by Barbara Ebel
After five minutes, he saw her approaching from his peripheral vision. She wore a pale purple knee length dress and a thin cardigan. He directly turned to her, but couldn’t make out her hair color or style due to a wide lavender scarf worn as a headband, tied behind her neck.
She eyed him as she approached and he nodded. “You must be Rachel,” he said, when she was close enough to have a conversation.
“And you’re Robert?” She smiled.
“I am.” Her flawless skin etched over high cheekbones. He remembered her now more clearly because her eyes were so dramatic; he wondered if their aqua color came from special contact lenses. He had never seen a woman so pregnant look so beautiful.
“I was fortunate to track you down,” Casey said. “And I hope your walk was not too much trouble or far.” He gestured to the front of her dress.
“I’m pregnant, not ill.” She gave him an alluring smile.
“I’m looking forward to rounding out my collection. May I see the book?”
“Certainly.” She pulled a small satchel from the larger vinyl bag she carried and handed it to him. Casey felt a rush of disgust. She had glanced at his left ring finger.
Beyond Rachel, Mary sat attentively watching the encounter. Casey tucked the bag under his arm and carefully examined the book he had held the day before. “Marvelous,” he said. “This signature, verification, and book are just what I’ve been looking for.”
“Perhaps you can place the money in there with that sheet of tissue wrap paper,” she said, pointing to the bag.
Casey placed the book back into the light gray bag with two little handles and stuck it back under his armpit.
“That won’t be necessary.”
She pursed her lips and stopped leaning her hip on the railing. “Robert, either give me the money or hand me back my book.” She took a step backwards. “Think how fast I’m going to have a cop here. A pregnant lady screaming?”
“Go ahead. A cop would be very interested in this stolen book. An officer would want me to return it to Danny Tilson, the real owner.” Casey took off his cap.
She took a deep breath. Caught, but not defeated. “Okay. Yes, bring it on. Danny gave it to me. After all, I was living with him and he gave it to me in a heat of passion.”
“The only half-credible thing you’ve mentioned is the two of you living together. We can drag Danny into this, if need be.”
“So it’s his, or yours, or whoever’s word against mine.”
“The middle man may make you look bad, too.”
“What middle man?”
“Ray, from eBay.”
“Why, you,” she said, giving him a piercing glare.
“There is also the matter of an opal bracelet.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she smirked.
Casey took four steps, stopped, and walked back two. “You know … if you weren’t pregnant, and if you weren’t a woman, I’d sock you.”
Chapter 28
Mary linked her arm into Casey’s and listened closely to his account of the river walk talk with Rachel as they veered right into a vegetarian soup and sandwich place. Excited, they thumbed through the book one more time and, gradually, they ate.
But there was a topic they both feared talking about. Mary pushed her lunch basket to the side. “Did you ask her?”
Casey rubbed his eyebrows and momentarily covered his face. “A new life is always a blessing, but Danny doesn’t need this. We just don’t know, so like the book, let’s not say anything to him. Sooner or later, he’ll find out if the baby is his or not.”
___________
Annabel and Nancy had gone home to Sara’s by the time Casey and Mary returned. Danny was in good spirits after spending the weekend with the girls. They had talked about school, safety on the internet, and a part-time job for Annabel over the summer since she had turned sixteen. They had played Bananagrams and taken multiple long walks with Dakota. One walk had turned into hurling sticks for Dakota, but their arms tired before Dakota did.
Dakota barked at the door, but quieted and pranced excitedly in the kitchen when he heard Casey’s car stop in the garage. “You two have a good time?” Danny asked when they walked in.
“Better than good,” Casey said, “except for one thing.”
Mary bent over and gave Dakota the attention he begged for. “We have a surprise for you. Casey and I had continued to ask around about your book and you still had two pawnshops left on your search list. Anyway, we did further investigating.”
“And we’re not divulging the particulars,” Casey said sternly.
Danny stared at their bemused smiles. Dakota’s thin pink lips relaxed into a good-natured grin. Casey handed Danny the small bag. Danny peered in and pulled something out.
“Wow! Holy smoke.” He held onto his mom’s book, embraced Casey, and then hugged Mary. “You don’t know how much this means to me.” His smile faded and his eyes moistened. “It’s supposed to be with me, it’s part of my past. This is like receiving some of what I’ve lost. I can’t thank you enough.” He held the book tight against his chest. “How much do I owe you?”
“Danny, you’re welcome,” Mary said.
Casey sat on a stool and jostled Dakota’s back end. “You don’t owe us anything. We simply recovered it.”
Danny gave his sister a hug again. “If you don’t mind, it’s going into its case.” He peeled away from them, up the stairs.
“I apologize,” Casey said to Mary. “There was something else on my agenda this weekend, but it’s not too late.” He stood and slipped his arms around Mary’s back, into her hair. Dakota sat with attention. “Can you change your mind about marriage? I would love to marry you, Mary Tilson.”
Mary gasped, a little sound popping up from her vocal cords, but it really came from her heart. An extra beat. “Casey, let’s not have a long engagement.”
They kissed while Casey spun her in the air. “I come with a ring,” he beamed, placing her on the floor. He dug into the bag he had left on the counter, opened a white box, and slipped a diamond solitaire on her finger.
___________
Weeks later, Nancy waited outside school with a gaggle of girls, her eyes peeled for her father. The girls pointed out boys they expected would turn dicey over the summer, like betting at a horserace, as parents’ cars grumbled to a stop. Nancy clutched books in one arm and jockeyed a knapsack on her back, which held all her locker contents of the last year. Danny inched up and saw her as she reluctantly waved to a friend not returning to the same school next fall.
“Congratulations. Another finish to a school year,” Danny said, when she slid into the front seat. He noticed the addition of lipstick on her mouth, a brownish rose, an “in color” for spring in the girl’s magazine pictures. His daughter was in full bloom, and getting prettier by the day. Nancy glanced at her chest as she leaned over carefully stacking her books on the floor while Dakota tried to greet her, nudging forward from the back seat.
“Like all right already,” she said to Dakota. “You’d think you haven’t seen me in a month.” Dakota licked her hand.
Danny was only driving her to Sara’s. Nancy wanted to unpack her school things and spend time with her father in a day or two. His daughter was explaining to him when she would receive her final grades, when his cell phone rang.
“Danny, it’s Bruce. I’m at the office. Are you available?
“I’m driving and I have my daughter with me.”
“You’re being served with some kind of papers.” With that, Bruce hung up.
Danny’s heartbeat bounded so hard and fast, he could feel his fingertips pulsate on the steering wheel.
“Dad, Dad, slow down, it’s a red light,” Nancy said. “What’s the matter anyway?”
He braked. “I’m sorry, Nancy. That was Bruce. He’d like me to stop by.”
“All right, no big deal.” She turned on the radio to music he despised.
Danny went back to his tho
ughts. He was still within the statute of limitations for malpractice lawsuits. He racked his brain, imagining every scenario with patients he could think of. He couldn’t remember anyone voicing comments to him that would make him suspicious, that they harbored resentment towards him or were truly dissatisfied with surgical or non-surgical results. Yet, that’s how lawsuits were. They pop up when you least expect them. He had hoped that Susan Dexter’s lawsuit would be the first and last brush with malpractice he would ever see in his career.
Bruce was behind the front desk when Danny and Nancy walked in. Nancy beamed when the staff warmly greeted her, telling her that her hair outdid spectacular salon cuts and she had grown into a young lady.
“Danny, have you had appointments yet with the psychologist?” Bruce asked.
“Once every two weeks. I think they’re going well, so I don’t mind if you talk to her.”
“I didn’t want a uniformed man sitting out here,” Bruce said, changing the subject. Patients in the waiting room read or thumbed through magazines and books. On TV, a shock-show talk host dramatically pranced before a couple’s physical argument, but no one paid serious attention. Bruce motioned to Danny to come in. “I sent him to your unoccupied office.”
Nancy sat on a chair and picked up a People Magazine while Danny walked back through the hallway. Inside his office, the server jumped up from the couch upon seeing him. “If you’re Doctor Danny Tilson, John Hancock this paperwork right here,” he said. Danny signed and the bald man handed him a thick envelope. “Try and have a nice day,” the man mumbled as he left.
Danny sat under his Rockwell fishing print. Beckett and Livingston must be a law firm, he thought, surmising the return address from Knoxville. He flinched while sliding his finger under the flap. He pulled out a cream-colored cover letter stapled to legal-sized papers. He was so accustomed to legal paperwork by now, he recognized a court’s style and font, and his stomach knotted.
Rachel Hendersen vs. Daniel Tilson, it started at the upper left side. What the hell was this all about? He skimmed for the buzzwords quickly to explain what she claimed he had done to her.
Then he found it. This Paternity Suit will seek to … He read and reread the two major words as a tidal wave of disbelief and anger swept over him. She had taken birth control. Or he thought she had taken birth control pills because that’s what she had told him … just like she had told him about being an RN and just like she had told him about going to Wellington’s Life Care with a therapy dog.
He read on. This suit seeks to reimburse the biological mother, Rachel Hendersen, for prenatal and post-natal expenses and establish child support from said biological father, Daniel Tilson, a physician neurosurgeon with The Neurosurgery Group of Middle Tennessee, who makes in excess of $200,000 per year. Said biologic mother is an unemployed parent …
Of course, details of all Rachel’s maternity costs were attached, including all medical bills for a Caesarian section. Her attorney requested Danny to pay all costs since the biologic mother incurred the burden of providing for medical insurance, and requested four thousand dollars a month for child support, to be slightly modified after Danny sends copies of his last three monthly pay stubs. If there were any questions as to the validity of the suit, then Danny could incur the costs for DNA testing.
He couldn’t read any further.
They could test his DNA, he thought, but he knew the results, so it wasn’t worth it. Danny stuffed the cover letter from Phil, the first name of Beckett in Beckett and Livingston and the official lawsuit into the envelope. He waved good-bye at the front desk, and then motioned to Nancy.
Nancy scrambled to catch him through the door. “Dad, you look terrible. Your face is the color green like the Grinch of Christmas. What’s the matter?”
“I’ll tell you in the car.” But he wasn’t sure about that. Dakota greeted them, sticking his face out the half-rolled down window. Danny started the car and headed to Sara’s. He flipped the sun visor down, after squinting from the bright sun, while Nancy studied his face.
“Well?” she asked. “Your color hasn’t changed.”
“I just found out I’m a father.”
“Well, duh.”
“No, I mean a father again. You have a half-brother or sister.”
Initially Nancy tried to make sense out of that; she kept silent thinking about it. For months, there had been no mention of her father’s affair; the woman her father had fooled around with seemed to have disappeared from the picture. That’s it, she thought, that woman. That woman was now linked to her family.
Now Nancy steamed. She clammed shut, although Danny paid no attention because he was lost in his own world. They pulled into the driveway. Nancy tore out of the car, through the front door, and up into her bedroom. Danny got out, dumbfounded, going after her. Sara came to the open door.
“What was that all about?” Sara asked. She wore no shoes and stepped lightly to the front porch. She had just changed into fresh clothes after showering. She looked radiant and smelled great from her shampoo.
“Can I sit?”
Sara nodded. “You look terrible. But, you’ve looked terrible ever since we split up.” Danny winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to be nasty. That came out because it’s true.”
“And you are truthful,” he said.
“Sit here on the porch for a minute. Do you mind if I let Dakota out of the car?”
“No.”
Sara walked gingerly across the grass and opened the door for Dakota to jump out. He used the closest bush, then darted around the front lawn looking for sticks.
She came back and leaned against the railing, but decided to pull an Adirondack rocker close to Danny to avoid sitting with him on the glider.
“Sara, I have a favor to ask. Can you cut me some slack? I haven’t had a paycheck come in for months. I’m using annuity money for your alimony and child support but, in addition, something else just came up. I have to retain Mark Cunningham again, besides our mess.”
“It’s not a mess, Danny, at least not to me.”
“I know, I know. I’m the mess.”
Sara crossed her legs, pushed the rocker with the sole of her foot. Dakota dropped a branch in front of the railing, egging them to play.
“Okay, just let me know when you would like to cut the next checks. They can be late. Now, why is Nancy upset with you?”
“I just discovered … I was just served with … I’ve got a new baby.”
“Oh, Danny.” Sara stopped moving, furrowed her face with concern.
“I don’t even know where she went, or if it’s a boy or a girl.”
Sara shook her head, tucked her knees to her chest, and gained momentum to rock. “Nancy must feel like she’s been replaced.”
Danny twisted his hands. He ignored Dakota, who dropped more sticks in front of the bushes. “How, Sara?”
“She’s your youngest. Now she’s not the baby any more. She’ll get over it, just give her time.”
Danny rubbed his chin. “That’s one thing I possess…time for waiting.” At the car door, he glanced back to his ex-wife and waved good-bye.
___________
Danny called his attorney and for the remainder of the afternoon trimmed bushes flanking the back patio. At dinnertime, he prepared salads while Mary heated leftovers. He waited for Casey to arrive before he spilled the news about Rachel and the legal papers.
“I heard indirectly from Rachel today,” Danny said when they sat down to eat.
Casey held from shooting a glance toward Mary. “What does she want?” he asked.
Danny tapped his knife on the placemat. “Plenty. Brace yourself. I’m apparently a father. She was pregnant, hasn’t been working, and wants me to pay her child support and her pre-and post-natal medical expenses.”
Mary sighed heavily for her brother.
“Congratulations, I think, for the first part,” Casey said. “But child support … to support her?!”
“Danny, thi
s is a shock,” Mary said. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m seeing Mark Cunningham in two days. His schedule is jammed, but he’ll see me.”
“Is the baby healthy?” Mary asked. “Is it a girl or boy?”
“I have no idea.” He looked back and forth between his sister and best friend. “You two don’t seem that surprised.”
Casey grimaced and Mary bit her lip. Finally, she said, “She’s going to make a hell of a mother, and a hell of a role model.”
Danny and Casey stared at her, allowing those true and uncomfortable thoughts to seep in.
___________
“My sister and my best friend, now engaged to each other, suggested this eatery,” Danny said to Mark. “The green curry is the way to go.”
“We’ll make it two, then,” Mark said.
Danny glanced at a tourist industry’s poster of Thailand and the deep green walls with white trim. A college student came to the table and they placed their order with extra rice.
“So you’re in more deep water, Doctor Tilson?” Mark asked, his bushy hair thicker than the last time Danny had seen him.
“Unfortunately.” Danny opened the Barrett and Livingston envelope and handed him the contents. He kept silent, letting Mark read it all, as the waiter returned and poured hot tea.
“Have you had any contact with her lately?” Mark asked. “I take it from this she doesn’t know you aren’t working.”
“I don’t even know where she is, there’s been no communication,” Danny said. “They sent the papers to my work address. It appears that she has no knowledge of my job situation and that I haven’t been working.”
“At least you’ve done something right.” Danny looked puzzled. “She can’t get much out of you under the circumstances.”