The dimmer switch clicked on. Baylee didn’t get many offers, especially these days. In fact it had been almost two years since she’d gone out on a real date, an honest-to-goodness sit-down-to-dinner date. But she wasn’t stupid. She knew that trusting this player came with a warning label. She looked over at him standing there in his driveway and saw the charming, self-confident look on his face.
Oh, what the hell, she thought, she hadn’t been to dinner in forever. It was just dinner for chrissakes.
Grateful for the invitation, without having to think it into oblivion, she looked him straight in the eye and said, “Dylan, you’ve got yourself a date.”
CHAPTER 9
In Agoura Hills, Gloria Gandis poured another glass of wine in celebration of the news that Jake and Kit had a wedding to plan. When she turned to hold up her glass in a toast she noticed the dour look on their faces. It was obvious they had something else to say. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Kit took the glass of wine from Gloria’s hand and set it down on the end table next to the sofa. “Come sit down. This won’t be easy.”
“Then you aren’t pregnant.”
Jake chuckled in spite of the somber mood. He looked at Kit.
“Not yet,” Kit said, as her cheeks flushed pink. “We haven’t been trying all that long.”
Gloria’s heart dropped a little learning Kit wasn’t pregnant. The idea of having grandchildren to spoil filled her with warm and fuzzy vibes she couldn’t hold back. But looking at their faces now, a bit of her intuition kicked in. This wasn’t that kind of news.
“It’s about Ben Griffin.” Kit finally forced out the words.
Gloria knew Jake had been trying to find Kit’s long lost brother, a brother that had surfaced when Jake had stumbled on information that he was the one receiving John Griffin’s residuals from his acting days instead of Kit.
But now, Gloria sat down as Jake went into what they had discovered reading Kit’s birth certificate. “There were twins, Gloria. You delivered twins.”
“What? Oh God, that can’t be. No. No. That just can’t be. How is that possible? I don’t remember that. They made a mistake.”
“I’m sorry, Gloria.” Kit took out the birth certificate, handed it off to her. “Ben Griffin shares my date of birth. He was born first.”
For several long minutes Gloria stared at the paper. “Alana and Jessica took two babies away from me.”
“Yes. But there’s more. I don’t see any other way for the baby boy to have gotten all the way to Ireland without my father being in on the whole thing. John Griffin had to know, be part of it, because he had to arrange to get him there for an adoption or something.”
“My guess is he left him with relatives. Ever done a family tree?” Jake asked.
Kit looked stunned. “You mean…” She looked at Gloria. “Did he have family in Ireland, Glo? You knew him better than most.”
Tears welled up in Gloria’s eyes. She simply nodded in answer and dropped her head in her hands. “Could he truly have been that mean, that callous, to be in on the whole conspiracy with Alana and Jessica from the beginning? My God, there was a time I thought he truly loved me. Instead, he must have plotted right along with them to steal you away from me. Only they got a huge surprise when it turned out to be not one baby, but two. And a boy at that. Alana wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with a boy. She used to say such disparaging things about Jessica’s sons. She’d have insisted John take the boy.”
“We’ll know more when Jake finds him. Maybe this Ben holds the answers to so many of our questions. The truth is we may never really know why my father helped them do this. But it’s obvious to me he did.”
“I’ve been unable to locate this Ben. If it comes to that, we’ll take a trip over there and do some legwork on our own. We’ll find him, Gloria, I promise you that.”
The words were meant to be comforting. But kind words didn’t do much to harness the rage Gloria felt. If Alana weren’t already dead, John too, she might have considered doing both of them in, one after the other, slowly, she thought now, and let them suffer.
They had taken away so much from her. She’d never been a vicious kind of person, never as cold and heartless as Alana had been. But how could her own sister, mean as she was, and the man she’d loved conspire to take her babies from her? How could they have been that calculating?
The thought had no more than formed in her head when the house began to shake; the ground moved and rumbled beneath her feet. “Oh lord, what’s happening,” Gloria groaned as she became increasingly lightheaded.
“Earthquake,” Jake declared, right before he grabbed Kit’s hand and Gloria’s arm to drag both of them over to stand under the dining room doorway. They stood there while the house shook and pictures fell from the walls and hit the floor. The rumbling lasted no more than twenty seconds but seemed a lot longer.
When it finally stopped, Gloria looked at both of them and announced, “I guess that teaches me about thinking murderous thoughts, especially when it comes to my own sister and John Griffin, the man I loved and trusted. They’re both gone now anyway. If there’s a hell, I can only hope they both feel right at home there.”
After Baylee fed the baby, she placed Sarah in her carrier and brought her into the bathroom with her before jumping into the shower, where she carefully shaved the fur from her legs, and tried to come up with an outfit to wear. She finally decided on a simple, white sundress she hadn’t worn in over a year.
After the shower, as she studied the mirror, she realized it was time for the chestnut hair to go. But for tonight, she gave it a few twists and turns with the curling iron, before sweeping it up with a clip, leaving a few wisps of hair framing her face.
She diapered and dressed Sarah in an apple green dress with purple gingham trim and clipped a matching bow to what few strands of hair the baby had on her head. When Dylan knocked on the bedroom door ten minutes later, she was as ready as she was likely to get. And as nervous as if she were going to her first dance instead of out to a simple meal at a restaurant.
When she opened the bedroom door, Dylan took an appreciative look and whistled. “This is the first time I’ve ever taken such two beautiful women out at the same time on the same date.”
Baylee put her hands on her hips. “Do you practice that bull or does it just flow from the tongue naturally? You really know how to lay it on thick, don’t you?”
He grinned.
And didn’t he look nice, sporting a pair of snug-fitting jeans with a light blue buttoned-down shirt and a navy blazer.
But after they walked out to the living room, things got serious.
Dylan watched like a rookie from the sidelines as the veteran mom prepared for departure. She loaded the diaper bag, making sure she brought an extra outfit, additional diapers, baby wipes, and a bottle of breast milk.
Novice that he was, Dylan soon learned that taking a baby out for the evening was anything but a spur-of-the-moment event. Making reservations was a waste of time.
A genius at code and no dummy, he caught on rather quickly that the exact time of departure depended on several things. The timing had to be right, preferably just after a feeding, which was spontaneous. Then there was load time to factor in, especially if you brought along the stroller, which added to load time, depending on how much the thing weighed and how easily it folded down and traveled. And if the infant carrier doubled as the car seat you were ahead of the game.
By the time they got to the restaurant at seven-forty-five, they were both hyped up. And Sarah must have sensed their stress because she immediately went into a hissy fit. The louder Sarah got, the more keyed up Baylee became.
Trying to think fast, she suggested, “She can’t be hungry; I fed her before we left. Could you get her pacifier out of the bag there, Dylan?” Dutifully, he dug into the bag with vigor, searched around before finally pulling the thing out, quickly handing it off to Baylee, who immediately tried to get it into Sarah�
�s wailing mouth. But the infant wanted no part of the pacifier, and let her feelings be known to everyone in the dining room and some that were dining in the restaurant across the street.
After five long, loud embarrassing minutes, unable to calm the baby, and near tears herself, Baylee gave Dylan a frantic look and admitted, “I’m sorry, Dylan. I guess we need to take her back to your place.”
“No problem,” Dylan conceded. To the bewildered waiter, who recognized him as a longtime patron, Dylan simply handed him a generous tip and said, “Grant, I think we’ll call it a night.”
With that, Dylan promptly gathered up the infant carrier, grabbed the overstuffed diaper bag and followed a humiliated Baylee out the front door of the restaurant. But getting Sarah into her car seat while she was still squirming and crying proved to be almost as mortifying to Dylan and Baylee as the scene inside had been. The patrons coming and going in the parking lot looked at both of them as if they were a couple of child abusers bent on causing harm to a defenseless six-month-old. Why else would a baby carry on so?
Once the car began to move, a red-faced, hot, and sweaty, Sarah finally stopped screaming. Dylan took advantage of the break and made a hurried exit out of the parking lot. Thankfully, on the way home, she calmed down all the way enough to fall asleep. The ten-minute drive was completed in stony silence. But for Dylan and Baylee, the excitement of the evening had disappeared in a huff.
To make matters worse, as soon as they opened the front door and stepped inside, the first thing they both heard was yet another woman’s voice leaving a seductive message on the answering machine. “Dyl, this is Melissa, if you aren’t busy tonight why don’t we hook up at The Cove, maybe make a night of it? What do you say, sexy? Call me.”
Baylee tried to make a fast exit to the bedroom, but then she realized Dylan still held the carrier with a sleeping Sarah nestled inside. Baylee was mortified to hear her own voice quiver as she whispered, “Here, I’ll take her, Dylan. I’ll go put her down. You go call Melissa, salvage the rest of your evening.”
But Dylan refused to relinquish the carrier. Instead, he stubbornly countered, “I’ve got her.” He declined to hand her off. Instead, they both marched solemnly down the hall to the room designated as Sarah’s and made their way to the crib. But it was Dylan who undid the straps on the carrier, picking up an exhausted Sarah and slinked her little body down into the depths of the bed before Baylee slipped a blanket around her.
Once tucked in, the screaming child from the previous half hour took on the appearance of a miniature, sleeping angel. They both stared down at the baby as if seeing her for the very first time that day.
The golden silence was a side benefit.
Outside in the hallway, even though Baylee looked like she was ready to weep and make a mad dash into the spare bedroom, Dylan made the best of it. “How about Chinese? They deliver.”
“Look, Dylan, I’ll be fine. It isn’t even eight-thirty yet. In L.A. the evening doesn’t even get started for hours yet. There’s plenty of time for you to hook up with Melissa.” She turned to dash into the room next door to change clothes. Instinctively, he latched on to her hand, entwining his fingers around hers.
Dylan had no interest in Melissa. He wished to God he did. Melissa was uncomplicated, unlike Baylee Scott, who was dealing with more issues than Lindsay Lohan.
He followed Baylee into the spare room and stood in the doorway. “I’m ordering Chinese; what do you want?”
Disheartened, Baylee’s shoulders slumped. “Anything really. Surprise me.”
After staring at each other for several awkward seconds, they separated slowly, unwillingly.
While she got out of her dress and into a comfortable pair of cotton shorts and a tank top, Dylan headed into the living room. He slipped out of his jacket and reached for the phone to place the order for food.
Ten minutes later they met back up in the kitchen.
“Food’ll be here any minute. How about a glass of wine?” He knew she was nursing Sarah, and even though he hadn’t seen her take a drink of anything alcoholic since he’d known her, tonight she looked like she could use something stronger than tea or juice.
Baylee took down plates, started setting the table. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind a beer.”
A little surprised, Dylan moved to the fridge, twisted off the cap, and handed her the bottle, turning back to open one for himself.
She took a seat at the table, studying her hands. “I’m so sorry about the restaurant.”
“Hey, don’t be. My sister says it’s hard to go out to eat with a kid. And Sarah’s just a baby. Who knows what set her off?” He took a seat at the table. When he glanced at her and saw her chin trembling, he laid his hand over both of hers. “Baylee.”
“I’m a mess, Dylan. My life’s a mess. I shouldn’t be here. I should call my friend in Denver.” She certainly didn’t want to move again. But this arrangement wasn’t working. The two of them living here together was awkward. It was obvious she was getting in the way of his social life. This was never going to work. Any other Saturday night, Melissa would be here instead of her.
“You’re just tired. I know you haven’t been sleeping. New mother, new baby doesn’t sleep through the night. That’s all it is, fatigue. You’re worn out.”
“I never should have tried to do this by myself, raise Sarah by myself. I thought I could do it. I was so sure, but I’m so tired.” She leaned her head down on the table. The waterworks began in earnest.
Dylan swallowed hard. He moved to put his arms around her. “Cry it out. You’ll feel better.” He got up to get her a paper towel. When she took it out of his hand, he noticed both of her hands were shaking.
“When I first found out I was pregnant, I was about six weeks along. I was pretty sure of the timing because I hadn’t been with anyone else. I haven’t been on a damned date in almost two years. Anyway, when I found out I was pregnant; I knew it had to be from that night with Connor, after the charity event. There was no other explanation. So I made an appointment at a clinic, sat there in my car for about half an hour in the parking lot; I even opened the car door and got out once. But then, I decided I wanted this baby.
“My own mother didn’t want me, Dylan. I had this chance to be a mom. It might be the only one I ever got. I so needed to confide in Kit and Quinn about all of it, but I just couldn’t. Connor was calling me every day, threatening me, reminding me I better not tell anyone about what had happened. How could I remain here in L.A. and not be able to explain how I got pregnant without telling Kit and Quinn what really happened?” She sobbed harder. “I had to leave, don’t you see?”
That son of a bitch, thought Dylan. Fury raged through him as he realized Connor had manipulated Baylee by using how close she was to her friends, using it as the hammer. He’d known exactly what to say to make his threat carry more weight.
“He put you in a tough spot. But from what I’ve seen Kit and Quinn would have been there for you through your pregnancy. He knew how close you were to your friends and used that, forced you into a corner.”
“They would have too. I knew that. But I let him run me off. I was scared.”
“Anyone would have been.”
“Once I decided to have the baby, I went to Denver. I told Kit and Quinn I was heading to Europe to try and find my mother. Despite everything, I had a good pregnancy, a little morning sickness through the fourth month, but I was happy. My friend, Blair Rafferty, managed a temp office. She got me a job at a travel agency answering phones. I worked there up to three days before Sarah was born. I was so sure I could do this. But now…”
“Why are you questioning yourself now, Baylee? Just because she cried at the restaurant, kicked up a fuss? She was tired, keyed up. You both were, still are. That isn’t your fault.”
“We made a scene. Everyone was staring at us. You could tell they wanted us out of there. You were embarrassed. Don’t deny it, Dylan. I could tell.”
“Maybe, a little.”
He chuckled. “It was a new experience for me. And apparently it was for you, too. I’ve learned that when taking a baby anywhere you should expect anything. I won’t deny I was embarrassed. I kept thinking they were looking at us like we were the ones causing her to cry like that.”
“I couldn’t get her to stop crying. I just wanted to go out to dinner. Was that so wrong?”
The doorbell rang.
Dylan brightened, relieved to be back on track. “Dinner’s here. Let’s eat outside, listen to the surf. I’ll grab the food and the baby monitor.”
Baylee sniffed. “Okay. I’ll take the plates outside.”
On the deck, they watched the waves, and ate Kung Pao chicken and Moo Goo Gai Pan. Baylee’s mood lifted. How could it not? Looking out into the remnants of the sinking sun, they actually had a conversation without her breaking down and weeping all over him.
He learned she was a sports fanatic, like Kit and Quinn. She liked hockey, but was crazy about football, specifically the Oakland Raiders.
“No way. Bay area native here. The Raiders are my favorite team.”
“Dad had season tickets to the Raiders when they were here in L.A. Before the team moved back to Oakland, we went to a few home games at the Coliseum. And Kit and I were at the Super Bowl in San Diego when they got blown out by Tampa Bay, lost 48 to 21. They embarrassed themselves. The only reason Quinn didn’t make the trip was because she stayed behind to cram for a major exam.”
“You’re kidding? I was at that game with Jake and Reese.”
“You were at Qualcomm Stadium for the 2003 Super Bowl? Where were you sitting?”
“Between the forty and fifty yard line, South side, up a few rows. What about you?”
“South side. Between the forty and fifty yard line, midway up. We must have used the same ticket agent.”
“That’s incredible. We were at the same Raider game. Not many women enjoy watching football.” He remembered it hadn’t been all that difficult to get a date for the game, but it had been damned near impossible to find a woman who would watch the action with him for the full four quarters.
Deeper Evil (The Evil Secrets Trilogy Book 2) Page 13