And alive.
“Daddy!”
Max wished that squeal of delighted glee had to do with him as much as their guest. But his daughter was caught up in the excitement of Lily Susan’s homecoming.
Striding ahead, he braced himself as Madeleine leaped into his arms. Catching her against him, he twirled her around, eliciting another squeal—this one all for him. She tilted her cheek for a kiss, but her curious gaze fixed over his shoulder on the woman behind him.
“Is that her?” Madeleine asked almost reverently.
Max kissed her again to hide his smile. “It is. I’ll introduce you.”
Letting his daughter slide to the ground, he straightened. To his surprise, he found Lily Susan already dropping to Madeleine’s height, which brought his attention to her graceful neck and feminine shoulders in a way he’d have to be dead not to notice.
But he was only dead on the inside.
Smiling warmly, she extended her hand. “Bonjour, Mademoiselle Madeleine. Ça fait plaisir de te revoir. Nous nous sommes rencontrés quand tu étais une petite fille. Regarde-toi. Tu as grandis pour être très, très belle.”
“Merci, madame.” Madeleine beamed, clearly surprised their guest spoke French. Grown up and beautiful—a double compliment if Max’s translation was close. His French was rudimentary at best. She politely replied how pleased she was to see Lily Susan again, too, but Max knew his daughter had no memory of their previous meeting. She’d barely been two the last time Lily Susan had graced the family with her presence.
Felicia had spoken French to their daughter since birth even though her parents had moved to the States before she or Raymond had been born. Max had kept up the tutoring by bringing an au pair from France who was a relative of the Girard family.
Lily Susan had told him she’d been keeping up with his family, and he was astounded she was interested in what was happening in a place she couldn’t find time to visit.
He was also astounded by the way she engaged his daughter in a chat about kindergarten and teachers and friends—in a random mix of English and French Felicia would have appreciated.
Kneeling in the leaf-strewn yard, Lily Susan listened intently to a story about the student-of-the-week breakfast reception that served cookies. Her whiskey-gold hair tumbled down her back, and her long skirt emphasized sleek legs as she wrapped her arms around her knees and nodded in all the appropriate places.
His daughter was generally reserved around strangers, but with the attention Lily Susan graciously provided, she was shedding her shell.
“You got to be on The Morning Show with your student-of-the-week ribbon, too? Wow. Does everyone watch The Morning Show?”
“Oui, madame.” Madeleine beamed. “Even the fifth graders and the patrols.”
Lily Susan gave a suitably impressed gasp. And he was impressed she knew what an elementary-school patrol was.
They made quite a sight. Lily Susan in all her designer-clothes glory. Madeleine, still bearing evidence of summer swimming lessons and weekends spent at the lake. She’d been nut-brown by Labor Day, compliments of Moroccan ancestors. He wondered if their son would have had his mother’s skin, too.
Not the first time he’d wondered.
“Aunt Lily Susan!” More squeals as the screen door creaked open and Riley’s twins burst onto the porch.
“We’ll make time later to chat.” Lily Susan gave Madeleine’s hands a little squeeze before she stood. “I want to hear more about your appearance on The Morning Show.”
His daughter nodded eagerly then Lily Susan was spreading her arms wide to greet her new visitors.
“My little twinnies!”
Riley’s kids weren’t so little anymore. Jake and Camille were a whopping almost nine years old, as Jake was fond of reminding everyone. But they were thrilled to see their aunt, and he witnessed firsthand the results of Riley’s determination to keep everyone in touch with text, email and phone calls.
Max bore a similar responsibility. Felicia’s family was all Madeleine would ever have of her mother. If his in-laws hadn’t been so accessible, he would have made the same effort as Riley.
He hung on to his daughter’s hand while Lily Susan hugged her niece and nephew. “I can’t believe how tall you’ve both gotten. How long has it been since I’ve seen you—a year?”
“Not a year, silly.” Camille laughed. “We saw you this summer. Don’t you remember we went on the boat ride to the Statue of Liberty?”
“How could I forget? You hid so we missed the ferry back.”
Camille giggled and Lily Susan ruffled that white-blond head fondly.
“You’re such a little squirrel,” she said. “It just feels like forever since I’ve seen you.”
While Lily Susan laughed and chattered cheerily, she seemed to be hanging on to the twins for dear life, unable to stop touching and kissing them. Did she see her brother in them? Max remembered how close she and Mike had been.
“Well, it’s about damned time,” a loud voice boomed from the doorway. Joey appeared with his wife, Sarah, behind him, and shoved open the screen door so hard the hinges groaned. “Your father’s about to disown you because he can’t remember what you look like.”
Actually, Joey was the one about to disown his baby sister, as Max well knew.
“Then he must be getting senile since I saw him two months ago,” Lily Susan replied.
Angelicas poured onto the lawn calling out greetings. That was the last Max saw of Lily Susan as the family converged on her. He knew they would all wind up in the kitchen, so he broke from the crowd and headed to the car to unload the luggage.
Madeleine didn’t want any part of leaving the chaos. She stuck like glue to Camille, who stuck like glue to her aunt. He wasn’t surprised his daughter was so caught up in the whole Wedding Angel craze. Lily Susan was the family celebrity, and Madeleine had been listening to everyone discuss her long-awaited return. Particularly Camille, who idolized her aunt and with whom Madeleine spent a good deal of time.
Riley’s twins were the youngest of all the Angelica cousins, so Madeleine was a welcome addition at family gatherings as the one person who was younger. For Camille anyway, who enjoyed sharing girl things like manicures and hairstyles—the types of activities mothers and daughters shared, but daddies were uncomfortable with, no matter how hard they tried.
And try though Max might, the nuances of shimmery nail polish escaped him.
He’d barely reached the car when he realized that Scott had caught up with him.
“Need a hand?” he asked.
Max nodded. “Anyone but Lily Susan, and I’d think she was moving in for good.”
Scott eyed the hatch and backseat stacked with suitcases and nodded. “Sure looks like it.”
Max liked Scott Emerson. He was another honorary Angelica family member. He’d been Mike’s partner on the vice squad before Mike had met Riley. Scott was now the chief of detectives, and if Max’s sources were correct—which they usually were—Scott was being groomed to become Poughkeepsie’s chief of police.
Once he married Riley, he wouldn’t be an honorary member of the Angelicas anymore. He’d be the real deal.
Between them, they managed the luggage with one trip and headed inside by way of the garage. They couldn’t escape the chaos, which had started trickling in by the time they’d stowed the bags in Lily Susan’s old bedroom upstairs. Max got trapped on the staircase behind Scott, unable to make his way into the hallway through the crowd burrowing to get in from the cold.
An