“Good for you. Do you go to school now?”

“Yes, but it’s not real school. Not with the big kids.”

Erin leaned forward. “She’s in a preschool. Christie can’t wait to start elementary school. She wants to learn everything, don’t you honey?”

Parker listened to the exchange, all the while eating his sandwich. Kiki didn’t have any trouble talking with the girl. She just asked the same sort of questions she would ask anyone visiting. Maybe there wasn’t a trick. Maybe he should just talk to Christie as if she were a regular person.

Kiki stood up. “Parker, I’m sure Erin and Christie would like to see the gardens and maybe go down to the beach.”

“Good idea,” he said, then popped the last bit of sandwich into his mouth. He wiped his hands on a napkin, then glanced at his daughter.

She looked at him. “I love the beach,” she said seriously, as if her goal in life was to see his.

Erin laughed. “You’ve only been to the beach once. How do you know if you like it?”

“It was very nice,” Christie said, still serious.

“You’re going to love this one,” he told her and stood up.

Erin rose gracefully, then helped Christie out of the chair. Parker motioned for them to go through the living room and out the front. They turned left and circled around the house.

“There’s no way to get from the terrace to the beach,” Parker said as he led them to a wrought-iron gate and pulled it open. “The stone fence is built into the house itself. This is the only way down to our private beach. It’s not very big, but it’s nice when the tide is out.”

Erin glanced back at him as she walked by. “What happens when the tide is in?”

“Depending on how high it is, the beach can go underwater. Not often, though. It’s pretty safe.”

“Is there a lock on that gate?”

Parker followed her gaze to Christie. “Yes. We haven’t been using it, but we can.” Of course the child was too small to be trusted down on the beach by herself. He made a mental note to mention locking the gate to Kiki as soon as they returned.

Erin reached down and took her daughter’s hand. “It’s very lush here,” she said. “I’d expected windswept cliffs and a couple of redwood trees.”

Parker glanced around at the trees and creeping vines lining the path. On either side, blooming flowers nestled against juniper ground cover. “I have a gardener who wages a battle against the salt air and bad soil. So far he seems to be winning.”

She paused to finger a flowering crepe myrtle. “Very beautiful.”

Christie stood on her toes and sniffed. “Smells pretty, too.”

As Parker followed them to the wooden stairs that hugged the side of the cliff, he tried to remember the last time he’d noticed the garden. The house had nearly a quarter acre of cultivated grounds. He owned everything to the main road, but left most of it in its natural state. For the past couple of years he hadn’t seen anything past his office.

Up ahead, the path made one last sharp turn before widening into a half circle that ended at the top of the stairs. Both Erin and Christie stopped to stare. He came up behind them and knew he’d been lucky to find this property when it was for sale.

To the left was the tall three-story house. The path sloped down, so they were below the first floor. To their right was the wild rugged coastline of Northern California. Sea gulls circled overhead. In front of the path, the Pacific Ocean stretched out for miles before disappearing into the horizon.

“Where does it go?” Christie asked.

“Clear around the world,” he told her.

She quivered with excitement. “Mommy, Mommy, we could get a boat and sail forever.”

Erin gave him a wry glance. “I don’t think my stomach’s up to it. I was never a very good sailor.”

“Me, either,” he said. “But cruise ships are fine.”

“I’ve never been on one.”

He had the strangest urge to offer to take her on a cruise. Just the three of them. He shook his head to clear it and ignored the impulse. “The stairs are a little steep,” he said, then looked at four-year-old Christie. It would take her forever to get down.

“I can carry her,” Erin told him.

“You’re not any more familiar with the stairs. Besides, Christie looks as if she weighs enough to knock you off balance.” He squatted down as he’d seen Kiki do. “How do you feel about a piggyback ride?” he asked Christie.

She beamed at him and clapped her hands. “Yes!”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. He reached behind him for her chubby legs, then stood up. She wasn’t that big, at least not to him, but he assumed she was the size of an average four-year-old. Erin watched for a moment to make sure Christie was balanced.

“Look at me, Mommy,” the little girl crowed.

“I see.” She turned her attention to him. “Do you want me to go first?”

“Sure. Then we can follow slowly.”

The sound of the waves crashing on the rocks got louder as they descended. Parker was used to the stairs. Two landings broke up the steep trip. He usually went down at a jog, but not with Christie on his back.

Her small hands clutched his shirt and shoulders. The skin of her bare legs was warm against his hands. She clung to him as if she were a little monkey, and he caught a faint whiff of something unfamiliar over the scent of the salt air. She smelled of chocolate and sweetly of herself. A band tightened in his chest. Not an emotion as much as a reaction. A fierce need to protect her and be there for her.

Erin reached the beach first. She smiled at Christie. “You doing okay?”

“This is fun.” She leaned her face closer to his ear. “I want piggyback rides all the time.”

“You got it,” he told her as he stepped off the last step.

The tide was out, the small half moon of hard-packed sand was still damp. Their athletic shoes didn’t make any sound as they left faint imprints. The sun was warm and the sky clear. Erin came up behind him and lifted Christie to the ground. The girl ran to the edge of the water, then raced back.

“There’s nobody here but us. And the birds. You can’t see the house.” She leaned her head back and stared straight up.

Parker followed her gaze. “It’s the angle of the cliff. The house is built into the rock so it isn’t at risk of sliding during rainstorms.”

Christie spun around and faced the water. She flung her arms out and ran in ever widening circles. “I’m a birdie, too.”

In her lime green shorts and shirt and her pigtails streaming out behind her, she was an exotic creature. At least in his world.

“She’s got a lot of energy,” he said.

“More than usual.” Erin tucked her hands in her jeans front pockets. The action emphasized the swell of her breasts under her sweater. “We took two days to drive up from Palmdale. We took a lot of breaks, but that’s a long time for a child to sit still in a car. Besides, I’m all in favor of you tiring her out so she goes to bed early tonight.”

“You mentioned you drove up with a friend?”

“Joyce. Her fiancé is waiting for her in San Francisco. He’s on a business trip, then they’re going to spend some time together in the city.” Erin glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He noticed her eyelashes were thick and dark.

“Having her along has been great,” she continued. “Not only did we get to split the driving, but she looked after Christie this morning and has given me moral support.”

“What does she have to say about all of this?”

“She thinks I’m crazy for dropping in on your life. She warned me you wouldn’t be interested.”

“In my own daughter?”

Erin turned as if to check that Christie was out of earshot. The girl was digging for crabs. “She thought you wouldn’t want to be reminded of a four-year-old mistake.”

The bright sun heated the air and danced on the top of the waves. Christie looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back. “Is that how you thought I’d think of her? As a mistake?” He kept his voice low.

“I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

“I’m glad.”

He still didn’t know anything about Erin Ridgeway. This could be a scam to get money out of him. But he didn’t give a damn. He knew Christie was his and that’s all that mattered.

The girl stood up and raced toward them. She stopped about a foot in front of him and stared up. Her eyebrows pulled together in a frown. “Angela Bedford’s daddy is a policeman. What do you do?”

“I design programs for computers.”

“We have computers at school. I like them.” She shrugged casually. “I like puppies better, though.”

Erin burst out laughing. She swooped down and pulled her daughter close. “I’m going to tickle you into behaving.”

“I’ll behave! I’ll behave!” Christie shrieked, but didn’t try to pull away. She wiggled close and threw her arms around Erin’s waist.

Parker watched them, feeling like the odd one out. The relationships between children and parents were unfamiliar to him. His family had never been affectionate. He didn’t remember either of his parents playing, tickling or even teasing him.

“She’s a monster,” Erin said, looking up at him and smiling. “Should we throw her to the other sea monsters?”

“Nah, they’d just spit her back.”

“Spit?” Christie repeated, sounding outraged. “They would not spit me back. They would make me their princess and I would have a castle under the sea and you would miss me very much.”

“I think I might at that,” Erin said, then dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “We better head back up. I still have to talk to your father about a few things.”

“Okay.” Christie ran to the stairs and started to climb.

Parker brought up the rear. He walked slowly marveling over how easily Erin referred to him as Christie’s father. Of course he was, but the word was unfamiliar. He reminded himself that she’d had longer to come to terms with that. She’d known for weeks. He’d only found out a few hours ago.

Questions spun through his mind. What did Erin want from him? What was his place in Christie’s life? Did he have one and did he want one? Underlining it all was a thin thread of fear that came from the knowledge of how easily all this could be destroyed. He’d done it before.

When they reached the pathway, Christie raced ahead of them. She paused every few feet to bat at the crepe myrtle, laugh, then run again.

Erin placed her hand on her chest and drew in a deep breath. “I need to exercise more,” she said between breaths. “Those stairs are a killer.”

He pushed a branch out of the way so she could duck under it. “Do you have a job?” he asked as he caught up with her.

She laughed. “Of course. What did you think? I’m an elementary school teacher.”

“I thought there might be insurance money, or something.”

Erin shook her head. Her hazel eyes darkened with emotion. “There was a little when Stacey died, but not much. I stayed home with Christie that first summer. Having an infant thrust upon me with no warning was a shock.”

“I can relate to that.”

She smiled, exposing the dimple in her right cheek. “I’ll bet you can. I didn’t know how else to tell you.”

“You did fine.” He touched his hand to the small of her back. She jumped a little, so he dropped his arm to his side. “Had you always planned on becoming a teacher?”

“No, but with a child to raise, it seemed the most sensible plan. I could get off work at a decent time and have summers with her. I used the last of the insurance money getting my credentials and went to work when Christie was a year old.”

They’d reached the gate. Parker opened it and Christie raced across the lawn. She started spinning around, then collapsed on the smooth grass and stared up at the sky.

“I wish I’d known,” he said.

“Do you?” She shrugged. “I don’t mean to sound surprised, but I tried to get in touch with you after Christie was born. I didn’t think you were her father, but I thought you might know who was. All my letters were sent back unopened.”

Guilt flooded him. “I’m sorry. I’d sold the company and told them not to forward any mail. I didn’t think anyone would be trying to get in touch with me.”

And he hadn’t wanted to have any contact with the world. After Stacey had left, he’d fallen apart. Pain and guilt had overwhelmed him until getting through the day had been more than he could manage. He’d betrayed his wife’s memory-traded in their special love for one night of passion. One night of trying to feel alive. It was as if Robin’s death had killed him, too. God, he’d missed her. He still did. Sometimes missing her was all that kept him going.

“We all survived,” Erin said as she headed for the front door. “Now, we start over.”

Christie bounced to her feet and skipped toward her. Parker stared at the child and battled regret over the first four years he’d lost.