Marriage for Her Baby

by Raye Morgan

  She stiffened. “Who says I’m filing an appeal?”

  “Of course you will. You’ll mount one as soon as I take charge of Savannah. I know damn well you’ve already called a lawyer.”

  She flushed.

  He nodded. “Bingo,” he said softly.

  “Of course I’ve talked to a lawyer,” she said. “And you should, too. We’ve got to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.”

  “Thanks for the warning.” He looked up and stiffened. “Uh-oh. Looks like you’re getting reinforcements.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SARA LOOKED UP and saw Jill’s handsome husband, Connor, walking toward them. His look was wary but not unfriendly.

  “Jake Martin?” he said, holding out his hand. “I’m Sara’s brother-in-law, Connor McNair.”

  Jake rose from the swing and extended his own hand. “It’s a pleasure,” he said.

  “Jill would like to meet you,” Connor said, looking at Sara but ignoring her ferocious glare. “Why don’t you come on in and have some coffee? Jill’s a baker and she’s saved you a special slice of her latest Bundt cake.” Connor smiled and turned his collar up against the stiff breeze. “It will be a more comfortable place to talk.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Sara pushed back the sense of outrage building in her chest. It sure seemed like she was outnumbered. Hopefully Connor had a plan. Otherwise, whose side was he on?

  But she kept her confusion to herself. Jake was going to get his chance to hold Savannah. She knew it had to happen sometime. Might as well get it over with.

  They walked up a brick path to the house and went in. Sara watched Jake as he met Jill, suddenly reminded of how good-looking he was. He was turning on the charm, but surely they could see through that.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d really like to see my...Savannah,” he said, looking around the kitchen as though he thought she might be somewhere close.

  “She’s in the other room. I’ll go get her.”

  “No,” Sara said, so softly she wasn’t sure if the others had heard her.

  But Jill turned and took her hands. “Sara, I think it’s only right. We’re all here. Nothing will happen.”

  She knew her sister was right but it was killing her. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then tried to smile. “Let me get her, then.”

  “All right.”

  Savannah was lying on her tummy in her play crib, playing with a touch toy. She looked up with a beatific smile when Sara came into view, her huge blue eyes set off by her golden curls. “Mama!” she cried, pounding her fist into the plastic toy. “Mama, Mama, Mama.”

  Sara’s eyes filled with tears but she blinked them back. She wasn’t going to let herself fall apart every time she looked at her baby.

  “Come here, sweet thing,” she said as she pulled her up and carried her to the changing table. She wanted to dress her in something pretty. There was no point in doing anything else. She was a pretty baby and no amount of downplaying that was going to work in dissuading Jake from taking her. He was going to love her no matter what. How could he help it?

  As she carried Savannah into the kitchen where Jill was plying Jake with Bundt cake, she couldn’t help but feel a glow of pride.

  “Here she is,” she said, announcing her and holding her up for inspection, right in front of the large, rough person who claimed to be her father. “This is a man named Jake Martin,” she whispered in her ear. “Can you smile at him please? Can you say ‘hi’?”

  Savannah stuck her fist in her mouth and stared at him for a long moment. He stared back, looking thunderstruck, as though he’d never seen anything like her before. At last, she smiled. He smiled back, and it was like ice breaking in the Arctic. Something passed between the two of them, some flash of recognition or acknowledgment, the establishment of a special bond—Sara didn’t know exactly what it was but she felt a pain in her heart such as she’d never felt before.

  Was it really so obvious...so simple? Did blood connect across the air between them? Would she just be left behind?

  He didn’t ask to hold Savannah. Sara expected it, had been tense, not sure how she would react. Waiting, she couldn’t breathe, but he didn’t ask.

  Then a thought flashed into her head like a bolt from the blue. He hadn’t asked to hold Savannah—because now that he’d evaluated the situation, he was scared to. He didn’t know how to hold her. He didn’t know what to do and in front of her whole family, he wasn’t going to risk it.

  Interesting. And somehow invigorating. Maybe all wasn’t lost, after all. Maybe she still had a chance in this sweepstakes.

  He’d come to take her baby away, but he just wasn’t ready. From what she’d seen, he’d done nothing in his life that could prepare him for it. And even if he got beyond that, he would soon find out he didn’t like what child raising entailed. At least, she would bet that would be the way he would go.

  That was the angle she had to take. She had to learn how to cajole him and convince him that this was not what he wanted to do. Much better to use sympathy and examples rather than confrontation and anger. There might be a possibility of success that way. It would be tough to hold back her temper, but she could do it if she thought it could get her anywhere.

  They sat in the kitchen and ate cake and watched Savannah play with her toys in the middle of the floor. Connor and Jill seemed to have a thousand things to discuss with Jake. Sara didn’t listen to most of it. She was thinking, plotting, hoping.

  At the same time, she did notice how friendly the three of them seemed to be getting. That gave her a weird feeling, almost like jealousy. Surely her own family wasn’t going to end up being on Jake’s side in this. Were they?

  No, impossible. They loved Savannah almost as much as she did. There was no way they would help him take her away from the place where she belonged. But Jill was concerned about keeping a happy face on things.

  “Why don’t you and Jake take Savannah to the park?” she suggested. She gave Sara a significant look, as if hinting they should get to know each other better.

  “Oh.” Sara wasn’t sure how much she wanted to be alone with him.

  The funny thing was, Jake appeared a little hesitant about it himself.

  “Great idea,” he said gamely. Then his blue eyes brightened. “Why not take the boys, too?”

  Sara stared at him. Did he have any idea what he was suggesting? No, he didn’t. And that was why she smiled and said, “Yes. Let’s take the twins. They love the park.”

  She knew they would be a handful. There was more energy stored in the two of them than the average windmill could generate in a year. They could take apart a house in fifteen minutes and leave their keeper with days and days of rehab. Just a few months before, they’d locked their babysitter outside and ransacked the upstairs, throwing things out of windows. She was pretty sure she could depend on them to create some sort of chaos.

  The walk to the park was nice. She put Savannah in a stroller and they let the twins run free. The street they took only rarely saw a car and the boys stayed close enough so that it wasn’t a worry. There were plenty of neighbors working in their yards. She waved to the ones she knew.

  The boys were wearing their Danny Duck capes that Jill had made them, held on by Velcro tabs. Danny Duck was their favorite TV show. They called him “Dandan Duck,” but it worked for them. As they ran, their little capes spread out behind them, and they laughed and pretended to fly.

  “Dandan Duck!” they called back and forth.

  The end of summer was coming. She could feel it in the breeze. There was always a tinge of sadness at losing those lazy, hazy days, but it also meant the holidays weren’t far away. She looked down at Savannah, laughing in her stroller as she spotted a cat across the street. Would she be able to spend her baby’s first Christmas with her? Or would it all be over by then?

  Jake had been silent so far, but now he spoke. “This is nice,” he said, then made a face as though he reg
retted being so uninspiring. “I mean, it’s great to get a chance to go to the park with kids. I’ve never done it before.”

  Good, Sara thought to herself. This can be a learning experience for you.

  Out loud, she noted, “Children love going to the park. The problem is usually getting them to leave when time is up.”

  He shrugged, looking cocky. “Hey, they don’t call me The Enforcer for nothing.”

  She frowned. She really didn’t like the sound of that.

  He saw her frown and winced, knowing he’d said something he shouldn’t have again. But what else was new? He did it all the time. Usually it didn’t matter. He expected people to take him as he was, or get lost. That was the way he’d always lived.

  He gazed down at the little girl in the stroller and his heart swelled with some sort of emotion he couldn’t even put a name to. His little girl. A lump rose in his throat as he thought of it. He’d have to make some changes. He had to throw out that old, rough way of living and learn to do things right. She deserved as much. He had to make himself worthy of her.

  And how was he going to learn to do all these things? Who was going to teach him? There weren’t a lot of women with child rearing experience in his life. Right now Sara was the prime candidate. He needed what she could do to help him. She was just about his only hope. The problem was, she didn’t like him much.

  He couldn’t blame her. He was her worst nightmare. But he couldn’t get bogged down in that. His goal was to make himself into the best dad Savannah could hope for. And he was beginning to realize, that was going to take a lot of work.

  He glanced at Sara again. What did you do when you wanted to make a woman like you? He’d never dealt with this before. If a woman didn’t like him, he shrugged and turned to a woman who did. There were always plenty of those. So what was his strategy to gain Sara’s favor?

  It made him grin to think of it. Good thing she couldn’t read his mind. He moved closer so he could talk without others overhearing.

  “Sara, I’m sorry about this. I didn’t plan it this way. I didn’t even know Savannah existed until last week.” He shrugged and tried to look engagingly charming. “Things happen.”

  She nodded but she didn’t plan to tumble to his charm offensive. “Yes, things happen. I understand that.” She took a deep breath and plunged in. “And you want to be a father to this baby. I don’t blame you. Who wouldn’t want to be?” She gestured toward her, the proof if any was needed. “She’s adorable and wonderful—everything you could ever want in a child.”

  She folded her arms and lifted her chin. “But the results of the DNA tests haven’t come in yet.” She eyed him warningly. He had to understand this was only the beginning. “What I think we need to do is take some time to get to know each other. Talk things over. See how it looks to you after some time here.”

  She gave him about half a smile. That was all she could muster. “We’ll see how things work out.”

  He took what she had to say in good cheer, to her surprise. The confrontational man from the ferry seemed to have vanished from sight.

  “I’ve got to hand it to you,” he said. “I’m totally surprised that you’re this open to a congenial arrangement. I thought you’d be ready to claw my eyes out.”

  The smile froze on her face and she couldn’t seem to revive it. “You have to understand something.” She sent him a flashing glance. “I’m open to congeniality because I’m hoping it redounds to my benefit. Nothing more. I want to be perfectly clear.” She turned and held his gaze with her own steely version. “I want to keep this baby. I adore her. She’s my life.” Her voice choked but she pushed on, getting fiercer. “And she’s mine. I will do anything I have to in order to keep her. Even claw your eyes out.”

  “Sara,” he began, stepping toward her.

  She held her hand up, stopping him.

  “In the meantime, I want you to explore all the natural aspects of your paternal feelings. Go for it. Be a daddy for a day. Try your wings, so to speak.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, and then he started to laugh. “You’re betting I’ll punt, aren’t you?”

  She flushed. “I’m not betting on anything. I’m leaving it all up to you.”

  “Right.” He shook his head, studying her more closely now. “Still waters run deep,” he quoted. “I know you want me gone. I can understand that.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Just don’t try anything tricky, okay? Let’s keep this struggle on the up-and-up.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. “As you wish,” she said crisply. “I’m not going to close any doors. I’m not going to be combative.” She looked away, then swung around and stared at him again, hard. “But I am going to watch you like a hawk. Any chink in your armor will be duly noted.”

  He stared back, then gave her a lopsided grin. “Hey, you’re on. May the best Mom win.”

  * * *

  The park was filled with children. She glanced at Jake wondering how he was going to take all the high-pitched shrieking. It had taken her awhile to get used to it when she’d started out. The first few times she’d brought Savannah here, she’d thought her head would explode with all the frenetic noise. But he seemed to be taking it in stride, and when she tried saying something to him about it, he laughed.

  “You should try living in a jungle when the monkeys start their daily chat,” he said. “Now that will drive a grown man crazy in less than a day.”

  They found an empty bench at the outskirts of the younger children’s playground. Sara held Savannah while Jake supervised the boys playing on the equipment and climbing through the playtime tunnels.

  “Nice kids,” he commented when he came back to sit beside her on the bench about half an hour later. The boys had followed him and were playing some sort of make-believe game in the sand in front of the bench.

  “They’re okay,” she said modestly. After all, they were her nephews. But she couldn’t help but wonder why they were so subdued today. And then she realized—it was because Jake was here and watching them. They knew a dominant male when they saw one.

  Still, Tanner seemed to have a special charge of energy and pretty soon he was racing back and forth between the equipment and the bench, trying to organize all the other children into platoons. Timmy sat down on the sidewalk and began to make a sort of sand castle.

  “We’d better keep an eye on them,” she told Jake. “Tanner will end up starting a war if we’re not careful.”

  Jake nodded and grinned. “No weapons, though,” he noted.

  “Oh, you just wait,” she warned.

  She pulled some plastic cups and bowls and shovels out of her carry-everything bag hanging from the stroller and gave them to Timmy to play with in the sand. She then put Savannah down beside him so that she could join in. The baby immediately began to pour sand from one container to another as though it was serious work that must be done.

  Sara settled back and looked at Jake. He was staring out toward the ocean, which was just visible through the trees.

  “Tell me about Kelly,” she said out of the blue.

  He stiffened. “What do you want to know?”

  Everything. Nothing. She took a deep breath. “Did you love her?”

  He thought for a moment, then decided to tell the truth. “No.”

  She recoiled as though he’d said something awful.

  “She didn’t love me, either,” he said quickly. “It wasn’t like that. We met, we had a great time together and we both knew it was just for laughs.”

  Sara thought about that one for a moment, pursing her lips. “How do you know for sure that she felt that way, too?”

  He shook his head. “You can tell. I’ve known enough women in my time to know the signs. She said as much and I believed her. She knew the score, and so did I. We were a perfect match, but it was temporary.”

  Sara looked away and made a face. She’d been hoping for a more romantic story. “So what happened?”

  “We
met at a party in Waikiki. We hit it off right away. I was in Hawaii for a couple of weeks of R and R. She was scoping out the job market, thinking of making the islands her home for a while. We got together and spent two weeks seeing the sights, swimming, eating fabulous food. We had a great time.”

  She searched his blue eyes. “So you liked her.”

  “Sure. I liked her quite a bit.” He grimaced and tried to explain a bit more fully. “Listen, Sara, I’ve never been the marrying kind. I never expected to have a child. I thought I was being careful to make sure that didn’t happen, and then, all of a sudden, there it was.”

  “There it was,” she repeated softly, looking down at Savannah. Her sweet, sweet baby. What if she was really his? She bit her lip. She wasn’t going to cry in front of him. Instead she rose, picked up Savannah and talked a bit of silly nonsense to her, then gazed at the playing children. She frowned.

  “Wait a minute. Where’s Tanner?”

  Jake stood up beside her and shaded his eyes, surveying the scene. “I don’t see him.” He looked again and shook his head. “He’s gone.”

  “What? He can’t be.”

  Fear shook her, but she held it off. She searched again. He had to be there somewhere.

  “Isn’t there another area over the hill?” Jake asked.

  “Yes, the play equipment for the older kids. But...” Could Tanner have gone there? He never had before. Still, if not there, where?

  Her heart began to beat like a drum. “Oh, why wasn’t I watching? Where did he go?”

  “Would he have started for home on his own?”

  She whirled and looked down the street. “I don’t think so. And we should be able to see him. We can see all the way down to the corner.”

  Her breath was coming in gasps now.

  She turned and thrust her baby into Jake’s arms. “Here, hold Savannah. I’ve got to find him.”

  He seemed startled, not sure of what to do with the baby. “But, wait...”

  She raced over to where Timmy was playing. “Timmy, where’s Tanner? Do you know where he went?”