by Joan Wolf
"Very much."
"I got this bike for Christmas."
"Er . . . did Santa Claus bring it for you?"
The circling figure stopped and Daniel looked into a supremely scornful brown gaze. "Santa Claus is for babies. I'm not a baby."
"No, you're not," Daniel agreed. "You know, there's something else that you might find cool. I am Daniel Montero."
The soft, pink, little-boy mouth dropped open. "You are?"
"Yes. And I have to be back at Yankee Stadium for tonight's game, so I hope I will have a chance to talk to your mother soon."
"If you're lying, you'll get in trouble with Mommy," Ben warned. "She hates liars."
"I'm not lying, son." The word felt so good coming from his lips.
"Mommy!" Ben dropped his bike and began to race down the path in the direction of the cool, crisp voice. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! Daniel Montero is here to see you!"
Daniel followed the flying figure and emerged from the trees into the area of a sand-riding ring. The four riders in the ring were staring at him, as were the three women sitting on one of the benches that flanked the ring. The dog standing next to the slim girl in the middle of the ring began to bound toward him, barking furiously.
"Stop!" Ben screamed. "It's all right! Mommy, call Cyrus!"
The voice to which Daniel had been listening earlier commanded, "Cyrus, come."
By now the dog had reached Daniel, and he said calmly, "It's all right, guy. Come on, let's go meet your owner."
"It is!" he heard one of the girls in the ring squeal. "Oh my God, it is Daniel Montero!"
"Everyone walk," the black-haired girl in the center of the ring called, and the horses slowed from a trot. She crossed to the fence, looked through it at her son, and said, "Ben, what on earth is going on?"
The little boy grabbed Daniel's hand and pulled him closer to the fence. "Mommy, Mommy, look. It's Daniel Montero, and he wants to talk to you."
The feel of that small hand in his, so warm and alive, made him want to weep, and for the first time he looked at Katharine Foley. She had the same color eyes as Colleen, but her chiseled features did not have the sweetness of Colleen's less-perfect face. Her look was distinctly unfriendly, which surprised Daniel. He was not accustomed to being looked at in such a way by beautiful young women.
"Daniel Montero?" she said in that crisp voice of hers. "The baseball player?"
At least she knew who he was. "Yes. I am sorry to interrupt you, Miss Foley, but there is a matter of the utmost importance that I must discuss with you."
Her eyes went from Daniel's face to Ben's, then back again to Daniel. The flush of color that had been in her cheeks drained away, and her eyes widened.
She knows, Daniel thought triumphantly She sees how much we resemble each other.
'Just a moment," she said, and climbed lithely out of the ring. "I'll get someone to take over my lesson."
A blue heron flew overhead as she walked toward the big wooden barn that lay across the stable yard from the riding ring.
Ben said, "Can I have your autograph, Daniel?"
"Of course."
Ben grinned, showing a gap where he had lost a tooth, and said in a distinctly satisfied voice, "Connor is going to be mad that he wasn't here."
At this point, the four girls in the ring had lined up on the other side of the fence from him, and the three mothers from the bench had come over. "We don't mean to intrude," a short-haired blond said, "but I had to tell you how much I admire your pitching."
He made a response and tried to pay attention to what the women and girls were saying to him, but all he was conscious of was the child whose hand still clung to his. He wanted to snatch Ben up, put him in the car, and take him home. Immediately.
He was signing his name on pages from a notebook the blonde had produced from her purse when he saw Kate returning with a tall, brown-haired girl at her side.
'Jean will take over the lesson," she said to the mothers. "I'm sorry, but it sounds as if this is important."
The mothers, who normally would have said that they were paying for Kate's instruction, not Jean's, exclaimed that they understood perfectly.
"We'll go to the house," Kate said to Daniel in a tense voice.
"Can I come too, Mommy?"
"No!" There was a hint of panic in Kate's voice.
Daniel said, "I need to speak to your mother in private, Ben. But I will see you again, I promise."
Ben scowled but did not protest. He has been taught to listen to authority, Daniel thought. That is good.
They walked back up the path in silence, Kate going first, flanked by her dog. She was not a tall woman, but there was something about her slender, perfectly straight back and the set of her head that told Daniel she would not easily be intimidated.
As they came closer to the house, Daniel noted that the white paint was peeling in a few places and thought that perhaps Katharine and her mother did not have the money to keep up such a large piece of property. He followed Kate up the three steps to the front porch and then into the unlocked house.
"Is it wise to leave your door open?" he asked as he closed the door. "It isn't visible from the riding ring. Anyone could walk right in and rob you, and you'd never see it happen."
"This is Glendale, Connecticut, not Central America, Mr. Montero," she replied coolly as she led him into a large living room.
Little bitch, he thought. "I am not from Central America, Miss Foley. I am Colombian."
"Oh, that must be why you're paranoiac about security."
Keep your temper, Daniel. He did not reply.
She did not sit, nor did she invite him to take a seat. She stood in front of an old stone fireplace, folded her arms across the chest of her red sweater, and said, "Why do you want to see me?"
Before he answered he looked around the room, trying to imagine what it must be like to live in this house.
It was a comfortable room, done in blue and white, with well-worn cushioned furniture and a landscape and some hunting pictures on the walls. The mantel held a very nice-looking clock, and there was an entertainment center as well as two large bookcases along the walls. The sofa and love seat and armchairs all had lamps in position to make reading comfortable.
A nice room, he thought. A homey room. A good place for a boy to grow up.
"I am here because I am Ben's father," he said, answering as directly as he had been asked.
"I don't believe you," she shot back. But he could see from the look in her eyes that she did.
He decided to try charm and produced his most beguiling smile. "Please, Miss Foley, may we sit down? I would like to explain to you how my arrival here came about."
She looked as if she wanted to refuse, but said, "All right. You can sit there." She pointed to a blue slipcovered chair.
He sat. She continued to stand. He increased the wattage of his smile. "Please," and he gestured toward the chair that was closest to his.
After a brief hesitation, she sat and faced him, her straight back not touching the chair. The dog flopped down in front of her. "So? What do you want to tell me?"
"Eight years ago, when I was at spring training in Florida for the Yankees, I met a girl named Colleen Foley."
Her naturally pale skin went even paler. Instinctively, he put out a hand toward her, but she shook her head, and said, "Go on."
He kept his eyes on her face. "Colleen was not getting along with the man she was living with, and I invited her to move in with me. We were together for two months, then the Yankees assigned me to a Class A team in Minnesota. Minnesota did not appeal to Colleen, and she decided that she would rather go home. I think the adventure of being on her own was wearing thin. She missed her mother."
The aquamarine eyes he was watching blinked twice, as if holding back tears. She said grittily, "If what you say is true, then why didn't Colleen tell you about the baby?"
He shook his head in puzzlement. "I have been thinking about that ever since I learne
d of Ben's existence. The only answer I can come up with is that she didn't think I would be able to help her. After all, I was nothing but a two-bit Latino minor-league player. Most of us didn't have enough money to buy a new shirt."
She didn't say anything.
He went on, "In my case, she was mistaken. My family is well-off, Miss Foley, but I didn't want to seem different from the other players, so I lived as they did. She probably thought the only thing I would do was offer her money for an abortion."
Still she was silent, her body rigid, rejecting him. He said, "If your sister had lived, I am quite sure she would have let me know about Ben. She would not have deprived the boy of having a father to take care of him."
She said angrily, "Ben has been very well taken care of."
His charm slipped a little. "I'm sure he has been, but he has lacked a father. Every boy needs a man in his life, Miss Foley, and I want to be there for Ben."
She said tonelessly, "I want your story confirmed by DNA testing before I say a single word to Ben about this."
He nodded reassuringly. "I perfectly understand, and I am willing to have the testing done."
A little silence fell. She was looking at him the way she might regard a sworn enemy at a peace conference that had been forced upon her. He said with genuine bewilderment, "I should think you would be delighted to discover that Ben has a millionaire father. Why are you acting so hostile?"
She lifted her chin. It was a very determined chin, he noticed, in contrast to the softness of her unlipsticked mouth. "I don't give a damn about your money." She pointed a finger at him. "I don't know you. I know nothing at all about the kind of man you are, and I don't like the idea of a perfect stranger walking into Ben's life and having influence over him."
"I am his father. I wish nothing but good for him."
"I won't know that you're his father until the DNA testing is done."
"I will have the testing done, but both of us know what the result will be. Ben is the twin of what I looked like at that age."
Her eyes narrowed. Their color was much more striking against her black hair and brows than it had been against Colleen's fairness. "So you say."
"My mother could show you the pictures to prove it."
There came the sound of a door opening, and Kate called, "Mom, is that you?"
"Yes, it is, dear. What are you doing at home? I thought you had a lesson."
"Can you come in here, please?"
"Let me just put this ice cream in the freezer."
Daniel and Kate sat in tense silence until a woman walked in through the living room door. Then Kate said in a hard voice, "Mom, this is Daniel Montero. He says he is Ben's father."
"Ben's fa . . . ?" Daniel looked into a pair of shocked blue-gray eyes.
He stood up. "Yes, Mrs. Foley. I just learned of Ben's existence, and I have come to introduce myself."
She stared at him for a moment. "You look like him."
"Yes. And I have agreed to submit to DNA testing, which I'm sure will be conclusive."
"My God." The woman's face broke into a radiant smile. "But this is wonderful! Ben has a father!" She crossed the floor to him, holding out her hand. "I'm Molly Foley, Ben's grandmother. Did Kate say your name was Daniel?"
Kate's voice cut across his reply, "He is Daniel Montero, Mom, the baseball player." She might have been informing her mother that he was Daniel Montero, the convicted felon.
"The Yankee pitcher?" Molly said.
He shook her hand and smiled reassuringly into an older version of Colleen's face. "Yes, I am the Yankee pitcher, Mrs. Foley."
"Good heavens," Molly replied. Cyrus had come over to greet her, and she absently petted his head. "However did you find out about Ben?"
"Good point," Kate said in the same hard voice. She also stood up. "I'd like to know the answer to that question too."
Daniel turned to her and said, his own voice invincibly courteous, "I learned of his existence from a man named Martin Lockwood."
A look of infinite disgust flitted across her face. "Marty." She pronounced the name as if it was a curse.
"He is not a particularly savory character," Daniel agreed. "He came to see me a few days ago in order to blackmail me. Apparently he was under the mistaken apprehension that I would not be happy to learn that I had a son, and that I would pay him to keep the news a secret from you."
Kate frowned. "Why would you do that?"
"So I would not have to pay child support. At first, he was dismayed to learn that I was perfectly willing to pay child support to my son, but when he discovered that I was pleased about the child's existence, he tried to blackmail me for your address."
Molly said despairingly, "I will never know what Colleen saw in that boy. He was bad then, and he's bad now."
Daniel said, "Colleen had grown sick of him by the time I met her. That's why she moved in with me."
Kate took a step in his direction, like a duelist getting ready to attack. "Why were you glad to learn about Ben? Marty was right in thinking that most men wouldn't want to find out they had an illegitimate son they would have to support."
He shrugged easily, and replied, "Then I suppose I am different from most men." He had no intention of telling her about the mumps.
She did not look as if she believed him.
"How did you find our address?" Molly asked. "Did you pay Marty his blackmail?"
It was his turn to look disgusted. "I would never pay blackmail. I told him that I would report his extortion attempts to the police if he didn't furnish me with your address."
Molly glanced at his left hand. "Are you married, Daniel?"
"No, I am not."
"Is Ben your only child?"
"As far as I know," he responded truthfully.
Kate once more folded her arms across her chest. "So you're feeling guilty that you have all this money and you want to share some of it with your son. Fine. Send me a monthly check, and I'll bank it for his college education. But stay out of our lives."
"Kate!" Molly cried.
Daniel shook his head. "It's not going to be as easy as that, Miss Foley. Through no fault of my own, I was deprived of the company of my son for the first seven years of his life. Now that I have found him, I am going to make up for lost time."
Molly laughed softly. "My Connor will be so jealous."
He flashed her a genuine smile, the devastating one that could not be faked. "Ben has told me about Connor."
Kate said, her voice brittle, "I have to get back to my lessons. If you will leave the name and number of your attorney with my mother, our attorney will get in touch with him. Except for the attorneys, I do not want anything about this conversation to leave this room. Have I made myself clear, Mr. Montero?"
Fire and ice, he thought. He had heard those words before but had never understood what they meant until he looked into Katharine Foley's cold eyes and saw the fire burning deep inside them.
He thought that it was going to be awkward if she continued to be so hostile, and replied as mildly as he could, "You have made yourself perfectly clear, Miss Foley. I will abide by your request."
She nodded. "Very well. We will be in touch."
"Through our lawyers."
"Yes. Through our lawyers. I don't want you near Ben until I have proof of paternity."
"May I at least say good-bye to him today? I told him I would see him before I left."
Molly said, "Of course you may say good-bye to Ben, Daniel. Go on back to your lesson, Kate, and I will get the information you want."
"All right." Kate shot her mother a dark look, did not look at all at Daniel, and walked out of the room.
* * *
4
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As the door closed behind Kate, Molly sighed and motioned Daniel back to his chair. "You must excuse my daughter's abruptness; she is not a person who accepts change easily."
"She seems to dislike me," he replied with honest bewilderment.
"The people Kate likes are the people she loves, and there are only a few of us," she said. "Now, tell me about you and Colleen . . ."
He was wonderfully kind. He shared several funny stories and spoke of Colleen with affection. He never once implied that theirs had been a relationship of convenience for the both of them, but Molly was adept at reading between the lines, and she saw the truth for what it was.
At twenty-two, Daniel must have been gorgeous, but he had been too young and, Colleen would have thought, too poor to play the role of good provider. Colleen had come home to her mother and sister for that security.
Tears stung her eyes. She laughed a little shakily and said, "I loved my daughter very much, but responsibility was not one of her strong suits."
"She was beautiful and charming," he said. "And very young."
What a nice young man, Molly thought.
She said, "You really do look remarkably like Ben . . . or should I say that Ben looks remarkably like you?"
He grinned. "Either way is all right with me."
She folded her hands in her lap. "The DNA testing must be done for the sake of legality, I suppose, but it seems clear enough that you are Ben's father. There is the timing, as well as the resemblance."
"Let's be honest," he replied dryly. "The DNA testing must be done for the sake of your daughter, Mrs. Foley. The law does not require genetic proof."
"Well, then, yes, it must be done to satisfy Kate." She frowned and chose her words carefully, wanting to make clear to him what Kate had done for Ben. "The day my daughter turned twenty-one, she started the legal process to adopt Ben. Unlike Colleen, Kate is a very responsible person, and she has built her life around that child. Ben knows about Colleen, no one has lied to him, but in every way except by accident of birth, Kate is his mother."
He nodded gravely. "What have you said to him about his father? I'm sure the question must have come up."
Her clasped hands tightened. "Yes, it did. We told him that his father was dead."
His face became very stern. "I thought you said you didn't lie to him."