The Missing

Jillian come in.
    Jillian had on a blue dress she’d picked out, and she already had her white basket looped over her arm. Faintly, Taige could smell the fragrant, sweet flower petals held inside the white wicker.
    Taige hadn’t really wanted a formal wedding or anything, but somebody had mentioned flower girl , and Jillian’s eyes had widened. Unable to deny the girl something she obviously wanted, Taige had decided against trying to talk Cullen into a simple civil ceremony at the courthouse.
    It hadn’t taken any time to fall in love with Jillian. It might have taken years to find her, but Taige knew in her heart that Jillian was hers—her daughter. Every bit as much as hers as she would have been if Taige had been the one to carry Jillian inside her and give birth to her. “You look beautiful, angel,” Taige said with a smile, turning on her stool to look at Jillian as Robert escorted the child inside.
    Jillian grinned, her nose crinkling. “You, too.”
    Taige glanced down at her dress, still feeling a little self-conscious. Okay, a lot self-conscious. She could probably count on one hand how many times she’d worn a dress in the past ten years. And still have fingers left over. So the strapless, sarong confection made of silk and scattered with small, delicate pearls and sequins was definitely not something she was used to.
    Jillian peered down at Taige’s feet. “You really aren’t wearing any shoes, are you?”
    Taige shrugged. “I don’t like to, anyway.”
    Cocking her head, Jillian stuck out her foot, studying the white straps of her sandals. “Can I go barefoot, too?”
    “I wouldn’t mind a bit.”
    While Jillian went to work on her sandals, Taige looked up at the man who was about to become her father-in-law. Robert hadn’t aged as much as she would have thought, considering how much hell he’d been through the past twelve years. That many years could change people a lot, and the violent death of his wife, the kidnapping of his granddaughter—well, some people would have broken under it.
    Robert hadn’t, though. The lines around his eyes were deeper, and his blond hair had gone mostly silver, but he was still a handsome guy. He smiled at her, and she felt her heart melt a little. There was a lot of Cullen in that smile—or maybe it was more that Cullen had a lot of Robert inside him. They looked alike, and Taige figured if Cullen looked as good pushing sixty as Robert did, Taige was going to be beating the women away from her husband with a stick in thirty years.
    “Jillian’s right. You do look beautiful.” He glanced around and then nodded to the doorway that opened to a huge balcony. “Mind if we step outside for a few minutes?”
    She followed him outside and moved over to the railing as Robert shut the door.
    “Are you nervous?”
    Taige grimaced. “Nervous? No. I don’t know if nervous describes it.”
    “Any doubts?”
    A smile spread across her face until she knew she was grinning like a fool. “Doubts? Not a one.”
    Robert nodded. “Good.” He leaned his elbows on the wrought iron balcony railing and stared out over the beach.
    Taige hadn’t done much of anything for the wedding other than pick out her dress and tell Cullen she’d like to go to Europe for a honeymoon. Cullen had hired somebody to take care of the details, and right now, those people were attending to chores like setting up some chairs out on the beach and tables that scattered across the huge backyard.
    “You know, the first time I saw you with Cullen, I knew you were the one for him,” Robert said abruptly. He gave a faint smile and shrugged. “There was just something about the way he looked at you. Reminded me of how I felt when I looked at his mama back when we first got together. I knew he loved you; he never told me that, but he didn’t have to.”
    Taige swallowed the knot in her throat and looked away so he wouldn’t see her blinking back tears. Damn it, she’d gone and put makeup on and everything.
    “After his mama died . . .” Robert’s voice trailed, and he blew out a rough sigh. “It was a hard time for both of us, but I guess I don’t need to tell you that. I know he did something or said something to hurt you. I saw you when you left, and I knew you were upset. I tried to catch you, but you were moving too quick, and you never even heard me.”
    He paused, and in the weighted silence, she knew he was waiting for some kind of response. She glanced at him, one quick