“I think the mom dropped him off,” Harper said, interrupting James’s thoughts of what a man-whore he’d been. “Whoever did it, dropped him off right at your door, so she knew where you lived. She did it right before you got home. And she did it right before you had two days off. It’s someone who knows those details. And it’s not easy to explain to people why you’re pregnant and then suddenly have no baby. I’m guessing she kept it all as secret as possible. You don’t just ask someone to take your baby from Wisconsin or Wyoming to New Orleans to an apartment in the Quarter and leave it.”
He frowned. “I guess.”
“She could have left him at any safe haven in this city or in any city between here and wherever she’s from,” Harper went on. “She also could have given him up for adoption. She specifically chose to give him to you. With a note. That means that she knew you well enough to know that you’re a good guy and she cared enough to at least give him to his father.”
That made James pause. Had he really known any of these women well enough to convince them that he was a good guy who’d be willing and able to be a dad?
It only took about a minute of really thinking about that question for him to groan. If the woman hadn’t just panicked about not wanting to be a mom and had specifically decided that he’d be good at this, then it wasn’t Megan or Kylie-Kaylie. They didn’t know him well enough. It also wasn’t the girl from the W state. He was sure she’d been willing to spend the night with him because Marcus knew him and could vouch that he wouldn’t kill her and put her in his freezer. But she hadn’t known him. Marcus didn’t really know much about James except that he could play the hell out of a piano. That meant that if Harper was right—and Harper was always right—then Isaac’s mom had to be Emily.
He hadn’t really thought about it being Emily.
Because it being Emily made this all a lot more complicated.
Emily was Ethan’s little sister. Ethan was one of James’s firefighter brothers. One he didn’t get along with all that well. Emily had been in town for Ethan’s wedding. The wedding James had been invited to only because Ethan had invited the entire firehouse. That’s just what you did. They were a brotherhood even if they weren’t best friends in their off time. When they were on the clock, they had each other’s backs and would risk their lives for one another. That gave them a bond. Even if, after hours, they thought the other guy was a prick.
So James had met Emily at Ethan’s wedding, and they’d spent the evening talking and dancing and drinking champagne, and he’d made the mistake of not going up to her hotel room that first night. Because of Ethan.
But he’d known that Emily trusted him because he was her brother’s coworker in a career that required men who were brave and self-sacrificing and who would put their differences aside when it came to getting the job done. Ethan and James were a lot alike actually, which was probably why they rubbed each other the wrong way sometimes. It had been clear Emily admired her brother. Then, in the course of conversation, he’d learned that Ethan had actually talked highly of James. Not highly enough that he’d want him banging his little sister, maybe, but highly enough that Emily clearly respected James and even went as far as to say that her brother had called him funny and upstanding.
That had all been enough for her to show up at his apartment the next morning with muffins and coffee and enthusiastically toss her panties onto his bedroom floor.
It was Emily.
James felt like someone had just slapped him on the forehead.
It had to be Emily.
They’d been together during the right window of time. She lived far away from all her family, so it wasn’t impossible to think she’d avoided them during the months when her pregnancy would have been most obvious. She knew where James lived and what he did for a living. She knew how fire stations ran and how theirs in particular worked. She would have known she could call and find out when James was on and off shift. And she would have known enough about him to think that he was a decent, upstanding, take-care-of-others kind of guy.
Holy shit. He now knew who Isaac’s mom was. He wasn’t sure exactly how to find her or get ahold of her, but there had to be a way since he knew her brother.
“She wouldn’t risk someone taking him to the wrong apartment or at the wrong time and leaving him out alone. She’d bring him herself.”
Harper was still talking about how the person leaving the baby with James had to have been the mother.
James glanced at her. Harper was attached to Isaac. It was more and more obvious the more time she spent with the baby and the more James observed them together. Harper couldn’t imagine just leaving the baby there, taking a chance it was the wrong apartment. That didn’t mean the mom would feel that way, though.
He was guessing that after Harper had the baby to herself for the next twenty-four hours—minus the hours she’d be in class and Bea would be watching him—they would be even more bonded.
“And besides,” Harper went on. “If it wasn’t the mom dropping him off, wouldn’t that person just come to you and hand him over? They wouldn’t have had to leave him in a basket with a note. You wouldn’t have known them. They could have played dumb about details. They could have just waited until you were home and given him to you.”
That was a decent point.
“Yeah, I think it was her, too,” James admitted. It made sense. Now that he knew who she was, it made even more sense. Emily would know that fire stations were all safe havens. He was sure Ethan had told her about the baby that had been left at theirs about three years ago.
Harper nodded. “Gut instinct.”
Paternal instinct, maybe. “I think I know who it is.”
She looked up at him. “Really?”
“Yeah. What you just said makes a lot of sense. I think it’s Emily. She’s the sister of one of the other firefighters. Met her at his wedding.”
“Oh.” Harper seemed to be thinking about that. “How sure are you?”
How sure could he be? He shrugged. “Seventy percent?”
She seemed surprised. Probably that it was that high. “Okay. So…”
“Should we go home? I need to figure out how to get ahold of her. That might take a little time.”
Harper blew out a breath. “We’re already almost to the studio. We might as well cover all the bases, yes? If you’re not one hundred percent.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
They walked a few more blocks before stopping in front of the photography studio.
“This is it,” James said.
He was ninety-percent sure that Kylie-Kaylie wasn’t Isaac’s mom now. He looked up at the sign over the door and then down at Harper. He didn’t mind that this outing had given him more time to hang out with her, though. Searching for the mother of his child with the woman he was falling in love with—and they were definitely not the same person—was a strange way to date her, but he was enjoying their time together.
He reached for the door and pulled it open for her.
Harper preceded him into Angie’s studio, and since it was early afternoon on a weekday, a typically less busy time for her, Angie came out from the back room almost immediately.
“James!” she exclaimed, clearly surprised but pleased to see him.
“Hi, Angie.”
A shorter, younger woman stepped into the room a moment after Angie. Her long, blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and it still almost brushed her ass. Her bright green eyes lit up when she saw him. “James!”
Seeing her again made her name click in his mind instantly. “Hey, Kylie.”
“What are you doing—” But that was as far as Kylie got before she noticed Isaac. Her eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open.
For a second, James froze. She looked stunned. Was it her after all? And not Emily?
“Oh my God, you have a baby?” Kylie hurried forward. She put a hand on Isaac’s back and leaned in to get a better look into the sl
ing. “Oh, wow, he’s so beautiful.” She looked up at James, a bright, sincere smile on her face.
She looked young suddenly. And sweet. He did not remember her being sweet. She’d been cute and flirty, but once he’d gotten her to her apartment, she’d been very dirty. And when he’d pulled his pants back on and said he had to get going, she’d given him a big smile and said, “Okay. Thanks. Have a great rest of the night.” As if he’d just brought her a pizza and she couldn’t have cared less what he was doing after he left her.
“Congratulations,” Kylie said enthusiastically. Then she glanced at Harper. “You must be the mom.” She sighed. “I love babies so much. Wow, I’m so happy for you.”
It didn’t seem to phase her a bit that she was gushing over the baby that belonged to the man she’d had a very hot, sexy night with not that long ago.
For just a second, James was a little annoyed. Really? Not even a hint of jealousy? Not a flicker of awkwardness remembering what they’d done to one another, while standing in front of the woman she was assuming he’d just had a baby with? Maybe Kylie was really bad at math and didn’t realize how close to their night together this baby would have had to have been conceived.
But when Harper stepped closer to him and put her hand on Isaac just above Kylie’s in a very possessive, protective, this-is-mine gesture, James immediately stopped caring about Kylie completely.
Kylie wasn’t Isaac’s mom. Thank God. James clearly hadn’t meant much to her, and she definitely hadn’t been anything more than a hot night to him. At least he and Emily had had muffins.
And he and Harper had a hell of a lot more than that.
“Thank you,” Harper said, her voice calm and sincere. “We’re very happy.”
James heard the unspoken that you’re clearly not the mother tacked on to the end of Harper’s sentence and he grinned.
“We just stopped in to see about maybe getting some pictures of him done,” he said, directing the statement to Angie as Isaac began to stir. Baby photos actually hadn’t been his intention at all, but it made sense. Why would he not want to get photos of Isaac done? Everyone had photos of their newborns done. They even sent out announcements. “You do birth announcements and things like that, right?”
He was going to send out a birth announcement?
Harper looked up at him quickly, obviously thinking that same thing.
But yeah, it seemed that he was. He was a dad now, and he wanted to let everyone know.
Of course, he should probably tell his parents before he did a mass mailing to everyone, he supposed. And his grandmother. And the guys at the fire station.
Including Ethan.
Which meant, he needed to track Emily down. Soon.
Isaac wiggled and stretched, his eyes opening.
“I do,” Angie said. She moved behind the counter and pulled a huge binder out, setting it on top and flipping it open. “Come show me what you’re thinking. We’ll get the session booked, too.” She smiled at Isaac. “Yes, congratulations, James. That’s really awesome.”
“You think so?” He looked down at Isaac. Awesome. Huh. Yeah, it kind of was. Then he looked at Harper. Yeah, it definitely was.
“I do all kinds of invitations and announcements,” Angie said. She looked at Harper. “What are you thinking?”
Harper blinked at her. “Of?”
“For the announcements?” Angie pointed to the book.
“Oh.”
James had thrown her—or pulled her—into all of this so far. Why not this, too? He put an arm around her, hugging her close and said, “I know you’ll want something simple and classic. Nothing too cute. Nothing too gender specific.”
He shifted Isaac as the baby began squirming, lifting him out of the carrier and to his shoulder.
Harper looked up at him, then to Isaac, then at the page Angie flipped to, then up at him again. “Um.”
Professor Broussard never said, “Um.”
He patted Isaac’s back and studied the pages Angie was showing them. The baby was wet, no doubt, and probably getting hungry.
“That’s really her style,” James told Angie. “Classy, pretty, sweet. Nothing dramatic or too loud or fussy. Focus on the photo, not a lot of decoration around it.”
Angie nodded, flipped another page, and then looked up. “Something like this?”
There was a white card at the top. The center of the card was where the photo would go. There were tiny yellow and green decorative curls at the corners and a space for information like name, weight, and birth date at the bottom. Simple, classy, focused on the photo. Exactly as he’d asked. Angie was good.
He glanced at Harper. “What do you—”
He frowned as he noticed that her eyes were shiny. As if they had filled with tears. Oh, shit. James turned. “Harper?”
She sniffed. “Those are perfect.”
He liked that he’d gotten it right. But something was going on. He looked at Angie.
“I’ll give you a second,” she said. “Kylie and I have some things to do in back. Ring the bell when you’re ready.” She gestured toward the little silver bell sitting on the corner of the countertop.
“And here, let me take him for a little bit,” Kylie said, coming forward and reaching for Isaac.
“He’s wet,” James said.
“Then give me the diaper bag, too,” she said with a smile.
He must have looked surprised, because she shook her head. “I have three younger siblings. I’ve changed lots of diapers. This is fine. Is there a bottle, too?”
“Yeah.” James surrendered it all to her.
“You don’t have to,” Harper started to protest.
“It’s fine. I love it,” Kylie said, slipping the diaper bag over her shoulder and cradling Isaac with a smile. “Honest.”
A moment later, she’d disappeared into the back room with the baby.
James focused on Harper. She was frowning after Kylie.
“You want me to go get him?”
She shook her head. “It’s just… weird.”
“What is?”
“That I know there are all these women in your past. I mean we’ve been specifically looking for two of them in the past two days, and clearly, Kylie isn’t his mom, so we’re going to have to keep looking. And I want to hate them and feel like I should be jealous.” She looked up at him. “And I am, a little, but mostly I’m just happy to know that the women you’ve been with are nice women. Hardworking. At least one was happy to see you. Megan might have been too if you’d talked to her. I just…” She trailed off, shaking her head.
“You just what?” James prompted, wanting to hear this for some reason.
“I know you said that none of these women were serious or long term and yes, I’m glad about that. But you’re also not just…” She took a deep breath. “You’re not just fucking around with these women either. I know they might have just been one-night stands, and you might not know what W state one of them lives in, but you were sweet and funny and made sure they had a good time, and they all walked away from you—or watched you walk away—feeling good about things.”
He’d liked to think so. But it meant even more that Harper would assume all that. Not because one of the women had told her that, but because she knew him. He lifted a hand to her face, running the pad of his thumb over her cheek. “Would this be easier if I’d just banged them in the storage room and didn’t even know where any of them were from or worked?”
“No. Because that wouldn’t line up with the guy I know you are.”
“Why the teary eyes, then?” He stepped in closer.
“Oh.” Her gaze flickered to the book of invitations and announcements. “I realized that if we really were ordering birth announcements, we didn’t have any information to fill in. We don’t know how much he weighed or even what day his birthday actually is.” She gave him a wobbly smile. “And we don’t know if he had another name or what to put for his mom’s name.”
“He has a nam
e, though,” James said. “And I think we just make the day he came to us his birthday. And… we could fill his parents’ names in.”
“We could fill his dad’s name in, I guess,” she said. “Single dads are hot.”
He smiled. “Or we could give him a mom.”
She frowned.
He hadn’t prepared to say this today. Or this week. Or maybe for a few months. But hell, a week ago he hadn’t been prepared to be a dad, yet here they were. “I looked some stuff up. Her abandoning him essentially terminates her parental rights. We go get a lawyer, show up before a judge, and make it official.”
“You mean declare you as his father and to make it official that she’s out of the picture?”
“Well, yes.”
“You’ll need the DNA test.”
“Right. But I should have that in a couple of days.”
She nodded. “I mean, it doesn’t solve the problem of medical history, but I guess we just do the best we can.”
“But I was talking about showing up in front of the judge to make something else official.”
“What’s that?”
“We get married.”
She just stared at him. Her eyes didn’t widen. Her mouth didn’t drop open. She didn’t gasp. She just stared at him. As if she were still waiting for him to speak. Or maybe explain himself.
“If we’re married, then you can adopt him. He’ll have a mom and dad.”
She wet her lips, then took a deep breath, then pressed them together.
“Professor?”
She closed her eyes and took another deep breath.
“Harper?”
“Yeah?” Her eyes were still closed.
“Did you hear me?”
She nodded.
“What do you think?”
Getting Off Easy Page 16