Danny knew for damn sure no one dared call Jacqueline Rain that, but who else could Clive mean?

“Seriously, Dad?” Catie shook her head. “You’re telling me you bet on us?”

“Yep.” A smug grin from Clive. “Back at the party for your twenty-first. Jacqueline didn’t see it, but I bet her fifty bucks that when I walked you down the aisle, it’d be to marry the Esera boy.”

Danny suddenly loved Clive.

What he loved even more was that Catie didn’t stiffen at the allusion to marriage. She just laughed and went to kiss her father’s cheek. “Make sure Mum gives you interest on that fifty.”

“Damn straight.”

After being introduced to Gloria, Danny ducked out to borrow a chair from another patient so all three of them could sit together with Clive. “So,” he said to Catie’s father after he got back, “bit of an adventure, huh?”

With that, Clive was away, with Gloria filling in the bits where—according to Clive—“The lights in the noggin went out.”

Catie perched on the side of her father’s bed, and though she looked much better than when he’d arrived, he could see the worry that continued to gnaw at her. He could well understand why: Clive still looked small and sick and old. That, he hoped, would soon change. If he never saw Catie cry like that again, it’d be too soon.

Reaching out, he took her hand.

She smiled, wove her fingers through his. And kept them there when they took their leave after Gloria said she wanted to stay longer; Catie did make the older woman promise to nap in the family room if she needed it.

“And no excuses when I get back.” Catie shook a finger, her tone stern. “You will be going back to the hotel to sleep.”

Gloria laughed into Catie’s hug. “Yes, I promise.”

A pair of small kids were wrestling on the floor of the outer hallway when they walked out, their harassed parent talking to a doctor. The kids were attempting to maul each other but letting out small giggles now and then that said they weren’t actually doing harm.

Danny grinned. “Given our genes, our kids will be energetic terrors, won’t they?”

Looking over, Catie frowned. “I never really thought about having kids.”

“Oh.” Danny decided to just dive in. “Never thought about it as in you don’t want any or just never thought about it?” He’d always wanted a big family, but he wanted Catie more.

“Just never thought about it.” She twisted her mouth. “I guess part of me has always thought I’d be an awful parent after growing up with Jacqueline and Clive for role models.”

“Your sister is a brilliant mum.”