she’ll have convinced Hallie to stop at the park, even if it is an ill-advised notion.”
I’m in the process of grabbing the napkin from the table, but I stop when I hear the word granddaughter.
“Claire, I have to know whether…”
“It’s not my place to meddle in my daughter’s affairs, Christopher.”
“You just gave me her address.”
“I did, didn’t I?” Her steely eyes meet mine for an impossibly long moment. “Grace is Ben’s child. I know you won’t believe that until you’ve seen her for yourself, but I can promise you that. I can also promise you that if you do anything to hurt that little girl, I will murder you with my bare hands. I’m sure there will be a long line for that particular job, but I will get to the front of that line.”
I take a deep breath. Claire wouldn’t lie to me about something like that. She couldn’t. Still, the tiny seeds of doubt sown into the back of my head remain. It still doesn’t explain why Hallie hadn’t mentioned her existence to me. What if she hadn’t told her mother? What if…
“I thought you were in a great hurry, Christopher. If I had been aware that you planned on gawking at me all day, I would have taken my time to create a more dramatic effect.”
I pick up the piece of paper and stare down at the address.
“Thank you, Claire.”
“I fully expect that you’ll find some way to repay me for this favor.”
“I will. But right now, I really have to find your daughter. The park?”
She nods sheepishly. “Don’t tell her I told you. She would massacre me.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
Chapter 23
HALLIE
“Mommy, higher. Higher.”
I push her again, hearing the ringing bells of her laugh as she gets further and further away from the ground.
“I need a bigger push. Higher!”
She sounds like Eva. That thought fills me with no small measure of amusement. We’ve apparently been spending too much time with agents and producers. How else would a four-year-old sound like she belonged at the head of a boardroom?
“Baby girl, you’re going to fall off the edge of the earth if I push you any higher.”
“No, I won’t. The earth doesn’t end. Everybody knows that.”
Of course. Everybody knows that.
“Gracie, it’s getting late. We should go.”
“One more big push. You haven’t even seen me on the swings in forever and ever. You were in New York and Chicago.”
Great. Now my daughter is trying to guilt trip me. I glance around at the nearly empty playground and sigh.
“Ok. One more big push.”
“You better make it a good one.”
It sounds like something Grace would say, but the voice is too deep and it’s coming from the wrong direction.
I glance around the nearly deserted playground. I blink twice, because my eyes must be deceiving me. Chris is leaning against the seesaw, staring at the two of us. How long has he been standing there? I slow the momentum of the swing with my hands before taking Grace’s hand firmly in my grasp and crossing the playground. She stares up at him with wide eyes before nestling closer to me.
“What are you doing here?”
Grace gasps and turns her face to mine. “You shouldn’t talk to strangers, Mommy.”
“Can’t argue with that logic.” His words are teasing as he crosses over to us, but his voice is strangled.
Damn it. Even the sight of him walking, the most mundane of mundane acts, makes me want to fall down. I ruffle Grace’s hair and take a long, deep breath.
“Gracie, honey, he’s not a stranger. This is an old friend of mine, Mr. Jensen. Chris, this is my daughter, Grace Ellison.”
He kneels in the dirt and offers her his hand. “Hello, Grace.”
“Hello, Mr. Jensen.” She stares at him with wide eyes. “Mommy, he’s not a stranger. I’ve seen him before on the TV.”
“Grace, you know you’re not supposed to watch the TV. We have very strict rules about that.”
“Grandma always lets me watch a little.” She covers her mouth. “Oops. I forgot. She said not to tell you.”
“You should always tell me things like that. Especially if they involve Grandma. Grandmas don’t always know best.”
“That’s what she says about mommies.”
I can’t help but laugh, and when I meet Chris’s eyes over Grace’s head, I see that he’s laughing, too, at least in the instant before his face turns into a mess of confusion. There’s something else there, too, and it looks an awful lot like fear.
I want to explain why I didn’t tell him about Grace, but her