For Love and Family

by Victoria Pade

  Everett Baker could see the waiting room from the small alcove he’d ducked into not far away and for a moment before he went in he stopped to watch Nancy chatting with the little boy.

  Had he done the right thing by making plans to see her again? he kept asking himself.

  He had been trying to keep his distance from her because he was so worried about blowing his cover. But there was just a part of him that couldn’t resist her sweet appeal.

  Maybe it would be all right, he told himself. Maybe he could keep things separate. And she was a good source of information that he could use to his benefit.

  A twinge of guilt for using Nancy like that niggled at him but he ignored it. All’s fair in love and war, he thought. And this was a little of both.

  Nancy finished talking to the child and went on her way, so Everett stepped deeper into the alcove for privacy.

  The call he had to make couldn’t be made on his work phone so once he was certain no one was anywhere around, he pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket.

  “Just a quick check,” he muttered to himself when he pushed the button to speed-dial his party.

  When the other end of the line was picked up, Everett spun around to face the wall and in a hushed voice without identifying himself, he said, “Did you make the delivery?”

  Confirmation came with the same cold, ruthless tone he was using and since that was all Everett needed to know, he ended the call as abruptly as he’d made it.

  He turned off his phone and replaced it in his jacket pocket, unable to keep the smug smile from curling his lips.

  So the hand-off of the stolen ovarian eggs—ripe for in-vitro fertilization—was complete, he thought. Good.

  And he was going to get to see Nancy again tomorrow night. That was good, too.

  All in all, a good day for Everett Baker.

  And no one deserved it more.

  At least as far as he was concerned.

  “Ms. Warwick? You can come in now, the doctor is ready to see you.”

  “T’rese says I can come, too. ’Cuz it’s just a consolation and nobody’s doin’ nothin’ with needles.”

  Terese laid a hand to the top of Johnny’s head and told the nurse, “He’s with me.”

  The nurse nodded and led them to the doctor’s office where the hematologist was sitting behind his desk, looking over papers.

  When Terese and Johnny were shown in, he glanced up, greeted them and asked them to take a seat.

  There were two chairs in front of his desk. Terese sat in one and nodded toward the couch that was against the wall to the side of them. “You can sit there and draw if you want, Johnny.”

  “No, that’s okay,” the little boy answered, climbing onto the second chair as if he needed to lend her moral support.

  The doctor exchanged amenities with them both and then got down to business.

  “I was just looking over the results of your blood test,” he began. “I’m happy to tell you that you are not a carrier of hemophilia.”

  That was a relief to Terese and she told him so.

  Then the doctor surprised her and said, “There’s more.”

  “Oh?”

  “Don’t be alarmed, you’re fine. Very healthy, in fact. It’s just that when I order the blood work I have the lab run the whole gamut of tests so we get a complete picture of what we’re dealing with should the patient prove to carry the hemophilia gene. That includes a pregnancy test.”

  “A pregnancy test?” Terese repeated a bit dimly, trying to assimilate the turn this conversation had taken. “Yes. And I hope this is news you want to hear—the test was positive.”

  “Positive? How can that be? I mean, my—” She suddenly became very aware of Johnny and said, “I’m not even late yet. I’m just due in the next day or two.”

  “The blood test is far more accurate than urine tests. It can detect the hormones within days of conception. And although the levels are low, telling us you’re in the very early stages, you are most definitely pregnant.”

  Terese’s head went light and her mouth went dry and she still couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’re kidding,” she said.

  The gray-haired man across the desk shook his head. “No, I’m not kidding.”

  “There couldn’t be some kind of mistake? Or mix-up or wrong reading or something?”

  “We’re very careful,” the doctor assured, looking less convinced that he was delivering good news. But that still didn’t change what he was saying. “I just hope congratulations are in order because there’s no doubt about it. You are going to have a baby.”

  Terese drove back to the ranch half-dazed.

  Pregnant, she kept thinking over and over again. I’m pregnant.

  She’d honestly believed that that would never be a part of life she would experience. After Dean and the pain she’d suffered, it was as if she’d put her hopes and dreams of having a family on a very, very high shelf. Out of reach.

  Not because he had finally convinced her that she wasn’t attractive enough for any man to want. But because Dean had disillusioned her to such an extent, hurt her so much, that she’d made a conscious, firm decision never to open herself up to the possibility of that happening again. She would never allow herself to suspect the possibility that a man would be settling for her. She’d made a decision never to allow herself to be that vulnerable again. Never to let another man get so close that she planned a future with him only to learn it wasn’t her that he wanted.

  And with that decision came the realization that she wouldn’t have kids.

  It was something she’d come to accept. Not to like, but to accept.

  Only now here she was, pregnant.

  Now she would have a child. A child of her own.

  Hunter’s child.

  “T’rese? We’re home. Are we gonna get out of the car?”

  Terese had been so distracted that she’d gotten them back to the ranch, parked her car and turned off the engine, all with only just enough awareness to do it safely. She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there before Johnny’s question reminded her of their arrival.

  She jolted out of her thoughts then and tried to pretend everything was normal.

  “Out of the car and into the house. It looks like Willie and Carla are already here. Carla was bringing dinner over tonight,” she said too cheerfully.

  “Carla said she’d make her pumpkin cake, too! I hope she did.”

  “Why don’t you go in and see if she did? I’m just going to sit here for a minute yet,” Terese said.

  Johnny didn’t hesitate to take her suggestion. He unfastened his seatbelt and bounded out of the car, running to the house and disappearing inside while Terese watched him go.

  She knew she was expected to follow him. To go into that house with Johnny and Carla and Willy, to spend the evening with them all, to go with them tomorrow to the airport to pick up Hunter when his plane came in. And she would need to do it all as if nothing had changed.

  Only for her, everything had.

  She was pregnant with Hunter’s baby!

  Hunter—who would be home tomorrow.

  The full impact of that fact began to penetrate.

  How was she supposed to handle that? Was she supposed to meet him at the airport and announce he was going to be a father for the second time? He’d think she was crazy.

  And what else would he think?

  That question popped into her mind on its own, but once it had, she couldn’t ignore it.

  What else would Hunter think? And equally as important, how would he react? What would he do?

  The cockeyed optimist in her wanted to think he would whisk her into his arms and be thrilled.

  But the realist in her just couldn’t buy into that.

  The realist in her pointed out that there weren’t any ties between them. That spending one night together didn’t constitute a commitment. That the most Hunter had said after that one night was, And then we’ll see�
�.

  The realist in her pointed out that he hadn’t been widowed for long, that he hadn’t even dated since he’d lost his wife, and that he’d said he’d put a moratorium on getting involved with anyone so he could keep Johnny his central focus.

  Given all that, was he likely to be thrilled that she was pregnant? To whisk her into his arms and make all her dreams come true?

  Terese didn’t think so. Or at least she didn’t think he was likely to do it willingly. Or gladly.

  But was he likely to feel trapped? Maybe even obligated to marry her?

  She knew Hunter well enough to know that he wouldn’t shirk any responsibility. Certainly not one to a child of his own making. So yes, she thought he would feel obligated to marry her. And under those circumstances, how could he feel anything but trapped?

  Marrying her out of obligation was not the same as marrying her because he was in love with her. It wasn’t the same as marrying her because he couldn’t live without her. It wasn’t the same as marrying her because he felt about her the way he’d felt about his late wife.

  But it was very nearly the same as Dean planning to marry her for her money.

  That thought stopped her cold.

  If Hunter were to marry her, it would only be because he had to.

  In a way, this was even worse than what Dean had been about to do because this wouldn’t even be something Hunter had chosen to do willingly.

  So what was she going to do? she asked herself.

  She could tell Hunter about the baby, make it clear that she wasn’t interested in marriage, that she didn’t need his financial help, that she didn’t expect anything from him.

  But what if he ignored all that and tried to persuade her that they should get married, anyway?

  It would be so tempting.

  She didn’t want to put a name to her feelings for Hunter, but the feelings were strong all the same. And Hunter had Johnny. It would be so nice to be included in their little family, to add to it.

  But if she gave in to that temptation, she knew she would always be left with the knowledge that Hunter wasn’t with her for any of the reasons she wanted him to be with her. She would know what she would have known if she’d gone through with marrying Dean—that Hunter didn’t really want her. She would know that their marriage was just the shallow, superficial, empty shell of a marriage she’d promised herself she’d never have.

  “So that only leaves one option,” she said out loud in the stillness of the car.

  Not to let Hunter know about the baby at all. To consider this her baby and her baby alone. Then Hunter wouldn’t feel trapped or obligated or responsible. He just wouldn’t know. And for him, ignorance could be bliss.

  Certainly it would be better than to be bound to a marriage he didn’t want, to a person he didn’t want. A person who could never live up to his first wife.

  It wasn’t the perfect solution. It wasn’t even a solution Terese was proud of. But right then, still half in shock over what she’d learned only an hour before, it seemed like the best thing to do for everyone involved. She would have the baby she’d never thought she’d be able to have and be thankful for the rest of her life for that gift Hunter had given her. And Hunter would be free to find another wife—when he was ready to—who could make him feel all his first wife had made him feel.

  “But there’s still tonight and tomorrow to get through,” she reminded herself.

  And she didn’t know how she could possibly get through the time pretending that she hadn’t just heard the biggest news of her life.

  She didn’t know how she could face Hunter, how she could look into those wonderful eyes of his, how she could feast on the sight of that handsome face, and act as if something monumental hadn’t happened between them.

  So there was only one thing she could think to do.

  She would go inside, tell Carla and Willy that something had come up at home and she needed to leave immediately.

  They would stay and take care of Johnny—she knew that was no problem—and they’d pick up Hunter at the airport tomorrow, too.

  And then all of their lives would go on just the way they had before she and Hunter had ever met.

  But the idea of leaving Johnny even a little earlier than she’d thought she’d have to wrenched Terese’s heart suddenly. That she might not see him again hurt even worse.

  Too much worse to accept.

  She had to see Johnny again. That was all there was to it.

  If she could arrange to see him alone, Hunter still wouldn’t have to know she was pregnant. And if he did find out down the road, then she could say the baby belonged to someone else.

  Again, it wasn’t a perfect solution. But hoping it might work was all Terese had to hang on to because she couldn’t imagine leaving here in the next hour or so and never seeing her nephew again.

  She decided she would just do whatever she had to do to make it work.

  She took a deep breath, held it a minute and blew it out very, very slowly.

  A baby. She was going to have a baby. A baby of her own.

  Anything she had to do because of that was worth it, she told herself.

  Even saying goodbye to Johnny earlier than she’d planned to and having to plot how to see him again later.

  Even not seeing Hunter again at all.

  Although the sharp stab of pain that went through her when she thought that made her wonder if it was true.

  Nine

  Hunter’s plane landed at 3:05 Saturday afternoon. When he got to baggage claim he was surprised not to find Terese waiting for him with Johnny, Willy and Carla.

  “She went home,” Carla told him when he asked where Terese was. “She came back from her doctor’s appointment yesterday, sent Johnny in alone, and when she came in a little while later she said something had come up and she had to leave. She asked if we’d stay the night with Johnny and pick you up today without her. Then she packed her things, said a long goodbye to Johnny and left before we even had dinner.”

  “Maybe something happened at home,” Hunter said, as if it was no big deal to him that she wasn’t with them.

  But it was a big deal to him, and it was on his mind the whole way back to the ranch—even as he filled everyone in on his trip and then got the update on the homefront. It was on his mind through the dinner Carla fixed for them all, and even as he gave Johnny his bath and read him three bedtime stories.

  Hunter didn’t bring up Terese’s name again, and he didn’t ask any more questions until Johnny mentioned her himself as Hunter was tucking him in.

  “I wish T’rese was still here,” the boy said when he’d slid under the covers.

  “I thought she would be,” Hunter said. “At least for today. Did she say anything to you about why she was leaving?”

  Johnny shook his head. “But she was sad. She kinda cried when she told me g’bye and she said she’d miss me horrible.”

  “Did she say she’d see you again?”

  “I told her that I didn’t want her to go, but she said she had to and that she’d try to see me again, but it might not be for kinda a while. She said she didn’t want me to forget her and she’d be sendin’ me stuff in the mail.”

  Hunter hesitated to ask the next question rattling around in his brain. He’d been so careful not to let on that things between himself and Terese had reached an emotional level. But because they had, it was all the more difficult to understand why she would take off without a word to him, a note to explain what was going on. And so he had to ask.

  “Did she say anything about me? Or maybe give you a message to give me that you forgot about?”

  Johnny did another negative shake of his head where it rested on his pillow. “Nope.”

  Something else had occurred to Hunter, and even though he thought it was farfetched that his son could know the answer, he allowed himself one more question. “Do you know what the doctor told her yesterday? Did she get bad news?”

  “She got news. That’
s what the doctor said—he had news for her.”

  “Did you go in to see the doctor with her?”

  “Uh-huh. It was only a consolation so she said I could go in with her and that was when the doctor said he had the news for her,” the sleepy little boy said.

  It took Hunter a moment to understand that consolation meant consultation and that that was the reason Terese had taken Johnny in with her.

  Hunter didn’t feel good about invading Terese’s privacy but he couldn’t help wondering if she’d learned she carried the hemophilia gene and if maybe that explained her abrupt departure. So he said, “Do you remember what the doctor told her?”

  “Uh-huh, I heard it. She doesn’t got what I got—the hemolilia—and she’s gonna have a baby.”

  Hunter wasn’t sure he’d heard that correctly. “She doesn’t carry the hemophilia gene and what?”

  “She’s gonna have a baby,” Johnny repeated, clearly without any idea of the importance of that information.

  “A baby?” Hunter echoed.

  “She was surprised, too, but the doctor said the blood test could tell it early or somethin’ and he said congratulations. Then T’rese looked kinda funny and she didn’t say much all the way home and then she left.”

  Johnny’s eyelids closed as if they were just too heavy for him to keep open and he rolled over onto his side, completely unaware of the thunderbolt he’d just delivered to his father.

  “I gotta go to sleep now,” he said, his words slurring as he drifted off.

  “Okay. Sleep tight,” Hunter muttered, bending over to kiss his son good-night.

  Then he slipped out of the room, feeling as if he’d been blindsided.

  Terese was pregnant?

  Could Johnny possibly be right? Or had he misheard or misunderstood? Maybe the doctor had said something about Terese not having to worry about having a baby because she hadn’t tested positive for the hemophilia gene.

  Except that Johnny had said that the doctor had told Terese that the blood test could tell she was pregnant early. And that the doctor had said congratulations…