Daddy for Keeps

by Pamela Tracy

  Natalie felt the tears form.

  “Please,” Betsy said, “may I look at him?”

  Natalie led the way, Betsy on her heels. Lucky came third, with Henry slowly taking the rear. They all crowded in the doorway. Betsy only had eyes for Robby. Henry seemed to have eyes for Robby, Natalie and Betsy.

  Finally, Natalie saw it. The look a man has for the woman he loves. Henry may be hard to get along with, but he loved his wife.

  It gave Natalie a brief moment of hope. She peered into the bedroom. Robby lay facedown, his feet on the pillow and his head by the baseboard. He snored slightly. A tiny train was clutched in his hand.

  “Oh, he’s precious,” Betsy breathed.

  “He’s not going to be precious if we wake him up before it’s time,” Natalie said gently.

  Back down the stairs they went. Henry led. He went right back to studying the photos. Betsy did the same, oohing and aahing at every change in Robby.

  Lucky went to stand by his father, taking a stance Natalie was starting to recognize. It was the same stance he’d used after jumping off the bull at the Selena rodeo when he’d known he was a winner. It was the same stance he’d taken when he stood in her front yard insisting that he wanted to be included in their lives.

  He hadn’t needed to use that stance with her lately; the half smile worked just as well.

  “So, Dad, why the change of heart, really?”

  Natalie saw, then, something Lucky probably missed. Glancing at Betsy, Natalie knew she’d seen it also. Henry aged right in front of their eyes. In the flicker, he’d gone from powerful my-business-is-my-business-and-my-family-is-my-business Henry Welch to an I’m-about-to-lose-everything father.

  “Lucky,” Natalie said gently.

  “No, I want to know. What made you change your mind?”

  “Go ahead and tell him,” Betsy urged. “You told me. It probably saved our marriage. Maybe you admitting you were wrong will save your relationship with Lucky.”

  “I was wrong,” Henry admitted.

  Lucky looked like he was about to say something stupid, something a preacher would never say, like “Big surprise” or maybe “Duh” or even “I don’t care.”

  He didn’t say anything. He kept his stance, staring at his father in a way that made him more equal than son.

  His dad seemed to recognize the stance as something to be reckoned with. He made a huge effort to regain his power, but the effort didn’t reach his eyes. They were sad, so sad.

  “I’ve lost your brother,” Henry admitted. “You never come around. Your mother stopped talking to me.” He glanced at his wife. “Two solid weeks and not a word, not even a ‘Pass me the salt.’ Then, on Friday, Bernice sends me an e-mail.”

  “An e-mail got you here,” Lucky said, amazement edging his voice.

  “She sent pictures of Robby at her house. She got him eating a piece of chicken, swinging, chasing Mary. They were beautiful. There was one of him on that pretend bull you made over at Bernice’s,” Lucky’s dad said. His voice broke a little. “It was Marcus all over again, at Betsy’s dad’s place, riding that stupid pretend bull.

  “Robby is Marcus’s child. I’m a grandparent. I sat all afternoon at my desk, ignoring my secretary, ignoring the phone, ignoring the paperwork gathered in front of me.

  “I never harmed you or Marcus,” Henry choked. “Not physically, anyway, and for the life of me, I’m not sure why or how I lost you. I’ve provided—”

  “Money,” Lucky supplied.

  “Yes, a good home, food, the best schooling.”

  It was father versus son.

  “I’d rather have had time, Dad. I’d rather have had your time.”

  “I…Maybe I—” Henry stuttered.

  “Mommy, who dat?” Robby entered the room, rubbing his eyes and staring at Henry.

  The room remained silent. Henry didn’t look away from Lucky. Betsy was still holding her head in her hands.

  “This is Lucky’s daddy and mommy,” Natalie supplied.

  “Oh.” Robby looked around the room, finally seeing Betsy. He went right to her, crawled on her lap and settled down.

  “Natalie,” Lucky suggested, “why don’t you and my mother take Robby into the kitchen for a snack or something?”

  “Oh, no,” Betsy said. “I’m not leaving. There’s probably more I need to hear.”

  “No, Mother, there’s not.” It was Henry, calling his wife Mother, in that soft voice that denotes love. For all his faults, the man loved his wife. He loved both his sons, too. He just didn’t know how to show it.

  “Mr. Welch,” Natalie said. “Maybe it’s best we don’t try to change everything today. Why don’t you just get to know Robby, and then when both you and Lucky calm down, maybe you can have a conversation that is not heated?”

  “My dad—” Lucky began.

  “Is here admitting he made some poor choices,” Natalie finished.

  She waited to see what Lucky would do. Would he turn and march out the door, refusing to even listen? Would he demand that his father leave? Was there hope for forgiveness? Because if Lucky couldn’t forgive his father for making poor choices, how would he forgive Natalie for not telling him the truth about Robby’s birth?

  If Robby hadn’t entered the room, Lucky didn’t know where the conversation would have gone. Robby simply looked from grown-up to grown-up and finally asked, “What going?”

  “Nothing, baby,” his mother said. “Just a bit of a family discussion.”

  “It loud,” Robby remarked.

  Loud? Lucky thought. The discussion could have been loud, should have been loud, but it was just his father, one more time, proving he didn’t see what was right in front of him.

  Time was more precious than money.

  The only thing different about this confrontation was his father was actually admitting errors.

  He studied his dad until he realized he had to make the first move. Again. And he would be the bigger person if he did.

  “Natalie’s right,” he said. “We need to take this slow.”

  Slow turned out to be the whole family attending the evening church service. Robby didn’t make it through the whole service, and for the first time Lucky understood why parents of toddlers seemed to miss evening services. Natalie didn’t miss any of the service, though, because Grandma Betsy, with her very willing assistant and best friend, Bernice, was quite happy to sit in the foyer and watch Robby explore every nook and cranny.

  Sitting between Natalie and his father, Lucky could only shake his head at the irony. His dad sat all stiff and stern, clearly out of place. Natalie was pale and fidgety, nothing like this morning. Both of them so needed the Word.

  What had Natalie been asking about the other night at the café? John 8:32.

  “…and the truth will set you free.”

  Judging by his father’s posture, he wasn’t feeling free. Judging by Natalie’s posture, she wasn’t as free as she should be.

  After church, his parents headed for their motel after deciding that they would all travel to Delaney the next day to see the church Lucky was considering, and Lucky drove Natalie and Robby home.

  He got a kiss from both of them.

  Robby’s kiss more or less hit his ear. Natalie’s landed right where it was supposed to and didn’t last nearly long enough.

  He wondered, as he drove away, whether he should be kissing a woman whose faith didn’t match his, the woman he’d fallen in love with anyway, the woman who should have been his brother’s wife! Oh, God, Lucky prayed, you promise us hope and a future, but please, God, let Natalie and Robby be my future.

  Natalie’s dad used to moan, “I never get enough sleep,” and Natalie had more or less tuned him out. Now she knew what he meant. It was four in the morning, and she was wide-awake. The outside was pitch-black; even the moon was hiding its face. The house was quiet. She padded down the hall and turned on the kitchen light, turned the radio to a country station and dropped a Pop-Tart into the toas
ter.

  Even through her slippers she could feel the coldness of the floor. Winter had stopped knocking on Selena’s door. It had arrived.

  She went and adjusted the thermostat, then poured a glass of milk, retrieved the Pop-Tart and sat at the kitchen table for a minute. Pure happiness was just out of reach, so close her fingers were skimming the edge of its jacket.

  Lucky was wearing the jacket.

  She’d allowed herself to get complacent. She’d allowed herself to believe that maybe everything would be all right.

  Maybe it would be.

  Lucky had not turned on his father. Who knew? Maybe the two of them were out having breakfast right now. Natalie took a bite of her Pop-Tart and signed on to her laptop. This morning, first thing, she had to deal with a hosting issue. Then, she was updating the last of her current clients, and finally she had received signed contracts and initial payment from five new clients. She had lots to do.

  None of her tasks took her mind fully off Lucky, his family or her problem. At seven-thirty, she woke Robby up, got him dressed and in front of a bowl of cereal, and went to her bedroom to get herself ready for the day.

  When Lucky showed up, he wasn’t alone. The trip to Delaney was eye-opening. Betsy was a gem. Not only was she a willing travel guide—she could write a book about the town—but also she took Grandma duty seriously. Robby’s coat was quickly zipped, his runny nose wiped and his hand held ever so vigorously. Within hours, she owned the title “Grandma,” and Robby said it often.

  Grandpa was a different animal. Natalie wasn’t one to believe a leopard changed his spots, and in Henry Welch’s case, the spots really weren’t changing.

  Lucky’s dad was none too pleased about being a passenger, but Natalie had argued that her car would seat four adults and already held Robby’s car seat. Lucky willingly took the front passenger side. Betsy crawled in the center of the backseat and promptly began talking with Robby. Henry sat by the window.

  The drive to Delaney wasn’t bad, mostly because Henry spent his time talking into his cell phone instead of to his family. Natalie glanced over at Lucky. His lips were thin, and he was staring out the window.

  If her dad were in the car, they’d have already stopped for treats and jokes would be rolling off his tongue.

  Yeah, she missed her dad.

  They arrived at the church about the time Betsy said, “Henry, put away the phone.” Except for Robby, it was a pretty solemn group. Robby skipped across the barren parking lot and up the church steps. Lucky was right behind him, key in hand, not quite skipping but moving pretty quickly. A turn of the lock, and they all went in. Natalie liked it on sight. It was clean, small and quaint. A century of memories called out to her. Lucky had mentioned baptisms, funerals and weddings.

  “This just might work.” Lucky said exactly what she was thinking. Of course, he also said a lot more. “At most, this church holds eighty. I can deal with eighty. What a great opportunity.”

  The half smile turned to a full smile as he looked around the main auditorium. Natalie followed his scrutiny. She almost smiled, too. He was that excited; it was that contagious. The Delaney church was maybe a third the size of Selena’s. The auditorium was a perfect square. Up front was a baptismal and a podium. Two small pews flanked the podium.

  Pews took up the lion’s share of the auditorium. There were ten on each side. Robby ran between them, his feet sounding too loud in the quiet church.

  Suddenly, Natalie realized churches weren’t like libraries. Churches were only alive when people crowded their halls.

  “Mommy, wook!” Robby held up someone’s long-forgotten toy train. He and Betsy promptly sat down and started playing choo-choo.

  Henry shook his head. “Eighty doesn’t mean eighty putting in the offering. It won’t pay rent. It won’t pay for insurance. What will you live on?”

  “The elders talked to me for a little while last night. If I accept the position, a house comes with the job.”

  “What kind of a house?” Henry asked.

  The house was next to the church. It looked as old as the church, too. One story, two bedrooms and a kitchen the size of Natalie’s bedroom closet. A family was renting it. They had three kids and were trying to appear inviting. Clearly, they were terrified at being evicted on account of a preacher.

  “I can live in the travel trailer if I decide to stay in Delaney,” Lucky said. “Or I’ll go ahead and rent the apartment at Patty’s. Her husband talked about hiring me on as a cowpoke if I wanted.”

  He looked at Natalie. “Of course, you’ll need to convince her you approve.”

  Natalie nodded, swallowing her emotions, and also watching Betsy and Henry. Betsy looked like she wanted to move in with Patty, too. Henry looked like he’d just swallowed the world’s biggest lemon.

  Before returning to Selena, they drove by Lucky’s grandparents’ place. Betsy wanted to stop, introduce herself to the people living there, but Henry checked his watch often enough to convince Natalie that this was not the perfect time for a social visit.

  “We’ll do it next time,” she promised Betsy. In essence, she was promising Betsy a next time with Robby. It was okay, because already there had been lots of next times with Lucky.

  Natalie reached across the seat and took his hand. She didn’t care if his dad saw. She only cared that Lucky knew. She was there for him.

  “Drop us off at the motel,” Henry instructed. “We need to get back to Austin today. I can only afford to take one day off.”

  Natalie stole a peek at the rearview mirror. So this Monday counted as a day off for Lucky’s dad. He’d spent most of it on his cell phone, the rest spent looking disappointed in his son’s choice of a profession, followed by shooting down his wife’s desire to visit the home she’d grown up in.

  He hadn’t really tried to get to know Robby. And, as if sensing it, Robby seemed fascinated by him.

  Natalie almost felt sorry for Henry Welch.

  There were two motels in Selena, one on each end of the town. The Welches had taken the one closest to the side of town Bernice lived on. Natalie pulled up beside a car with a rental bumper sticker, and Henry had the door open before the car completely came to a stop.

  “Mommy, go in?” Robby asked.

  “He can come in for a minute?” Betsy asked, following her husband out of the car.

  Lucky hopped out, too. “Mom, Natalie needs to get home. She works out of her home and—”

  “And I woke up at four this morning and got three hours in, so we can stay a minute.” Natalie turned off the ignition. It was Betsy’s face that prompted the words, but Henry’s face said even more.

  Betsy unbuckled Robby, and together Grandma, Grandpa and Robby walked into the motel room. Natalie opened the car door and got out. Lucky followed.

  “Your father tried,” Natalie said gently. “He’s here.”

  “He tried on his terms.”

  Inside the motel room, something dropped. Natalie froze. Had Robby knocked something over? Was she about to hear her son wail? Or would she hear Henry Welch’s angry voice?

  Instead she heard laughter.

  Robby came out of the motel room wearing Henry Welch’s jacket, a tie, and carrying the man’s cell phone.

  “I spilled suitcase, Mommy. He picking it up now.”

  Natalie hurried into the room, intent on helping, but both Betsy and Henry were bent down and chuckling.

  “He went for my best tie. I brought three, in case I wound up having to leave Betsy and attend a meeting in Dallas. He didn’t want one of my everyday ties, no sirree. He had to have my best.”

  “The boys never did that,” Betsy offered. “They dressed up in my father’s clothes.”

  Some of the leopard’s spots faded when Henry managed to say, “Betsy, you want to stay in Selena a few days?”

  “I do.”

  “Then let’s pack up your things and get you over to Bernice’s.”

  “Yeah!” Robby said.

  “Ye
ah!” Betsy echoed.

  Natalie thought she saw the barest trace of a smile on Henry’s face.

  Betsy, Robby and Lucky went into the motel room. Natalie didn’t move fast enough. She wound up alone with Henry Welch.

  As if on cue, Henry’s cell phone rang. He reached in his pocket but instead of answering it, he turned it off.

  Natalie heard Robby squeal, and she heard Lucky say, “If you’re going to jump on the bed, you have to take Grandpa’s clothes off it.”

  She took one step toward the motel door, but Henry’s voice stopped her. “Robby’s really not yours,” Henry said quietly.

  She couldn’t move. Her legs had turned to cement. She managed to turn, face Lucky’s father, and the only words she could manage to squeak were, “How did you know?”

  “I’ve always made it my business to know where my sons were. I know Robby’s birthday. I know where Marcus was at that time, and I know you weren’t around. Your cousin Tisha was.”

  Natalie was silent.

  Henry looked at her. “Quite frankly, I don’t understand. Why would you drop out of college, give up a dream, and all for a boy who really doesn’t belong to you?”

  “Oh, well, that’s the kicker,” she said sarcastically. “Tisha pretty much left Robby with me when he was just two weeks old. By the time he was two months and I realized she wasn’t coming back, my dad and I stopped looking. He belonged to us.”

  Natalie nervously studied the motel door. If Lucky came out now…this would be the worst time…there really would never be a good time.

  “They can’t hear me,” Henry said. “And I don’t plan on telling them. It would be just one more heartache after Marcus’s death. Betsy has her grandchild, and unless I miss my guess, pretty soon she’ll have a daughter-in-law.”

  To someone else, not someone who’d spent a month going back and forth with a horrible untruth, maybe this would be the answer to the prayer.

  Answer to a prayer? Lucky was the answer to her prayer, one she didn’t even know she’d been uttering. In front of her, what this man was offering had nothing to do with answering prayers.

  Henry Welch was still trying to manipulate his family.