“If I’d known you were coming in this evening, I’d have held dinner, called the rest of the family.” Composed now, and dry, Laura sat beside her father in the parlor.

“We ate on the plane.” Thomas patted her hand. He was, thanks to his wife’s discretion, blissfully unaware of what his daughter had been doing in the pool an hour earlier. “And we’ll see everyone tomorrow. I swear, those girls have grown a foot since Christmas.”

“It seems like.” Laura sipped brandy. Her mother was upstairs putting the girls to bed, at her insistence. It postponed the questions, Laura knew. Didn’t eliminate them. “They’re so excited that you’re here. We didn’t think you’d be back until summer.”

“Got to see our Katie girl,” he told her. Only one of the reasons, he mused. But it would do well enough. “Imagine, our little Kate having a baby.”

“She’s glowing. I know it’s a cliché, but she really is. She and Byron go around beaming all the time. Oh, and wait until you see J. T. Oh, Dad, he’s so perfect. He’s sitting up now, and he laughs all the time. Those wonderful belly laughs. I could just eat him up.” She curled her legs up, studied him over the rim of her snifter. “And how are you?”

“Fit and fine.”

It was no less than true. He was a handsome man, one who didn’t take his health for granted and disciplined himself with exercise and interests. He wasn’t one who took his business or his success for granted; he watched over things with a shrewd and focused eye. Nor did he take his family for granted—he kept them close in heart and mind.

The result was a firm body, still lanky in his fifties, a face that had lived well and accepted the lines and dents of time with gratitude. His eyes were smoke, like his daughter’s, and the silver in his hair glinted richly in the lamplight.

“You don’t look fit and fine,” she said and smiled when his brow knit. “You look dashing.”

“And you look happy.”

It relieved him, but he worried at the cause. Was it, as Annie had prophesied darkly, a transitory state attributable to Michael Fury? Or was his little girl finally finding her feet again?

“You’re taking some time for yourself again?”

“I’m enjoying myself.” It wasn’t quite the answer, but it was truth. “Ali and I have resolved some things. She’s happier, so I’m happier. I love my work. My sisters keep giving me new babies to play with.” With a sigh, she leaned her head on his shoulder. “I haven’t felt quite so content in a long time.”

“Your mother and I worry about you.”