup before sighing and saying to Mackenzie, “Your father stole my inheritance from my mother and then, I thought, killed her. Turns out he didn’t. But he would have had he needed to.”
Luke shook his head. “I didn’t steal her money. She gave it to me.”
Rachel looked at him, her temper peeking out. “I didn’t say you stole it from her. You stole it from me.”
He chuckled. “But look what you got in return.”
“Hmm.” She turned back to Mackenzie. “Your father was a scary man. Even scarier that no one else seemed to see it.”
Mackenzie didn’t look at her father. “I know what he was.”
Rachel watched her silently, then nodded. “Yes, I see you do. Do you know what he is now?”
Mackenzie glanced at her father, at the amusement clear in his eyes as his wife and daughter dissected him.
Mackenzie said, “People don’t change.”
Rachel sat back in her chair. “Well, that’s true. Except when they do.”
A little girl with honey-colored hair and tawny eyes peeked around the corner behind Rachel’s chair. The little girl looked at Mackenzie, her eyes wide and round, and Mackenzie looked back. Up close she could see the differences between them. In the photo, the little girl had looked like a carbon copy of Mackenzie. But the shape of her eyes was slightly different, the bow in her top lip definitely from her mother.
The little girl smiled at her and Mackenzie’s gut clenched. The smile was all Luke Holden.
Rachel said, “Come say hello, Laura,” and the little girl ran around the corner and hid her face into her mother’s side.
Laura peeked at Mackenzie, then noticed the palmera. She stopped being shy and grabbed the edge of the table, pulling herself up on her tiptoes and reaching for Mackenzie’s plate. She grinned a toothy grin at Mackenzie and babbled something utterly unintelligible. Rachel pulled her back and pushed her to Luke. “Ask Daddy if he’ll share.”
Mackenzie watched the little girl climb onto Luke’s lap as if she did it a hundred times a day. Laura grinned at her father, pointing and babbling until he nodded at her. She reached for the chocolate-covered pastry with a large grin for her mother.
Mackenzie met her father eyes. “Definitely your daughter.”
He frowned. “Please. I am never so uncouth as to bask in front of my mark. That is her mother’s fault entirely. Rachel likes to rub it in when she gets the better of someone.” He shook his head. “She has no subtlety.”
And Mackenzie