Closest To My Heart

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Cece, do you know where my—" Patrick O'Donnell stopped short as he emerged from the bedroom and spied his daughter standing just inside the door of the lavish hotel suite. In mid-preparation for his dinner plans that evening, he wore only boxer shorts, black socks, and a crisp white dress shirt that hung to his hips, with a purplish print tie looped around the back of his neck. His eyes twinkled and a huge grin spread across his face. "Maggie Kate! You finally made time to visit your old man, eh?"

Maggie smiled at the familiar moniker and the booming exuberance in his voice. She met him halfway across the room and allowed herself to be swallowed up in one of his giant, powerful bear hugs. Despite his commanding and oftentimes intimidating demeanor, her father had never had any difficulty showing affection for his children.

"I'll always have time for you, Dad, you know that," she said, giving him an extra-long squeeze for good measure. Although his belly was still full and round beneath the untucked hem of his shirt, it felt as if he had lost weight since the last time she had seen him. But that was probably a good thing considering his past health problems, right?

"All summer, at least," Maggie's mother informed her husband, stepping forward to drape her arm around their daughter's shoulders. "Maggie is coming to the Cape with us, Pat."

"Well, I don't know about all summer—" Maggie started, but her protest was cut short by her father's jubilation.

"That's wonderful!" Patrick O'Donnell's face lit up, and then clouded over. "But what about Kevin?"

Maggie opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"Kevin is rather busy at the firm," her mother quickly supplied.

Maggie cut her a sidelong glance and quirked a brow at the fib. Her mother tipped her head and gave a furtive little shrug as if to say, Well, technically it's the truth, isn't it?

"Yes, I suppose he is," Maggie's father said, completely oblivious to the communication that had just passed between his wife and daughter. "That boy will make a fine partner in the firm, that's for sure, and an equally fine husband after that, eh, Mags?" Her father gave her shoulder an affectionate nudge. "Well, maybe he'll be able to come for a long weekend now and then."

Maggie nodded noncommittally as her mother moved to pour herself a glass of Perrier from the mini bar. She disappeared into the bedroom and returned a short moment later with a set of platinum cuff links resting in her outstretched palm.

"Ah, precisely what I was looking for," Maggie's father beamed, leaning in to give his wife a peck on the lips. She returned the favor, and they smiled lovingly into each other's eyes for a long moment before Patrick O'Donnell turned to his daughter and gave an impish, conspiratorial wink. "Where would I be without my beautiful wife?"

"Probably on Blackwell's Worst-Dressed List," his wife teased, slipping the purple tie from his neck and gliding toward the bedroom for a replacement. "This tie is hideous."

"I bought him that tie," Maggie protested, but her mother must not have heard.

Her father chucked her under the chin. "Hey, I love the tie," he assured her, and then shrugged. "Sorry, kid. I guess you inherited your fashion sense from me."

Maggie smiled at the joke to cover the hurt of her mother's unintentional slight. She knew that her mother loved her, of course, but sometimes Maggie felt like she couldn't do a damn thing right in that woman's eyes!

"Will you be joining us tonight?" her father asked, cutting into her surly rumination. "We're meeting the Watsons for an early dinner, and I'm sure they would love to see you again."