Free Forever in My Heart by Jo Goodman Page B

hidden behind the cool and distant reflection of his darkly mirrored eyes.
     
From inside the receiving parlor John MacKenzie Worth heard the housekeeper open the front door and greet his guests. His normally impassive features were anything but as he alternately stared at his wife and youngest daughter. His mouth gaped in his broad face and his dark blond hair seemed to grow a little grayer as his authority was called into question. "What do you mean she's not joining us for dinner?" he demanded. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
     
Moira Dennehy Worth merely shook her head, a ge nuine smile on her sweetly bowed mouth. "I suspect, dearest, it's because we knew you'd take it badly. And you are, so there you have it."
     
Jay Mac speared his daughter with a glance that had been known to make a business colleague's brow bead with sweat. Mary Schyler was not only not cowed, she stared back and gave as good as she got.
     
"That's your story, I suppose," he said, at once admiring and aggravated.
     
Skye nodded, dimpling as she gave her father a placating smile.
     
"The very same," she said. "Did you really think Maggie wouldn't see through your machinations?"
     
He frowned and straightened the stems of his spectacles.
     
"Your sister rarely sees past the pages of a book, how was I to know she'd ... wait a minute here, ....... what machinations are you referring to? Moira? What is your daughter talking about?"
     
"I think it's too late to play the innocent, darling," Moira said. She glanced in the mirror above the mantelpiece and smoothed her dark red hair. "Our guests will be upon us any moment." She stopped fiddling with her hair and came to stand in front of Jay Mac. She smoothed the shoulders of his evening jacket while her loving expression revealed how much she adored him. "Over dinner I hope you will refrain from referring to Skye only as my daughter or Mary Margaret as her sister.
     
You have a terrible habit of disclaiming fatherhood when you're aggrieved."
     
Skye giggled. "Poor Jay Mac. He's been so poorly abused by his five daughters that it's a wonder he claimed us at all."
     
Jay Mac shot Skye another withering glance but he spoke to Moira. "Do you see what I have to put up with in return?
     
I'm only called Papa or Father when it suits them. I'd like to know which one of them started calling me Jay Mac and why you allowed it all these years.
     
Moira's eyes were dancing as the parlor door was opened.
     
"I'm A certain it was Mary," she said in a low voice.
     
"I'm not amused," he replied sternly. As the father of five girls, now women, all with the first name of Mary, it was not a very satisfactory answer. He supposed he deserved it, though.
     
Even he could admit that he was being a trifle pompous and overbearing.
     
There had been so many years that he had only been able to claim his daughters with his heart and not his name that it wasn't entirely surprising that one of them had hit upon calling him Jay Mac and it had stuck. To all the world he was Jay Mac Worth, he thought, so why should it be different in his own home?
     
A casual acquaintance might mistake the unusual familiarity and strong-willed conflicts between Jay Mac and his daughters as showing a lack of respect, but no observation could have been farther from the mark. Nor did Jay Mac always deal good-humoredly with his five Marys, though there had been demonstration recently of a lightertouch. John MacKenzie Worth could be scheming, ruthless, and tyrannical when it came to business, and securing the futures of his daughters was his most important business.
     
Tonight was no exception as he set his sights on Mary Margaret's happiness.
     
Moira moved from Jay Mac's side to greet her guests. Introductions were accomplished smoothly and there was no mention made of Maggie's absence. Indeed, none of the Holidays knew that another daughter had been expected to join them. The extra place setting was whisked aside before they entered