Accidental Family (The Baby Bet: MacAllisters Gifts #14)

by Joan Elliott Pickart

  Would Patty ever trust him enough to pour out her heart to him, share her pain, explain what had happened with her and Peter? God, he hoped so. Why it meant so much to him, he didn’t know. But it did. It really did.

  “Tucker, Sarah Ann, finish coloring your pictures,” Patty said, “because Sophia is going to start fussing for a bottle any minute now. Not only that, there are people waiting for this table and we’re all done being piggies with our pizza.”

  “We’re not piggies,” Sarah Ann said, laughing. “We’re bears, remember? My daddy said me and Tucker are baby bears.”

  “Oh, let’s not start that again,” Patty said, rolling her eyes heavenward.

  Sophia began to cry and David reached over and wiggled her foot.

  “What’s the matter, Goldilocks?” he said. “Ready for some chow?”

  “Put the crayons back in the basket,” Patty said.

  “Not yet, Mommy,” Tucker said.

  “Hey,” David said. “Do it, sport, then you and Sarah Ann grab your placemats and we’re out of here. Those are direct orders from your daddy bear and mama bear.”

  “’Kay,” Tucker said, putting his crayon in the basket.

  “I thought we agreed not to play the bear game anymore, David,” Patty said, frowning as she slid out of the booth.

  “No, you expressed your opinion about it, but I don’t recall agreeing with you.” David got to his feet, then leaned over and picked up Sophia’s carrier. “But to keep you smiling, I won’t do it again after tonight. How’s that?”

  “Fine. Thank you.”

  “After tonight,” David said, grinning at her. He switched his attention to Tucker and Sarah Ann. “Goldilocks is hungry, so baby bear Tucker and baby bear Sarah Ann, haul yourselves out of that booth. It’s time to hit the road with your daddy bear and mama bear. Yep, it’s time to go home.”

  Chapter Ten

  That night David insisted that he would now sleep on the sofa since he no longer wore the bulky cast, nor did he have to elevate his leg. It was time, he declared, that Patty got a decent night’s sleep in her own bed.

  Patty opened her mouth to begin a debate on the subject, but when David narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, she mentally threw up her hands in defeat. She knew that I’m-not-budging-on-this-one body language of his and there was no sense in wasting time and energy engaging in an argument she wouldn’t win.

  But before David took up residence on the sofa, he and Patty made sweet, slow love in her bed, once more soaring into wondrous oblivion as they whispered the name of the other.

  The next day David watched over Sarah Ann, Tucker and Sophia while Patty shopped for groceries, David insisting that she use some of the fairly large amount of money he’d discovered in his wallet.

  The day after that, which was Wednesday, they went shopping for new tennis shoes for Tucker and Sarah Ann with David pushing Sophia’s stroller through the crowded mall. They went into a pet shop to allow the three-year-olds to watch the fish in a huge aquarium, then ended the outing with ice cream cones eaten in an old-fashioned-style ice cream parlor.

  On Thursday Patty packed a picnic lunch in a wicker basket and they went to the park, all three children falling asleep on the way home.

  And every night Patty and David made love, shared their gift, before he settled in on the sofa.

  Friday evening they were invited to dinner at Patty’s parents’ house and a good time was had by all. Ted asked David if he’d be interested in playing some golf once his leg was healed, and after a long and concentrated moment, David said he didn’t know if he was a fan of the sport.

  “I don’t have a clue, Ted,” he said.

  “Maybe you’ve never played,” Ted said. “That would be great because it would mean there’s a chance you’re even more inept at hitting that devilish little white ball than Ryan and I are. We have a fortune of golf balls sitting in the bottom of the water traps on the course. I should take up snorkeling and retrieve those things.”

  During the evening Patty was the recipient of a multitude of what appeared to her to be rather smug smiles produced by her mother. When Patty cornered Hannah in the kitchen and asked her what her problem was, Hannah smiled once again and patted her daughter on the cheek.

  “I know what I know,” was all that Hannah would say.

  They returned to Patty’s in time to put all three children to bed, enjoyed two family sitcoms on television, then followed their custom of watching the ten-o’clock news. Halfway through the broadcast, the anchorwoman announced that after the commercial break they would be showing another segment of the series about dangerous roads in California.

  “I hope this series is resulting in people driving more slowly in the areas they’re showing,” Patty said, “and some good is coming from the depressing stories they’re telling of people who have been killed.”

  David lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “It will probably make drivers more alert for a while, but before long they’ll go back to the way they were. That’s human nature, I guess, which is too bad because this station has done an excellent job gathering data and presenting the information.”

  Patty nodded, then the commercials ended and the anchorwoman was once more smiling at them.

  “Our series on dangerous roads continues,” she said. “And tonight we are focusing on a stretch of highway located north of San Francisco. As you can see from the film the road is narrow, has sharp turns and steep drop-offs. Many people refer to this section as Dark Death Road as there are no homes close enough to cast even the faintest light on the multitude of tight curves. The number of accidents…”

  As the woman went on, a sharp pain sliced through David’s head for a moment, causing his breath to catch. In the next instant he felt as though he’d been punched in the solar plexus and sweat dotted his brow.

  Visions tumbled through his mind, one after the other, vivid and stark and real. A woman with long, blond hair who shoved a crying Sarah Ann at David, then hurried out of a doorway, slamming the door behind her.

  A photograph in a newspaper of a crushed car retrieved from the bottom of a deep ravine. Pictures in the same paper showing a man and a woman in candid photos and identifying them as the people who had been killed in the accident.

  A cemetery on a gloomy, rainy day with a wild wind whipping the rain into a frenzy, drenching David as he stood staring at the casket waiting to be lowered into the ground.

  “My God,” David said, his voice raspy. “Oh, my God.”

  “David?” Patty said anxiously. “What is it? What’s wrong? You’re as pale as a ghost and your hands are trembling and… Are you ill? David?”

  “My…wife… Marsha…” he said, turning his head slowly to meet Patty’s frightened gaze. “She was killed on that road. The car went over the side and… She was leaving me and Sarah Ann to go off with her lover. She didn’t want to be a wife and mother anymore. She found it suffocating, boring.

  “She was a paralegal our firm hired temporarily for a big case I was working on,” David continued, speaking in a monotone. “She was beautiful, vivacious, almost ten years younger than me, and razzed me all the time about how I was becoming a stodgy old man who did nothing but work. I was captivated by her, by her zest for life, her ability to turn every day into an adventure centered on people and fun.

  “We started dating and I was swept into her world of nightclubs, drinking, dancing, other people who lived as though there was no tomorrow. It was so different from anything I had ever known, she was so different from the women I had dated in the past, and I was grateful she had come into my life. I was convinced she was the best thing that had ever happened to me, because I really was doing nothing but work.”

  David drew a shuddering breath.

  “I was so very certain that I had found my life’s partner, my soul mate, and I asked her to marry me. She agreed and we continued our lifestyle of going out almost every night to the clubs where she seemed to know everyone who came
through the door. If I had to work late, I’d meet her at a club where she’d already been for several hours. Then…”

  “Then?” Patty whispered, her gaze riveted on David as her heart raced.

  “Marsha got pregnant. She was furious, said she had no intention of having a baby, being tied down at home buried in diapers and bottles, and I begged her to have the baby, told her I’d hire all the help she needed and that I wanted to be a father. She refused, but then discovered she was further along than she thought and it was too late to terminate the pregnancy. Three nights after she gave birth to Sarah Ann, she went dancing and I stayed home with our newborn daughter.”

  “Oh, David,” Patty said, shaking her head.

  “I hired a nurse to tend to Sarah Ann,” he went on, pain echoing in his voice and visible on his face. “I rarely saw Marsha because she went out every night and I took over Sarah Ann’s care when I came home from work. We actually lived that way for months. I was devoted to the baby, loved her so much.

  “But I couldn’t face the fact that I’d made such a terrible mistake by marrying Marsha. Talk about faulty judgment. I had seen her as I wanted her to be, not as she really was. She was selfish, self-centered, and immature. I knew I must never again trust myself in regard to knowing the true nature of a woman.

  “Over a year ago Marsha said she was filing for divorce, was leaving the area with her lover and would give me full custody of Sarah Ann. She’d had her fill of being a wife and mother. The night she left it was raining. She and that man had been drinking, and he miscalculated a turn on Dark Death Road and drove over the edge. They were both killed.”

  “Dear heaven,” Patty said, feeling the color drain from her face.

  “I realized at Marsha’s funeral,” David said, swiping his thumb over his moist forehead, “that I wasn’t mourning her. Our marriage had been over for months, she was a stranger to me, someone I had chosen to spend my future with who wasn’t even close to being who I had believed her to be. The only good thing that came from that marriage was Sarah Ann.”

  “David, you don’t have to talk about this anymore,” Patty said, hearing the trembling in her voice. “Your memory has returned because of what you saw on television about that road, but it is obviously very painful for you to relive all of what you’re telling me.”

  “There isn’t that much more to say,” he said, sounding exhausted. “I concentrated on Sarah Ann, wanted to be the best father I could be, but I had such a heavy workload and I traveled a great deal for the firm as well because the other partners were getting up in years.

  “I visited Ventura and liked what I saw. I made the decision to move here, start fresh with my daughter and open my own firm where I could control the number of hours I worked. I wouldn’t make as much money, I knew, but I had plenty of cash because I had sold my partnership to my replacement, plus I’d spent so many years before I married Marsha being too busy to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

  “The house…” David nodded. “I bought the house where you went to get Sarah Ann’s clothes. I know where it is and what it looks like. I was finishing getting settled, then planned to start looking for office space somewhere. I figured I could hire a part-time housekeeper to keep the place in order and prepare our dinner.

  “Well, there you have it,” he said, an edge to his voice. “The exciting tale of how I ended up in Ventura, California. Older, but much wiser. I have a major, big-time flaw in regard to women. I see what I want to see, not what is truly there. I’m a top-notch attorney, I’ll give myself that. But in the man-and-woman relationship arena? I’m a dud, a complete failure.”

  So am I, Patty thought miserably.

  David dragged both hands down his face.

  “Man, I’m tired,” he said. “I feel as though I just ran in a marathon or something. Getting your memory back really takes it out of a person, I guess. Or maybe it’s only draining as hell when the remembered reality isn’t exactly sunshine and roses.” He paused. “Ah, Patty, I shouldn’t have dumped the whole story on you. That wasn’t fair and I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t say that, David,” Patty said, placing one hand on his knee. “You didn’t dump on me. You shared, and I listened to every word because I care about you, want to know who you are and where life took you before we met.” She paused. “Do you have family? Parents? Brothers? Sisters?”

  “No. My folks were both only children. I was a late-in-life surprise and my parents died within six months of each other when I was in law school. My entire family consists of Sarah Ann.”

  “That’s not true,” Patty said, removing her hand from his knee. “Technically it is, but a family consists of people who care about each other. The Sharpes are considered part of the MacAllister family but we’re not really related.

  “My father and Ryan MacAllister were partners on the police force for many years. Then when Ryan quit they remained close. I forget at times that Robert and Margaret MacAllister are not really my grandparents and that people I view as aunts, uncles, cousins are not blood relatives.

  “You and Sarah Ann aren’t alone. You have me, Tucker, Sophia, and you’re being welcomed into the MacAllister clan, too. I hate the thought that you feel you’re without family support because that isn’t true.”

  “Thank you, that’s very nice,” David sighed. “I’ll have to give that some thought, but at the moment I’m on emotional overload. So many memories, so much to deal with all at once.”

  “You’re exhausted, David. You need to go to bed and get some sleep.”

  David managed to produce a small smile. “You’re sitting on my bed.”

  “So I am,” Patty said, rising. “I’ll be very quick in the bathroom so you can get in there.”

  “No, I think I’ll just sit here a while and try to unwind. I’m so wired I’ll never be able to sleep. I’ll use the bathroom in the hall later. You go on to bed.”

  “You’re not…you’re not coming to bed with me?”

  David took one of Patty’s hands in his. “Not tonight. Okay? I really need some time to sift and sort through everything that is tumbling through my mind. Do you understand?”

  “Of course. Sure. Good night, David. I guess congratulations are in order for regaining your memory. Your amnesia ordeal is over. Sleep well.”

  “Good night,” David said quietly, then watched as Patty hurried from the room and disappeared from view.

  He leaned his head on the top of the sofa and stared at the ceiling, so thoroughly drained that he felt he wouldn’t be able to move even if the house was on fire.

  He raised his head again slowly and narrowed his eyes as he swept his gaze over the familiar room.

  It was as though, he thought, there was another entity here now, someone who hadn’t been part of this household before, hadn’t interacted with the three children, hadn’t made exquisite love with Patty, hadn’t basked in the warmth and laughter within these walls.

  And that shadowy someone was him. The part of him that had been missing had been found, was here, demanding attention and space, refusing to be ignored. He was whole again. The nightmare of the amnesia was over, yet that meant he had to face who he truly was, all of him, complete with an overwhelming flaw.

  He did not possess the ability to see women as they truly were, viewing them instead as what he wanted them to be.

  David looked toward the hallway where Patty had gone.

  Oh, but that didn’t include Patty Sharpe Clark, he thought, with an edge of franticness. She was exactly who she presented herself to be. Honest, open and real, a dedicated mother, a passionate woman. She didn’t have an agenda that would make her less than what he believed her to be. Not Patty.

  Why not Patty? a little voice niggled in his mind. Why should his judgment about her be any better than it had been about Marsha? Yes, Patty had a secret she hadn’t shared with him that centered somehow on her role of wife to Peter. What other secrets did she harbor? What was he failing to comprehend about her, not seeing as the tr
uth that it was as he filled his mind—and his heart—with who he believed her to be?

  “Oh, God,” David said, shaking his head.

  He was driving himself crazy, he thought. He had to shut off his mind, get some rejuvenating sleep, face his reality in the light of the new day. He couldn’t deal with the turmoil in his mind anymore tonight. Not tonight.

  David levered himself to his feet and made his way down the hall to the bathroom to prepare for bed, feeling as though a crushing weight was pressing painfully against him, making it difficult to place one foot in front of the other.

  Patty lay in bed, one hand splayed on the empty space where David was supposed to be.

  So, she thought, struggling against threatening tears, this was it. The end. David had regained his memory and could return to his home with Sarah Ann, knowing where everything was that he’d unpacked and put away, aware of any special rituals he took part in with his daughter that might be different from what she was participating in here, remembering all the little things he shared with Sarah Ann.

  And this was the end of the gift.

  Patty sniffled.

  Good grief, she was feeling so sorry for herself, she thought with a flash of disgust. She was centering on the fact that David was going to leave and take his daughter with him. He would no longer live under her roof, take an active part in outings and fun-filled meals, stories at bedtime for sleepy three-year-olds, bathing and feeding Sophia.

  And he would not make love to her in this bed, hold her so close after sharing the intimate act, then kiss her deeply before heading for his spot on the sofa. He would not be here to make her feel so womanly and feminine, allow her to separate, as they shared their gift, the woman from the mother…just for a little while.

  It was over.

  But, dear heaven, she was being so selfish. She should be focusing on how she might be sympathetic and supportive as David dealt with the harsh truths of his disaster of a marriage to Marsha that had ultimately resulted in the violent death of his unfaithful wife.