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Chapter 1
Houston, 1979
DIANA, ARE YOU STILL AWAKE? I’d like to talk to you”
Diana stopped in the act of turning off the laainst the pillows “Okay,” she called
“How’s the jet lag, honey?” her father asked as he walked toward her bed “Are you exhausted?” At forty-three, Robert Foster was a tall, broad-shouldered Houston oilray hair who norht, he looked distinctly uneasy, and Diana knehy Although she was only fourteen, she wasn’t silly enough to think he’d co He wanted to talk to her about her new stepmother and stepsister, whom she’d met for the first time this afternoon when she arrived home from a vacation in Europe with school friends “I’m okay,” she said
“Diana—” he began; then he hesitated, sat down on the bed beside her, and took her hand in his After a e it must have seemed to you to come home today and find out I’d remarried Please believe that I would never have et to know each other if I hadn’t been positive, absolutely positive, that the two of you will learn to love each other You do like her, don’t you?” he asked anxiously, searching her face “You said you did—”
Diana nodded, but she didn’t understand why he’d married so the years since her mother died, he’d dated some really beautiful and very nice Houston woot too serious, he’d always introduced theether Now he’d actually married someone, but it was a lady she’d never set eyes on before “Mary seems really nice,” she said after a moment “I just don’t understand why you were in such a hurry”
He looked sheepish, but his ansas unquestionably heartfelt “There will be a few times in your life when all your instincts will tell you to do soic, upsets your plans, and may even seem crazy to others When that happens, you do it Listen to your instincts and ignore everything else Ignore logic, ignore the odds, ignore the coo for it”
“And that’s what you did?”
He nodded “I kneithin hours ofMary that she was just what I wanted for myself, and for you, and I knehen Ito be an exceptionally happy faave Maryabout all the obstacles and agonizing over them, and that in the end she’d turn me down”
Loyalty and common sense made that possibility seeone to absurd lengths to attract and hold her father’s interest “It seems to me that practically every woman you’ve taken out has wanted you”
“No, honey, ive them in the form of financial security and social acceptance Only a few have truly wanted me”
“But are you sure that Mary truly wanted you?” Diana asked, thinking of h
is statement that Mary would have turned him down
Her father grinned, his eyes war with affection “I’m completely sure she did, and she does”
“Then ould she have turned you down?”
His smile widened “Because she’s the opposite of ent, but she and Corey have led a simple life in a tiny little tohere no one is wealthy, not by Houston standards She fell in love with me as quickly and deeply as I fell in love with her, and she agreed to marry me within a week, but when she realized what sort of life we live here, she started trying to back out
“She orried that Corey and she wouldn’t fit in, that they’d make some sort of inexcusable social blunder and eht about it, the more convinced she became that she’d fail us”
He reached out and gently s chestnut hair fro to toss away all the s everyone else was so anxious to grab, because she didn’t want to fail s that are important to her”
Diana had liked her new steph when she met her today, but the tenderness in her father’s eyes and the love in his voice when he talked of Mary carried an enorht with Diana “I like her a lot,” she confessed
A smile of relief dawned across his face “I knew you would She likes you, too She said you’re very sweet and very poised She said you’d have had every right to get hysterical this afternoon when you walked in the front door and met a stepmother you’d never heard about before And wait till you randparents,” he added enthusiastically
“Corey said they’re really neat,” Diana replied, thinking back over all the infor their first day together
“They are They’re good, honest, hardworking people who laugh a lot and love each other a lot Corey’s grandfather is an excellent gardener, an arandmother is very artistic and very talented at handcrafts Now,” he said, looking a little tense again, “tell me what you think about Corey”
Diana was quiet for a s about her new stepsister into words; then she leaned forward, wrapped her arms around her knees, and sirls I know She’sfriendly and honest, and she says what’s on her mind She hasn’t been anywhere but Texas, and she doesn’t try to act cool and sophisticated, but she’s done lots of things I never have Oh, and she thinks you’re practically a king,” Diana added with a grin
“What a clever, discerning young lady!”
“Her own father ran out on her mom and her when Corey was just a baby,” Diana said, sobered by the thought of such an unspeakable act by a parent
“His stupidity and irresponsibility are ood luck, and I intend to make certain Mary and Corey feel lucky, too Want to helpat her
Diana nodded “You bet,” she said
“Just rees you’ve had, so take it slow and teach her the ropes”
“Okay, I will”
“That’s irl” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head “You and Mary are going to be wonderful friends”
He started away, but Diana’s quiet announcement made him turn back and stop “Corey would like to call you Dad”
“I didn’t know that,” Robert Foster said, his voice turning gruff with eht want to so time before she ca moment, and then hesitantly asked, “How do you feel—about Corey calling me Dad—I mean?”
Diana grinned “It was my idea”
Across the hall, Mary Britton Foster was seated on her thirteen-year-old daughter’s bed and running out of small talk “So you had a nice time with Diana today?” she asked Corey for the third time
“Yep”
“And you enjoyed going over to the Hayward children’s house and riding their horses when Diana took you there this afternoon?”
“Moers; you aren’t supposed to call us children”
“Sorry,” Mary said, idly rubbing Corey’s leg beneath the blankets
“And it wasn’t what you’d call a house; it’s so big, it’s practically a motel!”