Baby, Oh Baby!

by Robin Wells

  "That's what they used to say about Valium, and you know what happened to my mother."

  Jake looked at Tom, trying to hide his surprise. He'd never heard the older man refer to his parents before. All he knew about his father-in-law's family was that they'd lived up north and died before Rachel was born. Evidently an old skeleton was rattling around in the back of the family closet.

  Susanna gave Jake an apologetic grin. "Tom thinks anyone with any type of mental illness is ready for the loony bin."

  "You're not mentally ill, and you don't need that medicine," her husband said gruffly. "You just need to get out of the house. I've been after you to do it for months."

  Jake didn't miss the wounded look that flitted across Susanna's face. "Well, I'm out now," she said softly.

  Jake lifted his glass. "And I, for one, am mighty glad to see it." He gave the woman a smile, then turned to her husband. "How did things go in Denver?"

  "Good." Tom took a long drink from his wine glass. "I made some new contacts that might come in handy on down the road."

  "How was the meeting with Allco Petroleum?" "Great. Looks like the merger will go through." "No surprises?"

  "Not until I got to the Tulsa airport." Tom glanced over at his wife.

  "What happened there?"

  "Susanna met me at the gate."

  Jake's eyes widened. The airport was the last place he'd expect Susanna to go—especially on one of her first outings from the house in months. Rachel's accident had happened just outside the airport entrance.

  Susanna lifted her shoulders and gave a sheepish smile. "I thought Tom would be pleasantly surprised. Instead, I'm afraid I alarmed him."

  "Damn right," Tom growled. "I thought someone must have died."

  Crimony, Jake thought, looking at Susanna's crestfallen face. And Tom thinks I need to brush up on my people skills. He shot his mother-in-law a teasing wink. "Hey, now—Susanna is far too pretty to be mistaken for the Grim Reaper." L

  "That didn't come out quite right." Tom reached out and patted his wife's hand, but his grin didn't reach his eyes. "I was just- surprised to see you, that's all. It was so out of character that I thought there must be some kind of emergency."

  "I used to meet you at the airport all the time," Susanna said softly, turning her hand and squeezing his fingers.

  "Yeah, well, it's been a while." He pulled away his hand and reached for his drink.

  Susanna gazed at him, a wounded look in her eyes. Jake was relieved when the waiter stepped forward to take his drink order.

  "Did anyone else from Tulsa attend the conference?" He asked to fill the silence after the waiter retreated.

  Tom turned the glass in his hand. "Just, uh, Kelly Banyon. You know Kelly, don't you, Jake?"

  He knew Kelly, all right. A curvacious blonde in her late thirties who worked at a competing law firm, she wore short skirts and the smile of a woman on the make. She and Tom had been on opposite sides of a hostile takeover attempt last month, and she'd spent a lot of time in Tom's office, working out the details of an • agreement.

  More time than was probably necessary, now that Jake thought of it. A current of alarm raced through him.

  "That was the woman with you at the airport, wasn't it?" Susanna said.

  "That's right." Tom took a long swig of his Chardon-nay.

  "She must be very amusing. You two were laughing like school kids when I saw you."

  An odd look flashed across Tom's face. "She'd, uh, just told an anecdote about a fellow attorney."

  A humorous anecdote was just what this party needed. "Who was it about?" Jake prompted.

  Tom looked away. "Someone in her office. I didn't know him."

  "So what was the story?"

  Tom cleared his throat and shifted uneasily. "I don't remember, exactly."

  Jake looked at him in surprise. Tom had the memory of an elephant, especially for amusing stories. It wasn't like him to forget one.

  But it was even less like him to lie.

  Susanna twirled her glass of sparkling water. "What firm is Kelly with?" she asked.

  "Lancaster and Austin. She was opposing counsel in that drilling company takeover bid last month."

  "She's very pretty."

  Tom made a noncommittal grunt and polished off his wine in a single gulp.

  That's odd, Jake noted. Tom usually nursed one glass all the way through dinner.

  A jolting thought suddenly hit him. Good Lord—were Kelly and Tom fooling around?

  Nah. No way. Tom and Susanna had been married thirty-three years. They'd been college sweethearts and were each other's one and only love. They were a perfect match. Besides, Tom often called Susanna his biggest business asset.

  It wasn't an exaggeration, either. Tom had Susanna to thank for his wide network of friends and contacts. She had a knack for bringing people together and making them feel at ease. She was the perfect partner for a man like Tom -a sparkling conversationalist, a gracious hostess, a devoted wife and mother, a dedicated community activist. True, she'd been withdrawn and quiet since Rachel's death, but still ..

  Jake shook off the suspicion. One of the things he'd always admired about this man was his sense of integrity. He wasn't the type of man who would renege on a promise—especially not one as solemn and sacred as a wedding vow.

  Besides, Tom was a family man. He always had been.

  The waiter brought Jake's drink and refilled Tom's Chardonnay. Susanna looked from her husband to Jake and smiled, her smile brighter than he'd seen it since Rachel's death. Apparently she didn't share his suspicions. Or if she did, she wasn't letting it show.

  "It's so nice to be, out with my two favorite men," she said.

  Jake lifted his glass. "To Susanna—who's lovelier than ever."

  Tom lifted his glass and took a long swig, then set it down and leaned back. "So, Jake—what s been going on for the last two days'

  It was the perfect opening, but Jake balked at taking it. Bringing up the fact he had a newly discovered daughter wouldn't open just a can of worms, but a whole vat of rattlesnakes.

  Jake mustered what he hoped was and easygoing smile.

  "Let's not ruin the evening by talking shop."

  Tom was immediately wary. "Why? Has something happened?"

  Jake's smile had evidently fallen short. He traded it in for a sardonic grimace. "Believe it or not, Tom, the office survived just fine in your absence."

  Laughing, Susanna placed a hand on her husband's arm. "He's got your number, .dear."

  "And I've got his." Tom's gaze didn't waver from Jake's face. "Something's wrong."

  Oh, damn. He really wanted to postpone this. He gave it another shot. "The office is fine. Our clients are happy and none of the staff has resigned."

  "Well, that's good to hear." Tom's probing gaze scanned Jake's face. `But something's up. I can tell. What is it?"

  "It's ..." Jake started to say "nothing," but the word froze in his throat. Discovering that he was the father of a child was definitely something. He adjusted the knot in his tie. "It's, um, a personal matter. Nothing to do with business."

  Tom's forehead creased with concern. "Oh, jeeze. Have you got a health problem?"

  "Oh, no, no. I'll tell you all about it after dinner." Tom's frown deepened. "Why can't you just tell us now?"

  Jake sighed. The more he resisted, the harder Tom would push. It was the man's basic bulldog-with-a-bone personality, one of the reasons he was such a good attorney.

  "If something's wrong, Jake, dear, we'd like to help." Susanna leaned forward, her delicate eyebrows knit with concern. "We're your family."

  Hell's bells. They'd backed him into a corner. Jake fiddled with the stem of his glass and searched for a way to break it gently. "I, uh, got some rather, er, shocking news yesterday."

  They looked at him expectantly. Jake drew a deep breath.'

  "You know the fertility clinic Rachel and I were using?"

  They both nodded/

  "Well, it
seems our doctor ... He, uh, apparently ..." Jake hesitated. There was no easy way to say it, so he might as well just blurt it out. "He evidently used a specimen of my sperm to impregnate another patient."

  Tom's eyes narrowed. Susanna's widened. Both of their mouths simultaneously dropped open.

  Tom recovered first. He hunched forward over the table. "Some girl is pregnant?"

  "Was pregnant." Jake shifted his weight on the chair. "The child is a little over a year old now."

  "Yours and Rachel's?" Susanna eyes were bright, almost feverish, ablaze with irrational hope. "But—but she hadn't had her ovum extracted yet...."

  "It's not mine and Rachel's. It's mine and ..." Jake's throat was dry and tight. He swallowed hard. "Her name is Annie Hollister."

  Tom's face turned red and blotchy. He set down his drink so hard that the table rocked, rattling the china. "You've got a child by another woman?"

  An irrational burst of guilt shot through Jake. "I'd never met her. Not until today, that is. The doctor ..."

  Tom's palm slapped down on the arm of his chair. We 11 sue the -son of a bitch," he hissed. "We'll bring that charlatan up on criminal charges. He'll be stripped of his license and thrown in the slammer, and publicly humiliated in the bargain.”

  Susanna face had gone pale. She was still apparently absorbing the news. "You. have a baby?"

  Jake nodded grimly.

  "How do you know it's yours?" Tom asked.

  "I've seen the medical records. And she looks just like me.”

  "She?" Susanna said. "It's a girl?"

  Jake nodded. "Fourteen months old."

  "You've seen her?" Tom demanded. "You know there's actually a child?"

  Again, Jake nodded.

  Tom muttered a low oath. "It's probably just a scheme to extort money."

  "No. I found out by accident—at the clinic. They tried to cover it up."

  "Start at the beginning," Tom said grimly. "I want to hear everything."

  By the time Jake had finished explaining about his visit to the fertility center, Tom was already reaching into his jacket pocket for his cell phone.

  Susanna placed her hand on his arm. "Who are you calling?"

  The D.A. He’ll have that clinic shut down the moment it opens its doors in the morning. Whoever owns that place is going to find himself in the middle of the biggest damn scandal that's ever hit the health care industry. And as for that doctor-where did he get off thinking he could play God? I'll see that he rots in jail."

  "That was my initial reaction, too," Jake said. "But then I thought about it. I don't want to pursue legal action."

  "Why the hell not?"

  "Because of the child."

  "You don't intend to let that shifty-eyed bastard get off Scott free!"

  Susanna put her hand on Tom's arm. "Let him talk," she urged softly.

  "I've got to think about the child's best interests." Jake leveled a steady look at his father-in-law. "If we pursue this, it'll be a huge news story. There's no way we can keep it quiet. And I don't think it's in the best interests of the child to have this dragged through the courts and the newspapers. I don't want her very existence labeled a mistake."

  Tom stared at him, his lips pressed tight. "But it was a mistake, damn it!"

  Jake struggled to keep his voice even. "Look—I can understand your reaction. But you haven't seen her. When I saw her, it changed things." How could he explain what had happened to him when he'd looked across that room and seen his own eyes looking back at him? He didn't understand it himself, much less know how to communicate it to someone else. "She's here. She's a child. She's my child. And I don't intend to let her think for one minute that she's not wanted."

  Tom's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"

  Jake drew a deep breath. He'd given this a lot of thought over the past two days. Hell, he'd hardly thought about anything else. Time and distance had tempered his initial desire to punish Annie for having the baby he'd intended to have with Rachel, but it hadn't weakened his resolve to play a key role in the child's life. "I don't give a damn about the doctor. I do care about my daughter. I'm not going to spend my time and effort trying to punish the man who helped create her. I'd rather spend my time and effort getting to know the child, getting to be her father. I intend to seek joint custody."

  "Custody? Hell, son—the only kind of custody you need to worry about is getting that damned doctor in custody. And the sooner, the better. We can do it. I don't care what state he's moved to."

  "I told you. I don't want to pursue that. I just want joint custody."

  Tom gazed at Jake as if he'd lost his mind. "You don't even know the baby's yours. That woman might have gotten knocked up by someone else."

  "The baby looks just like me."

  Tom waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Hell. All babies look the same."

  "No, they don't." Susanna frowned at Tom, then placed a soft, manicured hand on Jake's arm. "Tell us about this woman. You went to see her?"

  Jake nodded.

  "She probably said the baby's yours just to get you to pay child support," Tom said with a dark scowl. "She didn't say it's mine."

  "So, then, what makes you think it is?" Tom demanded.

  "Give him a chance to tell us what happened," Susanna said. She turned back to Jake. "So what happened?"

  Jake drew a deep breath. "Like I told you, I got her name and address off the computer at the fertility center. She lives about an hour-and-a-half away, not far from Bartlesville."

  "So you just showed up at this woman's door and introduced yourself as the father of her baby?"

  "No. She was expecting someone else. She mistook me for him."

  Tom scowled. "So what is she—a hooker?"

  "Tom!" Susanna gave her husband a shocked look.

  "Well, what kind of woman expects a man she's never met to come knocking on her door?"

  "Any woman with a broken air conditioner or a leaky faucet," Susanna replied.

  Tom snorted. "I doubt Jake was dressed as a plumber."

  "Well, maybe she thought he was an insurance adjuster or something. Let's give him a chance to explain." She turned back to Jake expectantly.

  Now was not the time to disclose that Annie was a fortune-teller. The whole situation was enough of a shock as it was. "She was expecting a visit from the grandson of a family friend," Jake said. "I played along for a while, pretending to be him, so I could gather information about her."

  "What did you find out?" Tom asked. "What's her story?"

  "She runs the ranch herself, with the help of a foreman and some seasonal help. She evidently inherited it from her grandparents."

  "Is she married?" Susanna asked.

  Jake shook her head. "She's a single mother."

  "So how did you get around to the topic of your visit?"

  "Well, after letting on that I was her friend's grandson for quite a while, I hit her with the truth. I told her I'd just come from the fertility center, and that I had reason to believe her child was mine. She was shocked—so shocked she inadvertently confirmed that she'd been a patient there. She said I couldn't have seen the records, that sperm donors had to sign a contract surrendering all rights. I explained that I'd been a patient, not a donor. And then the baby woke up from a nap and came in. And when I saw her, well ..." Jake leaned forward. "I knew. I just knew."

  "What's her name?" Susanna asked.

  "Annie Hollister," Tom said curtly. "He already told us."

  "No. I meant the baby."

  "Madeline." Jake pronounced it the way Annie had, with a long in the last syllable.

  "Madeline.” Susanna said the name softly, experimentally, letting it roll slowly off her tongue. "That's pretty. Madeline."

  Tom frowned. "Damn it, Susanna, you act like you're picking out a name for a future grandchild!"

  Susanna turned and looked him. "I'm simply learning the name of the one that's already here."

  Tom's jaw tightened. "She's not our grandch
ild, damn it!"

  "Any child of Jake's is a grandchild of mine."

  He stared at Susanna, his lips parted, then quickly clamped them together. ."We don't even know for sure that it's Jake's child."

  "A paternity test is easy enough to do," Jake said.

  A nerve worked in Tom's cheek. "Did this woman agree to one?"

  "Not exactly."

  "Well, what was her reaction?"

  "Like I said, she was upset. She thought the baby's father was an anonymous, voluntary donor."

  "So how did you leave things?"

  "Not very well." Jake ran a hand down his face. "I'm afraid I got steamed and threatened legal action, and she got all upset, and then her friend's grandson showed up. There was no point in trying to discuss things any further, so I just left. I told her I'd be in touch."

  "So what do you intend to do?"

  'Go back and see her. See if we can work something out. My first inclination was to try to get full custody of the child, but after thinking about it, I realized that might not be in the baby's best interests. Besides, I don't want to alienate the mother. I want to be able to start spending time with the baby right away."

  Tom drummed his fingers on the table. He gave an impatient sigh and slowly shook his head. "Sometimes the best thing to do, Jake, is nothing. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie."

  Jake felt his temper flare. His father-in-law sounded just like the doctor at the clinic. This isn't a dog we're discussing here. It's a child. My child. I can't pretend I don't have a child if I do."

  "The key word is `if.'

  "The evidence is pretty damned convincing."

  "Well, even if it is yours, it's not your responsibility." "It sure as hell is! If I have a daughter, I intend to be

  a father to her."

  Susanna reached over and patted Jake's arm. "That's perfectly understandable." She shot her husband a pleading look. "And any child of yours will be loved and welcomed by us. Isn't that right, Tom?”

  Thank heavens the waiter had come and taken their dinner order when he did, Susanna reflected later as she climbed into the passenger seat of their Cadillac. She could tell by the way Jake's eyes had flashed that he was getting angry, and she'd feared Tom had been about to say something he'd regret. She'd tried to divert the conversation away from the topic of the baby for the rest of the evening, but the subject kept coming up, and the entire meal -had been strained.