Family Merger

by Leigh Greenwood

  “You’re kidding.”

  “No.”

  “Will you tell me your favorite male body part if I answer?”

  “This is my quiz. I get to ask the questions, and you get to answer.”

  “Okay, in case I answer wrong, I’m warning you, I know karate.”

  “I know jujitsu.”

  “Hell, I’m impressed you even know the word. Okay, I like breasts, lips, and eyes, not necessarily in that order.”

  That confused her. She’d never had an answer quite like that.

  “Want to explain?”

  “I like breasts because, well, I’m a guy and that’s what guys do. I like lips because I love to kiss. I like eyes because if the woman has a sense of humor, they sparkle.”

  He was doing too well. It was time to throw him a curve. “If you were to dress a woman for a very special occasion, would you have any preferences for the dress and heels she wore?”

  “I sure would.”

  Uh-oh. Danger sign. About the only notice real men took of dresses and shoes was to make sure a woman was wearing them.

  “If it was a real important occasion I’d want her to wear something black. That way if anything spilled on her, it wouldn’t show.”

  She nearly choked with laughter. “Do your dates often spill food on themselves?”

  “No, but it’s best to plan ahead.”

  “What about heels?”

  “They can’t be so high she can’t stand up for thirty minutes without complaining her shoes are killing her. Why do women put their feet into shoes they know are going to hurt? No man would do a damned fool thing like that. This is fun. We’ve got time for one more.”

  “How long do you wait before trying to have sex with a woman?”

  “That’s too easy. I wait until she wants it as much as I do.”

  They had arrived at the airport. The limousine came to a halt at the curb. “Save the rest for next time. I’ve got to run.” He reached for his briefcase.

  “Is that all you’re taking?”

  “I left everything in my hotel room. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow. I hope you can talk Cynthia into seeing her friend.”

  “I’ll try.”

  “And plan something for us to do. I love my daughter, but I’d like to spend part of my day with you.”

  Kathryn didn’t know why she should be feeling breathless just because a man said he wanted to spend time with her. It wasn’t as if it hadn’t happened before. Only everything Ron did felt as if it were happening for the first time. She remembered that was a line from some song and smiled.

  “What’s funny?” Ron asked.

  “I just thought of a line from a song.”

  “That’s a good sign. Music is the soul of romance.”

  Then he stunned her by pulling her out of the limousine. She started to remind him that security wouldn’t let her see him off at the gate, but it was quickly apparent Ron wasn’t thinking about boarding gates. He took both her hands in his and drew her close.

  “I enjoyed this evening. I’m glad you decided to come with me.”

  “I didn’t think I had a choice. If I declined, you’d have come after me.” She knew immediately she’d said the wrong thing. It wasn’t what she felt. It wasn’t what he deserved. “I didn’t mean that. I—”

  “You’re almost as bad as Cynthia. You don’t trust people like me to like you for yourself. I don’t blame you for the most part, but I’m going to prove I’m different. Now I’ve got to run.”

  Without warning he kissed her soundly, picked up his briefcase, turned and headed toward the terminal at a run. She stood there like a statue, her gaze following him, remaining on the door long after he’d entered and disappeared from her view.

  It was foolish to attempt to deny this man had a powerful effect on her. On the surface he appeared to be exactly the kind of man she avoided. On the other hand, he felt like the kind of man she was looking for. She’d dated other good-looking men, many more personable, at least initially, but none had affected her as Ron did. She couldn’t decide what it was about him that made the difference, but there definitely was a difference.

  She wasn’t supposed to like him, but she did. Regardless of how well he answered her questions, no woman interested in a family, a husband who would come home to dinner and remain faithful to her, would take him on. There were simply too many challenges, too many hurdles. She should never have become involved with him. She should have limited herself to making sure he didn’t force Cynthia to go home against her wishes. She was crazy to have let him talk her into giving him sensitivity training.

  She had been so sure it would be a simple matter to convince him he needed professional help. Not only had she overestimated her ability and underestimated his understanding, she hadn’t once mentioned professional help. Then she’d let herself get seduced into going out on a date with him. She had to be losing her mind. Maybe something about this man engendered insanity in people around him. Maybe that was the secret of his success.

  “We’d better go, miss,” the limousine driver said. “The police will give me a ticket if I stay here any longer.”

  Kathryn’s sense of her surroundings came back with a jolt. She was still standing on the sidewalk outside the airport terminal staring at the door as if she expected someone to come through any minute. She turned and got back in the car.

  “Do you want to go home?” the driver asked.

  “Yes.” She gave him the address and settled back in the deep, luxuriously cushioned seat. It seemed almost a metaphor for what was happening to her. She was being virtually swallowed by the deeply seductive personality of Ron Egan, pulled into an intoxicating illusion that was as fleeting as it was unsubstantial. Tomorrow would come, or the day after, and everything would change. Once he got back in Geneva, got swallowed up in the excitement of his work, Ron might forget to come back.

  He knew Cynthia would be safe. Kathryn would look after her. Why should he take a leave of absence from the career he loved? Cynthia would soon be off to college, a career or marriage. She would have a life of her own. She wouldn’t need him, might not even have a place for him. Telling him he ought to take time off for his daughter was another piece of supreme arrogance on her part. In ten years of running the shelter she’d never done anything like that. She was an administrator, not an advisor.

  If Ron Egan did come back in two days, she had to be prepared to send him away. Being around him was too dangerous.

  “Are you going to see Leigh?” Kathryn asked Cynthia. The four girls were having breakfast. Ruby was moving around, putting food in front of the girls, making it plain she expected them to eat every bite.

  “I don’t know,” Cynthia said.

  “I don’t see why not,” Lisette said. “You can’t stay locked up here forever. Besides, you’ll want your old friends around after the baby’s born and you’re ready to go out again.”

  Kathryn was certain Lisette never considered letting the fact she was a mother interfere with her social life. She probably didn’t see the two as having anything to do with each other.

  “I think you ought to see her,” Julia said. “I don’t see why having a baby should cause you not to be friends anymore.”

  “What do you think, Betsy?” Kathryn asked.

  Betsy was so painfully shy she blushed when anybody spoke to her. Kathryn couldn’t imagine what stratagems the father of her child had used to seduce her. Betsy blushed, stammered and stared at her glass of milk before she answered.

  “I don’t think I could see anybody,” she said. “I’d be too ashamed.”

  “Cynthia’s not ashamed, and neither am I,” Lisette announced. “Having a baby is proof your boyfriend is crazy about you.”

  Kathryn hoped Lisette learned some tact one of these days, but she wasn’t holding her breath. Kerry had been to see her every day, two and three times on occasion, but it couldn’t have escaped her notice that none of the other girls had received visits from
their boyfriends.

  “That may be true,” Kathryn said to Lisette, “but getting pregnant while you’re in high school can ruin your life if you’re not careful.”

  “It won’t ruin mine,” Lisette declared. She swallowed the last of her toast and milk. “I’m going to marry Kerry, and our parents will take care of everything.”

  And they probably would. After they got over being angry. Her mother was already begging her father to let her come home. And if she was reading things right, Kerry’s mother would do anything for her adored son. She just had to talk her husband into going along with it.

  “I’ve got to get dressed before Kerry gets here,” Lisette announced. “Come on, Julia. You promised to help me.”

  The atmosphere in the room seemed to go flat after the two girls left.

  “Lisette is right,” Kathryn said to Cynthia. “You can’t shut yourself away from the world just because you’re going to have a baby.”

  “I don’t want to shut myself away. I expect I’ll meet other girls who have babies, who’ll want to talk about something besides boys, football games and who’s dating whom this week.”

  Kathryn laughed. “I hate to disappoint you, but mothers talk about the same things. Only it’s husbands, golf and whose marriage is rocky and possibly headed for divorce.”

  “I’ll never get divorced,” Cynthia said. “Betsy and I have decided we don’t want to get married.”

  Betsy turned bright red and excused herself before she could be expected to give her reason for such a decision.

  “I can understand why you feel like that now, but you might change your mind in a few years.”

  “No guy is going to want to marry me. I’m fat, boring and so smart I scare boys silly. On top of that I’ll have some other guy’s baby.”

  “Lots of men marry women who already have children. That happened to two of my friends just last year.”

  “It won’t happen to me.”

  “I wouldn’t close any doors just yet.”

  “Have you closed your doors?”

  Kathryn’s first impulse was to pretend she didn’t understand the question, but she changed her mind. “No, I haven’t.”

  “Are you going to date Daddy again?”

  Kathryn nearly choked on her coffee. “What made you think we were on a date? We were talking about you.”

  Cynthia looked a little unsure but she forged ahead. “You were out with him practically all of yesterday. That must mean you like each other.”

  “I spent the day trying to help him understand you better.”

  “What about last night?”

  “We talked about a lot of things. I have to learn to understand your father if I’m going to help him understand you.”

  “He’ll never understand me. He doesn’t want me.”

  “You’re wrong there. He loves you very much. He just doesn’t realize you can’t put children in a corner and expect them to wait patiently until you have time to take them out again.”

  “Margaret says Mama never expected Daddy to do anything with me. She says Mama encouraged him to spend all his time working.”

  “Did Margaret know your mother well?”

  “She came to work for them when Mama got pregnant. Daddy was determined she would have everything other wives had.”

  “Is your father worried about you doing things other kids your age do?”

  Cynthia rolled her eyes. “All the time. I can’t get him to understand that fat girls with genius IQs aren’t exactly the most popular kids in school. They don’t get invited to everything, especially trips and overnights.”

  She laughed, but Kathryn could tell it was without humor.

  “I remember this one ski trip he found out about. He hit the ceiling when he found out I hadn’t been invited. It didn’t make any difference that I didn’t know how to ski and didn’t want to go, he was determined I was going to be invited. He even offered to put pressure on one of the parents to invite me.” She shuddered. “Can you imagine? I wouldn’t have been able to hold my head up after that. Everybody would know.”

  “I don’t imagine the parents would tell.”

  “Are you kidding? It was the Bensons. They blab everything they know.”

  “At least his heart’s in the right place.”

  “I wish I could make him understand I don’t want all these things. I don’t enjoy parties. I just stand around watching other people have fun. I certainly don’t want to go on overnight trips. I’d have to room with some girl who’d rather be with someone else. Then somebody has to let me tag along with their group even though they don’t want me.”

  “You father just wants you to be accepted. He doesn’t want you to have to go through what he went through as a kid.”

  “I know. Mama went through the same stuff. Margaret said it’s worse for girls, especially if they’re not pretty. Mama was pretty angry about things like that.”

  It didn’t surprise Kathryn that Ron’s wife was acutely aware of any social slights. That was the kind of thing a woman would be more concerned about than a man.

  “I think it’s natural for a father to want the best for his daughter, especially since you’re his only child.”

  “He probably wanted a son instead.”

  Kathryn supposed that was a big worry for every girl in a family without boys. When you were the only child, it had to be even more troubling. “I don’t know if your father misses having a son, but he’s never said anything that would indicate he isn’t perfectly happy with you.”

  “He’d want a son to go into business with him.”

  “Women are rising to all levels in business these days. Your father said women had given him some of his hardest fights.”

  “He never talks business with me. He only wants to know who my friends are and what parties I’ve been to. Thank goodness I won’t have to deal with a debutante ball now.”

  “There’s no reason you can’t still make your debut.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “Have you told your father?”

  “Yes, but he won’t listen to me. He says I’m too young to know what’s best for me.”

  “You’re not too young to know what you want in this case. I think he ought to consider your wishes.”

  “Will you talk to him?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you think he’ll come back when he said?”

  Kathryn wasn’t willing to share her own doubts with Cynthia. “You know your father better than I do.”

  “Daddy’s usually very good about keeping his word— Margaret says you can swear by it—but nobody’s ever asked him to miss a meeting.”

  “Or possibly lose a big deal.”

  “Yeah,” Cynthia added, clearly not encouraged by that thought. “What he needs is something more important to him than this deal.”

  “What he needs is something that’s more important to him than his work. Your baby might be that. Some men are crazy about their grandchildren.”

  “He’s not going to get his hands on my baby,” Cynthia cried, suddenly very upset. “This is my baby.”

  All the warning signs Kathryn had observed earlier sprang to mind. There was something wrong here, and she had to find out what it was.

  “What he needs is a wife,” Cynthia said. “Do you think you can find somebody to marry him?”

  Kathryn was certain her laugh sounded forced. “I run a shelter for young women, not a dating service for their fathers.”

  “He dates all the time. I’m talking about someone who’ll marry him. It shouldn’t be hard to find somebody. He’s good-looking and rich. Leigh says he doesn’t even look old. Don’t you know some nice woman would like him well enough to go out with him?”

  Kathryn didn’t want to tell Cynthia how easy it would be for a woman to like her father very much. Neither did Cynthia need to know Kathryn found her father so attractive she temporarily forgot that though they seemed to have a lot in common they disagreed on most fu
ndamental matters.

  Kathryn got up to refill her coffee cup. “Your father will remarry when he’s ready.”

  “Not if he never stops working.”

  “I’m sure he meets lots of women in his work.”

  “Not the kind I’d want him to marry. He needs somebody who’ll take care of him, somebody who’s not interested in him becoming the most famous businessman in the world. He needs someone like you.”

  Kathryn didn’t like shocks, especially when she was pouring hot coffee. They were unpleasant and caused her heart to beat uncomfortably fast.

  “A woman like me wouldn’t know what to do with a man like your father.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well first of all, he travels all over the world all the time. I prefer to stay close to home. He doesn’t seem to need friends and family. I think friends and family are very important.”

  “But you don’t have any friends and you hardly ever see your family.”

  Kathryn looked down at her coffee as she stirred in the artificial creamer. “I wasn’t talking about myself.”

  “You said you thought—”

  “That was a slip of the tongue.”

  “I think you’d be perfect for him. You’re beautiful, smart and you know how to meet important people. That’s just the kind of wife he needs.”

  “That may be, but I’m not the wife he needs.” Kathryn picked up her cup and came back to the table. “Besides, we have some fundamental disagreements about what things are important in life. Starting with you and your baby.”

  “If he got married, he wouldn’t have time to worry about me and the baby. Besides, he’d probably say it was something his wife should take care of. And if he married you, it would be perfect because we agree on everything.”

  Kathryn settled back in her chair. “Not everything. For example, I’m very uneasy about why you’re having this baby and why you chose to come here.”

  It was immediately obvious she’d hit a sensitive spot. Cynthia grabbed her plate and got up to take it to the sink.

  “Don’t run away,” Kathryn said. “If we’re going to talk about why I ought to marry your father, then we need to talk about why you decided to have this baby. Did you decide to have it?”