“In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He slipped on his hat and walked out.
Alone in the entryway, Cat turned from the door, then hesitated, her thoughts and emotions all ajumble. Too restless to sleep, too agitated to sit and too confused to think, she scraped the hair back from her face and sighed, the night stretching long before her.
She took a step toward the living room as her father came out of the den. On another occasion, Cat would have noticed the slight slump to his broad shoulders and the extra lines in his face, but the sight of him this time brought sharply back the memory of his betrayal. Never in her life would she have believed that her own father would turn against her. But he had. The pain of that went deep, turning her suddenly bitter and angry.
“Cat—”
“I have no desire to talk to you, not after what you did.” Over the years, she had learned to conceal her feelings. She made no attempt to do so now.
Sadness clouded his eyes, at odds with the half smile that quirked his mouth. “Then maybe you can finally appreciate the pain you so carelessly inflicted with your threat. I hoped to show you how unreasonable you were. It seems I’ve proved my point.”
She felt the slap of his words and reacted in kind. “Is that your excuse?” Contempt was in her voice.
“No, but it is my reason. I have no intention of apologizing for it, if that’s what you expect.”
“I don’t expect anything from you, not anymore.”
“I see you’re still too proud to admit when you’re wrong.”
“Pride has nothing to do with it.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“No.” But even to Cat, the denial rang false.
He sighed his disappointment. “You had no right to refuse to let Logan see his son. No one does until he proves to be unf
it as a father. I had hoped you would have the guts to admit it.”
She half turned from him, feeling broken and battered. “It was wrong. But Quint is a Calder. I didn’t want him to lose that.”
“Regardless of his name, he’s still a Calder.”
Her head moved from side to side in denial of that. “It isn’t the same, Dad.”
“In the ways that count, it is. He will always be a Calder by blood. That’s the way people will regard him now. And with your marriage to Logan, he’ll no longer be known as my illegitimate grandson.”
“You make that sound like it’s some horrible cross he has to bear,” Cat retorted, angry again.
“I’m well aware that for your generation, having a child out of wedlock has become so commonplace you attach no importance to it at all. But you’ll never convince me that it is either right or good for the child—regardless of how socially acceptable such a practice is.”
“I’m marrying Logan, aren’t I?” she shot back.
“You could do a lot worse than him, Cat.”
She turned on him. “How can you possibly know that? The man is a stranger. You know absolutely nothing about him—not his family, his background, where’s he from, what he’s done, or why he came to Blue Moon. You have to admit Blue Moon is on the road from nowhere to nothing.”
He looked at her for a long moment without answering. “There was a time in this country when you didn’t ask a man questions about his background or his past. Who he’d been or what he’d done before didn’t count. You made your judgments about him based on the way he was around you. During the few times I’ve been around Logan, he’s shown himself to be intelligent, thorough in his work, a man with a strong sense of family, and one who won’t be pushed around. Those are admirable qualities, Cat. Now, if you have firsthand knowledge of something against his favor, I’d like to hear about it.”
Unable to come up with anything, Cat hugged her arms about her, trying to close out his words. “He wants to tell Quint tomorrow that he’s his father.”
“It sounds reasonable to me.”
“Maybe.” Her shoulders lifted in an uncertain shrug. “I’ve never talked to him about his father. I’m not sure how Quint will take the news.”
“That will depend on your attitude, Cat,” he told her. “Quint’s going to look to you. If you hold yourself aloof from Logan or show hostility toward him, Quint will pick up on that and, more than likely, echo it.” He paused to separate and give weight to his next words. “You have the power to turn Quint against his father. Remember, that will leave just as deep a scar on Quint as it will on Logan. If a boy can’t look up to his father, chances are he won’t look up at all.”
Sobered by his words, Cat found she had a great deal more to think about than she had first believed.