by Pamela Bauer
“I’m sorry. I came right in…the screen door was open…I had no idea,” the other woman, an older redhead, stammered. “I can leave.”
“No!” Frannie stopped her, straightening her shirt as she scrambled to her feet. “It’s all right.”
“No, I think I will leave,” the woman said. “I just remembered I was going to stop at the store to pick up some of that chocolate-mint ice cream the—” She never finished her sentence because she finally stole a look at Joe. “Oh!” She turned to Frannie for an explanation.
Before Frannie could begin an introduction, Joe was sure he knew who the redhead was. But even as Frannie confirmed his suspicions, he didn’t know what to feel.
“Arlene, I’d like you to meet Joe Smith. Joe, this is Arlene Harper, my children’s grandmother.”
Arlene appeared to not know whether she wanted to shake his outstretched hand. She hesitated briefly, then put her hand in his. “It’s nice to meet you, Arlene,” he said.
“You look like—” She stopped suddenly, turning to Frannie. “You don’t need me to tell you who he looks like, do you.”
Frannie shook her head. “Alex found him through the posters.” She chuckled nervously. “The trouble is, Alex can’t see the differences.”
“You mean he thinks he’s…” Arlene’s voice trailed off apprehensively. She studied Joe for several moments, then said, “He does look like Dennis, but I wasn’t fooled.”
“That’s good to hear,” Joe remarked dryly.
Arlene straightened her back and lifted her chin. “A mother knows her own son. You’re slimmer than my Dennis…and, well, you’re not him.”
“No, I’m not,” Joe said quietly, wondering if he was, however, this woman’s son. Nothing about her looked familiar. She was a stranger, yet strangely, there was something about her voice that he found soothing. Physically, he didn’t see any resemblance between them, although he supposed the red hair could have come out of a bottle.
There was an uneasy silence that Frannie broke by asking, “So how was your trip?”
“It was wonderful. Ted and I saw so many beautiful places,” Arlene said.
Frannie raised an eyebrow. “Ted?”
“That would be me,” a voice called out.
Frannie looked toward the door, and Joe realized that Arlene hadn’t come alone. A short, slightly balding man emerged from the entry.
He extended his hand first to Frannie, then to Joe, murmuring, “It’s nice to meet you.” Frannie went through the motions, looking even more uncomfortable than she had when she’d first noticed Arlene.
“I thought you were traveling with Georgia.” Joe detected a hint of irritation in Frannie’s usually calm voice.
“I was part of the time, but then I met Ted.” She looked affectionately at the balding man. “Or I guess I should say, we met again.”
Frannie frowned. “Again?”
“We used to date in high school,” Arlene explained, casting warm glances at Ted.
“You met at the reunion?” Frannie asked.
Ted answered for Arlene. “Actually, I didn’t go to the class reunion. We literally bumped into each other at a restaurant in Boise.”
“You’ve been in Boise?” Frannie looked at her ex-mother-in-law.
“Georgia wanted to go visit some friends,” Arlene explained.
“Lucky for me,” Ted declared, wrapping his arm around Arlene’s waist and pulling her tight. “After all these years, who would have thought I’d find her again.”
“I’ve been trying to reach you for weeks, leaving you messages,” Frannie told her.
“I would have called, but we were having so much fun,” Arlene told her, fluttering her eyelashes at Ted.
The longer Joe was in Arlene’s presence, the more uncomfortable he became. As hard as he tried to focus on the conversation, he couldn’t stop thinking about the test results and the possibility that this jovial woman could be his biological mother. It was obvious from her behavior that she was unaware of the paternity test, which only added to his uneasiness. He didn’t think Arlene would be chatting the way she was if she’d seen the lab report.
When Frannie announced she’d make some coffee, Joe knew he had to leave. “I’m going to have to get going, Frannie,” he announced.
“No! You can’t leave!” Frannie pleaded. “Please stay.”
Arlene seconded the request, placing her hand on Joe’s. “If you leave, I’m going to feel as if I chased you away. I didn’t mean to walk in on you and Frannie like that,” she said apologetically, looking up at him with eyes that were as brown as his. She patted his arm, saying, “You just have to stay. We stopped at the cutest little bakery on our way here and bought some brownies. Ted and I’ll get them from the car, while you and Frannie make the coffee,” she said, grabbing Ted by the arm and leading him toward the door.
As soon as they’d slipped out, Frannie said, “I’m sorry. I had no idea she was coming.”
He lifted one brow. “I believe you. But I do need to leave, Frannie.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I don’t know what to say to her.” He nodded toward the door.
“What do you want to say to her?”
That was the problem. He didn’t know what he wanted to say to her, but he didn’t admit that to Frannie. “She doesn’t know about the paternity test, does she.” It was more a statement than a question.
She shook her head.
Joe rubbed his jaw. “I shouldn’t have come here today.”
“But you did come, Joe, and now Arlene has seen you.”
“Are you going to tell her about the paternity report?”
“I won’t if you don’t want me to, but that doesn’t mean someone else won’t.”
He frowned. “You said Alex doesn’t know the results.”
“No, but my sister does.”
“The attorney?” Joe groaned.
She took him by the hand. “Come into the kitchen with me. I need to start the coffee.”
He pulled his hand away. “I don’t want any coffee, Frannie. I shouldn’t be here,” he repeated.
“But you are here, and Arlene Harper is going to be back in this house in a few minutes. Joe, I don’t want to be in a position where I’m forced to lie.”
“Not even to protect my father?”
She didn’t answer his question, saying instead, “You said you didn’t want to open a can of worms, but isn’t it already open?”
“And what do you suggest? That we say to this poor woman something like ‘Hey, you know the son you thought was dead…well, he might be alive. And guess what, this might be him?”’ He spread his hands in the air.
“I wouldn’t just blurt it out. You think I don’t know what a shock it’s going to be for Arlene to hear something like that?”
“She’s already rattled by my appearance. I know she said she could tell right away that I wasn’t Dennis, but she’s not as comfortable with it as she wants you to believe. And once she’s with me, she’ll start noticing the similarities you saw that first time we met, and then she’ll start putting two and two together…”
“And get four, which is what she should get.” She had lowered her voice to a whisper, keeping one eye on the door as she spoke. “I understand your need to protect your father, but doesn’t Arlene have a right to know if she has another son?”
“That’s a pretty big ‘if,’ Frannie.”
“Is it?”
He glanced over her shoulder, worried that Arlene Harper was in fact overhearing their conversation. “I’m not denying that the possibility exists. All I’m saying is that to get to the truth could cause a lot of pain for my dad.”
“You strike me as the kind of man who puts truth at the top of his list of what’s important in life.” Again she was looking at him as if she could see into his soul.
“Frannie, you don’t know what you’re asking me to do.”
The sound of voices alerted them that Arlene and Ted
were about to return. Frannie methodically went to work setting up the coffeemaker, while Joe stood silently watching her.
“Here they are,” Arlene announced, carrying a paper sack as if it were a carton of eggs. “The best brownies in Minnesota was what the sign said.” She set the package on Frannie’s table, then looked at Joe and said, “You like chocolate?”
“I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to stay for coffee.” He glanced at his watch, then said to Frannie, “I asked the cab driver to pick me up at three. Maybe I should wait outside.”
“Oh, please. Don’t leave on my account,” Arlene insisted. “Frannie, tell him he doesn’t have to go.”
“I think you should stay a while, Joe,” Frannie said. “I can give you a ride to the airport later if you like. What time do you have to be back?”
He didn’t answer, but said, “Could I talk to you before I go?”
She hesitated, and Arlene gave her a gentle shove, “Go on outside where it’s nice and private. I’ll finish this for you.”
THEY STOOD near the single-car garage next to the alley. Frannie stared at Joe, wondering what he wanted to say, hoping that it had something to do with what had happened between them on the sofa before Arlene had walked in.
“About what was going on before your mother-in-law arrived…it doesn’t change anything,” he said.
That wasn’t the something she wanted to hear. His words were like a scratch on a sunburn, reminding her that he had intended to break up with her.
“I guess there’s no point in me asking you to stay to dinner, then.” She tried to keep the bitterness from her voice, but was unsuccessful.
He didn’t answer, but looked everywhere except at her. “Frannie, don’t make this any harder than it is.”
“I don’t want to, Joe, but it hurts so bad to think about you leaving.” There were few times in her life when she had swallowed her pride, but this was one of them. “We have something good between us. You must know that.”
He stole a glance at her. “I do know that and I want to stay, but…”
The fact he was having this conversation told her he still had doubts about his decision. She made the most of his hesitation, saying, “Remember that night at the lake? You told me to follow my instincts, because they were right. What about your instincts, Joe? What are they telling you to do?”
He didn’t answer right away, but kicked at a stone buried in the dirt. “This particular can of worms may be like nothing you’ve ever seen,” he warned.
She put her hand on his arm. “I’m not afraid of what will come out.”
He looked at her then and said, “Maybe you should be.”
He looked so tormented that she wanted to kiss away the worry lines on his face, yet she kept him at arm’s length. He’d put up an impenetrable wall that she didn’t dare try to breach.
“I’m willing to take my chances, Joe, if you are.”
Just then a horn sounded. Arlene stuck her head out the back door and said, “There’s a taxi out front.”
Joe gave Arlene one brief look and said, “That’s for me. Thanks.”
“You’re going to leave?” There was a note of panic in Frannie’s raised voice.
“I’m sorry.”
She could see by the expression on his face that nothing she could say was going to make him change his mind. “I’m sorry, too.”
The taxi horn sounded again. He gazed at her intently and said, “It’s important to me that the results of the DNA test stay confidential, Frannie.”
“I know,” she said, then watched him start toward the gate.
“Is this goodbye?” she asked. When he paused, she added, “Because if this is goodbye I want my last kiss.”
“I can’t kiss you, Frannie, because if I do, I won’t leave.”
And with those words he was gone.
JOE GLANCED AT HIS WATCH. It was only eight o’clock. Instead of sitting by himself in a hotel room, he should have been with Frannie. His body warmed at the thought of her. It was almost as if he could still taste her on his lips.
He shook his head, trying to rid himself of such thoughts. He couldn’t. He’d thought about nothing else since he’d left her place. She’d been on his mind while he’d eaten the prime rib special in the hotel’s dining room. She’d been there when he’d gone for a walk after dinner. And she was the reason he could stare at a shopping channel and listen to a movie star rave about the benefits of moisturizing cream.
He thought about calling a cab and going back to her house. He thought about it, but he didn’t do it. He couldn’t. Not as long as Arlene Harper was there.
Because she was one woman he didn’t want to think about. He still couldn’t believe she’d turned up on Frannie’s doorstep the way she had. Frannie had said she was a little unpredictable—but to arrive unannounced and with a guy. His mother would have never dropped in on anyone.
But then Arlene Harper was nothing like his mother. All that big red hair. And she must have had a ring on every finger of her hand. Not to mention the makeup. He shook his head. It was amazing that he had even noticed that her skin had paled when she’d seen who Frannie was rolling around with on the couch.
No matter what Arlene said, Joe knew that his presence had disturbed her. Hell, he’d been shaken to see her, too. The last person he’d expected to find at Frannie’s this afternoon was the woman who might be his birth mother.
He shook his head. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. He’d had a mother—one who’d been the center of his life for eleven years. She was the only mother he’d ever wanted, the only mother he’d ever needed. That’s why it didn’t seem right that Arlene Harper, who was nothing at all like a mother should be, could be related to him.
Frannie thought he was afraid to find out the truth. Maybe part of him was. The part of him that felt loyal to the woman who’d held his hand on the first day of school, the woman who’d tucked him into bed at night, the woman who’d let him cry on her shoulder even though she knew his father would disapprove.
Joe had every right to be afraid of the DNA results. But not for the reasons Frannie expected. If he could be completely honest, he would tell her that the real reason for his fear had to do with losing a parent, not with finding one. The truth in this case could eventually take away the one other person he loved as much as he’d loved his mother.
The problem was, Frannie knew very little of the truth when it came to him and his father. She knew them as Joe Smith, Senior and Joe Smith, Junior. The Admiral and his son. Not as the Hawthorns, two men who’d created new identities to escape a past filled with accusations and threats.
If there were any investigations into what had happened at that naval hospital on Guam where both he and the Harper twins were born, it would only be a matter of time before it was discovered there’d been no Mrs. Joseph Smith at that hospital. There had been, however, a Mrs. Joseph Hawthorn.
With a little digging, anyone could find that Admiral Joseph Hawthorn’s wife had given birth on the same night in the same hospital as the Harper twins. Admiral Joseph Hawthorn, the man who’d been tried and found guilty of treason by the media before his case ever got to the courts.
That’s because the suspect had never made it to court. Joe had seen to that. As soon as he’d learned that his father’s company was being investigated for selling the designs to classified military weapons to a foreign country, Joe knew that it had to be a setup. He accepted part of the blame for his father getting into such a situation.
Joe had been the one to encourage his father to seek employment after retiring from the Navy. Upon reflection, he knew he should have checked out the firm that had come courting his father’s services. When the Admiral had told him how much money he was making for doing so very little work, Joe should have been suspicious, but he’d been absorbed in his own life. With his marriage crumbling, he’d focused his attention on his own problems.
It was only after his father had been charged with treason
that Joe had realized his father’s situation was not what it appeared to be. Even with the best of attorneys, there seemed little hope that the Admiral would be found not guilty.
And it wasn’t simply the criminal charges that had threatened his father. A suspicious car accident led Joe to believe that if his father testified, his life would be in jeopardy. Unwilling to put his father’s safety in the hands of those who’d already proven they were incapable of protecting him, Joe did the only thing he could do.
Now he needed to remember what they’d been through the past two years and not let his emotions undo everything he’d worked so hard to put together. Unfortunately, their safety had already been compromised, thanks to his involvement with Frannie. Now all he could hope for was that she would respect his wish to protect his father.
And he needed luck. A whole lot of luck.
FRANNIE TRIED not to think about Joe, but every time she looked at Arlene she was torn with uncertainty. She wanted to respect Joe’s wishes and understood why he felt the need to protect his father, yet she also knew what it meant to be a mother.
If Arlene was surprised that Joe left, she didn’t show it. Although she would have preferred him to stay, Frannie was a bit relieved he hadn’t. With his departure went a tension that had made normal conversation difficult. Frannie knew that in the short time Joe and Arlene had been in the same room together, her mother-in-law had compared Joe to Dennis. It was a bit of déjà vu for Frannie, who had watched Alex do the same thing, only in a more obvious way.
Alex was the one person Frannie thought might mention his involvement with Joe. If he were to tell his grandmother about the DNA test, Frannie would either have to tell the truth about the results or lie.
To her relief, Alex didn’t say a word. That’s because as soon as he and Emma walked through the door, his grandmother said she had a surprise for them. Ted was sent out to the van to retrieve several large boxes. Inside were the components for a personal computer. Once the PC came into the house, Frannie didn’t hear a word from the twins except for the litany of questions they asked Ted during dinner. To Frannie’s relief, Ted not only was a nice man, but was proficient when it came to computers.