Child's Play

by Danielle Steel

  “I’ve considered it, or a career in alcoholism.”

  “Screw all that. We are going to party tonight.” He went back to get the light-up jewelry and put it on her, and the light-up glasses that had no lenses on himself. They turned off the lights, and he pulled her close to him as he lay next to her, and she smiled. She had never had a night like this with Bart Mackenzie, or any other man. “Thank God that fool you were dating thought you guys had an expiration date, or you’d probably never have gone out with me.”

  “I probably wouldn’t,” she said, smiling.

  “I should probably write him a thank-you letter.”

  “Just don’t vote for him if he ever runs for President.”

  “Another politician?”

  “A senator, from Massachusetts.”

  “Am I boring for you? I’m just a lawyer from another law firm.” He looked worried.

  “So am I. I’m not a movie star. I’m just a lawyer, and a very mediocre mother.”

  “Bullshit,” he said and kissed her again, and this time he gently ran a hand up her silk pajama top, and found her breasts with one hand, as she moaned softly. He had a delicate touch and was very gentle, and then he slid his hand down into her pajamas, and she turned toward him, and did the same. They hadn’t made their movie selection yet, and forgot all about it as they discovered each other’s bodies. He looked at her then with a question in his eyes, and she nodded. He had what they needed, in the pocket of his pajamas, and a minute later, they lay naked, as he admired her body, and she couldn’t get enough of him. He was aching with desire for her, and she wanted him desperately.

  He was the best lover she’d ever known, and they came together with such force that Kate could hardly breathe as she clung to him. They went on making love for a few minutes because it felt so good, they didn’t want to stop.

  “Oh my God, Kate…what are you? Lover of the year…mother of the year…why didn’t I find you sooner? And why did we wait for that crappy case to settle before we did this?”

  “Because we have ethics, and integrity,” she said, still breathless.

  “Fuck that, I want you…I hope you don’t get tired of me, because now that I’ve found you, I’m never letting you go. I don’t want to meet your children for a while, I want you to myself.” It was what she wanted too. It was her turn now. She had earned the right to a life of her own, not constantly worrying about her children.

  “You should meet my mother though,” she said, as she cuddled up next to him, naked on the bed as he admired her long graceful body that hadn’t been touched by age yet. “My mother is fantastic.”

  “No, you’re fantastic.” He picked up the remote on the bed and went through the list of movies and they picked one. They shared the popcorn, and halfway through the movie, he wanted her again. He couldn’t keep his hands off her, and his body away from her. It was as if they were magnetized to each other. Now that they had found each other, they couldn’t get enough. They paused the movie twice to make love, and when they glanced at the clock on her nightstand, it was five minutes to midnight. They switched the channel to the ball in Times Square, and watched it.

  “This means something, Kate. We’re starting the year together. Let’s make it a good one, for us.” He sensed that she needed more of that in her life, not just constantly giving to others. He suspected that her children had been spoiled in every way possible, materially, and above all emotionally, and with all the time and energy and thought and love she devoted to them, and it sounded to him that they didn’t give enough back, which was the nature of children. He wanted to do that for her now, and to let her lavish some of her love on him. He needed her too. He had waited years to find the right woman, and he finally had. “This is going to be a very special year for us. Your daughter is going to have her baby, and maybe the other one will too, and your son will have his sex bomb in New Delhi, and an exciting job. It’ll give us more time for each other.” They both loved that idea. He had understood everything quickly. And she was ready for him. She had been waiting for him and didn’t even know it.

  “If I hadn’t fallen on the ice that day, I never would have gotten to know you, and how sweet you are. You’re a shit in the courtroom, you know.” She grinned.

  “So are you,” he said to her.

  “Thank you,” she said meekly.

  “You know what I just realized?” he said, looking thunderstruck.

  “What? We ate all the popcorn?”

  “No, I haven’t made love to you since last year.” It was 12:04 of the new year, and she laughed, but a minute later she was breathless again and wanting him, and he was inside her. They made love again and again that night, trying to make up for lost time and the years when they didn’t have each other. They fell asleep as the sun came up. A new day was dawning, a new year, and a new life for both of them.

  Chapter 18

  Scott and Kate woke up at noon on New Year’s Day. He woke up first and lay smiling next to her, watching her as she slept. He didn’t know what he’d done right in his life, but he had finally found the woman he always knew he wanted and didn’t think existed. Real, kind, warm, loving, honorable, he could see all those things in her, and talented and smart as well. She was beautiful inside and out. He couldn’t wait to learn more about her.

  He went to make coffee for them, and looked at the framed photographs around the apartment. They were all photographs of her children, or of her with them. They were a handsome bunch but they had been giving her a run for her money lately, and he thought it should stop. At their ages, they needed to do more for her, instead of expecting her to do for them. He had already gotten the picture. He was probably going to like them, if they were anything like her, but he didn’t want them to hurt her. She was a strong woman but he could tell that inside she was vulnerable and fragile, and they probably didn’t suspect it. She was the workhorse they counted on, the safety net they expected to be there for them, and she always was. And now, he wanted to be the safety net for her. Just being with her made him feel like more of a man, and he wanted to take care of her, if she’d let him.

  “Good morning,” she said in a sexy voice from the doorway, her long blond hair draping over her shoulder and covering one breast, while he could see the other. He was in her living room, naked, and they were totally at ease with each other. It was as though they had been together forever, not just for one night.

  All her kids sent her texts while they were having breakfast, to wish her a happy New Year. He was pleased to see that. They weren’t totally without feeling or respect for her. They were just used to taking everything she had to give. Until now, she gave her all to them.

  She called her own mother when they finished breakfast, and Scott was impressed by how close they seemed. Margaret said she was having lunch with the newlyweds that day and invited Kate to join them, but Kate said she was seeing a friend, which surprised her mother. She didn’t see friends much anymore, just family. Between her job and her kids, she never had time for anything else. But she was going to make time now, for Scott. It was the only resolution Kate had made the night before, and it was a good one.

  It was snowing when they looked outside, and they wanted to go for a walk in the snow.

  They took a shower together and dressed reluctantly. They hated to leave the nest they were making, but they wanted exercise and air, and they went for a long walk in the snow, and then came home, pulled off their clothes and wound up in bed again. It was where everything had started, and they didn’t want to leave it yet. They slept in each other’s arms that afternoon, and made dinner, and then went back to bed again.

  They stayed home all weekend and he hated to leave her to go back to his apartment on Sunday night, and by midnight he was back at hers.

  “You’ve cast a spell on me,” he accused her. “When I get ten feet away from you, I’m miserable. I might have
to give up work.” He had brought a suit back with him, so he could leave from her apartment to go to his office in the morning.

  They both had early morning appointments, and left together. Their offices were only five blocks apart so they could share a cab.

  “Are you free for lunch?” he asked her and she nodded. “Good, then let’s go back to your place and make love.”

  “I thought you were going to feed me,” she teased him. But in the end, they did what he’d suggested and went back to their offices after lunch, looking like they had a guilty secret. They returned to her place that night, and she had to bring home a mountain of work. She tried to keep her mind on it, but she couldn’t for long, as he came to check on her, kiss her, or run a finger down her neck until she shivered.

  “They’re going to fire me if I don’t get my work done,” she said but didn’t really care.

  “They can’t afford to. You’re the best thing they’ve got.” She had two cases set for trial, and she had to start to work on them. He was in the same situation. He had a massive workload, but they agreed that they’d figure out how to balance it all eventually.

  Being with Scott was taking the edge off Kate’s sadness over Anthony leaving. She hated knowing that soon he’d be so far away. But Margaret was insistent they should go to visit him, and Kate was beginning to think that would be a good idea after Claire’s baby was born. She didn’t want to leave until then. They had just come back from Saint Bart’s, and Claire couldn’t travel after that, until after the baby.

  By the time Anthony was ready to leave, Claire only had seven weeks left until the baby was due. She was starting to call her mother more frequently again. She was asking her advice about the delivery and the nursery. She was getting increasingly anxious, and finally admitted that she was scared. What if she died? What if the baby did? What if there was something wrong with him? They knew it was a boy, and had seen it on the sonogram. But what if the birth hurt too much or she couldn’t handle the pain? Kate tried to reassure her but Claire had too much time on her hands, and she was panicking, imagining every possible nightmarish scenario.

  “Maybe you should have kept working till the end,” Kate said, unable to reassure her. “You’ve got too much time to think and scare yourself silly.” Kate wasn’t quite as easy to reach as she used to be. She was spending every night with Scott. He was staying at her apartment, and she tried to keep her nights free for him. Claire now wanted all her time, energy, and attention, and Kate was less willing to give it to her, which frightened Claire even more. Kate wanted to be there for her, but not every single hour of the day. Claire wanted her mommy. She acted like a frightened child. And Kate had Scott now and loved him too. Her children still knew nothing about him.

  “What if I can’t reach you when I go into labor?” Claire said one day in a panic. “You didn’t answer your phone last night.”

  “I must have been asleep, or maybe my phone was in the charger in the other room,” which it often was now, so she and Scott could sleep through the night, or make love without being disturbed. Her children weren’t babies anymore, and she needed time to herself. They could also call on her landline in an emergency, and they hadn’t so far. Claire could do that if she went into labor.

  “Your kids are used to having access to you at all hours of the day and night,” Scott commented with surprise one day over breakfast. All three of them had called her between one and two A.M., and she was usually up working. Now she was with Scott at night.

  “Yes, they are,” she admitted. “They’ll get used to the new order of things.” He nodded. He didn’t want to pressure her about it, but she needed better boundaries with them, and she knew it too. But so far it hadn’t caused a problem between them. Nothing had. Everything was going so smoothly between them that it was hard to believe he hadn’t always been there. “When do you want to meet them?” she asked him.

  “Not yet. I want time for us first.”

  “I’m giving a farewell party for Anthony on Friday.” They were leaving for New Delhi two days later. “They won’t be all together here again until next summer.”

  “I’ll meet Anthony then,” he said firmly. “And the girls in a while.” He wanted to meet Tammy and Stacey first. They sounded like the easiest to him. He was annoyed at Claire before he’d even met her, because she was so demanding and gave her mother such a hard time. Although he was curious about Reed Bailey and eager to meet him when the time came.

  Kate was already sad about Anthony leaving. She was grateful she had Scott in her life now. Without him, she would have been devastated to have her son so far away. She was less sad than she would have been, because Scott was with her so much, so supportive and kind and caring. She felt like the luckiest woman in the world. It had only been three weeks, but they felt like the best three weeks of her life.

  * * *

  —

  “Okay,” Stacey said handing the test stick to Tammy, so she could pee on it. This was the earliest day when a pregnancy would register on the home test. Stacey had just done hers and hadn’t looked at it yet. They were going to look at them together at the same time, and see if the insemination of the donor sperm had worked for either of them. Tammy peed on it, and then they waited for it to process. And then they both stood in the bathroom holding their sticks, and stuck them out at the same time. They saw Tammy’s first. It had two dark pink lines. And then Stacey’s. The same two dark pink lines. They stared at each other in disbelief and Tammy screamed as they threw their arms around each other and jumped up and down. It had worked. Their double insemination with the same sperm had worked. They were both pregnant.

  “Oh my God, I’m pregnant,” Stacey said and sat down on the edge of the tub feeling dizzy. It had been a last minute decision. They had always agreed that Tammy would be the one to carry a baby, and now they both were. “What if I get too sick to work? My practice will fall apart.”

  “No, it won’t,” Tammy said calmly. “This will be fantastic. It will be like having twins.”

  “You have no idea what that’s like. Mothers of twins come into my office all the time, crying and ready to kill themselves.”

  “Two babies are not going to kill us. We can afford them, and we can hire a nanny to help us.”

  “I don’t want to nurse. I don’t have that instinct.” Stacey was panicking.

  “I’ll nurse both of them,” Tammy said, and put her arms around Stacey to calm her. “It’s going to be wonderful. It’s what we’ve wanted for all these years, and now our dreams are coming true.” It was real now, and Stacey had never been so scared in her life, but she loved Tammy, and there was something so exciting about it at the same time. Using all of the sperm for both of them had been a daring thing to do, and it had worked. Now they just had to wait nine months to see what motherhood was like. “Can we tell my mom?” Tammy asked her with wide excited eyes. She wasn’t scared at all, although she had been before they made the decision to do it. This was what they wanted, they were married, and they would both be pregnant at the same time.

  “We should really wait until the end of the first trimester to make sure everything is all right before we tell people,” Stacey said with a serious look on her face.

  “Just my mom?” Stacey couldn’t resist the pleading look in Tammy’s eyes, and Kate had been so good to them and so supportive. She smiled as she nodded. “We can tell her quietly at Anthony’s farewell party on Friday night. She’s going to be so happy for us. Are you happy, Stacey?” Tammy was worried about her. She looked shocked.

  “I am happy, but I’m scared shitless.”

  “I’ll take care of you, I promise,” she said lovingly and Stacey’s heart melted. She was usually the stronger one but this time it was Tammy.

  “Oh, baby,” she said and kissed her, and held her in her arms for a long time. “This is the bravest thing we’ve ever done,” Stacey
said wisely. It was unbelievable. Their dreams really had come true and they were both going to be moms, and going to give birth.

  * * *

  —

  The party for Anthony went off as smoothly as everything Kate did for them. She had all his favorite foods, set a beautiful table, had flowers everywhere. The whole family had come, and the significant others. Everyone gave them little gifts to use on their travels and Anthony was so excited he could hardly contain himself. Alicia already had an agent and three auditions lined up. Everything was going smoothly. Kate smiled as she saw her family gathered around her. She hadn’t seen them since Christmas. She had been with Scott every night since New Year’s Eve, and he was going to stay at his place that night for the first time in three weeks. He had texted her that he was having withdrawal symptoms, and she missed him, but she loved being with her children too. She wanted to introduce him to them soon, so they would know he existed and could get to know him, and would be a little less demanding of her time.

  Claire was following her around like a whale in high heels at the dinner. After barely speaking to her for seven months, she was in full panic mode now, and acting like a four-year-old. She wanted her mommy. Kate hadn’t seen her since Christmas. The baby had gotten huge, and there were still seven weeks to go.

  Kate was alone in the kitchen for five minutes after dessert was served, a cake she had ordered with Anthony and Alicia on it dressed in Indian garb. She was getting the ice cream out of the freezer when Tammy and Stacey walked into the kitchen and closed the door with a conspiratorial look. “Is something wrong?” she asked them. They both shook their heads at the same time, and Kate thought they were starting to look alike, like people who had lived together for a long time.

  “Nothing’s wrong.” Tammy was quick to reassure her and lowered her voice to a whisper. “We’re pregnant, Mom. It worked!” She danced around and Kate hugged her.