What Makes A Father (HQR Special Edition)

by Teresa Southwick

  “I want your opinion on the entire house.” He instructed her to rest the crutches against the railing, then scooped her up and carried her to the second floor.

  Annie protested but slid her arms around his neck. “For a doctor you’re not too bright. Your back will not thank you for this.”

  “I’m showing off.” He grinned. “And you don’t weigh much.”

  That made her heart happy and way too soon the top floor was visible. There was an open loft that looked down on the entryway. Mason walked her through three bedrooms and then the master. One very nice feature was a balcony overlooking the backyard, but they both thought the rooms were on the small side. Annie made him look in the closet and she felt it left a lot to be desired.

  “But that might not matter to you,” she said.

  Unless a woman moved in with him. The thought was vaguely unappealing. It shouldn’t be, and the fact that it was bothered her more than a little. Then it occurred to her that another woman would be around her children. And she had no right to say anything about who he became involved with. Well, shoot.

  “I wouldn’t have noticed that,” Mason said. “That’s why I wanted you to come with me. Still, there are a lot of positive things here. We’ll make a list of pros and cons.”

  “Okay.”

  Annie found herself wishing the trip back down those stairs wouldn’t end too soon. It gave her the opportunity to hold him, to feel her body close to his. She wasn’t the one exerting herself but was a little breathless anyway. It didn’t mean anything, she told herself. Just that while her leg might be broken, her female parts were working just fine.

  At the bottom of the stairs Mason set her down and she missed the warmth of him. He handed her the crutches and looked up to where they’d just been.

  “I was just thinking about the twins. When they start crawling. They’ll go right for the stairs.”

  George joined them. “You can get gates for the bottom and the top. Until they’re old enough to go up and down by themselves.”

  “I suppose.” But Mason didn’t look sure about that.

  So they got back in the SUV and went to two more houses. Both were adequate but nothing to get excited about.

  “I’ve got one more,” George said. “It just came on the market. And it’s one story.”

  When they stopped at the curb Annie zeroed in on the covered porch. Check, she thought. The yard was landscaped with neatly trimmed bushes and flowers. Inside was a traditional floor plan: living and dining rooms separated by a marble-tiled entryway. There was no furniture and George explained that because of a job transfer, the family had to leave quickly. That meant they’d probably be willing to make a deal and escrow could move fast. But first things first. They needed to look at the whole house.

  The kitchen was gorgeous—beautiful granite, white cupboards—and she didn’t even care about toddler handprints. There was a copper rack for pots and pans hanging over the island.

  The rest of the house had spacious bedrooms and big closets. Mason heartily approved of the backyard and there was a casita. She looked inside and couldn’t help thinking what a great home office it could be. But it wouldn’t be her home or her office. Or her man. He was the twins’ father. That was all.

  “What do you think?” Mason asked.

  Without hesitation she said, “I love everything about this house.”

  He smiled at her. “Me, too. I’m going to make an offer.”

  While he talked details with the Realtor, Annie browsed the rooms again. With every hobbling step she took, the longing for a traditional family grew. What she wouldn’t give for the twins to have a father and mother. Correction, they had that. What she yearned for was all of them together in this house, a family unit, a happy home with kids. And marriage. Traditional all the way.

  She hated being right about making a mistake coming with Mason to look at houses. Now there was a happy picture in her head, but reality never lived up to the image. If she’d never seen this place, she’d never have known what she was going to miss.

  And she was going to miss being a family and living in this house.

  * * *

  Once a month the Blackburne family had dinner together. Attendance was mandatory unless you were bleeding, on fire, working or deployed to a foreign country. This ritual was one of the things Mason had missed most when he was gone. Today the family gathering had grown by two with the twins. Three counting Annie. She was the mother of his children and a part of them now.

  Mason put a big blanket on the floor in the family room, set out toys in the center of it, then settled the twins on their backs.

  Annie was sitting on the large sofa that separated the kitchen and family rooms. She was sporting a brand-new, hot-pink walking cast since her recent follow-up orthopedic appointment. After a month the bone was healing nicely, but the doc didn’t want her to put weight on it for another two weeks. A cautious approach of which Mason highly approved. For any patient, but especially for Annie.

  She met his gaze and smiled. “They’re not going to stay put on that blanket.”

  “I know.” They’d grown so much in the last two months, rolling all over and getting up on all fours to rock back and forth, the prelude to crawling. That milestone wasn’t very far off.

  “As you well know, those toys are far less interesting than electrical cords and everything breakable.”

  “And I couldn’t be prouder,” he said. “They’re curious. Exploring their environment is exactly what they’re supposed to do at this age.”

  His dad took the roast outside to barbecue and his mom walked over to stand behind the couch, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Gabriel and Dominic aren’t used to babies on the floor. Charlie and Sarah aren’t like Lulu, who can get out of the way. Will they be okay?”

  “My brothers or the twins?”

  Flo laughed. “I was talking about the babies. We have to make sure everyone watches their step.”

  “Don’t worry,” Annie said. “I’m on it. I may not be able to move very fast, but I can direct traffic and, if all else fails, I’ve got my crutches. To make a point.”

  “Funny,” Mason said and she smiled. He really liked her smile.

  “It’s too bad Kelsey had to work.” His mom leaned a hip on the back of the sofa. “You’re a doctor. You couldn’t pull some strings to get her off?”

  “Two things, Ma. I haven’t been there very long, so zero influence. And I’m not in charge of the nurses’ scheduling.” He grabbed up Charlie, who’d already rolled off the blanket onto his stomach and had his eye on something across the room. “Hey, bud, where do you think you’re going?”

  When the doorbell rang, Lulu started barking and rushed to greet whoever was there, waiting patiently for someone taller and with opposable thumbs to open the door.

  Mason put a squirming Charlie back on the blanket and looked at Annie. “It’s about to get wild. Brace yourself.”

  “It occurs to me that for the last five months I’ve lived in a constant state of being braced.”

  And it looked good on her. Normally her hair was pulled up in a ponytail, out of her way when she was busy with babies. Today it was down and fell past her shoulders, shiny and blond. For some reason the silky strands framing her face made her hazel eyes look more green. Or it might be the pink lip gloss. She was a woman who would turn men’s heads and his brothers were both single. The thought had him bracing—for what he wasn’t sure.

  The two men walked into the room and bro-hugged Mason. They all had blue eyes and brown hair—clones, his mother always said about the family resemblance. Gabe and Dom knew about Annie and the twins but this was the first time they’d met.

  Flo smiled at her sons. “I have to finish getting the rest of dinner ready. Mason, you handle introductions.”

  “Okay.” He looked at his brothers. “This is Ann
ie, the twins’ mother.”

  The taller of the two moved closer and shook her hand. “I’m Gabriel. Sorry about your leg. Nice to meet you.”

  “Same here.” She looked ruefully at the cast. “My fault for not watching where I was going.”

  “I’m Dominic.” He was the youngest of the boys and had a thin scar on his chin. The details were never clear but it had something to do with a girl.

  “Nice to meet you.” She looked past Mason. “And those two little troublemakers are your niece and nephew, color coded. Sarah’s in pink and—”

  “Charlie’s the one in blue who is checking out the movie collection.” Mason moved quickly to grab him up before the stack of plastic DVD containers toppled on him. “He’s moving faster all the time.”

  “And Sarah is right behind.” Annie indicated the little girl who was scooting in the same direction as her brother. “She’s ready to follow into whatever trouble he leads her.”

  “Cute kids,” Dom said. “They look like Annie.”

  “Subtle, bro.” Mason held his son and the curious little boy checked out the neckline of his T-shirt then explored his nose and ear.

  “So you’re a graphic artist,” Gabe said to Annie.

  “Yes.”

  Mason hadn’t mentioned anything about her job. “How did you know that?”

  “Her firm did a branding campaign for Make Me a Match. It was well-done. Smart. Clever. Visual.”

  “Thanks.” The dog trotted over to Annie and she patted the seat beside her. Lulu didn’t have to be asked twice and jumped up for a belly rub. “My friend Carla works for you. We met while I was involved in the project.”

  “Actually she’s my aunt’s personal assistant. And I’m only working there temporarily.”

  “So she said. I understand the business is still not where you’d like, financially speaking,” Annie commented.

  “True.” His mouth pulled tight. “Aunt Lil is more focused on idealistic notions of relationships than numbers.”

  Their mother walked over to join the conversation and clearly she’d been listening in. “My sister is a romantic and always has been. Did you know she fixed up your father and me?”

  The three brothers stared at each other with equally blank expressions. Mason said, “That’s news to me.”

  “Did she charge you for her services?” Gabe asked wryly.

  “Of course she didn’t.”

  Lulu barked once and jumped off the couch then trotted over to Sarah, who was reaching for the DVDs her brother had just looked over. Mason put Charlie back on the blanket and picked up his daughter.

  “Her romanticism is the problem,” Gabe continued. “Aunt Lil is in love with love and wants to give it away for free. It’s a business and by definition the purpose of its existence is to provide a service for which customers are prepared to pay. In other words, make money.”

  Flo looked at Annie. “Lillian is a widow. She and Phil were deeply in love until the day he died. They never had children but she always says they were rich in so many ways because they had each other. She wants everyone to have what she did with her husband.”

  “They were lucky.” Mason wasn’t interested in what his aunt was selling. “Not everyone is.”

  “Is that the voice of experience?” Annie asked.

  “Yes. I was married and the magic didn’t last.”

  Annie had asked him why he’d sold his house before he deployed. He could have kept it, shut things down until he returned. But it held nothing but bad memories—loss, pain and a marriage imploding with no way to fix it.

  Lulu sat on the baby blanket and Charlie touched her back. The dog was extraordinarily patient with the babies and was loving, even protective. While Mason cuddled Sarah close, he caught Annie considering him, surprise in her eyes.

  Then she turned to Gabe. “How do you match people up?”

  “Clients fill out a profile, with a picture, then define their likes and dislikes. An algorithm picks up key words to narrow down potentially compatible people. Then we have that group fill out a more detailed questionnaire.”

  “What kind of questions?” Dom asked. He looked uncharacteristically interested.

  Gabe thought for a moment. “Things like ‘If you could share dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be?’ Or ‘If you could be a character in a movie, which one would you choose?’ A very revealing one is ‘Tattoo—for or against?’”

  “Let’s try it,” his mother suggested. She looked at Annie and Mason. “You take the quiz.”

  Annie looked a little startled. “I don’t know about Mason, but I’m not looking for a match.”

  “I know. It’s just for fun,” Flo said. “You’re both single. Gabriel, give them a question.”

  “Okay.” He sat on the couch. “How about which character in a movie. You first, Annie.”

  “Wow. No pressure.” She blew out a breath. “Okay. I’d want to be Wonder Woman.”

  “You’re already a superhero,” his mom said.

  “How sweet. Thanks, Flo.”

  “I mean it. Twins? That says it all.”

  “Actually it’s not the superpowers I want,” Annie clarified. “But that golden lasso would come in pretty handy. A way to know someone is telling the truth.”

  “Okay. Good answer,” Dom said. “Mason, you’re probably going to say Superman.”

  “No.” He’d had time to think. “Sherlock Holmes.”

  “Because the supersleuth is so in touch with his feelings?” Gabe teased.

  “No. He notices little things and figures out who’s guilty. I can relate to that. I do a lot of mystery-solving in the ER because people don’t always give me all the facts. Their symptoms are very general and vague. So I have to read between the lines to help them. It’s my job to figure out what’s wrong.”

  “Good answers, both of you,” Gabe said. “But I’m not sure they would intersect for a match.”

  “Okay, next question,” his mother said. “I like the tattoo one. How do you feel about them?”

  “Not a fan. Don’t have one and no plans to get one,” Mason answered.

  “Okay. The doctor doesn’t like needles,” Dominic teased.

  “But you were in the army,” Annie said.

  “A tattoo is not a prerequisite for joining,” he answered.

  “Annie? What about you?” his mother asked.

  She squirmed then sighed. “I have one. And I love it.”

  Mason looked at her, the skin he could see, and couldn’t find her ink. His curiosity cranked up by a lot to know what it was and—more important—where. Discovering the location would involve taking clothes off and his body reacted enthusiastically to that thought.

  “Strike two.” Gabriel shook his head. “Last one. Who would you want to have dinner with?”

  “That’s easy,” Annie said. “Eunice Golden.”

  “Who?” they all said at the same time.

  “I was an art major. She’s a painter and a pioneer in her field, focusing on nude male bodies in her earlier work.”

  Mason noted that the rest of his family looked as clueless and surprised as he felt. And now it was his turn. “I’d like to have dinner with the Surgeon General of the United States Army.”

  Gabe gave him a pitying look. “Probably no overlap there.”

  “Even though that person is a woman, appointed for the next couple years?”

  “Too subtle.” Gabriel shrugged. “If you were clients of Make Me a Match, you would not be paired off.”

  “Then it’s a good thing neither one of us is looking to do that,” Annie said.

  “Oh, pooh,” his mother said. “A few questions on a quiz isn’t everything.”

  Mason had mixed feelings. On the surface they might not look compatible, but he agreed with his mom that a quiz d
idn’t come with a guarantee of success. Everything in his first marriage had looked ideal, but together he and his wife were a disaster. Still, a quiz was stupid. Right? He agreed with Annie about that. He wasn’t looking for a match any more than she was. He’d never failed a test in his life. Surely that’s what was bothering him now.

  Chapter Seven

  Her hormones didn’t take that matchmaking quiz but you wouldn’t know it by the way they were stirred up.

  Annie hadn’t been able to stop thinking about those questions, through dinner and the rest of the evening. Now it was quiet in the house. Mason’s brothers had gone and everyone else was in bed. The two of them were standing side by side, just putting the twins down. She had the crutches under her arms but didn’t put much weight on them. Their arms brushed and she felt the contact all the way to her toes.

  According to their answers to those questions, they weren’t compatible, but her body wasn’t paying any attention. Still, she had another question for Mason. She hadn’t wanted to interrogate him in front of his family, but no one else was here now.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were married?”

  He glanced at the babies, who were drowsy but not sound asleep yet, and put a shushing finger to his lips. He angled his head toward the connecting bathroom and indicated she should follow him. Not wanting to disturb the twins, she limped after him. When he flipped the switch on the wall in his room, a nightstand lamp came on. There was a king-size bed with a brass headboard and an oak dresser with matching armoire.

  Mason met her gaze. “I wasn’t keeping it a secret. If I was still married, I’d have said something. But I’m not. The fact that I was married just never came up and it didn’t cross my mind to mention that I’m divorced.”

  Logically that was true, but somehow it felt very relevant to Annie that she didn’t know he’d been legally committed to a woman at one time. He’d taken that step because he’d been in love. It should simply be a fact from his past, just information, but she was having a reaction to this fact and it wasn’t positive. She wasn’t proud of it, but this feeling had a good many characteristics of jealousy.