Sweet Southern Hearts

by Susan Schild

  He shook his head and said wonderingly, “We’ve just been given a baby.”

  As she mulled it over, Linny took a quick shower and changed into shorts while Jack and Neal kept an eye on Lucas. As she walked into the kitchen, Jack was examining the formula and jars of baby food Ned had delivered, while Neal wore an expression of rapt delight as he held Lucas in his arms and fed him a bottle. She eyed the baby but busied herself pulling together supper. For some reason a nice supper seemed important, like putting a stake in the ground of normal after the extraordinary events of the past few days.

  “Lin, do you want to hold Lucas?” Jack offered after he’d expertly burped the baby. But Linny eyed the baby warily and kept her distance. If she touched the baby or held him, she might never want to let him go. She loved Baby Ivy, but she was so adored by Jerry and Kate that Linny didn’t feel bereft when she handed her niece back to her parents after her shift was over. But there was something about this boy being unwanted, adrift, abandoned that just got to her.

  When her beloved first husband Andy had died, she’d felt adrift, almost ephemeral, like a gust of wind could come and just blow her away. And between her frequently absent daddy and her hound dog of a late husband, she knew a thing or two about being abandoned. A lump in her throat, she busied herself scrubbing the already spotless counter with a sponge, and polishing it with a clean dishrag.

  From the corner of her eye she watched Jack and Neal sit on the rug in the kitchen with Lucas and drive yellow toy earthmovers over the delighted boy’s chubby legs. The dogs were even acting respectable. Roy snoozed on the periphery of the circle of men, blinking open an eye every now and then just to keep apprised of the situation. Wilbur and Orville sat on their haunches and, Sphinxlike, eyed the construction site.

  Neal—who, for the last day or two had specialized in sulks, one-word answers, and baleful glances—was making vroom, vroom noises to simulate the thrum of a front-end loader engine, and Jack was grinning from ear to ear as he showed Lucas how the bucket on the dozer lifted.

  Linny jumped when the phone rang and snatched it up when she saw Mary Catherine’s number. “Hey,” she said, for some reason breathless. “You heard?”

  “Jack left a long voice mail,” Mary Catherine said.

  “The baby is Kandi’s. We found a note. His name is Lucas.” Linny heard the tremble in her own voice. “She says Buck is the father and she wants to give us the baby.”

  “You can’t just give a baby away like pizza samples at Costco.” Mary Catherine blew out a disgusted sigh. “The courts will be involved. They’ll probably grant you temporary custody. We need to find Kandi to see if she’s serious about giving up the baby and willing to voluntarily relinquish parental rights.” She paused for a moment and then asked bluntly, “If no one else lays claim to the baby and Kandi wants to give him to you all, are you and Jack willing to adopt him?”

  Linny thought about it. “Not sure yet,” she said, rubbing her forehead. A wave of fatigue hit her and a second wave crashed in: pure panic. Her life was getting so complicated so fast. She felt like she was behind the wheel of a speeding car with iffy brakes. “Jack and I haven’t had a chance to even talk. I just got back from South Dakota and the baby turned up.” She paused and glanced over as Jack and Neal clambered up from the floor. Jack hoisted Lucas up into his arms and gazed at the baby, looking besotted.

  Linny had to ask. “Can we keep the baby until we get this straightened out or do we have to turn him over to Social Services or the county?” She tensed as she waited for the answer, watching Jack’s head swivel toward her and Neal’s face pinch with anxiety.

  “For now, technically, you’re simply taking care of the baby for a . . . friend,” Mary Catherine said. “But tomorrow I’ll call Social Services and notify them about the situation.”

  She blew out a sigh of relief and gave the men a thumbs-up. Neal grinned and punched his father’s arm. Jack stood and did a one-arm-raised, touchdown-scoring dance around the kitchen, bobbling a smiling Lucas in his arms.

  Mary Catherine went on. “You all talk about what you want to do and call me late tomorrow. No matter what, I’ll need to get in touch with the mother so get me any contact info you have on her.” She paused for a moment. “Are you sure Buck’s the father?”

  “Probably.” Her scalp prickling with anger, Linny wondered again how her rat of a late husband could promise to put more effort into their marriage while sleeping with Kandi. Busy guy.

  “We’ll need to confirm that. Birth records and such,” Mary Catherine said.

  Linny rubbed a spot on her forehead and thought about it. “His affair with Kandi started before he even met me. If Kandi was several months pregnant when she had her final rendezvous with Buck, and if she was one of those women who didn’t show much until the final months, I’ll bet money Buck was the father.” She paused a beat. “After all he bought her a Camaro.”

  “So sweet. Kind of like a promise ring,” Mary Catherine said dryly. “And any idea where Kandi might have gone?”

  “None,” Linny said. “I only met her once.”

  “Okay. I’ll get on it,” she said, blowing out a sigh. “Right now, just go enjoy that baby.”

  After she ended the call Linny followed the men into the den, where they were getting Lucas settled for the night in Ivy’s loaned crib. Arms crossed, she leaned on the doorframe and watched. Neal pushed up his slipping glasses and studied the baby monitor while Jack expertly changed Lucas’s diaper on the antique sideboard buffet they’d jerry-rigged with padding to use as a diaper changing station.

  Linny swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. Wilbur and Orville were watching the action, as absorbed as diehard Wolfpack football fans with fifty-yard-line seats at a bowl game. Roy cocked his handsome head and looked at her. He always sensed when she was worried.

  She’d found her little Lab mix when the previous renters had moved out and not bothered to take the dog. Jack had found Wilbur and Orville abandoned at a county dump. Their owners had left the puppies, just like trash. She rubbed her forehead. How did people abandon puppies . . . or babies?

  And the question of taking in this baby was exponentially more complicated than taking in a dog. She was too tired to sort it out. “Can you all handle getting this guy down for the night? I can’t stay on my feet another minute,” she said. Seeing the sleepy baby’s sweetly drooping eyes, she determinedly averted her glance as quickly as she could, just like she did when she drove by the scene of a crash on the highway. Giving the baby a wide berth, she kissed Jack and Neal and trudged off to bed.

  * * *

  At 5:30 the next morning a bleary-eyed Linny sipped coffee and stared at the computer screen. She printed an article on North Carolina laws pertaining to abandoned or surrendered babies, flipped to a website on how to help teens learn to manage stress by doing one-minute mindfulness breathing exercises, an idea Neal would snicker at. She stayed a while at Mommy’s Organic Infant, a site detailing developmental milestones, nap schedules, and recipes for homemade organic foods for babies around what they guessed to be Lucas’s age.

  The mothers in the embedded clips were limp-haired, earnest, and pretty, and their eyes glowed like zealots as they described the myriad of preservatives and toxins in the processed baby foods served by less conscientious mothers. They grew teary-eyed as they explained how little Camila or Jameson or Zed thrived on Mommy’s homemade organic meals.

  Just to be on the safe side, she and Jack probably needed to grow their own organic foods rather than buy them. Linny would wear a red kerchief and ride around at daybreak on a tractor that smelled of French fries because it ran on used cooking oil. She’d harvest their crop of broccoli or bananas that they’d misted with lemon juice or some other environmentally friendly but ineffective way to keep away bugs.

  Linny rubbed her eyes with her fingers. She’d just add that item to her to-do list.

  Sitting back in her chair, she stretched and tried to ease the tightness
in her shoulders. She and Jack had talked briefly before she’d fallen into an exhausted sleep. If Mary Catherine gave them the okay from the county, they’d keep Lucas temporarily. But how would they manage adding a toddler to their already hectic lives? Though the baby looked cute from four feet away, she felt a flicker of resentment that she and Jack were cleaning up other peoples’ messes instead of easing into their marriage and enjoying their still new love.

  As she took a swallow of cooling coffee, she shook her head, aware of a big fear. What if they all fell in love with Lucas and Kandi changed her mind and wanted him back?

  She was going to drive herself crazy. Fresh air would clear her head. She’d walk down to the end of the driveway to get the paper and maybe take a short walk up the road. Linny quietly slipped on clothes and sneakers and stepped outside. She stopped short. A baby fairy had left a crib and a high chair on the front porch. The note taped to the leg of the chair read:

  We fervently hope we will never need these again! Keep as long as you need. Ned and Jilly

  Linny grinned. Their farm manager and his wife both seemed to be blurs of perpetual motion with several small children always in tow.

  * * *

  The seven o’clock breakfast table planning meeting was as high powered and deliverable oriented as any corporate meeting Linny had ever attended. She figured the troops needed fuel so she’d whipped up a big bowl of steel-cut oatmeal and set out bowls of blueberries, sliced peaches, and pecans for toppings.

  As the men dished up heaping bowls and sat, Linny tapped her pen on a pad of paper. “We just need to get through this week. We need to get Lucas on a good schedule, take care of Ivy, and get our work done.”

  “If I could get hold of them I’d like to tell my folks about the baby,” Jack said with a boyish grin as he began feeding Lucas, who was propped in his high chair all bibbed up. “Mama would be over the moon.”

  Linny took a swallow of creamy coffee and thought about it. Her in-laws, Rush and Ceecee, were away on a cruise to the Galapagos Islands, a trip they’d wanted to take their whole lives. Afterward they were going to Fort Lauderdale to catch a ship for a repositioning cruise. Her mother-in-law was a devoted grammy to Neal and just a few weeks ago she had given Linny an arch look and asked, “Can we expect the pitter-patter of tiny feet anytime soon? It would be heaven to have a few more grandbabies to love on!” Rush and Ceecee would probably dive off the cruise ship and swim home from the Panama Canal if they knew a baby was afoot and they might be needed to help.

  Linny picked at a cuticle, again noticed her ringless finger and felt a stab of insecurity. She and her mother-in-law had this new bond of caring for each other, but if she met Lucas, Linny would have to explain to her very proper mother-in-law the unsavory backstory of her late husband, including the part about his affair with Kandi. Did Ceecee’s friends at Oakwood Hills Country Club have those kinds of skeletons in their family closets? Seemed unlikely. And what if they had to give Lucas back? With a wild card like Kandi, all bets could be off. “Let’s not say anything until we hear more from Mary Catherine. I don’t want them to abandon their trip just in time for us to have to give Lucas up.” She swallowed hard as she thought of surrendering the baby.

  “You’re right.” Jack nodded. “They’ll be back soon enough; we’ll tell them then.” He ducked as Lucas tossed a spoonful of a brown rice, oatmeal, and pear concoction in his direction.

  “I’ll help wherever you need me,” Neal said quietly. He laughed and pointed at the baby. “This guy gets more on his bib than he swallows.”

  Jack squeezed the baby’s foot and reviewed his list. “Neal and I will make a run to Babyland to pick up supplies. I’ll drop Neal back here, go to the office to rearrange some appointments, stop at the grocery store, and be back home by two. Neal and I can make a few simple meals for the next two weeks and stick them in the freezer. Would that help?” he asked, cocking his head at Linny.

  “So much,” she said with a grateful smile.

  “Lucas needs clothes. All he has are the ones he wore when we found him,” Neal pointed out as he wiped away a blob of food from Lucas’s chin.

  Jack scribbled that down. “Thanks, buddy. I missed that.”

  Linny read off her own to-do list. “I’ll call Mary Catherine to see if she has any news and schedule an appointment with a pediatrician. I have a FaceTime meeting at eleven, and Jerry drops Ivy off at 1:30 so he can take Kate to physical therapy, but both you boys will be home shortly after that.” She blew out a little sigh. She’d need the men. Keeping two small babies at once could be mayhem. Linny paused, trying to think whether she’d forgotten anything and felt a pang of longing for her mama. She couldn’t wait for Dottie to come home. She didn’t want to pester Kate with constant questions while she was recuperating, but Linny knew so little about babies. She needed advice from Dottie; more advice than she could get from hurried trips to the baby websites. And she was going to need Dottie’s physical help. Even with Jack and Neal’s pitching in, she needed more hands, especially with two babies around.

  Linny watched Jack as his big hands tenderly made soothing circles on the baby’s back. So far she’d avoided physical contact with the baby, but that wouldn’t be possible any longer. “I need to finish planning the class I have next week.” She rubbed her forehead, feeling overwhelmed.

  “You can work and I can watch the babies,” Neal offered.

  Linny paused and raised a brow at Jack. Where was the argumentative boy who shot death-ray glares at them when asked to pitch in with household chores? “That would be great if you could help me. I’ll be in the next room at the computer, but I need just one hour of concentration.” She’d be constantly supervising Neal, but she could be surreptitious about it.

  “I can do it,” Neal said firmly.

  “Well, I’m going to give you a crash course on babies. I’ll tell you everything I know and you’re going to go online and watch all the babysitter and safety clips you can,” Jack said.

  Neal bobbed his head, looking serious.

  If Neal studied up on babies he’d know more than she did. Linny had basically been winging it with Ivy, but she needed to get serious about this job. Leaning her elbow on the table, Linny put her chin in her hand and looked at the boy. “Neal, you decide which clips are the best ones and I’ll watch them, too. I’ve picked up some tips, but I’m still new at this myself.”

  “Okay,” Neal said with a quick nod, but the smile that played at his lips told Linny that he liked the idea of instructing her.

  She watched him patiently trying to get Lucas to drink from a sippy cup and felt a thrum of anxiety. Wouldn’t do for him to get too attached to the baby either. “Remember, guys, Lucas isn’t ours. We may have to give him back today or tomorrow. Think of him as a kind of a loaner baby,” she said nervously.

  Neal’s brows were drawn in confusion. “A loaner baby?”

  “You know. Like bowling shoes. You get to keep them for a while, but then you have to give them back.” Linny was babbling now and she knew it. Jumping up, she began clearing breakfast dishes from the table.

  Jack arched a brow at her. “No ambivalence about this baby, right, Lin?”

  She stopped rinsing bowls and gave him a chagrined smile. “A little,” she admitted.

  * * *

  Later that week Linny sat at the kitchen table, her hands resting on the keyboard, stuck. She glanced again at the few sentences she’d managed to eke out on the proposal for training at a medical device company called Wanazak Sciences. Why was writing this taking so long? Linny thought about the meeting she’d had with the client just a few months ago—before Neal became a full-timer and before the house was full of babies.

  The human resources director had introduced herself using the full name and title on the nameplate on her door: Dr. Eleanor Huffsteader. She’d smoothed back her sleek auburn bob and assured Linny that she’d be offering her own extensive expertise and monitoring to whomever delivered the training. Linny
had to fake a coughing spell to hide her shudder. After the meeting she’d Googled Dr. Eleanor and found she had a doctorate in sociology from a college that was rumored to be a diploma mill.

  Linny pushed back a stray lock of hair and thought about it. It wasn’t just the idea of working closely with Dr. Eleanor that bugged her. Wanazak Sciences was huge and had been in the news lately for falsely claiming the parts they used in their manufacturing process were made in America when they were made in China. She had an uneasy feeling about the whole project.

  Linny groaned softly. She’d committed herself so she’d have to force herself to write this proposal. But after tapping out a few more words she blew out a sigh and closed the document. She was just too tired to do good writing.

  The schedule she and Jack—and Neal—had cobbled together was frenetic, but it was working. She took a swallow of coffee and stared unseeing out the window. She thought about her to-do list for the day and rubbed her eyes with her fingers.

  She couldn’t believe how much time babies took. Between feeding, changing, getting him up and down for naps, and the laundry Lucas generated, Linny was on the go all the time. Supper the last few nights had been hastily slapped-together meals: odd combinations like frozen burritos and Italian mixed vegetables, corn chowder she’d found in the bottom of the freezer served over ninety-second rice. The food pyramid was in shambles.

  Linny pushed back her hair and realized it was messy and poofed up on one side from the way she’d slept. Her FaceTime meeting with Chanel Green was just ten minutes away. She needed to quickly fix her hair and slap on some makeup. Darned video calls.

  As the Skype tone rang, Linny sat at her desk and found she was actually excited about her coaching meeting with the young CEO. Chanel Green needed help writing the speech she was going to give her employees at an all-hands meeting.