The P.I. Contest

by C. J. Carmichael

She acknowledged his graciousness with a slight nod of her head. Then she turned to Hannah and Jeremy. They were sitting beside one another, holding hands.

  “Hannah, do you remember that we determined Gary Gifford was your biological father by the process of elimination?”

  The young woman nodded. “You had DNA samples from James Morgan and Oliver Crane. Both came out negative, so that meant the third man—Gary Gifford—was my dad.”

  “We reasoned there was no other possibility because your birth mother told us that she had only been with three men. And that was true, in the month of September.”

  Hannah and Jeremy exchanged uncertain glances. Kate could see that they were anxious and she wanted to give them the good news as soon as possible. But she had to explain this properly.

  “Hannah, when Jay and I spoke to your birth mother, she told us something else. She said that she’d started to date the man she eventually married about a month after she got pregnant. In her mind, she got pregnant during frosh week, which was the beginning of September.”

  “Yes. She told me all that, too,” Hannah agreed.

  “But you were born on July first. The average gestation period from conception to birth is two hundred and sixty-six days. I’ve checked the numbers several times. There is no way you could have been conceived in early September.”

  Hannah and Jeremy both looked shocked by this.

  “What are you saying?” Jeremy asked, perching on the edge of his chair.

  “I’m saying that Hannah’s birth father is John Trotter. We had DNA tests done to be certain and this time there is absolutely no doubt.”

  “Oh my God.” Hannah brought her hands slowly to her face. “Really? You’re sure?”

  “Your mom used protection every time she was with John Trotter. That’s why she never considered he could be the dad.”

  “You’re saying the protection failed?” Jeremy’s face reddened and tears came to his eyes. He reached an arm out to his wife and pulled her to him.

  “We have the DNA test right here if you want to see it,” Jay said.

  Jeremy did. He checked the file. “Thank God.”

  “So…I won’t get Huntington’s? And we can have a baby?” Hannah was still taking it all in.

  Kate could hardly see anymore, because her eyes were flooded with tears. Lindsay passed a box of tissues around the room. Even Jay and Nathan needed one.

  “I—I’m shaking,” Hannah said as her husband tried to draw her to her feet. “I—I still can’t believe this.”

  Through her tears, Kate grinned. Unable to stop herself, she glanced across the room at Jay. He winked back at her. Talk about job satisfaction. It didn’t get better than this.

  THERE WAS A TOY STORE a few blocks from the office and on Monday evening Jay found himself staring in the front window. He could see a display of stuffed animals. One of them reminded him of a small white bear his sister had had when she was very young. She’d slept with it every night and because she carried it with her wherever she went during the day, it had been inevitable that she would lose it.

  She’d cried every night for several weeks after it was gone. He’d been six at the time and she was four. He didn’t have access to much money, but he collected bottles from the street and pulled them out of trash cans until he had enough to buy her a new stuffed bear.

  But she had never loved it as much as the first one.

  Jay felt as if something very heavy was pressing on his chest. He’d been feeling this way ever since Tracy died, but it was getting worse, not better, with time.

  Especially since Kate had told him her news.

  He knew his role in her life was finished now.

  But he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Wondering how she was feeling and if she was still crying at the slightest provocation.

  Though she kept blaming hormonal surges, he wondered if maybe she wasn’t quite as strong as she thought she was.

  He went inside the store and picked up the little white bear. “Would you put this in a gift bag, please?” he asked the cashier as he pulled out his wallet.

  TUESDAY, AT NOON, Jay happened to have some business in the SoHo neighborhood—okay, he’d manufactured a good excuse to be in the area. He figured he’d drop in on Kate and see if she was free for lunch.

  The Ashenhurst Agency was bigger than he expected, occupying a large loft building on Broadway. Inside, the ambience was utilitarian. The open space was divided into pods of workstations, four cubicles per pod.

  He approached the receptionist and asked for Kate Cooper. Less than a minute later she was walking toward him. He’d never found her anything but beautiful, but he was struck at how pale and tired she seemed.

  “Can you get away for lunch?” he asked.

  “Love to.”

  Outside, her color brightened and she seemed like the old Kate again. As they walked along the street, he asked how she was feeling and whether she’d seen a doctor yet.

  “I have an appointment with my OB next Monday.”

  They chose a café and sat at a table for two near the back.

  “That place—the Ashenhurst Agency—doesn’t seem like you. I don’t see how you can be happy there. I feel so guilty—”

  “Stop, Jay. Don’t. I told you it’s the perfect situation for me right now.” Her fingertips tapped on the wooden table as they waited for a server.

  She seemed uptight. Maybe this would be a good time to distract her. Jay pulled the gift bag out from his briefcase and placed it in front of her.

  She tilted her head, and her silky hair fell to one shoulder. “What’s this for?”

  Suddenly, he felt silly. “I saw it in a store window and I couldn’t resist.”

  She peeked in the box, then compressed her lips. As she pulled out the little bear, her chin started to wobble.

  “Oh, no. I made you cry.”

  “It doesn’t take much these days.” She stroked the soft fur. “He’s so adorable. Thank you, Jay. But you didn’t have to do this. I hope you know that.”

  “I thought—” he started, and then he stopped. What had he been thinking? That their child should have some sort of token gift from the father who didn’t want any part of his life?

  And in a flash it hit him. He did want to be a part of this baby’s life. And even more important, he wanted to be a part of Kate’s.

  Because he loved her. He was crazy about her.

  He touched her hand. “Kate—”

  “It’s okay, Jay,” she said. “I should have known you’d have trouble walking away from the responsibility of having fathered a child. Now you feel trapped and it’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have listened to Lindsay. I shouldn’t have told you about the baby.”

  “No.” That wasn’t what he meant at all. But Kate had already made up her mind about his motives.

  Gently she placed the bear back into the bag. “I’m sure the baby will love this. But I don’t want you to buy any more gifts. We had a deal and it was meant to protect us both. I wanted a baby and you didn’t.”

  Jay dropped his eyes and shifted anxiously in his chair.

  “You’re used to being the responsible one and taking care of people,” she continued. “But this time you don’t have to be that guy. I’m more than capable of raising this child on my own.”

  “I never doubted that.” But what if he wanted to fill the roles of husband and father?

  Yeah, right. What was he thinking? Had he forgotten who he was and where he came from? He’d only mess things up for Kate and the baby if he tried to be a part of their lives.

  “But I still feel like you’ve had a raw deal. I shouldn’t have taken the job at Fox & Fisher.”

  “Yes, you should have. For as long as Eric’s living with you, you need that job. Everything is fine just the way it is.”

  He glanced up long enough to see that her eyes were shimmering with tears again. He didn’t think she was right. She wasn’t fine and neither was he.

  But maybe thi
s was just as good as things were going to get for either of them.

  ON FRIDAY ERIC BROUGHT an envelope home from school. “It’s my report card,” he said on his way to the fridge. “You have to sign it.”

  Jay didn’t want to look. Lately he and Eric had achieved a state of truce where Eric followed most of the rules Jay laid out without complaining and Jay tried not to play the heavy any more than he had to.

  Still, he lived in fear of getting another phone call from the cops. This time maybe for something more dangerous than skipping classes—though that would be bad enough.

  Jay picked up the envelope as Eric brushed by with an apple and a hunk of cheddar cheese in his hands. A second later, he heard the TV go on.

  Maybe he should sit down.

  He opened the envelope and removed a sheet of paper. He scanned down the column for the third-term results and frowned. Was he reading correctly? They were all A’s.

  He checked the first-term column and the second term, too. Again, all A’s.

  In the section for comments, Eric’s homeroom teacher had written, “After the death of his mother, Eric had a few weeks where his attendance was spotty and he had difficulty concentrating. But he quickly recovered and managed to pull up his marks to his usual excellent standard.”

  Jay sat there for a long time, adjusting his perceptions of his nephew. Then he took a pen and signed on the designated line.

  Tracy’s signature was there, as well, for the previous term results. His chest ached at the sight of her familiar, left-slanting script.

  He put the report card back into the envelope for safekeeping, then joined Eric in the living room. His nephew was watching an episode of Supernatural. Jay settled in to watch it with him, and when it was over, he turned off the set.

  Immediately Eric got up to leave.

  “Hang on a minute. Eric—I owe you an apology.”

  His nephew looked at him, his expression cautious.

  “That’s an amazing report card you brought home. You should be very proud of yourself.”

  “What did you expect? That I was failing?”

  “I assumed that because you’d missed so many classes your marks would be poor.”

  “You always think the worst of me. When I skip classes you think it’s because I’m into drugs or committing crimes or something.”

  “Well…what do you do when you cut out of school?”

  “I go for walks. I ride the subway. I think.”

  Jay pictured his nephew, alone for hours, and his heart ached. He had been processing his mother’s death, in his own way, and Jay wished that he had shown more respect for that.

  “I’m not going to do anything stupid,” Eric continued. “You can’t get into the police academy if you have a record.”

  Eric wanted to be a cop? Suddenly Jay remembered a younger Eric talking about just that. At the time Jay had figured he would change his mind a dozen times before he grew up. But he obviously hadn’t.

  “So that’s why you were asking Kate Cooper all those questions about the police academy.”

  “Well, yeah. Why else would I be interested in her? She’s way too old for me.”

  Jay laughed. “God, Eric. I’ve been such an idiot.”

  But this was one case where he didn’t mind being wrong. His nephew was smart, focused and definitely on the right track. He was just so bloody thankful.

  He went over and gave his nephew a good, strong hug. “Way to go, Eric. You’re one amazing kid.”

  Eric pulled out from the hug, smiling. “Does this mean I don’t have a curfew anymore?”

  “Dream on, buddy.” Jay brushed his hand over Eric’s blond curls. “When you turn sixteen we’ll talk.”

  JAY DIDN’T REALIZE how much he’d been weighted down with worry about Eric until he discovered his concerns were unfounded. Not that Eric was perfect, or that there wouldn’t be challenges down the road.

  But hell. Eric was an A student. More important, he had a goal for his life. Jay knew from experience that having something to work toward could make all the difference. His own aspirations to become a pilot had provided the motivation for him to finish school and go on to college.

  Hopefully Eric’s desire to be a cop would do the same for him.

  On Sunday night Jay slept deeply. He dreamed he was in the captain’s seat of his much-loved 777. Visibility was unlimited. The sky was robin’s egg–blue above, fading to aquamarine at the horizon. His hands on the controls were steady. He was in his zone.

  He turned to share the moment with his copilot, but Kate was seated next to him. “Uh…I didn’t know you had your pilot’s license.”

  She gave him her trademark cocky smile. “You don’t know everything about me, Jay Savage.”

  He woke up sweating and couldn’t get back to sleep.

  Monday morning, he called Lindsay at home. “Do you know the name of Kate’s OB?”

  “Sure, it’s Dr. Janssen. Meg got the referral for her.”

  “Do you know the address?”

  “I could find out. But, Jay—I thought your role in all this was finished?”

  “You think I’m the kind of guy who gets a woman pregnant then walks away?”

  “No. I mean, yes. Kate told me that was the deal. Was she wrong?”

  “We discussed something like that,” he admitted. He couldn’t stand still. His mind was two steps ahead of him, planning what needed to be done. “But it’s not working for me.”

  “Oh, boy. I warned Kate this could get complicated.”

  “Actually, from where I stand, it couldn’t be more simple.”

  JAY PHONED THE OB NEXT. “This is Jay Savage. I’m the father of Kate Cooper’s baby. Could you please remind me what time our appointment is?”

  “Ten-thirty this morning, Mr. Savage.”

  “Thank you very much.”

  KATE’S OBSTETRICIAN’S OFFICE was three subway stops from his apartment. Jay clambered into the first available car then grabbed on to a metal pole. As the train jerked forward, he surrendered his body to the swaying motion. Over the past few weeks, he’d grown accustomed to the rhythm. Now, like Eric, he could let go of the metal bars before the train screeched to a stop, and zip out of the doors ahead of the crowd. But he didn’t think he’d ever truly get used to traveling underground.

  Shoulder to shoulder with other commuters, he made his way along the platform, up the stairs, then out to a blue-sky morning. He checked street signs and address numbers, finally locating the medical office building he was searching for.

  Only a few steps away, he stopped.

  There was Kate, her red hair and cream-colored coat standing out in the dreary landscape. He felt the kind of rush he normally experienced with liftoff, in that instant when the plane defied gravity and rose above the tarmac. It was a feeling of being completely alive and completely present in a moment of time. He was so overcome, he actually stopped walking, frozen in wonderment.

  And then she saw him.

  Her first reaction was to smile, but a frown was right on its heels. “Jay? What on earth are you doing here?”

  “It isn’t a coincidence.” He came up beside her and took her hand. “Maybe it isn’t gentlemanly of me, but I’m reneging on our agreement.”

  “But—”

  “I don’t want to be out of the picture where our baby is concerned. I’m happy to let you run the show—this isn’t about me questioning your ability to be a wonderful mother.”

  “I hope not.”

  “One day this kid inside you is going to want to know who his daddy is. It’s only natural, Kate. And I don’t want him to have to hire a private investigator in order to find out.”

  “Oh, Jay.” She covered her mouth with her free hand and stared at him.

  “Is it all right if I come to this appointment with you?”

  Her smile was sad, but accepting. “If you’re sure it’s what you need to do.”

  KATE WAS SHOCKED that Jay had shown up for her appointment.
She’d tried so hard to make it clear that he was under absolutely no obligation where her pregnancy was concerned. Yet it had to be obligation that had brought him here. He’d pretty much admitted as much when he’d said their child had a right to know its father.

  He tucked his hand under her elbow and walked with her the rest of the way. His strong presence by her side was a comfort, but she knew his being there had nothing to do with her, and everything to do with the baby inside her.

  In the waiting room, they went up together to talk to the receptionist. Kate was given some forms to fill out, and he sat with her, reading over her shoulder.

  There were two other fathers in the waiting room. Both were wearing wedding rings.

  She looked away. Once Jay had told her she deserved the whole package. A man who loved her, children, pets, whatever she wanted. And she’d thought she could have all that, too, only not in the traditional order. Now she knew that dream was impossible. Because the man she loved would only see her as a responsibility.

  She was asked to pee in a cup, then she and Jay were taken to a room where she was weighed and her blood pressure was taken.

  All the while, she was fighting to find emotional equilibrium, torn between the urge to cry and a competing urge to rail out in anger.

  When they were finally alone in the room, her sitting on the examining bed, him restlessly prowling, she was able to speak freely. “Just how involved are you planning to be?”

  “I guess that’s up to us to figure out.”

  “So I do get some say in this?” She folded her hands on her lap. She was unaccustomed to feeling vulnerable, but that was exactly how she did feel.

  “I’m sorry if I upset you by coming here.” Jay paced restlessly from one side of the room to the other, clearly a foreign element in this space. “I thought you might like some support.”

  He was always trying to do the right thing for other people. That was one of the qualities she found so exceptional in him. “I appreciate the thought. But maybe you could have called me ahead of time instead of showing up out of the blue.”

  He stopped in front of her and picked up her hands. His touch was tender. For that matter, so was his expression.