She would get both of them through it.
“I’m surprised you aren’t upset,” West said, pushing off her. He settled back against the pillows as he watched her rise from the bed.
“I’ve been through this once before, West,” she said, walking over to his closet where she’d hung the tailored suit she’d planned to wear to work. “I went into this knowing that Marcia loved Teddy, and she would want him back.” Carrying the suit back to the bed, she hung it on the bedpost and stared at him. “Are you all right with this?”
“I’ll tell you after I hear what Marcia says.”
“Are you all right with us?” she asked, holding her breath, praying that he would admit that he might feel something strong for her. She wouldn’t even ask for love—not yet anyway. But she wanted to know if they had a future.
West’s deep blue eyes darkened to black. “I don’t want you to leave me” was all he said. Annie wished she could feel comforted by those words, but she could tell as he rose from the bed and grabbed his clothes from the dresser drawer that he was still holding something back. She could only hope that what he hadn’t said wasn’t far more important that what he had.
“First, let me make it clear that I didn’t let Marcia know that you were comin’, Mr. Gallagher,” Marcia’s mother said, ushering them inside her modest three-bedroom home near Louisiana State University. “She said she had an errand and would be back in about a half hour, which is fine. I wanted the opportunity to get things straightened out with you first.” She led the three of them into the small living room, and waved her hand toward the seats. West took an armchair across from the sofa, leaving it for Annie and the baby. Sitting next to her grandson, Mrs. Kinster tentatively, almost shyly, reached out and touched the back of Teddy’s head.
“This is the first I’ve seen him in over three months,” she said, smiling down at the boy. “I didn’t even know Marcia was in town until last night when her hotel money ran out and she came here. She said she’d left the baby with friends, but she wouldn’t tell me who. When the private detective called on your behalf, I was totally shocked.” She glanced almost apologetically at Annie. “She didn’t mention about her lawyer helpin’ to care for Teddy.”
“She probably didn’t realize I would.” Annie turned Teddy around so he could see his grandmother better, and Mrs. Kinster, a petite, nicely dressed brunette with Marcia’s eyes, leaned forward and let Teddy grip her finger. It was then Annie noticed that West was frowning at her. She sent him a return look that said no, it wasn’t looking good for Marcia, and, client of hers or not, she knew it.
And Mrs. Kinster needed to know how bad things were, so Annie filled her in on how Teddy had come to be left with West.
Mrs. Kinster’s mouth dropped open and her hand returned to her lap. She looked totally shocked. “What on earth could possibly have gotten into her?” she said in a soft voice, as though the breath had been knocked out of her.
Annie wanted to reassure her, but she couldn’t. “Basically, I’m afraid, Marcia abandoned her son, and if West and I hadn’t made an agreement to keep Teddy out of the social welfare system until she returned, he would be in foster care now.”
Mrs. Kinster was pale as she put her hand to her mouth.
“Did she say why she left the baby at all?” Annie asked. “Or why she just didn’t bring him here to you?”
She shook her head. “Only that she was in town tryin’ to do what she’s desperately wanted to do for a long time, and that I was going to be very proud of her. I assumed she meant registerin’ at the university.” She sighed. “Well, this just can’t be. Even if she is goin’ back to school, she’s in big trouble now, and she’s goin’ to have to face it.” She looked from West to Annie. “Please accept my apologies on behalf of my daughter. She had no right to do what she did, and I’m goin’ to make certain she understands that.”
While Teddy started babbling loudly, with emphasis, Mrs. Kinster nodded at him sadly. “I know honey, I know. Your mama messed up.” She looked from West to Annie. “You’re the lawyer—do you have any suggestions?”
“Would you agree to take custody of Teddy while Marcia gets some counseling?”
“I already told Marcia, plenty of times, that she could move back in here and work, and I would be happy to take care of Teddy. I’ve always believed in keepin’ children as close to relatives as possible. But, no, she said she wanted to move to New Orleans. She said if she lived here, she would be too tempted to ask for my help all the time, and she wanted to grow up.” Her eyes grew wistful. “Apparently she just isn’t ready.”
“Maybe she just got overwhelmed,” Annie said, feeling a renewed stab of guilt that she hadn’t helped her more. “It doesn’t excuse her leaving Teddy, but at least it explains it.”
“Well, she’s got to understand she can’t be doing that ever again. A child isn’t something that can be tossed around and treated like a pile of laundry.”
“Amen,” West said quietly.
Marcia’s mother reached down and caressed Teddy again, and then seemed to consider something. “If y’all will excuse me for just a minute, I’m headin’ into the kitchen to call my husband, so we’re both here when Marcia comes back.”
When they were alone, West leaned forward. “She seems sincere enough, Annie. What do you think?”
“I think we ought to see if Mr. Kinster is of the same mind as his wife. If he is, I’m willing to take a chance on leaving Teddy with them—as long as Marcia gets counseling on parental responsibilities.”
He nodded slowly. Since Teddy was starting to squirm, Annie put him down on the carpet and let him crawl, staying near him so he didn’t pull anything down on his head in the non-child-proofed room.
With all the bending Annie had to do, West was catching a view of every conceivable angle of her derriere in her slim-fitting business skirt as she chased after the baby, and his body was beginning to react. He cursed under his breath, because even though he wanted her more than ever, he knew he had some serious thinking to do about their situation. Trying to do the thinking now while watching her was next to impossible.
But if he didn’t think about Annie, his mind mulled over losing Teddy, and that was just as bad. This week he had learned what it was like to love a baby—or at least the little charmer’s cooing, his babbling, and the way he grinned at West when he picked him up. Then two days earlier than they’d expected, sure enough, West was losing that love in his life again, and the pain of it was smacking him hard, right in his heart. Oh, sure, he’d known they’d be giving Teddy back, but damn, he’d forgotten how painful the hurt could be.
Leaning back in his chair, he took a deep breath and tried not to think about anything.
Mrs. Kinster came back into the room with a tray of ice tea and glasses, and set it on the table. “I hope this is all right. With Teddy around, I’d just as soon not serve hot coffee.”
“Ice tea is fine,” Annie said, scooping Teddy up off the floor. “Would you like to hold him while we wait for Marcia and her father?”
“Of course,” the woman said, reaching out. Whether she reminded Teddy of his mother, or he remembered his grandmother, or Teddy was just one sweet baby, Annie didn’t know, but Teddy opened his arms and hugged Mrs. Kinster around her neck. Annie sighed deeply, and just barely kept her eyes from clouding up.
She glanced at West to see how he was holding up. Their eyes met across the room, and she saw the emptiness in his—like he didn’t want to give Teddy up? The thought gave her new hope. If he had actually enjoyed having the baby in his life, maybe he would take a chance on his own future….
The front door opened suddenly and Marcia’s voice filtered through the rooms, filled with excitement. “Mama, where are you? I’ve got wonderful news.”
“The livin’ room,” Mrs. Kinster called.
“I’ve done it, Mama—I’m getting married! I’ve made my own dream come true—” Marcia’s voice dropped off as she reached the doorway and stopped
dead in her tracks. “Oh, my Lord,” she said in a reverent voice. “I guess I also created my own little nightmare, didn’t I?”
The house was in chaos for a while as Marcia kissed and hugged Teddy and then Marcia’s father arrived and had to be filled in by Mrs. Kinster. But finally the whole group gathered in the living room to hear Marcia’s story of what she’d been doing for the past week.
Giving one last smile to her fiance, Jord Ames, a young man who had come in a few minutes after her and sat down next to her, Marcia finally started.
“Well, this all began a few months ago when I heard that Jord here was comin’ back to Baton Rouge for only two weeks. I wanted to go see him to tell him that I’d gotten pregnant and had his baby, but he’d always said he didn’t want kids until he could afford them. So I was scared he’d be mad that I hadn’t given Teddy up for adoption—as if I could ever do that.” She stopped to give her son a warm smile. “But then I took Mr. Gallagher’s seminar about goin’ after your dream, and I knew I couldn’t let Teddy grow up without a daddy. It would be just too sad for my baby and me. So I planned it out and really concentrated on what I wanted most, and I figured out I had to get Jord to marry me before he went back overseas in the army so Teddy would have his daddy.”
West took another look at the young couple. Jord Ames was feeding Teddy, staring at his son as though he were in awe, and something inside West suddenly began to ache. Marcia had gone through all this just for Teddy. A baby now had a daddy because of his seminar. What he was doing was helping people. He’d done Joseph Hayden, his teacher back in high school, proud.
But that fact gave West little satisfaction. He had to wonder if a marriage between these two would last. He’d grabbed an opportunity to speak to Jord earlier, and found out that Marcia had taken great care to keep Teddy’s existence a total secret from him and everyone they knew by going upstate to her grandmother’s to have Teddy and then moving to New Orleans shortly after. Jord had been horrified that his new fiancee had left his son anywhere, even with what she considered the best intentions. West knew that any relationship took a great deal of maturity, and even though Jord might be okay in that department, his young, soon-to-be wife had a great deal of growing up to do. If Jord got sick of waiting for Marcia to get her act together, Teddy might end up without a daddy again.
The thought made him sick.
“But what possessed you to leave your baby behind with Mr. Gallagher?” Marcia’s father asked. West could feel the man’s frustration vibrating over to his daughter, who for the first time seemed to sense the seriousness of what she’d done. “And don’t give me any song and dance about how nice Mr. Gallagher was again,” he added. “You knew better than to leave a helpless infant on anyone’s doorstep.”
“I couldn’t bring Teddy here, Daddy,” Marcia said slowly. “I had to get Jord to want to marry me myself, and I couldn’t have you or Mama helpin’ it along or takin’ matters into your own hands by lurin’ him over to see his son.” She looked at each of her parents. “I really blew it, I know. It wasn’t the best thing to do.”
“Not the best thing to do?” Marcia’s father shook his head, his voice grave with distress. “What if someone had seen my little grandson out there and toted him—”
“Excuse me, sir,” Jord interrupted. When Mr. Kinster fluttered his hands as if to say “Go ahead”—or more like, West thought, “I give up”—Jord turned to his fiancée. “Marcia, you should have come to me when you first got pregnant. I told you from the start that I loved you and was enlisting so we would have a steady income, and in a year or two, when I was sure I was set, I wanted to get married. That’s why I came back to Baton Rouge—to get you.”
Her mouth twisting in anguish, tears rolling over the blush on her cheeks, Marcia looked around. “I am sorry.”
“In the future, Marcia,” Jord said quietly, “come to me. When we get married, it will be because I want to, not because of the baby.” Breaking his gaze, he looked proudly down at his son, and his lips turned up at the edges. “Although he’s a great bonus.”
“So we all live happily ever after?” Marcia said hopefully.
“Not quite,” Mrs. Kinster said. “You were lucky this time, Marcia. But there can’t be a next. Had Mr. Gallagher and Ms. Robicheaux had a mind to, they could have turned Teddy over to the social welfare system as an abandoned child, and Teddy would be in foster care right now.”
“Oh, my Lord,” Marcia said, her face reddening. “I never meant to abandon him! I wouldn’t have left him with just anyone. Mr. Gallagher is famous! I knew he’d take great care of Teddy.”
The price of fame, West thought with an inward groan. Seeing his face, Annie gave him a short, sympathetic smile.
“Be that as it may, Ms. Robicheaux has suggested counseling and us taking care of the baby until you’re finished. Your father has already agreed.”
“But Jord has to go back overseas in three days!”
Jord was the first one to shake his head “I think you’d best do what they say, Marcia. You couldn’t have come with me right away anyway—I told you it takes a while to secure housing and all for the three of us. How about if you follow Ms. Robicheaux’s suggestions here and when they think it’s okay, I’ll come back and we’ll get married then.”
Marcia wasn’t thrilled, but she knew Jord was only asking out of politeness. She didn’t have a choice, she could see it in the face of everyone around her. She would have to do something to prove to her parents and Jord that she was a good, caring mother. So she agreed.
That meant that Annie and West finally felt free to leave Teddy with his grandparents. But before they did, as they’d discussed on the way over, West and Annie excused themselves, went out to his car, and brought in the playpen, car seat, and Teddy’s clothes for the young parents. Annie explained where they’d come from.
“Oh, my gosh, I got so excited when I left, I never even thought about his needin’ all that stuff,” Marcia said thickly. She sat down with a grim look on her face. “But they’re brand new,” she added. “Maybe you could just sell them and get some of your money back.” Her face lit up. “Or maybe you can keep them up in your attic for when you have your first baby!”
Annie’s heart slammed against her ribs. Blinking, unable to speak, she waited for West to say something, but wasn’t sure he would, either. He’d been awfully quiet outside.
“Keep them,” West said, his voice thick. “Consider it an engagement present from Annie and me.”
“Thank you,” Jord and Marcia said together, and then, spontaneously, Marcia came over and put a sleepy Teddy in Annie’s arms.
Annie hugged the baby to her. With all his baby softness cradled against her breasts and the scent of baby powder drifting up toward her, she had to make a determined effort not to cry. Since she had no nieces or nephews, and, being with West, would have no children of her own, Teddy was likely to be the last baby she would grow close to. It hurt to know that.
But not having West, she knew, would hurt a lot more. So she kissed Teddy’s cheek and handed him back to his mother with a soft goodbye, a goodbye that was meant for more than just Teddy. It was a goodbye to her dream of having a child.
The throaty, reverent way that Annie said farewell to Teddy tugged at West’s heart as they left the Kinsters’ and walked out to his car together. Just like him, Annie was hurting badly, but her pain wasn’t just from giving up Teddy, West knew. It was also from a final surrendering of her dream of having a baby, and from making a commitment to him.
When Annie had first said she wanted him more than anything else, he’d felt like he’d won the lottery, had a birthday, and had woken up to find that his abandonment as a child had been nothing more than a nightmare, all at once. She’d filled the house he’d always wanted with love and warmth. She’d made the dream he’d had of having his own home once again come true.
But as wonderful as the past week had been for him, it had also been frightening. He’d had a real home, a fa
mily, and plenty of love once before. Then, suddenly, he’d been eight years old and alone, and it had taken him years to learn to manage the resulting anger and pain, pain that had always seemed to be circled around his neck and just short of squeezing the life out of him. Losing Teddy had brought it all back in a rush of overwhelming feeling. Losing Teddy had put the rope back around his neck.
He’d known better than to let himself care. He’d been fully aware that the noose of pain was forever dangling right above his head—never much farther away than that—which was why he’d vowed never to love anyone again in the first place. Keeping the pain at bay had meant keeping his life unencumbered. Since the day he’d gone into the first foster home alone, it had become his number one rule—don’t get attached, because you’ll only end up hurting. And never, ever love anything, because you’ll lose it.
He’d gotten through years like that, damn it, West thought as he silently drove the interstate back to New Orleans, reaching out to people but never letting them touch him. But then had come Teddy, whose loss, he was certain, had given him just a hint of what he’d be in for if he let Annie totally into his life and then he lost her-a blinding, choking, all-encompassing kind of pain that was sure to bring him to his knees and then shatter him. And this time, he didn’t think he could pull the pieces back together again.
Annie’s pain from losing her heart’s desire already hung between them like a heavy mist of tears. No matter what she claimed she wanted, if she never became a mother, West was sure the hurt would grow and explode inside her, and what would blow up would be their relationship. It was all so clear, and West knew what he had to do to make sure Annie would get the dream she so wanted, and so deserved.
He had to make certain she left him.
By the next morning, Annie came to the horrible awareness that West was withdrawing from her. On the way home from the Kinsters’, and later, after she’d gone to work and finally returned to West’s, she’d tried to talk to him about how he felt, but he told her he didn’t feel anything about giving up the child—why should he? Teddy wasn’t his.
The One-Week Baby (Yours Truly) Page 12
