The Daddy Secret

by Judy Duarte

  But he could certainly understand why Lucas wouldn’t want to get into trouble. When Rick and Mallory had been dating, he’d wanted her to see his good side, too. And he’d never wanted to disappoint her.

  If he knew her phone number he’d call. He could probably get it from Lucas, but her house was just a few blocks away. So thinking that it might help Lucas if he put in a good word in for him, Rick placed the boy’s bike in the back of his pickup, then drove him home.

  They’d no more than parked along the curb in front of Mallory’s house when she rushed out onto the porch to meet them. She was wearing a pair of black slacks, a green blouse and a frantic expression.

  “Where have you been?” she asked Lucas. “I’ve been worried sick and looking all over for you.”

  “I’m sorry. I went to see Dr. Martinez at the clinic, and we just... Well, I didn’t know how late it was.”

  Mallory, her hands splayed on her hips, shot an angry glare at Rick. “Why didn’t you call and let me know where he was?”

  Rick’s first impulse was to blame Lucas for not mentioning that he had to be home at a certain time, but why throw the boy under the bus?

  Besides, a defensive retort like that was only going to make things worse, especially when Rick was in way over his head when it came to parenting. If truth be told, he didn’t have a clue what Mallory expected of him as a father, but he couldn’t admit that. Revealing his flaws and insecurities so early in the game probably wasn’t a good idea.

  Instead, he gave the only excuse he could think of. “I didn’t have your phone number.”

  “But you have a watch, Rick. How long was he with you?”

  “About two hours, I guess.”

  “Didn’t you realize I’d be looking for him after all that time? Besides, it’s getting dark.”

  “Mallory,” Lucas said, “please don’t be mad at Dr. Martinez. It wasn’t his fault. It was mine.”

  The boy had called her Mom earlier, but apparently, in the heat of the moment, he’d slipped back to old habits. Or had he done that on purpose as an act of rebellion?

  Rick stole a glance at Mallory, saw her softening expression melt into a wounded frown that touched something deep inside of him. And while he was glad that Lucas had stuck up for him, he hadn’t wanted it to be at Mallory’s expense.

  “I’m sorry,” Rick said. “Lucas stopped to see me at the clinic, and while he played with Buddy, I got busy feeding my rescue animals. I should have sent him home earlier, but I didn’t. It won’t happen again.”

  Their gazes locked, and the conversation stalled for a moment, then Mallory said, “I’m sorry, too, Rick. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh. I was just worried. He’s always home before it gets dark.”

  She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking more vulnerable than he’d ever seen her. More beautiful, too.

  The years had been good to her, and if the two of them hadn’t shared a painful past, if they’d met for the first time in downtown Brighton Valley, maybe at Caroline’s Diner, Rick might have asked her out.

  As it was, there was too much water under the bridge for them to consider something like that—no matter how attractive he still found her.

  “I promise never to be late again,” Lucas said.

  Mallory turned to the boy, then wrapped him in her arms and drew him close. “I love you so much, sweetheart. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Rick shoved his hands in his pockets, feeling like the odd man out. But why shouldn’t he feel that way? Mallory had placed him in that position a long time ago.

  “I’d better go,” he said. “It’s probably past your dinnertime, and I won’t keep you from it any longer.”

  Mallory released Lucas from her embrace, but kept her hands on his shoulders. “Actually, dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes. We’re having spaghetti tonight, and I have plenty. Why don’t you stay and eat with us?”

  As hungry as he was, and as tempted as he was to join them, he probably ought to decline. After all, she was just trying to make it up to him for jumping all over him for something that hadn’t been his fault.

  “Please?” Lucas said. “She makes really good spaghetti.”

  There were probably a hundred reasons why Rick ought to climb into his truck and go home. But instead of grabbing hold of one of them and running with it, he found himself saying, “Sure. Why not?”

  * * *

  Mallory hadn’t meant to snap at Rick for not sending Lucas home or for not letting her know where he was. After all, Lucas knew the rules. He also should have realized that it was getting dark and Mallory would have been worried about him.

  So she’d offered the dinner invitation to Rick as a peace offering. Still, she really hadn’t expected him to accept. Things had ended badly between them when she’d left town to have their baby, and then again yesterday, when he’d found about Lucas. So the evening was sure to be awkward at best.

  She left Rick and Lucas in the living room while she finished in the kitchen, but it didn’t take her very long. As soon as the pasta was done, she called them to the table, where they all took their seats, just like a typical all-American family, when they were anything but.

  “Mallory, I mean my mom, is a good cook,” Lucas said.

  Rick looked up from his plate of spaghetti and smiled at the boy. “She certainly is.” Then he looked at Mallory. “The sauce is really tasty. Is it homemade?”

  “Yes, it’s Sue’s recipe. I have her cookbook and have been making all her family favorites.”

  “We should have Dr. Martinez come over for the tamale pie casserole tomorrow,” Lucas said.

  Something told Mallory things could really get out of hand if she didn’t do something to discourage her son’s budding friendship with Rick. But then again, what would happen when she told the boy that the vet down the street was actually his biological father, the man she’d told him was dead?

  Gary and Sue had been great parents—close to perfect, in fact. So Mallory had some big shoes to fill. They’d valued honesty above all else and had done their best to teach Lucas to be truthful.

  Mallory valued honesty, too! It’s just that she’d had a good reason for telling Lucas what she did, when she did.

  At the time Lucas had asked about his biological father, Gary had just lost a grueling battle to cancer. She’d feared that Lucas only wanted to find Rick as a means of filling the painful hole his father’s death had left in his life.

  But how could anyone ever replace a man like Gary Dunlop?

  Then there was the fact that Rick might not have wanted to be found. And even if he had, what if he hadn’t been able to hold a candle to Gary’s memory? What if he would have disappointed Lucas when the poor child had been so vulnerable?

  There’d been so many what-ifs, all of which would have hurt the grieving child in the long run. So Mallory had made it simple on them all. She’d told Lucas that she and Rick might have been able to keep Lucas and create a family together if Rick hadn’t died. But at her age, raising a child alone wouldn’t have been fair to him.

  Telling him the truth now might seem like a simple solution to Rick. But it wasn’t. Not when Lucas was still learning to put his faith in Mallory as his mother. Besides, how did she explain her reason for lying to him when Rick hadn’t grown up to be the loser everyone in town had expected him to become?

  “Thanks,” Rick said, “but I’ll have to pass on dinner tomorrow night. I have to attend a meeting at the chamber of commerce. Maybe another time.”

  Thank goodness that seemed to appease the boy. All Mallory needed was to give Rick a standing invitation to dinner each night. This evening was going to be tough enough.

  Fortunately, Lucas kept the conversation going, which was a
relief. Mallory had no idea what to say to the man, especially when the only thing she could think about was how darn good the years had been to him, how he’d filled out so nicely.

  He might have grown up and shed his bad-boy reputation, but he still had those amazing blue eyes, that crooked grin and that sexy James Dean swagger that spiked her heart rate and sent her hormones racing.

  After they’d eaten, Mallory served chocolate ice cream for dessert. If Rick thought she’d chosen the flavor because she’d remembered it was his favorite, he was wrong. It just so happened to be Lucas’s dessert of choice, too—another of the many things the two had in common.

  “Hey, Mom,” Lucas said. “Did you find my PlayStation yet?”

  She couldn’t believe she’d packed something as important as that without noting which box it was in. Something told her Sue would have known to label it as a high priority, rather than antique vases, crystal and other breakables. But she wouldn’t beat herself up for the mistake. She still had a lot to learn about maternal priorities.

  “I’m sure I’ll find the box soon,” she said. “I know we brought it with us.”

  “You don’t think the movers stole it, do you?”

  “Of course not,” she said. “I’m sure it’ll turn up. I’ll make a point of finding it first thing in the morning.”

  Lucas turned to Rick. “Do you like to play video games?”

  “When I was your age I used to, but I don’t have much time for it anymore.”

  “I guess that’s because, when people grow up, they don’t like to play fun things anymore.”

  “That’s not always true,” Rick said. “I have a friend who’s a computer whiz and a part-time gamer. He’s into all that stuff.”

  “No kidding?” the boy asked, his eyes wide.

  Rick looked at Mallory. “Do you remember Clay Jenkins?”

  “That nerdy guy with shaggy hair and glasses?”

  Rick nodded. “He might have looked like a wimp, but he had a mean left hook, which came in handy whenever he couldn’t outthink a bigger guy who wanted to mess with him.”

  “Clay was that smart?”

  “He was a genius.”

  “Whatever happened to him?” she asked.

  “He turned a little computer repair shop into a computer franchise called Zorba the Geek.”

  “I’ve heard of it. We had one in Boston, not far from where I lived.”

  “Yeah, well he’s worth a fortune now.”

  Amazing. Clay used to hang out in Wexler Park with that crowd Mallory had asked Rick to stay away from.

  “I guess a lot can change in ten years,” she said.

  Rick merely looked at her with that same simple gaze that set her heart thumping and her pulse dancing, just as it always used to do.

  Apparently, some things might change, while others never did.

  “Maybe I could meet your friend someday,” Lucas said.

  “You never know. Clay moved out of state, but he travels a lot. Maybe he’ll pass through this way someday. I’ll have to give him a call. It’s been a while since we talked, and it’s time we touched base.”

  They continued to eat their ice cream. When they finished, Rick offered to help with the dishes.

  The last thing Mallory needed was to have him stick around any longer than he already had. With the past hurt and disappointment they both harbored, it was awkward enough. And somehow, she doubted they’d ever be able to put that completely behind them. But what made things worse was that she still found him attractive, and that was a complication she didn’t need.

  With the job search, concern over her grandfather’s slow recovery and trying her best to fill Sue Dunlop’s shoes and be the best mother she could be, Mallory didn’t have time to deal with rebellious hormones.

  “Thanks, Rick. But I don’t need any help. I always clean the kitchen as I go, so doing the dishes is a snap.”

  “Okay, then. If you’re sure...”

  When he pushed back his chair and stood, she followed him to the door.

  “Thanks for dinner,” he said. “You’re a good cook, Mallory. You’re also a good mom.”

  She’d expected the compliment about the meal. After all, it was the kind of thing dinner guests usually offered their hosts upon leaving. But the other one took her aback, especially since she’d been trying so hard to be a good mother and she wasn’t always sure if she was succeeding.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I’m trying.”

  They stood on the stoop for a moment, under the amber glow of the porch light. Yet for some reason, she wasn’t nearly as eager to see him leave as she’d been earlier.

  Why was that?

  For the past ten years—at least, for the bulk of them—she’d tried so hard to forget all about him, to pretend he no longer meant the world to her. She’d even gone so far as to tell Lucas that he’d died.

  It had helped, she supposed, to pretend that he had. She’d healed from the heartbreak and had gone on with her life, becoming successful and making her family proud once again.

  And then, here he was—alive and well, successful in his own right and threatening to stir up all the old memories, all the things she’d tried so hard to forget.

  “You mentioned your grandfather was in the hospital,” he said. “How’s he doing?”

  “He’s doing better now. He had quadruple bypass surgery a couple weeks ago, but he has some other health issues, including diabetes, that have complicated things and slowed his recovery process.”

  “I take it he knows about the adoption.”

  “Yes, he does.” Like Rick, her grandfather hadn’t been in favor of an open adoption. So, for that reason, he and Lucas hadn’t met before.

  He understood why she was adopting Lucas now and approved of the decision. But she hadn’t had time to set up an official meeting. She planned to do that soon, though.

  That, too, was going to be a little awkward. She wasn’t sure how many of his friends knew that she’d had a child out of wedlock and had given it up for adoption, so she and her grandfather would have some explaining to do. She couldn’t foresee any problems, though. People in the church were understanding and forgiving. At least, they were supposed to be.

  She thought it would help if she could tell her grandfather that Rick had turned his life around, that he’d become a respected member of the community—that is, if Grandpa didn’t already know that.

  Being able to share that information would certainly help her by lessening some of the tension that was sure to crop up when she had to bring up the topic of her past mistake and her grandfather’s subsequent embarrassment. After all, he’d been a minister, and he’d expected her to set an example with the other teenagers in the congregation.

  “I’ve been curious,” she said. “How did you come to study veterinary medicine in college? And how did you end up opening a clinic in Brighton Valley?”

  “Remember how I used to hang out at Wexler Park?”

  How could she forget? She’d encouraged him to do more productive things with his time, and while they’d dated, he had. But she’d heard that he’d slipped back to his old habits after she’d left town.

  “One night in December, after you had the baby, my friends and I were playing basketball in the park. We were being pretty loud, and an off duty police officer named Hank Lazaro showed up. I figured we were in trouble since it was so late, but Hank started shooting hoops with us. He was actually pretty good—and kind of cool. When the game was over, he asked if we’d help him serve lunch at the neighborhood soup kitchen the next day.”

  “No kidding?” That didn’t seem like the kind of thing those guys would have wanted to do. “What did you tell him?”

  “The next day was Christmas Eve, and we didn’t have anything better to do, so w
e agreed. And when we’d not only fed the homeless but eaten our fill, too, Hank asked if we had plans for that night.”

  “Did you?”

  “At the time, I was living in a buddy’s RV, which was parked at a storage lot and didn’t have any power. So no, I didn’t have any plans. And neither did Clay. So Hank took us home with him. We hung out with him for a while, watching television and shooting the breeze. Then, when it was time for dinner, boy, were we in for a treat. It was a real Normal Rockwell experience—roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie. Clay and I never did figure out how Hank and his wife had managed to put presents with our names on the tags under their Christmas tree.”

  “The Lazaros sound like nice people.”

  “They’re the best. Hank has an eye for kids who are on the verge of making a life-changing choice—the bad kind. Fortunately for me, he saw something good in me and took me under his wing. His mentoring gradually changed my attitude about the future. He encouraged me to take the GED, and I passed.”

  “So how did you decide to go on to college and major in veterinary medicine?”

  “Hank helped me get a job with Doc Grimes, and I really enjoyed working with sick and injured animals. I decided to become a vet, just like Doc. When I graduated, I went back to work with him. He retired last year, and sold me his practice. Lucas probably told you the rest.”

  “The rest?”

  “I run a rescue for abused and neglected animals in the back.”

  “Actually, Lucas only talked to me about Buddy and how he’d like to keep him. Is he one of the rescue dogs?”

  “Yes, and he really needs a home.”

  She laughed. “I think what he really needs is some obedience training.”

  “You got that right.”

  Neither of them made a move toward saying goodnight, and while she could have, she studied him in the porch light instead.

  Was he married?

  Probably not. He wasn’t wearing a ring. She’d looked. But was he dating or spoken for?