Fancy's Baby

by Pamela Bauer

  Annabelle took the greeting card, eyeing it dubiously as she placed it on the scale. “One dollar air mail.”

  “I have that here somewhere.” Again avoiding Annabelle’s eyes, Tessie dug into her black fanny pack for the exact change. She plunked three quarters, two dimes and a nickel down on the counter. Then she picked up the postage stamp, licked it and slapped it on the envelope.

  “There.” She gave Annabelle a weak smile. “Now I know it’ll get there on time.” She zipped her fanny pack shut and looked out at the bright sunshine. “Well, time to go back out into the heat.”

  She started to turn away, but Annabelle stopped her.

  “Not so fast. You’re not going anywhere yet.”

  Tessie was not one to startle easily. She gave the postmistress an innocent look, saying, “I beg your pardon?”

  “You’re not leaving until you tell me what’s making you look like the cat who was asked to clean out the canary cage.... Come on. Out with it,” Annabelle demanded when Tessie remained mute. “What’s the scoop?”

  “Why, Annabelle Scanlon. You ought to know I’m not one to gossip. When I worked for the Barons I had the reputation of being the soul of discretion.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” Annabelle said with a wave of her hand. “But you’re not a legal secretary anymore. You retired your discretion along with your steno pad. You’re just one of us now and you might as well tell me what it is you know, because I’m going to hear about it sooner or later.”

  Tessie moved closer to the counter. “I figured you had heard already.”

  “Heard what?”

  Tessie hesitated only a moment before saying, “About your son-in-law and that Hollywood woman.”

  Annabelle heaved a long sigh and folded her arms across her chest. “I know she’s trying to get my granddaughter to be in that commercial, if that’s what you’re talking about.”

  “So that’s what’s going on?”

  Annabelle eyed her suspiciously. “There’s nothing going on.”

  “That’s not the way it looked to me.”

  “Tessie Finklebaum, what are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about your son-in-law and her.”

  The postmistress pursed her lips. Because the little blonde had followed Nick around yesterday, folks were now speculating about their relationship. Annabelle had been afraid something like this would happen. “Tessie, you of all people ought to know that just because a man likes to walk past the bakery to smell the cookies, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to take one home.”

  “But he did take her home. Last night. I saw them with my own two eyes.”

  “Yeah, I know. She locked her keys in the car and Nick had to help her get them out.”

  Tessie chuckled sarcastically. “They weren’t anywhere near her car when I saw them and what they were doing had nothing to do with unlocking any door.”

  “You’re talking in riddles. Why don’t you just tell me what you saw them doing?” she snapped impatiently.

  There wasn’t another customer in the post office, yet Tessie looked around cautiously before saying in a low voice, “They were kissing.”

  “Kissing?” Annabelle’s jaw dropped and the color drained from her cheeks. “Nick and the Hollywood agent?”

  Tessie nodded vigorously. “I was in my car, trying to turn into my driveway, but I couldn’t. They were standing smack-dab in the center of the sidewalk.”

  “You must be mistaken. Are you sure it was Nick?”

  “He’s renting the old Watson place just down the block from me, isn’t he?”

  Annabelle nodded. “But it could have been someone else.”

  “I had the high beams on! Not that it did any good. They didn’t even notice me. I had to honk the horn to get them to move.”

  Now it all made sense, Annabelle realized—Nick’s hazy expression when he had come to pick up the boys last night, his defensive attitude toward the casting agent. For once Annabelle was at a loss for words.

  “I knew she was with your family at the picnic yesterday but I had no idea there was more to it than that,” Tessie added.

  “There isn’t more to it.” Annabelle quickly found her voice. “And I would appreciate you not sharing this information with anyone else until I’ve had a chance to talk to my son-in-law.”

  “He was kissing her, Annabelle.” The older woman’s words carried a warning.

  “Sometimes appearances can be deceptive,” Annabelle told her. “You won’t say anything, will you, Tessie?”

  “Of course not. As I said, I’m the soul of discretion.” She made a motion as if she were locking her lips shut, then adjusted her sun visor and left the air-conditioned building.

  Annabelle half expected that every patron who entered the post office that day would question her about Nick’s relationship with Kika. To her relief, not a single one did.

  Annabelle wished she could dismiss the subject herself. When she saw her daughter heading toward the bank across the street, she rushed over to the door, stuck her head outside and shouted, “Cece! Come here! Quick!” She waved frantically.

  By the time Cece had crossed the street and entered the post office, Annabelle was back behind the counter, pacing.

  “Mother, what’s wrong?” Cece asked, concern lining her face.

  “You’re never going to believe what I heard this morning.” She glanced at the six-foot-high divider separating the lobby from the work area to make sure no one was listening, then said, “Tessie Finklebaum saw Nick kissing Kika Mancini.”

  Cece’s worry lines were gradually replaced by a smile. “I had a hunch there was something happening between the two of them yesterday. Nick couldn’t keep his eyes off her.”

  Annabelle clicked her tongue. “Is it any wonder? The way she was dressed, she had half the men in Tyler gawking at her.”

  “She’s got a great figure, Mother, and a lovely face. She could have been dressed in coveralls and the men in Tyler would have still gawked at her.”

  “You sound as if you like her.”

  “I do. I think she’s fun.”

  “Fun?” Annabelle made another sound of disgust. “I wish she would stay away from Nick.”

  “Why should she? He is a single man.”

  “He’s a father with three kids!”

  “That doesn’t mean he can’t date.”

  A horrified look crossed her face. “You think he wants to date her?”

  Cece shrugged. “So what if he does?”

  “Cece, she’s a barracuda!”

  Just then the door opened and in walked Brick Bauer, the chief of police. “How’s it going, ladies? Did everyone have a good time at the picnic yesterday?”

  Annabelle glanced at Cece, who saw the police chief’s entrance as her opportunity to leave. “It was great fun, Brick. I’ll let my mother fill you in on the details. I have an appointment.” And with a wave, she was gone.

  Annabelle turned her attention to the man in the uniform, but her thoughts were on one thing and one thing only: she couldn’t let Nick make a big mistake.

  It was obvious that Cece wasn’t going to be any help in preventing that from happening. There was only one thing for Annabelle to do—fight fire with fire.

  “Brick, you’re just the man I wanted to see. Remember when we talked about fixing Nick up with that friend of yours who lives in Sugar Creek? You know, the schoolteacher who lost her husband last year in that automobile accident?”

  “You think he’d be interested?” Brick asked.

  “Oh, I’m sure he’d be,” Annabelle answered, her mind already racing ahead to ways of getting them together. “Why don’t you give her a call?”

  * * *

  EVER SINCE NICK had kissed Kika, she had been unable to get the man off her mind. All she could think about was when she might see him again.

  That was why she threw herself into her work the following morning, going ahead with the plans for the audition. With or without Me
lody Miller, she was going to have a video crew in Tyler to try to find Fancy’s Baby.

  Since there wasn’t a soundstage in the vicinity, she arranged to set up the film crew in the high-school gymnasium for the first round of interviews. Callbacks would have to be conducted in Minneapolis, which was probably a good thing, since Kika knew she was getting dangerously close to becoming emotionally involved with the Miller children. It was something she couldn’t allow to happen.

  Feeling restless and a bit homesick, she was grateful when her sister-in-law called to see how things were progressing.

  “We missed you yesterday,” Frannie told her, causing Kika’s heartstrings to tighten another turn. Every year the Mancini family spent the Fourth of July at one of Kika’s uncles’ cabins in northern Minnesota. This was the first time in five years that Kika had missed the get-together. “Frankie was there.”

  “Then it’s probably a good thing I wasn’t,” Kika told her, although she did regret missing the annual event.

  “Tell me what the Fourth was like in Tyler.”

  Kika recounted incidents of the previous day, barely mentioning Nick’s presence. Frannie, however, read between the lines.

  “Oh, my gosh! You had a date with that hunk from the video?” She could hardly contain her excitement.

  “It wasn’t a date, Frannie. His family invited me to eat with them at the picnic, we watched fireworks and he helped me get into my car after I locked the keys inside,” Kika explained. She was sitting in a hammock on the balcony of her room at the lodge, the phone propped between her ear and her shoulder.

  “Way to go, Kika!”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “And what am I thinking?”

  “I can hear your matchmaking motor clicking away.”

  Frannie gasped in mock indignation. “Just because you’re away from home and I think you should make the most of an opportunity to spend time with a gorgeous bachelor does not mean I’m matchmaking.”

  “There is no opportunity.”

  “Uh-huh.” Frannie did not sound convinced. “So tell me about this mechanical engineer.”

  “There’s nothing to tell,” Kika answered, coiling the phone cord around her fingers.

  “Well, I already know he’s tall, dark and handsome. Does he have a good sense of humor?”

  “Does any man?” she quipped.

  “Come on, Kika. Is he funny or isn’t he?”

  She thought for a moment before replying, “Let’s just say he’s prone to unexpected bursts of humor.”

  “Interesting. So when are you going to see him again?”

  “I’m having dinner with him this evening.”

  “Sounds like a date to me.”

  “It’s business.” Kika didn’t want to confess that she had been thinking about doing more than dating Nick Miller. If Frannie knew the kind of fantasies Nick’s kisses had generated, her matchmaking mind would be off to the races.

  Actually, if Frannie knew that Nick had kissed her, she would never let the subject die. Besides, Kika didn’t want her to know about the kisses. They were something she needed to understand herself before she told anyone else.

  “I came to Tyler to get Fancy’s Baby, not date the father of a prospective client.” Kika tried to convince herself as well as her sister-in-law.

  “So what’s wrong with doing both?”

  “Haven’t you heard a word I said? First of all, it’s a bad idea to mix business with pleasure. I want his daughter for a commercial, which automatically puts him out of the eligible field.”

  “Kika, I can name at least three men you’ve dated whom you met through work.”

  “And none of them worked out.”

  “I’m not suggesting you marry the guy.” Frannie proceeded to lecture her as to the reasons why she should make the most of an opportunity to enjoy the company of a man like Nick Miller. Kika nodded her head as she listened, agreeing with her on most points. After all, they were things she had said to herself last night.

  Nick was good-looking, he was obviously attracted to her, as she was to him, so what harm could come from spending some time with him? It would be a short-term thing, a matter of enjoying each other’s company while the opportunity presented itself.

  “Look at it this way, Kika. You might be able to convince the guy to let his daughter audition to be Fancy’s Baby,” Frannie added.

  “I doubt it. He’s dead set against it. It’s more than likely I’ll have to give up on the idea.”

  “I can’t believe you said that! You, who are able to convince anyone to do anything?”

  “This is different.” Kika chuckled sardonically. “Frannie, I followed him around the carnival yesterday. I played games, watched a parade, even went on a Ferris wheel.”

  “You rode a Ferris wheel for this guy?”

  “No, for Melody.”

  “What’s she like? Is she as temperamental as she looks in the video?”

  Kika’s voice softened. “She’s sweet, but very shy.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem. You have a talent for getting people to open up.”

  “Adult people.”

  “Are you worried she won’t test well for Fancy’s Baby?”

  “Oh, I think she’ll be perfect, but...” She paused, not wanting to admit that the problem was not with the little girl’s suitability for the commercial, but with Kika herself. Her emotions were getting tied up with this assignment-something she had vowed would never happen. “I wish this job were over. You know I’m not very good with kids,” Kika said with a sigh.

  “That’s not true,” Frannie declared. “You just haven’t had very many opportunities to be around them.”

  “You may be right. Look, I’ve got to go,” she told her, not wanting to pursue the subject any further. “We’ll talk when I get back next week.”

  Long after the phone call had ended, Kika lay in the hammock, thinking about her conversation with Frannie. Her sister-in-law was right about one thing—she hadn’t had much experience with children.

  Ever since she had lost Caroline, Kika had avoided being around kids, especially babies. Losing her daughter had left a wound that had refused to heal. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t let go of the fear that she was incompetent as a mother. To the outside world she acted as if she had no interest in being one, when the truth of the matter was she was afraid to even think about the possibility.

  But Frannie didn’t know that. No one knew but her aunt Lucy, who had been at Kika’s side when she had given birth to Caroline. Lucy had been her sole source of comfort when the doctor had saved Kika’s life, an action that had resulted in the death of her infant daughter and had ended the possibility of her ever having any more children.

  It had all happened in California, so neither her parents nor her brothers had any idea that she had even conceived a child. Only Aunt Lucy had known. She had nursed Kika back to health, consoled her through her grief and helped her put her life back together when there was no one else Kika could turn to for help.

  Now, two years later, the pain was still there. Lucy had suggested she tell her parents about the baby, but Kika couldn’t do it. Knowing she had had a child out of wedlock would break their hearts.

  Besides, it was all in the past, although Kika’s subconscious didn’t seem to think so. No good could come out of telling her family now. It was just something she would have to live with. And she would. If it weren’t for the fact that she was in the middle of the search for Fancy’s Baby, she wouldn’t even be thinking about it now.

  She would get through this job, just as she had survived all the others that had involved kids. One thing she would have to do was ignore her attraction to Nick Miller. She couldn’t afford to become emotionally involved with any man in Tyler. The object was to land a contract with Melody Miller, not let Nick Miller land her.

  * * *

  “DAD, YOU’RE NOT LISTENING.”

  Guilt washed over Nick as he looked a
t his son. “Sorry. What did you say, Zach?”

  “I said can we work on the go-cart?”

  “Maybe after lunch.”

  “Dad!” Exasperation filled his voice.

  “What?”

  “You said maybe after breakfast. Now it’s maybe after lunch. Next it’ll be maybe after dinner.” He shoved his fists to his chin, his elbows on the table.

  “Well, this time I mean it. I have to finish reading this booklet. It’s about the company I’m going to work for,” Nick told his son, holding up the handbook for new employees.

  Zachary leaned closer and said, “You’ve been on the same page all morning.”

  Nick knew it was true. He couldn’t remember a thing he had read. That was because his mind was not on mechanical engineering, but on a shapely blonde who last night had made his whole body feel as if it were a Roman candle exploding into millions of sparkles.

  “If we can’t work on the go-cart, can we go swimming?” Zachary was already off on another subject.

  Nick wasn’t. Images of Kika Mancini danced in his head, taunting him. She thought she had the upper hand in their relationship. Relationship? A couple of kisses hardly constituted a relationship. It better not. He didn’t want one. And if Ms. Kika Mancini thought he did, he was going to have to set her straight.

  “Dad, you’re not listening to me again,” Zachary declared, interrupting his thoughts.

  Nick looked at his son and realized he hadn’t heard a word the boy had said. He set the handbook aside.

  “We can work on the go-cart and go swimming this afternoon. But first I need to take care of some business,” he told his son as he reached for the phone. “I’m going to get Abby to baby-sit for an hour or so and then we’ll have the rest of the day together, okay?”

  A half hour later Nick was in his convertible, top down, the wind blowing in his face as he drove the short distance to Timberlake Lodge. A pair of aviator sunglasses shaded his eyes from the bright summer sun. He was a man with a purpose.

  When he arrived at the lodge, he realized that he should have called to see if Kika was even there. A visit to the front desk told him she wasn’t in her room, but he knew she had to be somewhere in the vicinity because her rental car was parked outside. The clerk at the desk suggested he try the beach.