Marriage for Her Baby

by Raye Morgan

  Jill closed her eyes, trying to think. “Who else can we call? Who else did you contact?”

  “I called Mark Trainor. He’s a lawyer at the magazine. I worked with him on a few features in the past. I’ve known him for years and I knew he’d give me the straight scoop.”

  Jill looked hopeful. “Well?”

  Sara sighed. “He told me he’d be glad to recommend someone who deals with adoptions. He knows someone who would be especially good with the paperwork and going for appeals, or whatever.” She shook her head sadly. “But he didn’t advise going that way.”

  “Why not?”

  “He didn’t think there was much use fighting it. He thought I’d probably end up spending a lot of money and going through a lot of heartbreak with nothing to show for it in the end.”

  She looked down at the baby in her arms. Savannah had stopped drinking and let the bottle slip away. Her gaze was fixed completely on Sara’s face. Suddenly she smiled and her pure, innocent love seemed to fill the room.

  “Oh, sweetest heart, I just can’t, can’t...!” She stopped the words before they left her lips. She couldn’t let her baby know in any way what loomed before them. Tears filled her eyes and began to make trails down her face.

  Savannah’s laugh sounded like a series of hiccups. She laughed as though Sara was the funniest thing she’d seen in ages. She laughed despite Sara’s tears, and Sara began to smile because of her.

  Jill watched, tears in her own eyes.

  “Tell you what,” she said. “Let’s have a piece of cake. I’ve got something to tell you about.”

  Sara looked up at her and grinned through her tears. “Oh, you and your Bundt cake. You think it’s like chicken soup, the cure for everything. Staying here with you, I’m getting fat.”

  Jill got down the cake anyway and began to cut slices with a long, beautifully carved cake knife.

  “See, that’s what I’ve always envied about you,” she told her sister as she worked. “You never get fat. You’re about as thin as those models your magazine plasters all over every page, wearing the latest outfits to come down the pike.” She put a piece of Lemon Delight on a small plate and handed it to Sara. “Meanwhile, I’m pudging up. And it’s going to be about nine months before I can really go on a diet again.”

  Sara stared at her. “Wait a minute. Do you mean...?”

  Jill’s face broke out in a joyful smile. “Yes. Connor and I are going to have a baby.”

  Sara gasped and looked stricken. “Already?” Jill and her husband had only been married for three months. Somehow Sara was starting to feel that everything was moving too fast, everything was spinning out of control.

  All the joy drained from Jill’s face and she frowned resentfully. She’d obviously expected a better response.

  “I didn’t know I had a schedule to keep,” she snapped.

  “No, I mean...” Sara shook her head, knowing she was handling this badly, but she was genuinely worried. She’d been here all along. She’d seen the chaos Jill’s life had been only months before.

  In fact, when the news about Kelly’s death and Savannah’s existence first came to light, there had been a discussion as to which sister could manage to take on this new little life, and Jill, though she’d been willing, had made it clear it would truly be a hardship for her. And now, only a short time later, she was ready to take on a new baby again. “Well, you can barely handle the twins as it is. Do you really think...?”

  Jill glared at her. “No, Sara, you’ve got it wrong. That was the old me. That was the unmarried me.” She read the concern on Sara’s face and her attitude softened. Reaching out, she took her sister’s hands. “Oh, Sara, look at me. Things are completely different. I’ve got a wonderful husband now. We can do this. Together.” She smiled, coaxing out the Sara that she’d hoped to find there.

  “Oh. Of course.” Sara relaxed. She knew she was too careful sometimes. She really had to loosen up a little. “I guess that does make a difference.”

  “It makes all the difference in the world,” Jill said.

  “Okay then.” Sara lifted her baby and rose, swinging her around the room in a happiness dance. “Savannah, you’ve got a new cousin coming.” She looked at Jill. “Boy or girl?”

  Jill shrugged. “We’re going to wait until the six months mark and then we’ll decide if we want to know ahead of time.”

  “Ah, you always were a sucker for tradition.”

  Jill rose and opened her arms and they had a group hug.

  “I really am happy for you, sweetie,” Sara said, giving her a squeeze. “It’s just that I worry...”

  “I know. So do I. But we’re family and we’ll make sure it all comes out okay. Won’t we?”

  “Of course.”

  They sat down again to finish their cake and talk over the preparations for the baby.

  “How is Connor taking it?” Sara asked.

  Jill laughed. “He’s so funny. On the one hand, he’s excited. On the other, he’s scared.”

  Sara nodded. “Just the way I was when Savannah came into my life.” She seemed stricken as she remembered the threat that was looming over her. “And now, the fear is so much greater,” she said softly.

  Jill reached out and covered her hand. “When do you think he’ll show up?”

  They both knew whom she was talking about.

  Sara shrugged. “I know so little about him, it’s hard to tell. He could show up for morning coffee, or he could wait until he gets some business cleared up in the morning. Don’t forget, he’s not supposed to be here at all. Not legally.”

  “Okay, so we’ll just go on with our normal lives, drinking coffee and baking, etc, as though this hadn’t happened.”

  “How can we possibly do that?”

  “We can try. You want to keep Savannah happy and smiling, don’t you?”

  “Of course. Whatever else happens, that’s the most important thing.”

  “Actually the most important thing is keeping Savannah safe.”

  Jill picked up their plates and started toward the sink with them. She stopped short just before she reached it, staring out the tall kitchen windows toward the play area of her backyard.

  “Sara,” she said sharply. “What does he look like?”

  Sara made a face. “Tall and big and scary.”

  “Thick auburn hair?”

  Sara looked up, alarmed. “Yes.”

  “I think that’s him, then.”

  “What?” Sara slid out of the seat and moved quickly to stand beside her sister. “Oh, my gosh!”

  There he was sitting in one of the larger swings hanging on the swing set, rocking a bit, back and forth.

  She gripped Jill’s shoulder. “Call the police.”

  “Sara! No. He’s just waiting for you out there. He’s not doing anything threatening.”

  “Just his existence is threatening.” She folded her arms in tightly, trying to keep control of the fear she felt. “He has no right to stalk us.”

  Jill turned and searched her sister’s eyes, taking her hands and looking worried. “Sara, darling, calm down. We have to be reasonable. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”

  “Not yet, maybe. Just wait.”

  Jill sighed. “Listen, sweetie, he may be Savannah’s father, and if he is, that means he was close to Kelly. Kelly’s our half sister, and even though we were never very close to her, she was a part of our family. That makes his attachment to our family clear, doesn’t it? You can’t treat him like a total stranger. We owe it to him to at least be polite.”

  “Polite!”

  “Yes.”

  Sara groaned. “I wish...I wish...”

  “We all wish. But we have to take what we get and learn to deal with it.” She hugged her sister. “Come on. Go on out there and invite him in.”

  Sara looked at her, horrified. “I will not. He’ll want to hold Savannah.”

  “Of course. And we’ll be here. He won’t hurt her.”

  Sara was
shaking her head. “I don’t think I have to let him hold her. Not until he has proof.”

  Jill pulled back and shrugged. “It’s up to you. But just remember, the harder you make it for him, the harder he’ll probably make it for you if things change. Be prepared.”

  A shiver of nausea swept through Sara at her sister’s words. She wouldn’t even let her mind go there. She was not going to have to give up her baby. Somehow, someway...

  Taking a deep breath, she turned toward the sliding glass door. “Will you watch her?” she threw back over her shoulder. Savannah was beginning to make “hey, don’t forget about me!” sounds from her chair at the table.

  “Sure,” Jill said quickly. “Listen, I’ll take her up to help me get the boys out of bed. If you decide to bring him in, we won’t even be here in the kitchen until you signal you’re ready.”

  Sara nodded and started out. This had to be done, but she was dreading it. Maybe she could get him to leave.

  * * *

  Jake had watched the sun come up over the mountains. He’d paced the waterfront and then turned up toward Jill’s house. After waiting outside for what seemed like hours and finding no sign of life inside, he’d found his way into the backyard, hoping he’d get noticed and invited in. He didn’t want to have to get tough about this. A nice friendly invitation would be better than an angry demand. But his patience was only human. The invite had better come pretty soon.

  The yard was large and included a sloping lawn and a sand play area with a swing set. That seemed to mean there were other children here.

  Children. What the hell did he know about children? Even less than he knew about kitchens. But he was going to have to learn. The question was—could he?

  He hadn’t put it that starkly to himself before. He’d been ignoring reality and living on dreams. He’d been riding along in the wash of the wave that had crashed over him the day he realized he had a child of his own. What had happened in his kitchen the day before had forced him to begin to face some home truths. He wasn’t equipped to take care of a baby. He was going to have to get up to speed fast. Another life depended on it.

  He had a baby. Wow. He looked up at the windows of Jill’s house, wondering which ones led to the room where his baby slept. He’d been home from his time in South East Asia for almost two weeks before he read the letter that told him about Savannah. He knew he had a stack of mail from Kelly, but he’d avoided reading it. They’d met when he was on R and R in Hawaii. They had a lovely time for almost two weeks. But they’d both said from the first that they wanted to keep things light and fun—nothing serious. Now here were all these letters from her. It looked like she’d changed her mind—but he hadn’t.

  Finally he steeled himself and opened up the first one. Just what he’d been afraid of—she was pregnant. He’d groaned. He was so careful to make sure things like that didn’t happen. He knew what it was like to grow up without proper parenting and he would never want to inflict that on a child.

  He opened the other letters and skimmed them quickly, noting her anger at first when he didn’t respond, then her horror when she found out he was missing in action and presumed captured by the enemy. There was only one letter after Savannah was born, but it gave all the details. Kelly seemed to have accepted that he was probably dead and was just straightening out the loose ends of what had been their relationship.

  He’d stayed up for hours, brooding about what to do. He tried to remember what she looked like. She’d been pretty with huge green eyes and lots of flaming red curls. As he remembered it, she’d been a vivacious sort, always ready to try anything from surfing to mountain climbing. She’d had a quick tendency to laugh—and a tendency to tease. He’d found her half adorable and half annoying. They’d had a lot of fun together. But he hadn’t loved her, and she hadn’t seemed to care at the time.

  Later, she obviously did. But there hadn’t been any letters for over six months. He agonized over how to contact her. He even tried to talk himself out of doing it at all. Maybe she was married now. Maybe she wouldn’t want him interfering in her life after all this time. But he always came back to the bottom line—he had a baby. A little girl. Someone that was truly tied to him in ways he’d never experienced before. He couldn’t let go of that fact.

  First thing in the morning, he tried to contact her. Her return address was in Virginia, not far from where he was in Washington, D.C. When he couldn’t get a phone number, he went by the apartment and talked to the manager. And that was how he found out that Kelly had died in a car accident months before.

  The tragedy of her passing hit him hard, but anxiety about the baby came even stronger. He started right away, haunting every Federal office he could think of that might have a bearing on this situation, and finally, he found the Children’s Agency and found out that Savannah had been sent to live with her aunt in Washington State.

  He began the process of proving his claim right away, but he couldn’t stand the wait. Patience was not his main virtue, and he headed for the Pacific Coast as soon as he’d finished doing all he could at the agency. He quickly rented a house right next door to where Savannah was supposedly living, only to find it empty. And then, Sara had come knocking on his door.

  He hadn’t realized who she was at first, but now he knew. She had his baby. And he was going to have to force himself to wait. But not for long. Because Savannah was his.

  He heard the slider and looked up to see Sara coming toward him. She wasn’t carrying the baby, and that was all he cared about. But he had to admit the morning sun turned her hair into spun gold and she looked trim and determined walking toward him. She had something that belonged to him and he meant to end up with it, but all in all, she wasn’t a bad sort. He’d actually liked her before he found out who she was.

  She stopped a few feet away and stared at him. “Have you cleaned up your kitchen yet?” she asked.

  “What?” He frowned at her, rapidly beginning to revamp his opinion of her. What a completely off-the-wall thing to ask. “No. Who has time to worry about kitchens?”

  Now she was frowning, too. “You do. The Lancasters are nice people and you’ve ruined their kitchen. You’re going to have to fix it.”

  He waved that away. “All in good time.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that. If he was going to be a father, he’d better learn some responsibility. “I’ll call someone to come over and give you an estimate,” she said crisply.

  He stared at her and half laughed. She was like a dog with a bone.

  “Listen, I don’t want to talk about kitchens. I want to talk about Savannah.”

  “Okay.” She knew that, of course. She slid into the swing hanging next to his. “Talk.”

  He hesitated. What could he say that he hadn’t already said?

  She took advantage of the pause. “Here’s the deal.” She gazed at him levelly, her dark eyes snapping with intensity. “Savannah is officially mine. I’ve got the paperwork to prove it. There’s nothing really to discuss about that.” She waved an arm dramatically. “You appear out of nowhere and claim certain things. Who knows if you’re telling the truth or not? I’m not going to move on your say-so. Once you have some paperwork to prove your case, we’ll talk.”

  She settled back and began to move the swing as though that settled everything.

  He shook his head. She was trying to fend him off, make him slink into the shadows and wait his turn. But she had a surprise coming if she thought he would go so easily. It wasn’t his style.

  “Not good enough,” he told her stonily. “That could take another week or more.”

  She glanced at him sideways. “Look, be reasonable. We have no way of knowing anything about you. You can’t expect us to welcome you with open arms. You’re a complete stranger.”

  He shrugged. “So what do you want to know about me? Ask me anything.”

  She stopped the swing and turned to face him. “Okay. Why not? Let’s start with this.” She drew in a deep breath.
“Who was that man last night? And why was talking to him more important than Savannah?”

  For just a moment, there was an evasive look in his eyes. “That had nothing to do with Savannah,” he said quickly. “It...he’s a buddy of mine. We were in the Rangers together. He came to ask for my help.” He turned his face toward the distant ocean. “We’ve got the sort of relationship—well, when he needs me, I’m there for him.” He turned back to meet her gaze, his own open and candid. “You can know that about me. Loyalty to the men I served with. That’s number one. End of story.”

  She stared at him, then transferred her gaze to the ground. “So you’re saying that your buddies from the service come first with you. Your priorities start right there with them.”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” But he hesitated, wondering if that was true. “Your own child is in a whole different category. All that other stuff has nothing to do with her.”

  She nodded, listening. “I think it has a lot to do with Savannah,” she said softly. “It has to do with you and what your motivations are. What drives you. What’s really important in your life.”

  He shook his head, almost bemused. “Now you’re reaching, Sara,” he said. “Let it go.”

  Let it go? Hah!

  “Tell me this,” she said coolly. “Have you ever had a baby before?”

  His head went back. “No, of course not.”

  She leaned toward him like a prosecutor. “Have you ever taken care of one?”

  “No.”

  She leaned even closer, as though she was about to get in his face. “Have you ever lived with one?”

  “Have you?” he shot back. “What did you know about babies? Before Savannah, I mean.”

  She pulled back but there was a triumphant smile just barely curling the corners of her mouth. “My sister Jill has twins. I helped her with them from the beginning.” She sighed. “I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into. And I don’t think you have a clue.”

  He stared at her. Was she serious? “So that’s the tact you’re going to take, is it? I’m incompetent? I’m too clueless to know how to take care of a baby? I won’t know what I’m doing, and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to have her? Is that going to be the basis for your appeal?”