“How intelligent of you to plan ahead, Meg.”

“Last but not least, there is one other matter that needs to be discussed. Please listen carefully, Jack, because I will say this only once. We will not be sleeping together. If I discover that you have been less than discreet with any of your affairs, I will file for divorce and take you for every penny I can get. You won’t be allowed to taint my life or the life of my child with scandal or your less-than-savory reputation. Is that understood?”

“But, Meg, I’ve spent thousands of hours in backbreaking labor to establish that reputation. You can’t seriously believe I would abandon it so easily.”

“This isn’t a joke. I will not allow you to treat me or anything I say as less than important. I have told you I will tolerate some of your habits. Disrespect is not one of them.”

“The matter of my sexual habits is hardly a joking matter. Neither are yours, especially if you are going to be my wife.”

“I think I have made my position clear. If you wish to pretend you don’t understand what my reaction will be should you ever darken my bedroom door, that is your problem, not mine.” Meg tucked her purse under her arm. “You’ve been to my house. If you need my phone number, Amanda and Bram have it. You may also find it under the listing for Allen Betz.” She reached around him to open the door.

His hand closed around her wrist. “Your conditions are not acceptable to me, Meg.”

She didn’t flinch. “My conditions are not negotiable. You made your proposal, I made mine. It meets the requirements you presented to me. If you want to go back on your word, I can’t stop you. But you should know that if you do make that choice, the offer I made today is null and void, and I will opt for a public custody battle.”

“If you do, Katie’s picture will be plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country.”

“It would be devastating, I agree. Having her exposed as a Tarkenton, particularly an illegitimate Tarkenton, is not something I wish to contemplate. But the truth is preferable to having you dictate how my child and I will live our lives. Though Katie will be enormously confused should joint custody be granted, I will not be blackmailed. And when Katie is old enough, she will know exactly who and what her father is. To paraphrase your words to me, her best interests must always be kept in mind.”

She jerked the door open. Jack let her pass and tracked her march across the gym, seeing determination in every stride.

He could stop her, he knew. He could blow her cover and have it out here, in full public view. With the lunch crowd filtering in, there were plenty of witnesses to create a huge scene. Then the tabloids would pick it up and the talk shows and the networks, and in the end, she’d be forced to name him as Katie’s father. But that wouldn’t give him much satisfaction, nor much pleasure, either. Not where the Widow Betz was concerned.

She’d just drawn a line in the sand. Separate bedrooms, separate lives. If he was going to sacrifice his long-standing bachelorhood, he wasn’t sacrificing everything that went along with it. With his daughter came his wife. A wife in every sense of the word.

Meg might need some artful persuasion, but he’d made artful persuasion his career in life. She’d fallen for him once. She would fall for him again.

Katie was one challenge, her mother another. Playing with Meg was getting more and more interesting.

And a helluva lot more fun.

Three

“This is an ambush.”

Seized from behind by a very large man, Meg burst out laughing. In front of her, the day-care receptionist’s eyes widened, and Meg knew she wasn’t the only one to recognize her brother, Bram Masterson, otherwise known professionally as the Beastmaster.

Katie came running across the playroom, where she’d gone to retrieve her coat. “Mommy, Mommy, it’s Uncle Bram!”

“How’s my favorite girl?” Bram asked, picking Katie up in mid-flight and tossing her above his head.

Katie giggled in answer. Catching her, Bram set her in the crook of his thickly muscled arm. Meg marveled at his easy strength. All three of her brothers were good-size men, but Bram had the bigness and brawn of a professional athlete. Which he was. His opponents might have monikers like the Bulkster and Six Billion Dollar Man, but what he did inside a pro wrestling ring made him one of the biggest stars of pay-per-view television.

“It’s the Beastmaster!” a little boy cried.

Swarmed by a dozen preschoolers, Bram got down on his knees, wrestling with them, pretending to let them take him down. His gentleness was as great as his size, and seeing Katie jump on top of him made Meg smile in genuine delight, something she hadn’t done in weeks.