No Exchanges, No Returns

by Laurie Kellogg

  David wasn’t taking any bets on that.

  “So how’s Casey handling this? She sounded all right. Then she finally admitted she’s furious with her sister. She rarely complains, so it’s hard to tell how she’s really doing.”

  “Casey’s just not sure she’s ready to be a mother. But she’s a survivor,” David assured her dad. No matter what life handed her, she always seemed to land on her feet.

  “Still....I feel guilty about encouraging her to be her sister’s surrogate. I don’t understand Brianna. She wanted so badly to be a mother, and now she’s tossing that chance away.”

  “I suspect she still wants to be a mother, Arch. I just think she has a problem with taking her sister’s baby from her.”

  “Well, I’m grateful you got Casey out of that puny room she was renting. Thanks for letting her stay with you.” Archer’s undeserved gratitude pricked David’s conscience.

  Her old man wouldn’t be thanking him if he knew David had come within seconds of nailing Brianna’s twin. “My pleasure,” he muttered, wincing at his twisted understatement. “And don’t worry. Casey will be fine.”

  “I know. She’s always been a trooper,” Archer said, pride swelling in his voice. “I know I don’t have to say it since she’s carrying your baby, but I’m relying on you to look after her.”

  Note—her father said ‘look’ not ‘lust’ after her, David’s nobler half admonished as the image of Casey’s lush bare breasts flitted through his memory. “I promise, Arch, I’ll take good care of her.”

  “I’m sure. If there’s anyone I can count on, it’s you. I don’t know a more honorable man.”

  As David hung up the phone, his conscience twinged again, reminding him how carried away he’d gotten, kissing Casey. And worse yet, how hard he’d made her cry.

  Yeah. He was just chock full of honor.

  ~*~

  “So the party is two weeks from this coming Friday,” Casey told Andy late Monday evening after the last student had been picked up. She removed the dry paintings from the clothesline strung across one end of the classroom. “Can you make it?”

  “I don’t see why not.” Andy clipped a fresh sheet of construction paper to the easel. “Who else will be there?”

  “Uhh....everyone who helped make this a successful school year along with their dates or spouses.”

  Andy narrowed her gaze. “Call me suspicious, but for some strange reason, I feel like I’m being set up.”

  “Okay.” Casey rolled her eyes. “So I admit it. Paul Brennan is invited.”

  “The skirt-chasing gynecologist?”

  “He’s not like that.”

  “Right—he doesn’t have to chase,” Andy sneered. “They come to him. It doesn’t change the fact he’s a player.”

  “No, he’s not.”

  Andy turned and cocked a disbelieving eyebrow at her, closing the jars of tempera paint.

  “All right.” Casey tossed her hands up. “Maybe he was at one time. But David told me Paul has been a virtual monk the last year or so. The man wants to settle down and get married.”

  “For how long?” Andy snorted. “Till after his wife squeezes out a couple of kids, and he gets bored? Don’t be naive, Casey. The man makes a living groping women's boobs and shining his flashlight in their lady-tunnels. He's gotta be thinking about parking his train inside a few.”

  “That’s ridiculous. He’s a doctor. It’s not sexual for him. Although,”—Casey grinned sideways at Andy—“a guy who knows as much about the female body as he does is probably very good with his hands.”

  “So are magicians.”

  “Fine. I get it.” Casey huffed. “You don’t want to date him. At least promise you’ll be civil to him the night of the party. I really need the two of you to get along.”

  “Why?” Andy’s forehead creased into a deep V. “What do you care if we like each other or not?”

  “Uhhh....” Casey nibbled on her lip a moment. “I was hoping you’d attend my childbirth prep classes with me and be my coach. If you do, you and Paul will need to be on speaking terms when the baby’s born.”

  “Me? I thought David was coaching you.”

  A hot flush crept up her neck and into her cheeks.

  Andy peered into her face. “What’s going on? Did you have a fight or something?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then what....exactly?”

  While searching for the right words to explain, the dam of pain burst inside her and the misery caused by all the rumors and innuendo that had been flung at her in the last few weeks came tumbling out with a deluge of tears.

  After listening for several minutes, Andy hugged her. “As much as I’d love to be with you when your baby’s born, gossip is no reason to ditch David.”

  Casey sniffed and strolled around the low tables, pushing all the tiny chairs in. “I didn’t make this decision just because of the rumors. If I don’t put some distance between us, we’re gonna end up in bed together.”

  “What?” Andy’s mouth dropped open. “You don’t even really like him.”

  If only that were true. She’d obviously been kidding herself since he began dating Brianna. “Actually, when I first met him, I was crazy about him.” Casey sat on one of the tables and explained why she’d invited him to her party. “And like every other male gushing testosterone, he took one look at my sister and fell madly in love.”

  “Don’t you mean in lust? Men stash their hearts in their shorts, Casey. The harder their flies throb, the more in-love they think they are. Which explains why their marriage fell apart so fast.”

  That was essentially what Brianna had told her.

  “So if you’re hot for him, why on earth are you asking me to be your childbirth coach?” Andy asked.

  “Because those exercises are way too intimate.” Casey told Andy about how uncomfortable they’d both been during the class. “Now he’s avoiding me. If he’s not at his office, or the hospital, he shuts himself up in his study, claiming he has paperwork to catch up on and phone calls to make.”

  “Maybe he does.”

  “When I got up to fix him breakfast this morning, he bit my head off and told me I should go back to bed. It was only after he slammed out of the house that I realized today would’ve been his and Brianna’s first wedding anniversary.”

  “Well, that accounts for his foul mood. I don’t know what to tell you.” Andy spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “If you want me to be your coach, I’ll be happy to do it. But in my opinion, you have nothing to feel guilty about. Have you considered this could be your chance to get him interested in you?”

  “And be his rebound fling? He’s been dumped by a wife he still loves, and he hasn’t been with another woman in over three months.” Casey looked down at her swollen belly. “Even I look good to him at this point. It would be purely physical for him.”

  “Sometimes just physical can be good. How long has it been since a guy’s rung your chimes?”

  “Depends on what you mean by ringing my chimes.” Casey snorted. “If you’re referring to the big O....never.”

  “Never?” Andy’s eyes rounded.

  “Nope. As for sex—it’s been a couple of years.”

  “Then you owe it to yourself, Case. Sleep with the man, already. Let him show you how good it can be.”

  Whipping her head around, Casey stared at her friend. “This advice from the woman who’s sworn off men because they’re all no darn good?”

  “I never said guys weren’t good for sex.” Andy grinned. “It’s the next morning you can’t count on them.”

  Chapter 9

  A melancholy tune whined from the huge speakers in the Colonial Tavern, Redemption’s only bar, on Monday evening. David swirled his glass of bourbon and ice and stared at the glistening amber liquid.

  “Bad day, Doc?” Jerry, the bald bartender, wiped the counter next to him with a damp rag.

  “More like a bad year.” David sipped his drink and closed
his eyes as he swallowed the cold bourbon that warmed his gut.

  “So what’s got ya so distracted? Problems with the little woman?”

  “You could say that. What’re you, clairvoyant?”

  “Nah. I figured if it was a bad day, the problem was somethin’ at work. But, if it’s a bad year, it’s gotta be a woman.”

  While Jerry filled the shelf with clean glasses behind the bar, David unloaded everything that had happened in the last nine months. Two bourbons on the rocks later, he finished, saying, “Now, Casey wants to move out.”

  “Lemme get this straight.” Jerry paused to draw a draft beer for another customer. Its yeasty bouquet mixed with the aroma of buffalo wings the fellow at the end of the bar was inhaling. “You’re sitting here gettin’ wasted ‘cause you’re afraid, if you go home, you might do something to make her leave?”

  “That’s about the size of it.”

  “What the hell good is it to have her live with you if you can’t go home?”

  Damned if he knew.

  The souse two stools over leaned toward David and slurred, “If you want my advice, you oughta go home and give ‘er a seven-inch reason to stay.” The drunk chuckled into his beer. “Give it to her right, and she’ll never leave.”

  “I thought that was your car in the lot.” The sound of Paul’s voice jerked David’s gaze to the mirror over the bar where he saw his friend’s face reflected behind him. Paul slid onto the stool next to him. “What’re you doin’ here at this time of night?”

  “Gettin’ plastered. What’s it look like?”

  “It looks like you’re almost there.”

  “Almost, but not quite.” He held up four fingers, and then folded one back down. “I’ve only had three.”

  “Three’s enough. You’ve got a nice buzz on, but you won’t wake up with a hangover.” Paul tugged on his arm. “Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

  David peered at his watch. “It’s only nine-thirty. She’ll still be awake.”

  “I’ll take the long way.” Paul dug his wallet out of his back pocket and called to Jerry, “How much does he owe you?”

  “I can pay for my own damn drinks, thank you very much.” David pushed Paul’s money back at him and threw a fifty-dollar bill of his own onto the bar. “Keep the change.”

  Jerry scooped up the money. “Thanks, Doc. You sure?”

  “Yup. You’re still cheaper than a shrink.”

  A few minutes later, he sat in the passenger’s seat of Paul’s Jeep while his friend pulled out of the parking lot.

  “You know, talkin’ to Jerry tonight, I came to a realization.”

  “What?” Paul smirked. “That you now prefer bourbon straight up?”

  “No. Brianna did the right thing leavin’ me. I never loved her the way I should’ve.”

  “So then why’d you marry her?”

  “Because she’s beautiful and sexy and a lot of fun. I felt like life was passing me by. All my friends from college had families.”

  “Isn’t that the number one reason for most men’s divorces? They get hitched for the wrong reasons?”

  “I screwed up both Brianna and Casey’s lives. Their relationship will never be the same after this.”

  Paul switched on the directional and turned at the traffic light. “You didn’t get into that situation all on your own, pal. Brianna shares some of the responsibility.”

  “But Casey doesn’t.” She was innocent in all of it. “And she’s taking the brunt of our mistake.”

  “Regardless, she’s an adult who offered to do this. Is that why you were sitting in a bar, drinking yourself blind? Cause you’re feeling guilty?”

  “No.” David huffed. “You’re not listening. I can’t go home ‘cause I don’t want to hurt her anymore.”

  Paul shrugged. “Sorry, Dave, you lost me.”

  Not surprising. His brain was a little fuzzy. “She came down to fix me breakfast this morning, smelling like heaven,” he explained. “She was wearing this perfectly respectable robe that had about as much sex appeal as a trench coat.”

  “Hey, don’t underestimate trench coats. It all depends on how much a woman is wearing underneath.”

  The entire time David had been eating his eggs, he’d wondered about precisely that. He’d left for work with a raging hard-on. “I snapped her head off. After going almost three months without getting laid, do you know what it’s like having her—”

  “Okay, I think I get the picture. You’re horny and feeling depressed over your failed marriage. You’re afraid you’ll make another mistake and get carried away with your ex-wife’s sister. And Casey will get hurt in the process.”

  “Yesss!” He smacked the dashboard. “I promised her dad I’d look out for her.”

  Paul turned onto David’s narrow country road. “If you’re not capable of a serious relationship right now, forget about Casey and make a date with one of the nurses who’ve been comin’ on to you.”

  If only it were that simple. As clueless as David might sometimes be, he was smart enough to know that would hurt Casey, too. Not to mention, what Paul had suggested was tantamount to letting a starving dog sniff a juicy T-bone and then giving it dry kibble.

  ~*~

  Maybe Andy had the right idea. Casey smeared scented body lotion on herself after her shower and sighed.

  Since it really didn’t seem as if her sister would be coming home, she should stop worrying about tomorrow and just enjoy whatever David was willing to offer in the present. After all, if tomorrow never came, she would never know what it was like to come apart in a man’s arms—or more specifically, in David’s arms.

  What was the worst that could happen? If she made love with him and never let herself forget that it was just physical for him, how would she be any worse off than she was now? It wasn’t as if she had to worry about getting pregnant.

  She pulled a baby blue nightshirt over her head and froze when a car that didn’t sound like David’s Camry pulled into the driveway. She peeked out her bedroom window and saw Paul’s Jeep pull up to the front door below. David climbed out of the passenger seat and waved to him, calling, “Thanks, pal, I owe you one.”

  She pulled on the short silk kimono Brianna had given her for Christmas and scurried out of the bedroom, curious as to why he hadn’t come home in his car. Partway down the staircase she stopped short when the door below swung open, and David stepped into the center hall.

  “Hi.” She smiled down at him.

  He glanced up at her, looking irritated and weary. “Why aren’t you in bed, Tinkerbelle?”

  “It’s only ten o’clock,” she pointed out, descending the steps. “Why do you insist on trying to send me to—”

  He gasped, causing her to freeze mid-stride while he stared up at her, his mouth agape. With her right foot a step above her left foot, he no doubt had unobstructed view of her crotch.

  Her stomach plummeted as she grabbed the hems on her short nightshirt and robe, her fingers brushing her bare bottom.

  Wonderful. In her haste to come downstairs, she’d forgotten to put on her underpants.

  “What the hell are you tryin’ to do to me,” he demanded hoarsely, seeming unable to tear his gaze away.

  She tugged on the bottom of her kimono and joined him at the base of the steps, feeling as if he’d slapped her. “Exactly what do you mean by that? You think I flashed you on purpose?”

  “Didn’t you?” His breath smelled of alcohol, which explained why Paul had driven him home.

  “You’ve been drinking.”

  “Damn straight I have.” He continued down the center hall to the kitchen. “Unfortunately, Paul stopped me from gettin’ as numb as I would’ve liked.”

  “Trying to forget you would’ve been celebrating your anniversary if Brianna hadn’t left?” she asked, following right behind him.

  “That’s one reason among many.” He opened the refrigerator and pulled out the chef’s salad she’d left for him. “Why do you continue maki
ng dinner for me when I keep telling you I probably won’t be home?”

  “I guess hope springs eternal.” If he didn’t keep eating what she left for him, she’d stop. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe, if you came home occasionally, you might still be married? It’s no wonder my sister felt the two of you had nothing in common. You were never here to build a relationship with her. Maybe that’s why she isn’t at all jealous I’m staying here alone with you. She knows you actually live at work, and she realizes, unlike that doll she wanted back after I fixed it up, you’ll never change.”

  “She knew I was a doctor when she married me.” He pulled a spoon and fork out of the drawer, then ladled her homemade ranch dressing over the ham, turkey, cheese, and hardboiled egg arranged on a bed of mixed greens.

  “Lots of doctors have families and still find time for them. You don’t need to be at the hospital and clinic as much as you are. Nor do you have to accept every invitation to guest lecture.”

  “I do if I want to be Chief.”

  “And why is that so darn important?”

  “Someone has to champion local healthcare for kids so parents don’t have to trek all the way to CHOP,” he explained, using the acronym for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

  “Well, you don’t have to slay that dragon alone, Dr. Lancelot.” A soft snort escaped her. “There are a lot of other pediatricians to help fight that battle. You want me to live here so you can have a relationship with your child, but you’re never here, so what’s the point?”

  “It’ll be different after the baby’s born,” he mumbled past a mouthful of lettuce.

  “How?” She leaned back against the center work island, crossing her arms over her chest. “Are you gonna quit some of the committees you serve on, or at least step down as chairman? Are you planning to stop lecturing or find a partner to share your patient load and cut down on the time you spend at work?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Nobody can do it all, David. Quite frankly, I don’t understand why anyone would want to. I thought Brianna was competitive, but you make her look like an amateur.”

  “Did it ever occur to you”—he threw her words back in her face and laid his half-empty plate on the counter next to the sink—“maybe your sister only became so competitive because she had to live up to Saint Casey?”