Fancy's Baby

by Pamela Bauer

“Annabelle, what are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about how she wasn’t even filming those kids. She was just pretending. Here are all these parents who go out and spend a lot of money on new clothes so their kids will have a shot at the modeling job and she doesn’t even videotape them.”

  “I don’t believe that, Annabelle.”

  She made a sound of disgust. “It’s true. Ask Angela Murphy. She heard it from one of the mothers, who was there and saw it for herself. Miss Kika Mancini knew all along which babies she wanted.” She clicked her tongue.

  Nick was silent. What could he say? Until he talked to Kika, he wouldn’t believe she could be a part of such a scheme.

  “It was just a waste of time for those poor folks—and most of them couldn’t afford it.” Annabelle continued with her tirade.

  He was losing his patience and knew he should hang up before he said things he’d regret. “Look, Annabelle, I really don’t want to discuss this right now.”

  “Think about what I said,” she advised him. “And we both better pray Melody’s on that plane tonight.”

  This time he did lose his patience. “The woman’s not a kidnapper, Annabelle.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Did you ever check out her credentials? I was watching one of those talk shows the other night and there was someone on there who had pretended to be a moviemaker when all he really wanted was to snatch people’s babies from them.”

  “I have to go. I’m meeting some of the other employees here for dinner and they’re waiting for me.”

  As soon as he was off the phone, Nick dialed the number on Kika’s business card. He got her voice mail. “Hi, you’ve reached Mancini Casting Agency. We’re either not in the office or unable to come to the phone. Please leave a message and we’ll get back to you. Thanks.”

  He slammed the phone down and rested his hands in his head. What was wrong with him, listening to Annabelle’s tabloid view of Kika? She would be on that plane and Melody would be safe, and Kika would tell him that she hadn’t duped anybody.

  He hoped.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  BY THE TIME flight 705 landed, Nick had convinced himself that Kika had only slept with him to get Melody for the commercial. In his present state of mind, it seemed like a rational possibility. He conveniently forgot that he had already signed Melody up for the audition before he and Kika spent the night together.

  He knew he was in an irrational state of mind—something he owed to Annabelle. If she hadn’t planted such ugly rumors in his head he would never have suspected Kika could be dishonest about anything.

  Wrong. A little voice in his memory bank contradicted him. Right from the start he hadn’t trusted Kika, which was why he was having trouble discrediting the things his mother-in-law had said. He knew that people in show business would do anything to get what they wanted. But Kika was supposed to be different.

  When people began to deplane, Nick’s heartbeat accelerated. As passengers emerged from the jetway one by one, his chest tightened and he felt that familiar fluttering he always experienced whenever Kika was close by.

  Only she wasn’t close by—something he discovered as the last passengers from the flight slowly ambled away from the gate. When the doors to the jetway closed, Nick asked the attendant if there was anyone left on the plane. There wasn’t.

  He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Annabelle’s words replayed in his memory: We both better pray Melody’s on that plane tonight. He shook his head. Of course Kika would bring Melody back.

  Thinking he must have had the wrong flight number, he stepped up to the ticket counter and inquired about the flights scheduled to arrive from Minneapolis.

  “Are you Nick Miller?” the clerk asked. When he nodded, she added, “A Kika Mancini called to say she had missed her flight and that she would be arriving at ten forty-five.” She handed him the piece of paper with the message.

  Relief rolled over him. Of course Kika wasn’t a kidnapper. He brushed the hair back from his forehead and sighed. He really was losing it. He went to a pay phone and called Annabelle to tell her he’d be late.

  * * *

  ALL THE WAY HOME Kika could think of one thing only: what would Nick think of her when he saw Melody’s lip? “You’ll have to buckle her into her own seat for the landing.” The flight attendant’s voice interrupted her musing. Eyes full of sympathy glanced first at Melody, then at Kika.

  Kika looked down at the little girl sleeping in her arms and felt an emotion she had experienced only one other time in her life—when she had been pregnant with Caroline. Maternal instinct. She recognized it for what it was. Probably every woman felt those feelings when she held an adorable toddler in her arms. Kika didn’t want to think that it was anything more than a natural reaction.

  Carefully, she uncurled tiny fingers from her shirtsleeve, then slid her hands beneath chubby arms to lift Melody from her lap. She awoke with a start, looking lost and frightened.

  “It’s okay. I’m just going to move you next to me,” Kika said softly. But Melody didn’t want to leave the comfort of her arms. She protested loudly, her whole body stiffening as Kika tried to slide her into the next seat.

  “Melody, you have to sit with the seat belt on so that the plane can go back on the ground and we can see your daddy.” Kika tried to reason with her, but fatigue controlled the little girl’s emotions, making her cranky and upset.

  Tiny fists rubbed eyes clouded with tears. Kika could see the makings of a temper tantrum and carefully eased her back onto her lap.

  “Please don’t cry, Melody. You’re going to make your lip hurt.” She dabbed at the little girl’s tears with a tissue, praying that the cut on her mouth wouldn’t open. Melody continued to cry.

  With the help of a flight attendant, and after much cuddling and coaxing, Kika eventually was able to get Melody to sit in her own seat with the safety belt fastened. The tears, however, didn’t stop.

  All during the landing, Melody sobbed quietly, her little shoulders shaking from the hiccups that accompanied the tears. Kika leaned over to put her arm around her, getting as close as her seat belt would allow. By the time the plane had landed and the announcement had been made that it was safe to leave, Melody’s face was puffy and red. Kika’s apprehension increased.

  It was bad enough that she was returning Nick’s daughter with a fat lip. She didn’t need to have Melody fussing as if she had been unhappy the entire trip.

  Despite Kika’s efforts to cheer her up, Melody refused to smile. Actually, she refused to do much of anything, which resulted in Kika having to carry her from the plane.

  It was not an easy task. Besides Melody, she needed to carry the diaper bag, her briefcase, a shopping bag and her purse. In her haste, Kika didn’t see that the white teddy bear had fallen under the seat.

  The minute they stepped into the terminal, Kika spotted Nick. Looking more handsome than she remembered, he waved at her, causing her heart to skip a beat. He was happy to see her—it was there in his eyes, in the determined way he strode toward her and in his dimpled cheeks.

  The smile, however, disappeared when Melody turned her head in his direction. Any welcome he planned to give Kika was lost—chased away by the sight of his daughter’s distended lip.

  “What happened?”

  “I’m sorry,” Kika said emotionally. “She was playing with my nephew and she fell. It’s the reason why we’re late. I had to take her to emergency care.”

  Nick didn’t say a word, but lifted Melody into his arms, examining her face with an intense scrutiny.

  “I tried to call you, but you had already left the office and no one knew where you were.”

  Kika wanted to reassure him. “The doctor said it looks worse than it is because the lip swells when it’s been injured. There aren’t any stitches so there shouldn’t be any scarring.”

  Nick tried to examine the cut, but Melody turned her face into his chest. Kika could only imagine what wa
s going through his mind.

  “She was quite brave at the doctor’s office. And she was happy the entire flight except for when she had to be buckled in for the landing,” she explained, her worst fears materializing as Nick continued to stare at her as if she were an incompetent employee instead of the woman he had taken to bed. “She’s all right.”

  As if contradicting her statement, Melody let out a wail.

  Nick cradled his daughter in his arms, murmuring soothing words close to her ear. Melody continued to cry.

  “I think she’s tired,” Kika suggested, shifting her briefcase and purse to the arm that had carried Melody.

  “I’d like you to explain to me exactly what happened,” he said as they stepped out of the stream of people heading for the exit.

  Kika sensed an implied criticism. “Frannie said it was just one of those things. Even kids who have parents watching them play sometimes get hurt.”

  “Where were you when this happened?”

  “In the same room with her. It all happened so fast. Neither Frannie nor I had a chance to prevent it.”

  Nick didn’t ask any more questions, but simply said, “I better get her home.”

  Kika was swamped with feelings of inadequacy. All she’d had to do was take care of one toddler for one day and she had botched the job.

  Dejected, she followed Nick in silence to the baggage-claim area. He mumbled something about hoping the luggage handlers hadn’t lost Melody’s car seat. Kika murmured something about the claim ticket being in her purse.

  By the time they reached the Mustang, Kika had made a decision. There was no reason for her to stay in Tyler for the weekend. She had thought she and Nick might have a future together, but today had pointed out how wrong she had been to dream any such thing could happen.

  When Nick went to lift her overnighter into the trunk, she stopped him. “I’m not staying, Nick.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because this isn’t going to work.”

  He slammed the trunk shut with more force than was necessary. “No, I suppose it isn’t. But then you never really wanted it to work, did you?” Anger flashed in his eyes.

  “That’s not true.”

  While they were arguing, Melody started to holler, a distressing call Nick couldn’t ignore. He looked at Kika and said, “Look, you’re not going to be able to catch a flight back tonight. Why don’t I drop you off at a hotel?”

  Knowing what he said was true, she reluctantly nodded, then climbed into the back seat of the Mustang. As soon as Nick had stowed her luggage in the trunk, he got in beside Melody and started up the car.

  As they headed down the highway, the only sound in the car was Melody’s wailing. It seemed to bother Kika more than it did Nick. “Why is she crying?” she finally asked him.

  “She’s tired.”

  Kika wasn’t convinced that was Melody’s only problem. “She keeps looking around. Did we forget something?”

  Nick glanced around the car. “She has everything she left with, doesn’t she?”

  It was then that Kika realized the white bear was missing. “Oh, no! We must have left her teddy bear on the plane. We’re going to have to go back and see if we can find it.”

  “I’m not going back at this time of night. I’ll call the airline tomorrow and tell them I’ll stop in after work on Monday to pick it up,” Nick said irritably. “Besides, she’ll be sleeping in a few minutes.”

  If it had been up to Kika, she would have gone back to get the stuffed animal, but the longer they drove, the weaker Melody’s crying became. Eventually she fell asleep.

  Kika’s eyes met Nick’s in the rearview mirror. She needed to get away from him. She turned her attention to the billboards along the highway.

  “There’s a hotel coming up ahead. You can drop me off there,” she suggested.

  Again his eyes met hers, and she thought she saw desire flash briefly in them. But then he said, “Which exit is it?”

  “Twenty-four.”

  They rode in silence for several minutes. As they approached the hotel, Kika could feel her time with him slipping away. She needed to set the record straight on one subject.

  “You were wrong about what you said back at the airport, Nick. I did want this to work for us. I don’t know why you would think I didn’t.”

  “Maybe because you’re so good at deceiving people,” he told her.

  She shook her head in disbelief. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Don’t look so innocent.” Again their eyes met in the rearview mirror. “You duped half a town into believing their kids could be TV stars.”

  Hurt and confused she asked, “Why are you saying these things?”

  “I know how you conduct your auditions—pretending to be videotaping when in reality nothing happens. What’s the purpose, Kika? Do you get a kick out of exploiting innocent people?”

  The derision in his voice robbed her of any desire to explain herself to him. He had been suspicious of her ever since they had met, and it was obvious that their night together hadn’t convinced him that she could be anything more than a source of physical pleasure.

  She remained silent until he had pulled into the parking lot of the hotel. “Just stop at the front door and I’ll get a bellhop to take my suitcase in for me,” she told him. If it hadn’t been for Melody’s car seat, she could have hopped out the front door. As it was, she had to wait for Nick to let her out his side.

  With Melody asleep in the front seat and the bellhop waiting to take her suitcase, their parting was brief.

  “Do you need a ride to the airport?” he asked.

  She knew he was only being polite. “No, I can take the shuttle.” She glanced at the little girl sleeping in the car and her heart contracted. “I’m really sorry about Melody’s lip. I wish there was something I could do.”

  His look said it was too late to do anything.

  She summoned her professional side and said, “I’ll be in contact with you regarding the results of the interview.”

  His only response was a enigmatic lift of his eyebrows. Afraid she might embarrass herself by crying, Kika hurried into the hotel. She didn’t look back.

  * * *

  TO NICK’S SURPRISE, it was after nine when he awoke the following morning. He found Zachary and Patrick in the living room watching Saturday morning cartoons. Except for a disinterested, “Hi, Dad,” they paid him little attention as he passed through on his way to make his morning coffee.

  While the coffee brewed, he decided to check on Melody. After their late night, he wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t up yet. Quietly he crept into her room. He found her sitting up in her crib playing with the white bear. Melody had taken the teddy bear to Minneapolis; Nick knew she had. Even Kika had said it was missing last night.

  Nick scooped Melody up in his arms, bear and all, and carried her out to the living room, where he asked his sons, “Where did this come from?”

  “Kika brought it over this morning.”

  Nick felt as if the bottom had fallen out of his stomach. Kika had been there and he hadn’t seen her. She must have rented a car and driven all the way to Tyler simply to return Melody’s bear.

  “Why didn’t you tell me she was here?” he asked in amazement.

  “You were sleeping,” Zachary answered.

  Frustrated, Nick ran a hand through his hair. If he had known she was here they could have talked. Maybe they could have worked things out.

  He shook his head. What was he thinking? She was the one who wanted to go back to Minneapolis. She had returned the bear without bothering to see him.

  “She’s not coming swimming with us today.” If Zachary hadn’t been only nine, Nick would have sworn there was an accusation in that statement.

  “No, she had to go back to Minneapolis,” Nick answered absently, his thoughts still on the fact that she had been at his house this morning and he had missed her.

  “She said Melody’s probably going to be F
ancy’s Baby,” Zachary commented.

  “Maybe,” was all Nick said. He set Melody down on the floor next to the boys and went to get that cup of coffee.

  “Kika?”

  Nick stopped in his tracks. “What did she say?”

  “She said Kika,” Patrick answered.

  Nick looked at his daughter and she giggled.

  “Kika,” she repeated, hugging the bear.

  * * *

  “SO. IS HE BRINGING her or not?”

  Kika pushed herself away from her desk and the probing eyes of her assistant. “I don’t know. He hasn’t returned my phone call yet.” She walked over to the window and gazed out at Lake Calhoun.

  The man in question was Nick Miller. Horace Fancy had agreed with Kika that Melody was the perfect baby to represent Fancy Furniture. Now all Kika needed to do was arrange a meeting with Melody’s father.

  “You better hope he does. Baby number two is waiting in the wings and Fancy’s not a patient man,” Wendy warned.

  Kika sighed. “I’ve done everything possible. There’s nothing more I can do.”

  Wendy came up behind her and eyed her curiously. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you say that.”

  “Say what?”

  “That there’s nothing more you can do.”

  “Well, there isn’t.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t know what’s going on between you and this Nick Miller, but whatever it is, it’s taken all the fight out of you.”

  “What am I supposed to do? Fly out there and drag him back here by his hair?”

  “If that’s what it takes. Come on, Kika. Where’s that get-up-and-do-something attitude you’ve always had?”

  Just then the phone rang. While Wendy went to answer it, Kika gazed out the window. As usual, there were lots of mothers with their children at the beach. Kika longed to be with them. She wanted to spread tropical-scented sunscreen on a little girl’s fair skin, take her wading in the shallow water, build a sand castle on the beach. Of course, the little girl she had in mind was Melody Miller.

  How could Kika have been so foolish as to think she could step into another woman’s shoes and they would fit? Until she’d met Nick, fear had kept her from wanting to be a mother.