“I didn’t want to leave him standing on the doorstep all by himself,” she said. She gave Harlan Patrick a last wistful look. “See you.”
“Bye. Thanks for your help.”
After she’d gone, Buzz Jensen faced him. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m Harlan Patrick Adams,” he said quietly. “From Los Piños.”
As he mentioned the name of the town, he saw the man’s shoulders sag with defeat. Dread spread across his face. He came out onto the front stoop and closed the door behind him.
“Why are you here? What do you want?”
“Just to talk, if you don’t mind.”
“Is it Mary? Has something happened to her?” There was genuine concern in his tone, that and a hint of panic.
“No. It’s about Laurie.”
The man staggered visibly. “Nothing’s happened to her, has it? I would have heard. It would have been on TV.”
Worried by the man’s sudden pallor, Harlan Patrick took his arm and guided him to a lawn chair. “Are you okay?”
“Just surprised, that’s all. Tell me what’s happened.”
“Laurie’s fine.”
He shook his head as if to clear it. “Then why are you here?”
“She’s been asking a lot of questions lately. She’s been thinking about you, wondering why you left all those years ago.” Harlan Patrick looked the older man straight in the eye. “I love her, sir, but, you see, she’s afraid I’ll leave her the way you did. She needs to understand what happened back then before she can trust me or any other man.”
“Hasn’t she asked her mother?”
“She has, but it’s not enough. There’s a bond between a father and daughter. I’m only beginning to realize it myself.” He met the older man’s gaze evenly. “You see, Laurie and I have a baby girl.”
He seemed startled by that. “You’re the one, then. I saw that tabloid picture of her and the baby. I wondered who was responsible for getting her into trouble.”
“I never knew about the baby, not until that picture. You have to believe that. There is no way I wouldn’t have been there for her if I’d known.”
Buzz Jensen nodded in sudden understanding. “You’re one of those Adamses, aren’t you? I should have guessed it straight off. Named after your granddaddy. Honor’s a big thing with an Adams.”
“Yes, sir. So is family.”
“Is that why you’re here, instead of Laurie. You want to buy me off or something?”
“No. I wanted to see you, talk to you, make sure that arranging for Laurie to see you wouldn’t lead to more hurt for her.”
“I would never hurt her,” he said indignantly.
“You already have,” Harlan Patrick reminded him quietly. “That’s the problem.”
Buzz Jensen uttered a sigh of acknowledgment. “I suppose you’re right.”
“What about your family? Do they know about Laurie? Will they be hurt by all of this when the whole story comes out?”
“My wife knows,” he acknowledged.
Harlan Patrick hesitated, then forced himself to ask, “Does she know you never divorced Laurie’s mother?”
He nodded. “She accepted that we couldn’t be married.”
Harlan Patrick was relieved to know the man wasn’t a bigamist, after all. That didn’t make the situation a whole lot less complicated, though. “What about your kids?”
“They don’t know about it.” His expression turned defiant. “I don’t want them to.”
“I don’t see how you can avoid it,” Harlan Patrick countered. “Not if you see Laurie. They’ll have questions.”
“You can’t bring her here,” he said adamantly. “It’s as simple as that.”
Harlan Patrick was shocked by the decision. “You won’t see her? Not even after what I’ve told you? How can you do that to her?”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t see her. I said she couldn’t come here. If you want to set up a meeting for somewhere else, I’ll go.” His eyes filled with tears. “I never thought I’d have the chance to see my baby girl again. I thought I’d go to my grave knowing that I’d failed her and that she’d never forgiven me.”
There was so much pain and sincerity in his voice that Harlan Patrick had no choice but to believe him. “She never knew about the cards and letters,” he told him then. “Her mother kept them from her until recently.”
Buzz Jensen’s hands shook as he reached over to clasp Harlan Patrick’s hand and relief washed over his face. “Thank you for telling me that. You don’t know how hard I prayed that it was something like that. I didn’t want to believe she’d just forgotten all about me.”
“No, sir, Laurie never forgot.” He stared straight into the older man’s eyes. “But