Baby In A Basket

by Helen R. Myers

  “Hustling? What kind of word is that to use in this house?”

  “You hustle, dear heart.”

  Her grandmother averted her gaze and patted her sleep-flattened hair. “I’m your grandmother. It’s my privilege. And does any of this make an impression on you? No. You only have eyes for a man who’ll never settle down because he’s been flying at such high altitude for so long it’s affected his brain.”

  “Gran!”

  “Well, what other explanation is there for a man who doesn’t react the way decent, normal people do?”

  Jenny rolled her eyes, as much in frustration as for knowing peace and quiet wasn’t this easy to come by. “You should have gone on stage, Gran. Or into politics. Your ability to take your color-crayon theories and turn them into logic is truly remarkable.”

  As if she hadn’t spoken, her grandmother took a calm, careful sip of coffee. She looked like an Oriental matriarch in the emerald green robe Jenny had given her last Christmas. But Jenny knew better than to assume this little skirmish was over.

  “Make your jokes,” Fiona intoned, her dark eyes still penetrating at seventy-five. “I’m only an old woman. Who cares what I think or feel? Soon I’ll be with your grandfather, may he rest in peace, and then there’ll be no one to save you against making the mistake of your life.”

  “He’s attracted to me, Gran.”

  “Who wouldn’t be? You’re lovely, sweet, hardworking—”

  “You forgot house-trained.”

  Her grandmother narrowed her eyes. “But such a mouth.”

  “That I definitely got from you.”

  “Nevertheless, I will bet you—”

  “Not Julio again.”

  “Value is value. You just don’t appreciate good music. What I’m trying to say is that your Captain McCord is probably attracted to a different woman every day. Maybe he can’t help himself—look at his mother. The point is, he’s not right for you. Do yourself a favor. Don’t open yourself to heartbreak.”

  “I haven’t and I’m not,” she said, not entirely truthful. “Have you seen me chasing him?”

  “Every chance you had since you were thirteen.”

  “I was a child with a crush. I mean, since I’ve grown.”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it you who invited him for dinner last Christmas?”

  “That doesn’t count. That was the holidays. He lives alone and we had plenty. We would have been like Scrooges if we didn’t ask him to join our party.”

  “Trying to talk sense to you makes my jaw ache.”

  A sure sign that her grandmother was yielding—at least a smidgen. Jenny put an arm around the smaller woman’s shoulders. “Then put yourself out of misery and let’s go peek at the baby.”

  So it went with all of their arguments, not that Jenny could really call them that. “Little fussings” is what she preferred to label them. It hadn’t taken her long after she moved in to figure out that she was cut from the same cloth as her grandmother, and would have a sturdy streak of strength and opinion in her, no matter how hard she tried to soften it. She’d concluded that they could either spend the rest of their lives fighting like the blue jays that summered in the backyard, or she could learn to use that gift of humor and brains to work around the obvious pitfalls that awaited them.

  Today they shared a bond deeper and more unbreakable than ever, and a love and respect that could get them through any skirmish. Even this one, which had been going on for years.

  “Isn’t she darling?” Jenny whispered as they bent over the basket.

  “Of course. Absolutely. What we’re arguing about is that she’s another woman’s baby, my dove.”

  The words came gently, allowing Jenny to nod and continue with equal care. “A woman who’s proved she is and would be a terrible mother. Mary deserves better. If fate is at least a little fair, I’ll see that she gets it.”

  Her grandmother looked from the baby to Jenny for several seconds, as if weighing the words before coming to her own conclusion. “Sometimes fairness alone isn’t enough. Sometimes things aren’t meant to be, no matter how hard we try to prove otherwise.”

  “This isn’t one of those times.”

  “You do court your share of heartbreak, child.”

  Maybe, Jenny thought as she felt her grandmother slip an arm around her waist. But she had a feeling that when you were reaching for the best dreams, that was a fair price to pay.

  “Good flight, Mitch,” Neil Dennison said as the 737 came to a final stop at its designated LAX gate. The copilot unfastened his seat belt and reached for his clipboard to make some final notations. “You sure you don’t want to join me for a bite to eat before we head back to Dallas? You look as if you could use something.”

  Something, but not food, Mitch thought with a slight grimace. “Thanks, but I’ll have to pass. I have some calls I need to make.”

  “Problems?”

  Neil had been flying with Mitch for six months now, and they’d known each other for almost three years. It came as no surprise to Mitch that Neil had been sensitive to his mood, and it allowed him to answer honestly. “You could say that.”

  “Does it have to do with why you had to take off yesterday?”

  “And how.” He met his sometime tennis partner’s concerned gaze. “I found out I may be a father.”

  The dark-haired man lifted his eyebrows and whistled. “Whoa. That would get anyone’s attention. How’d you find out?”

  “By discovering a baby on my doorstep.”

  He quickly filled his friend in on the story. It felt good to talk to another guy about it, even though it was almost as embarrassing as when he’d told Jenny. But Neil was a decent guy beneath his good looks and, although Mitch knew there’d be some teasing down the road, his first and foremost reaction was concern.

  “Son of a gun,” he said. “How do you feel about that?”

  “Stunned...confused...terrified.”

  Neil grinned. “You’d be that, regardless of whether you were anticipating her or not. Take it from someone who knows. The question is, do you think you’ll be able to locate Savannah to make sure of all this?”

  “I don’t know. When she left town the next morning, she didn’t give me a phone number or forwarding address, and to be honest, I didn’t ask for one. But she is something of a celebrity. Surely she shouldn’t be too difficult to find.”

  “You’d think.” Inevitably, however, Neil’s expression turned sly. “Well, I always thought you’d be caught sooner or later, but never quite like this.”

  “Hey, I’m nowhere near caught. Even if I find Savannah and prove paternity, I have no intention of marrying her. All that’s important to me is making sure Mary has a good family and gets proper care.”

  “Will you keep her?”

  There was that all-important question again. “To be honest, I don’t know. What qualifications do I have to raise a kid, Neil? They need things like shots, feeding, attention.”

  “Are we discussing puppies or kids?”

  “Interaction, is that better? A parent has to be there for a kid. Attend PTA, take field trips, spend the weekends at soccer fields and softball fields. My life is full as it is without all that.”

  “Only because you make it so.”

  How typical of Neil, since he had a two-year-old son of his own. “I could end up doing more damage than good.”

  “On the other hand, I doubt we’d ever have to worry about you leaving your kid on someone’s doorstep, let alone walking away from her.”

  He had that right. Mitch didn’t know if he could get over Savannah’s actions. It was what made him committed to finding her, regardless of the cost. “No,” he replied. “I wouldn’t. That’s why I have to use this time to check out some things.”

  “So do it. But don’t discount your value in the process of child rearing. You matter more than you can imagine.”

  After thanking Neil for his best wishes, Mitch found a quiet spot to make som
e calls. On the top of his list was Jenny. He wanted to reassure himself that she was coping well with the baby.

  At first he got her answering machine. “Jen? It’s me. Are you there?”

  There was a clicking, muffled sound before he heard her burst out with, “Hi! What’s up?”

  He liked her breathless voice and the energy behind it. “I’m in Los Angeles and wanted to check in.”

  “That’s sweet. But your timing isn’t. I’m neck-deep here. No time to talk.”

  She couldn’t mean that, not after what she’d said before. “Do you mind if I ask how my daughter’s doing?”

  “Who?”

  “Jen.”

  “Oh—your daughter. I didn’t know if I heard right. Well, she’s perfect. Better than. Why shouldn’t she be?”

  “I didn’t mean to suggest—”

  “Listen, if I don’t get off this phone, I’m going to have twenty-five pounds of pear chutney to lug out and bury in the backyard, and that’s not going to sit well with the restaurant down in Houston that’s waiting for it.”

  Mitch’s imagination worked overtime envisioning her wrestling with something out of a body snatchers movie. “Ah... sure. I didn’t know you were—Jen, you’re the one who said to call.”

  “Absolutely. Except for this critical moment. ’Bye!”

  For several seconds Mitch stood there with the dead phone against his ear. Who did she think she was? He’d entrusted his child to her and the woman treated him as if he was a nuisance, shut him down, for pity’s sake! He understood that she was busy, but she had to understand his need to reassure himself that Mary was all right.

  Wait until he got home. As much as he appreciated what Jenny was doing for him, her sacrifice of time and effort, he wasn’t about to let anyone treat him as if he were an annoying gnat.

  Grim and determined, he dialed and reached for his telephone credit card once again. “Operator, I need information...”

  It was the better part of forty minutes later when he checked his watch and decided he’d better start back to the plane. The phone calls he made after the one to Jenny hadn’t proved much more successful than the first. In fact, the only positive result was that the detective Brad had referred him to was willing to come by the house this evening to discuss the matter of finding Savannah. He’d made that call after determining it would be impossible to locate her on his own—his several chats with various Information operators had proved that much. And it was clear after his conversation with Brad that his friend had no new information to share. The chief of police had only wanted to tease Mitch further about the unnerving situation.

  Wholly preoccupied, Mitch didn’t see the young woman who darted into his path. He barreled into her and had to grab her by her upper arms to keep her from falling backward into her two-wheeled carrier and bag. “Stacie?”

  “Mitch!”

  He steadied the pretty woman in the red, white and blue uniform, while he took in the Cleopatra hairdo and seductive smile framed in poppy-red lipstick. “I thought you had the New York to Greece run these days?” he asked.

  “I do. I took a few days off to visit family out here. Long time no see. You look wonderful as ever.”

  “So do you.” They exchanged hugs and Mitch’s thoughts flashed back to the days when he and Stacie had been quite an item. It felt like a particularly long time ago.

  “I was just on my way to grab a bite of lunch. Can you join me?”

  The invitation should have tempted him. When Stacie took the New York to Athens run, she’d done it after a confrontation with him. She had wanted something beyond what they had. He had wanted to keep things as they were. Seeing her again should have had him wondering if he’d done the wrong thing in letting her go. To his surprise, he felt...affection. Nothing more.

  “I—I wish I could, Stace. But I’m due to head back to Dallas within the hour.”

  Her expression turned wry. “Story of my life where you’re concerned. What’s new in yours? Still playing the field?”

  If she only knew. But he wasn’t about to invite trouble. “In a different way now than then, because I don’t want to hurt anyone. And I never wanted to hurt you, Stacie.”

  “I know that. Now.” The smile she gave him said that she had survived and recovered, even if he did represent a temptation to her. “Seeing anyone in particular that I would know?”

  “Ah ... no. I’m tied up with some, er, business these days. Too busy to really date much. You?”

  “The same. I’m helping my kid sister open a café out here, and that’s been keeping me preoccupied.” But his news seemed to brighten her somewhat. She gave him another hug. “Well, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me.”

  “You bet. Good seeing you again, Stace.”

  He stood there several seconds before she was swallowed up in the crowd coming off the 747 from Tokyo. You have to be nuts. What guy lets someone as sexy and decent as her slip through his fingers? Stacie hadn’t asked for a wedding ring; all she’d wanted was someone to come home to on a steady basis, an agreement that they wouldn’t date anyone else while they were together.

  But he hadn’t wanted anything to do with commitments.

  With a shake of his head, Mitch continued walking toward his gate. He wondered if he would ever change his mind. His parents’ lousy marriage sure had done a job on him. It was something he had to think about if it turned out that he and Mary were to be a family. The child would need full-time care when he wasn’t around. He’d drafted Jenny because she’d been close, and... well, she just looked like she would be good with kids.

  However, still smarting from the brush-off she’d delivered, he had to wonder if he’d been wrong to put so much confidence in her. Wasn’t she proving that she was too busy with her own life to deal with a baby? It had only taken him one night with the little thing and he already had a good idea as to what such care entailed.

  “You look worse now than you did before.”

  Mitch glanced over to see that Neil had fallen into step beside him. “I’m okay.” For a guy hanging by his thumbs, he silently added with a twist of his lips.

  “No luck with your detective work?”

  “Nil. If Savannah is living in the Los Angeles area, her number’s unlisted. Knowing her, though, she’s probably shacked up with someone else. The Lone Ranger role never appealed to her.” No, Savannah would hook up with someone who had the wherewithal to keep her in style.

  “So what’s next, Captain Daddy?”

  Mitch winced at the title. “Thanks, Dennison. You really know how to—”

  “Captain what? Did I hear the word Daddy attributed to you, Captain McCord, sir?”

  With a groan, Mitch glanced over his shoulder to discover their senior flight attendant had fallen in behind them. “Lorna, I will pay for you and your husband to have dinner at the restaurant of your choice if you forget you heard that.”

  The redhead’s laugh reminded him of Jenny’s. Soft and musical, it wasn’t mean, but it literally oozed mischief. “Tempting, but no deal. Confess or I’ll grab that desk mike at the ticket counter and make a public announcement.”

  She would, too. As with Neil, he’d known Lorna for several years and they’d flown many a mile together. He groaned up at the ceiling. “Yes. Okay? Feel better now?”

  “You’re looking at a man in deep pain, not to mention emotional turmoil,” Neil told her with a wink. “I think he wants to ask us to be gentle with him.”

  “He wouldn’t.” The redhead’s blue eyes twinkled with delight. “Oh, the things you hear when the mighty fall. So tell me, Captain, is the delightful event already here or coming?”

  “She’s here,” Mitch said, feeling his shirt begin to stick to his back. “Her name is Mary, and she’s beautiful, and innocent, and she doesn’t deserve to become the center of ridicule, even if I do.”

  That earned him a look of surprise from Lorna that quickly turned to approval. “Good Lord...you almost sound like
a father, Mitch. Do I know the mother?”

  “No. She’s someone from my past.”

  “What happens now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He only found out yesterday,” Neil interjected in a conspiratorial whisper.

  Lorna nodded. “No wonder you look as if you’d swallowed some bad oysters. Well, all I can say is that this is going to be the biggest news since Tawny Marshall quit Gulf-Pacific to marry that sheikh.” She patted Mitch’s back. “I’ll tone down my teasing, but I hope you’re not expecting miracles from everyone. You’re just too inviting a target.”

  Didn’t he know it. By the time they landed in Dallas Mitch felt as if he was wearing a bull’s-eye on the back of his uniform.

  He drove home feeling more drained than he had the first time he’d had his hands on the controls of a jumbo jet. Taking the back roads to avoid the jam on 635 didn’t help, nor did listening to the radio. He knew that more stress lay ahead of him. And that even if he survived that, tomorrow he would have to do it all over again. The idea wasn’t appealing. But it was nothing compared to the thought of being responsible for another human life for the next eighteen or twenty-one years.

  By the time Mitch pulled into his driveway, he wanted nothing more than to hurry into his house, grab a beer, and take the longest, coolest shower in the history of Texas. But the minute he climbed out of his car, Jenny stuck her head out from behind her kitchen doo— making even temporary escape impossible.

  “Hurry, McCord. You’re just in time to feed your daughter her dinner!”

  Chapter Four

  There went his plans for a beer.

  With a sigh that came out more like a groan, Mitch put his flight bag, hat and jacket inside the doorway of his house before striding across to Jenny’s. He thought she had a heck of a nerve to sound so cheerful.

  “My, Grandma,” she drawled as he topped the stairs, “what glowering eyes you have. What’s the matter? Have a bad day?”

  “No thanks to you.”

  She looked sincerely surprised at that. “Don’t tell me that you’re still bristling because I had to keep our phone conversation short?”