The Baby Wore a Badge

by Marie Ferrarella

  Put that way, even if she was inclined to go out with her sisters, she wouldn’t have turned Erin down. “Sure. What time do you want me there?”

  “Mr. Coen said he could be by at seven. So how about six-thirty?” Erin asked, knowing that anything earlier would be difficult for the other woman.

  “That sounds fine to me,” Calista told her. “See you then.”

  Terminating the call, she took out her cell to call her sister and see about rescheduling dinner.

  Jake looked angry when he opened the door to let her in. He was holding Marlie in his arms. “Hi, thanks for coming on such short notice.”

  “Don’t mention it.” She looked at the baby. She could have sworn there was recognition in Marlie’s eyes. “Hi, sugar, how’re you doing?” She took the baby from Jake with practiced ease. Holding Marlie on her hip, she looked at the infant’s father. “Anything I can do to help?”

  “You’re doing it,” he pointed out. “Corey’s bringing one of his lawyers over to talk to me.”

  “Those are corporate lawyers,” she told him. “Don’t you need to see a family lawyer?”

  “Down the line, yeah, but Corey’s already called this guy and he’s knowledgeable enough to help me plan a strategy. Corey said that this lawyer—Coen, I think he said his name was—can give me a referral.”

  She nodded, taking in the information. Calista felt awful about what he had to be going through. “They can’t just take her away from you,” she said with feeling. She wanted him to know that she was on his side. “You’re her father. You have rights.”

  Nervous, he began pacing the room. He’d feel infinitely better once this was finally resolved and he could get on with his life with his daughter. “And they have this piece of paper that I signed, giving up those rights.”

  She had taken a number of classes in law to help her in her chosen field. Calista did her best to recall what she’d learned. “You can say you signed that paper to give Maggie peace of mind. Under those conditions—her raising your baby—you didn’t want her being afraid that you’d come after custody one day. But everything’s changed,” she reminded him. “Now that she’s gone, your bargain with her is null and void.”

  He looked at her skeptically. That sounded almost too good to be true. “Can I do that?”

  Marlie had grabbed a fistful of her hair and was trying to pull it out. Tears came into Calista’s eyes as she worked to gently take her hair out of the tightly closed little fist. For a baby who wasn’t even a year old yet, Marlie was almost freakishly strong.

  “With the right lawyer you can,” Calista managed to tell him without crying out in pain. “More important, with the right judge. Anyone can see that you love this little girl,” she told him, swaying with Marlie to keep the baby from protesting the loss of the strand of hair she’d been yanking. “You put your entire life on hold and came all the way out here just to make sure that she has everything she needs. If that’s not demonstrating how sincere you are, not to mention how stable, I don’t know what would.”

  He knew the judge would be looking at the bottom line as well as the total picture. Mr. and Mrs. O’Shea had money and, married for thirty-five years, they represented a stable family unit. He had a family to fall back on, but that wasn’t the same thing as a wife and he knew it. “Maggie’s parents have the resources to give her a good life.”

  Calista shook her head. There were more important things than money. “She belongs with her father. You love her.”

  He felt a sense of desperation for a moment, a desire to just grab Marlie and flee. “I know it and you know it, but the law’s not always fair.”

  “What would convince the court that you can provide Marlie with a stable home life?”

  He shrugged. “If I was married, they’d probably look at me differently,” he answered. He’d actually asked Maggie to marry him; that was when she’d gone ahead and asked for another partner. Jake laughed shortly. “I’m not even in a relationship. How am I supposed to find someone to marry me?”

  Calista looked from the baby to him and without hesitation said, “You could ask me.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jake stared at her, stunned. The woman his daughter took to so readily couldn’t possibly have meant what he thought she’d just said.

  “Ask you what?” he asked her, enunciating each words slowly.

  “Ask me to marry you. Because I would,” she told him. He looked so stunned that she quickly added, “So that you could keep your daughter. We’d be married strictly on paper.” She further explained so he didn’t think that she was trying to use his situation to trap him in a marriage for some secret reasons of her own.

  While the idea of marrying Jake had more than a little appeal—so far she hadn’t found a single thing about the man that she didn’t like, or was even merely neutral about; from where she stood, the man was the total package—Calista didn’t want what she’d just offered to scare him off.

  And while she might daydream about what life might be like if she were married to Jake—or someone like him—she really didn’t want to get married for at least a few years. But he was apparently in a real bind and if this meant that he could keep his daughter, she was confident that they could come up with some kind of an arrangement that would be satisfactory to both of them.

  The sound of crockery disastrously meeting tile momentarily brought the conversation—such as it was—to a skidding halt. They both turned toward the doorway, where the sound had come from, to see what had happened.

  Erin was standing just inside the living room, an utterly stunned expression on her face. She’d been walking into the room, carrying a tray of beverages and homemade cookies when she’d overheard Calista tell Jake that she’d marry him. Momentarily dazed, she’d forgotten all about the tray she was holding. It tilted, sending everything on it to the floor in a shower of cups and cookies.

  Just what was going on here? Erin wanted to know. She looked from her brother to the girl she’d opened her heart up to. Was Calista serious? When had this development occurred?

  Frozen in place, Erin continued to stare at Calista. “You didn’t just say—?”

  Erin didn’t get a chance to finish forming her question. Second-guessing what she thought the other woman was going to ask, hurrying over to gather up the scattered baked goods and cups, Calista spared her the awkwardness as she cut in and said, “Yes, I did. I said I’d marry Jake so that he could keep Marlie.”

  She was actually serious, Jake realized. This wasn’t a joke.

  What kind of a person offered to make that sort of a sacrifice? It wasn’t as if Calista was an old family friend or even a personal friend he’d had for a while. Granted the woman was warm and outgoing and there was something really inviting about her, not to mention attractive, but that was just the point. A woman like that could have her pick of men and marriage would undoubtedly be in her future if she wanted it. Not only that, but it would be on her terms. She definitely didn’t strike him as being one of those women who was obsessed with getting married by a certain age.

  That made this a selfless act on her part. Of course he couldn’t accept, but in light of what had just been said, he looked at the woman with fresh insight.

  “I appreciate the offer,” he told Calista with feeling, “but I don’t think I’ll really need to resort to doing that.”

  Finished gathering together the items that had fallen and placing them back on the tray, Calista rose to her feet and nodded.

  “Hopefully, your grandma and grandpa will be reasonable about this, little one,” she said, addressing the words to the baby.

  In the distance, they could hear the front door being opened.

  Erin instantly brightened. “Corey’s back,” she announced.

  That was her cue to leave, Calista thought. She took the baby from Jake. “Marlie and I’ll get out of your way,” she told him.

  With that, she made her way to the stairs.

  Jake glanced after he
r as Calista and his daughter left the room. She wasn’t just the attractive, exceedingly capable babysitter anymore. She was now someone who was willing to put herself out more than he had the right to ask, just to help in the fight to keep his daughter if it came down to that. He marveled once more at the kind of person she was and he couldn’t help being impressed by her—again.

  Heartened, he went to meet with the lawyer Corey had brought home with him.

  Reaching the second floor, Calista paused for a moment, thinking. Rather than go to the bedroom Jake shared with his daughter, she debated giving in to her curiosity.

  Curiosity won.

  Calista positioned herself just a little shy of the landing to listen without being observed. From her present position, she couldn’t be readily seen by the people who were now in the living room discussing Marlie’s future and what courses of action were open for Jake.

  They couldn’t see her, but she could easily hear them. She remained there for a few minutes. Sleepy, Marlie cooperated by dozing off and on in her arms, affording her the perfect opportunity to eavesdrop.

  Part of her couldn’t believe she’d just said what she had to Jake. The words had just tumbled out almost of their own volition. She hadn’t known she was going to make the offer until she was actually making it.

  And now that it was on the table, she was oddly calm about it. She had no desire to withdraw it or say something flippant to get herself out of it, like she had no idea what she was thinking when she said that.

  That, undoubtedly would be what her siblings would say, though, if this marriage of convenience should actually become a necessity. They’d want to know what the hell she’d been thinking and quite honestly, she couldn’t answer that question. All she knew was that once the words were out, she had no regrets, no panicky feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  On the contrary, she felt like smiling. Nervously, maybe, but still smiling.

  “Would you like that, sweetheart?” she whispered to the sleeping angel in her arms. “Would you like me to be your mama?”

  Marlie went on sleeping.

  Funny, although she’d been involved in taking care of her younger brothers and sisters—and at times coming through for her older ones as well, giving her the feeling that she was everyone’s caretaker—she hadn’t really thought about the prospect of having children of her own. That, if it actually was to transpire, was something that she’d felt was still years and years away.

  But that feeling suddenly changed today as she listened to the sadness in Jake’s voice when he talked about losing his daughter. He’d tried to cover it—she had the impression that he didn’t like letting anyone see that he actually could be vulnerable—but she’d detected it anyway. And she didn’t want him being sad, didn’t want him losing his daughter and she definitely didn’t want Marlie to become a pawn in a custody battle.

  She had no doubt that his late partner’s parents were grieving and that their pain over losing their daughter was genuine. But forcing Jake to give up his wasn’t going to make anything right.

  And while she sympathized with them, her real sympathies, not to mention her loyalties, lay with Jake.

  So much so that she was willing to assume the title of his wife for Jake to retain custody of his daughter.

  “Who would have ever ‘thunk’ it, huh, little one?” she whispered again, this time saying the words softly against Marlie’s downy head. “A month ago, I didn’t even know you existed, and here I am, volunteering to be your mom.”

  A month ago, she hadn’t known that Jake existed, she thought. And here she was, saying she’d be his wife. Not pose as his wife, but go the whole nine yards with a marriage license, ceremony and everything.

  Well, at least the whole eight yards, she silently amended. The marriage wouldn’t go beyond being one on paper. She knew she could trust him to be a gentleman and not try to consummate the marriage.

  The corners of her mouth curved ever so slightly.

  That really wouldn’t be so bad either, she mused. If he went beyond the confines of a marriage on paper. If this marriage was a marriage not just in name only, but in all possible ways.

  Calista closed her eyes for a moment, letting her imagination take off.

  She’d be willing to bet that Jake was a very good, caring lover. Not that she was all that experienced, but she just had a feeling….

  You are definitely getting too carried away here, she told herself.

  From the bits and pieces she was picking up from the conversation downstairs and the advice Corey’s lawyer friend was giving him, Jake wasn’t going to need a wife on paper or otherwise, at least not in the immediate future. Possibly never.

  A sliver of disappointment pushed itself through, momentarily stinging her before Calista blotted it out. Okay, at least she wasn’t going to be faced with an incredible amount of explaining to do and her siblings weren’t going to marvel at how impetuous she could be if put to the test, she thought. There was an upside to everything, however minor.

  Marlie began to stir in her arms. She didn’t want to risk having the baby’s noises reach the people downstairs. It would take very little for them to connect the dots and realize that she’d been eavesdropping on them. Even though she had, she didn’t like the kind of image that it presented.

  “Let’s go see about entertaining you,” she told Marlie as she retreated from the landing.

  It was almost another hour before Jake came upstairs and into his bedroom, looking for her. He found her sitting in the rocking chair that Erin had bought for him. She was slowly rocking Marlie as she fed the baby her bottle.

  When she saw him coming in, Calista immediately snapped to attention, trying to gauge whether his mood was optimistic or resigned by looking at his expression. Maybe it was her imagination, but he seemed to be a little less tense, which she took to be a good sign.

  “How did it go?” she wanted to know. Calista deliberately kept her voice low so as not to disturb the baby.

  For his part, Jake was cautiously optimistic, afraid to become too hopeful. But even more afraid to entertain the alternative thought.

  “It went well, I thought,” he told her. And then he sighed, as if to release the breath he’d been holding for the last few hours. As he spoke, he embraced the hope his words embodied. He was determined not to lose Marlie no matter what, but it would be a great deal easier on both of them if the path was not complex and stressful, or involve fleeing and hiding.

  “Turns out that Corey’s friend used to be part of a family law practice before he decided to go into corporate law. He’s going to take on the case for me and thinks we stand a pretty good chance of resolving this early.” He grinned for the first time as he added, “Without your making the ultimate sacrifice and marrying me.”

  “That wouldn’t be the ultimate sacrifice,” she corrected matter-of-factly. Then her mouth curved as she added, “Giving you both my kidneys, now that would be the ultimate sacrifice.”

  He laughed shortly at the exaggeration. “Lucky for me, I don’t even need one.”

  “Lucky,” she echoed.

  Glancing down, she saw that Marlie had emptied her bottle. She set it aside and shifted the infant, placing Marlie against her shoulder. With small, rhythmic strokes, she began to pat the baby’s back, waiting for the obligatory burp to emerge.

  For a moment, Jake debated saying anything. Debated asking. But his sense of curiosity finally prompted him to voice his question out loud.

  Sitting down on the bed and facing her, he asked, “Why did you do that?”

  She felt the baby close her little hand on the shoulder of her blouse and clutch it. The contact spread a warm feeling through her. Without meaning to, she had bonded with Jake’s baby. Very strong feelings came along with that bonding. Maybe that had motivated her to make the offer she had. It certainly hadn’t prevented her from volunteering.

  “Well, if you don’t burp her, that could leave some trapped gas inside that tiny tummy a
nd more than likely, it’ll make her really uncomfortable.” She smiled at him. “And you already know that if baby isn’t happy, nobody’s happy. She’d be up all night crying.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not talking about burping her,” he told Calista. His eyes held hers. “I’m asking why you offered to marry me.”

  Calista looked away. “I told you, to keep you from losing Marlie.”

  There had to be something more. Was she really just that altruistic? “I know the reason behind the gesture. I want to know why you personally made the offer. I don’t know anyone else—women I’ve known a lot longer than you—who would have done that for me.”

  She shrugged, not wanting him to make a big deal of it. Most of all, she didn’t want him overthinking the offer and reading into it. It wasn’t as if she expected him to behave like a real husband.

  “I don’t think it’s right for them to take your daughter from you and if that’s the only way to help keep you from losing her, I would have felt guilty knowing that I could have stepped up and didn’t.” She laughed softly. Marrying him for the sake of the baby wouldn’t complicate her life all that much. “It’s not as if I’m in a committed relationship and have to worry about breaking the news to my boyfriend.”

  It was the first time that he caught himself wondering about Calista as a woman rather than just an exceedingly friendly, helpful person. Were there men in her life? A relationship that she was hoping would turn into something special?

  “Are you in an ‘uncommitted’ relationship?” Jake asked.

  “I’m not in any kind of a relationship—right now,” she qualified.

  She didn’t want him thinking that no one found her attractive enough to linger with and have him wonder if possibly that was the reason she’d made the offer in the first place, so that she could tell the world that at least someone wanted to marry her.

  Her answer hadn’t mattered—until she gave him the right one. Why else was there this sense of relief flowing through him? And why was there suddenly this strong pull toward her within him? Was it entirely based on gratitude, or was he really seeing her for possibly the first time?