The Reluctant Daddy

by Helen Conrad

  That made Glenna feel a lot better, but she had to psych herself up before she could call the brother-in-law. She’d never done anything like this before. But once she got him on the telephone, her natural enthusiasm got things rolling, and before she knew what was happening, he’d invited her to spend a few days with his family at their Malibu beach house to talk things over. He’d even offered to spring for the airfare. And the biggest surprise of all was to hear herself saying yes.

  * * *

  YES! SHE WAS on her way to California to negotiate a deal. How had this all happened so fast?

  The first person she wanted to call to tell all about it was Lee, but she couldn’t do that now. Christmas had been an interlude during which the rules had been suspended. Now they were back on real time, and Glenna faced the same problems she had before. Lee Nielsen was coming by tonight to get something she couldn’t give him. Only now she wouldn’t be here.

  She glanced at the phone once again, thinking she should call and explain. But somehow she couldn’t do it. In the meantime, her career just might be taking off if this trip to California panned out. Life was pulling her in two directions at once.

  “Don’t worry about a thing,” Anna told her when she’d heard the details. “This is important. I’ll handle the kids.”

  “Go, just go,” her father seconded.

  She’d turned to look at him, concerned at the worry she saw in his eyes. There was something wrong, something haunting him. But staying home wouldn’t fix that, would it? And in going to California, she could get her hands on that videotape again.

  “Hey, can you get together a couple more of these tapes before you come?” Tony said when she called him to report her success. “They want more.”

  “I’ve got two that are almost done. I’ll see what I can do.”

  She spent the afternoon working on editing the tapes, and time went so quickly, she hardly noticed that Lee didn’t call. Hardly. But she did notice something in another tape that sent her reeling. It was footage of another play day at the park, another Sunday. And there was her father’s car in the background again.

  She stared at it, ran the segment again, then checked the date on the tape. It had been taken in mid-November. That was strange.

  Glenna thought it over for an hour before she did something about it. Then she went looking for her dad. It was time. Somehow, some way, she was going to have to ask him about his visits to the plant on Sundays.

  He was in his den, lying back in his recliner with his arm over his eyes. Glenna almost walked right back out again when she saw him, but he looked up and smiled at her, his eyes a little sad but otherwise normal.

  “Hello, sugar,” he said warmly. “Are you packed to go?”

  “Not yet. I’ve been editing a tape. And Dad...” She swallowed. This was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She looked at him, looked at the man she’d loved all her life, the best and nicest man she knew. “Dad, why have you been going to the plant on Sundays?” she blurted out, and then half expected the earth to open and swallow her up.

  He looked pained for a moment, then sat up taller, facing her. “Who says I have?” he asked her, but his voice was just a little shaky.

  She wanted to throw her arms around him and tell him never mind, but she couldn’t. He looked vulnerable and she hated that. This was her father. He was supposed to be strong, invincible. It hurt to see him this way.

  “No one told me. I can see it. It’s on the videotapes from two Sundays I’ve taken children to the park and recorded their play. Your car is in the background, plain as day.”

  He sat very still and slowly closed his eyes, sitting like a statue. She waited, and when he didn’t move for several moments, finally spoke. “What is it, Dad? Can’t you tell me? Maybe I can—”

  He shook his head, never opening his eyes. “Leave me be, daughter,” he murmured. “I need some time to think.”

  Well, she’d done it. She’d let him know the secret was out. But the explanation she’d hoped for was missing. Her heart sank.

  Going to her room, Glenna cried for ten minutes, then got up and took a shower and got ready to head for the airport. Throughout the last-minute flurry of saying goodbye to her kids, who had never been separated from her this long, her worry about her father was never far from her thoughts. Waving and blowing kisses, she left, but her concerns went with her.

  * * *

  LEE CAME TO THE DOOR that evening, looking for Glenna.

  “Glenna’s gone,” her mother told him. She hesitated, not sure how much her daughter would want him to know. “She went to visit some friends on the coast. She’ll be back in time for New Year’s.”

  He nodded and thanked her, but inside, his heart was cold as ice. He should have known better than to trust Glenna. When would he ever learn?

  “I’m leaving for Madison tomorrow,” he told Anna. “Here’s my card with the number where she can reach me. She has something I need to get my hands on. Will you remind her, please?”

  “Of course.”

  He thanked her again for the Christmas dinner and went on his way, but an anger was boiling deep inside him, an anger he was afraid he might never be rid of again.

  * * *

  GLENNA WAS BACK a few days later, with promise of a contract ringing in her ears.

  “They want to buy the entire line,” she cried giddily, making her mother laugh as she danced around her. “Can you believe it? I showed him some ideas I had for the future, and he went to Magna’s board of directors with them. They loved everything. I can’t tell you how excited I am.”

  “I can see it in your face, darling. I’m so happy for you.”

  But a few minutes later the old troubles came slinking back again to haunt her. “How is Dad?” she asked. “Where is he?”

  Anna hesitated. “Your father hasn’t been very well these past few days,” she said in a worried voice. “He’s lying down right now. What he really seems to want most is to be left alone.”

  Glenna turned her gaze toward the stairs and her parents’ bedroom, and she ached to go to him. Whatever he had done, she would always love him, and she wanted to tell him so. But right now, she didn’t dare.

  Could her father really have set the fire? No, she could never believe that. Might he have inadvertently done something to cause it? Possibly. But even there such actions didn’t fit with his character. He was the sort of man who gave back the money when they handed out too much change at the grocery store. Whatever was bothering him, it couldn’t be that. Could it?

  Glenna took him his lunch and he barely acknowledged her presence.

  “Dad, what is it?” she asked him, leaning close, taking his hand and holding it, trying to express all her love in her grip of his fingers.

  He turned and looked at her and slowly shook his head. “I love you, Glenna,” he said softly. “I love you all, so much.”

  Tears came to her eyes. “We love you too, Dad. Whatever it is, we’ll stand by you. You know that.”

  He smiled. The smile seemed to light his face, except for his eyes, which were still dull and sad. “I wish I deserved all that love,” he told her. “I really do.”

  She stayed with him and chatted, told him all about the contract and the new excitement in her life, and he ate a little. To her mind, he seemed to be perking up. But maybe that was just wishful thinking.

  When Glenna heard that Lee had left for Madison, some of her joy in her business success dimmed. She steeled herself to call him, knowing that facing him with the possibly incriminating tape was the next item on her agenda.

  She had already dialed the Madison area code when she suddenly hung up the receiver. Something this crucial had to be handled in person.

  Megan and Jimmy were playing at friends’ houses. Glenna had a few hours to spare. Grabbing
the tape and leaving a note for her mother, she hurried to her car and took off for Madison.

  Lee’s office was in a tall building, but she found him easily enough. He was on the phone when she entered, given directions by a helpful receptionist.

  He seemed surprised to see her, half-rising from behind the desk and gesturing toward a nearby chair. But when he hung up a moment later, he didn’t stretch out a hand or even smile.

  “What are you doing here?”

  She looked at his handsome face and part of her insides fell away, as though she were going over a bump on a roller coaster. But she gritted her teeth and thrust the tape at him.

  “Here,” she said. “The videotape you wanted.”

  He looked at her quizzically and took the tape slowly, balancing it in his hand. “This is it?” he asked softly, staring into her eyes.

  She took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m willing to let you see it, like I promised. But I have to tell you something first.” She swallowed hard, then squared her shoulders. “I...my father was at the plant the afternoon before the fire. That’s what I caught on video—my own dad entering the F and M. Maybe you can understand why that would be something I might want to hide.”

  She met Lee’s gaze fearlessly as she went on. “I’m showing you this tape now, because I know I have a civic duty to turn it in. It pertains to a terrible fire that’s affecting my own family, my whole community, and I want the arson case solved—or put to rest—as much as anyone. But I also know my dad had nothing to do with that fire. Johnny Kelsey is human, but he’s an honorable man in every way and I know he’ll be proved innocent. I know that, Lee. And I also know that you’ll give him a fair hearing.”

  Lee stared at her. “What was he doing there?” he asked.

  She shook her head, tears in her eyes. “I don’t know. All I know is that Dad would expect me to cooperate with you, for the good of the community. That’s how he raised his kids and how he’d want us to behave.”

  He nodded slowly, thinking. “Did you tell your father you were going to let me know?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I’m going to go back now and do that,” she said.

  He studied her face for a moment, then said, “You won’t find him at home.”

  She lifted her chin and stared at him. “What?”

  “I was just on the phone to the station in Tyler. Your father turned himself in. He’s making a statement right now.”

  Glenna stood before him, stunned, then turned blindly toward the door.

  “Wait a minute,” Lee said, rising and taking her by the shoulders before she could escape. “I’ll have someone drive you back.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head groggily. “No, I—”

  “Yes,” he said, calling out to a young man in the hallway. “Kent will take you. I have to head to Tyler myself, as soon as I clean up a few urgent details, so I can give him a ride back to Madison later.”

  He looked down into her eyes. “Glenna, I appreciate that you told me,” he said. “It’s just too bad...”

  His words trailed off, but she thought she knew what he meant to say. It was too bad things hadn’t gone smoother between them, too bad her father was in trouble, too bad she hadn’t come clean from the first. Just too bad, that was all. Nodding dully, she turned from him and went with the man he’d called Kent. It seemed the only way.

  Glenna wanted to go straight to the fire station in Tyler, but decided to head home instead. Her father’s car was in the station’s parking lot when Kent pulled up there and got out, as she insisted, so she knew Johnny was still being questioned. Glenna got behind the wheel and headed to the boardinghouse, and wasn’t at all surprised to find Patrick and Kathleen already there, sitting with her mother. Her brother was pacing, the others sitting nervously on the edge of their seats.

  “Did you call a lawyer?” was Glenna’s first question to Anna.

  She nodded. “Amanda Trask is there with them,” she answered. Her eyes were clear and she held her head high. “Don’t worry, darling. Everything is going to be all right.”

  Glenna nodded confidently in turn. “It will be, Mom. I know it will,” she said before going off to check on the kids and put on the kettle for tea.

  It was more than two hours later when Johnny drove up to the house. He looked tired as he entered, but somehow the burden that had been dragging him down over the past two weeks seemed to have lifted. He smiled at his wife, but didn’t say a word. Silently, they all filed from the kitchen, where they had eventually gathered, and reassembled in the family room. Johnny nodded toward the couches, then walked over to stand in front of the fireplace and face them all. When they’d sat down, he looked from one to another and his face seemed to crumple for a moment, as though emotion might get the better of him. But he controlled himself, cleared his throat and began.

  “I love you all,” he said huskily. “It’s hard to tell you this, but you deserve an explanation, and I’m going to give it to you.”

  “Dad—” Glenna began, wanting to protect him somehow.

  But he held up his hand to stop her. “No, sugar. Let me do this. I’ve got to get through it. You all know I’m proud of being a Kelsey, that I pride myself in my ancestry and the background we all share. Well, I’m afraid you don’t know just how much pride has blinded me lately. In fact, it’s almost ruined me, as you’ll see when I explain.”

  “We’re with you, Dad,” Patrick said stoutly. “No matter what.”

  “Thank you, son. But you don’t have to say that. I know. I’m rich in the most important things a man can have, the love and devotion of his family. It’s funny, but I forgot that for a while. I tried to get rich in material things, thinking that was important. But I was wrong.”

  “Johnny, what is it?” his wife asked worriedly.

  Turning, he gave her a watery smile. “I’m making a confession, Anna. Let me get it over with.” He cleared his throat. “It all started when I helped negotiate the Gunderson contract. I’d never really been in on that side of the business before, and I thought it seemed pretty easy. I thought I’d done a pretty good job.”

  “You did,” Patrick said encouragingly. “Everyone said so.”

  Johnny nodded, smiling. “Yes. Well, I guess everyone telling me that made my head swell a little, because I got it into my mind that I could do it again on my own. You see, I got a line on a possible contract that would put the F and M into orbit. I approached Judson and Alyssa about it, but he didn’t seem too interested and she seemed too busy. So I decided to work on it on my own, to surprise them.” He shook his head. “I thought I would put the company into the black so far, we’d never have to worry again. We’d be able to bring in so many people, it would help cut down unemployment in town, and Judson and Alyssa would be so proud....” He choked again, but he was laughing at the same time, laughing at himself. “Well, it wasn’t something I could do under our normal working regulations, so I was working on it on Sundays. My eyes got bigger than my brain and I acted like a fool.” He shook his head. “I acted like a guilty person, sneaking in, hiding my car, waiting until I knew the night watchman was in another part of the building. All to work on my big surprise. So when something went wrong, of course, I looked like a criminal.”

  “The fire,” Kathleen said faintly.

  He nodded. “I’ve been in hell for the past few weeks, wondering if I did something to start it inadvertently. I wanted to talk to Lee Nielsen about it, but if I did that, I would have to admit what I’d been up to, and I was too proud to let you all—and Judson—know.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t seem so horrible, now that it’s out. But while I was agonizing, somehow it seemed an impossible admission to make.”

  “Oh, Johnny.” Anna shook her head, tears in her eyes. “You crazy man.”

  “Well, it’s over now,” he said, relief shining i
n his eyes. “It’s all out in the open. And they’ve assured me my actions couldn’t have had anything to do with the fire.” He made a face. “Now all I have to do is go talk to Judson and come clean with him.”

  Patrick shook his head, not sure he was getting it all. “You mean, you thought you might have caused the fire?”

  Johnny shrugged. “I just didn’t know. I did know I’d been there when I shouldn’t have been, and a few hours later, the fire happened.”

  “But they’re sure—”

  “Oh, yes, they are sure. The fire started in the lab, and I wasn’t anywhere near that part of the plant. Lee had them check out phone records from the telephone company that prove I was in my office, on the phone, the whole time.”

  “And you say you were working on a contract?”

  “That I was.”

  “But there’s no hope for that contract now?”

  Johnny shook his head. “We’re out of action, what with the fire. The contract will go to some other plant.”

  They all rose and surrounded him, everyone talking at once. The feeling was one of wonder and joy. Then Anna gestured toward her middle daughter.

  “Glenna, come help me. These people all need to be fed.”

  Glenna followed her gladly, feeling laughter bubbling up in her throat. Her heart was light as a feather. Her father had not been involved in the fire, and everything was going to be okay. Everything—except the fact that Lee was gone.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  AND THEN IT WAS New Year’s Eve. The community college was closed for the holidays, so Glenna had no classes, and she’d taken the whole week after Christmas off from the child-care center for her trip to California. She stayed up so late editing the tapes that by rights she should have slept like a baby as soon as she turned in the previous night, but sleep was a long time coming. In the dark, she couldn’t get Lee’s face out of her mind, and the time they’d had together replayed itself like an old movie in her brain. In the morning, her eyes had dark circles and she felt as though her head were full of cotton. But she pushed on. She had to.