Meet Mr. Prince by Patricia Kay Read Free Book Online Page A

or anyone else did wrong. That’s a good thing, because for a long time she was secretly blaming herself.”
    â€œWhich was totally irrational.”
    â€œYes, but we all think irrational thoughts when we’re devastated by loss. Very few of us have objectivity in times of great pain.”
    Zach sighed. “I know.” God knows that for a while he’d blamed himself, too. Why had he not seen Jenny’s symptoms so that he could have insisted she see a doctor sooner? If only he’d done this…or that… He grimaced. If only . Those two words were the most useless words in the dictionary. “What else can I do to help Katie?”
    â€œJust keep doing what you’re doing: loving her and reassuring her anytime she begins to show signs of her fear of losing you, too.” The counselor gave him an understanding smile. “I know it’s hard. I know you want to make every bad thing go away for Katie, but healing from a loss like this is a slow process, Mr. Prince. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
    â€œI know, but it has been two years.” Jeremy hadseemed to snap back to his old self within months of Jenny’s death. Then again, he was only four when Jenny first got sick. He’d quickly adapted to the fact that his mother couldn’t do the things she’d always done, so her loss hadn’t affected him in the same way it had affected Katie. And me .
    â€œEach of us is different. Some of us deal with these things better than others. In your case, you’re stronger than Katie…and wiser. For a girl, losing a mother is traumatic. And for a girl Katie’s age—on the cusp of her teen years—it’s life-changing. But your daughter is going to be all right, I feel quite sure of that. I just wanted you to know that we’re not there yet. And I wanted to tell you again now much I like your daughter.” Her expression softened. “Katie’s a special girl. She’s going to be a remarkable woman someday.”
    Zach suddenly found it hard to speak around the lump in his throat. “She’s…very like her mother.”
    The warmth in the counselor’s eyes said she understood exactly how he was feeling. “I suspected as much. She talks about her mother with so much…love and gentleness.”
    Zach managed to get a grip on his emotions, but once he stepped outside and began the twenty-block walk home—he’d decided he could use the exercise today—that feeling of emptiness and loss returned with a strength he hadn’t felt in months. And he knew—sadly—that both he and his oldest daughter, at least, still had a ways to go before they’d be completely whole again.
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    â€œSo how was your first day at work?”
    Georgie made a face. “It was fine.”
    â€œGeorgie, I can tell just by the tone of your voice that it wasn’t fine,” Joanna said.
    So Georgie, who hadn’t planned to say a word until Joanna had called and begun pumping her, spilled the whole story—how Zach Prince had showed up at the office so late, how he’d skipped out again without any explanation about where he might be going, how she felt even more uneasy about him now than she’d felt before—and then she even found herself telling Joanna how good-looking he was.
    â€œReally?” Joanna said. “He actually looks like Patrick Dempsey? Gee, he can’t be that hard to work with, then. At least you’ve got something great to look at! I mean, he didn’t act obnoxious or anything, did he?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWell, then? How bad can it be? Just sit back and enjoy the scenery for a while.”
    Joanna’s comments caused Georgie to remember what she’d said to her sisters a while back when they’d started bugging her about getting married. “What?” Bobbie had said. “You’re going to go without sex for the rest of your