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“Ah …” Jack Griffin had the good grace to look sheepishly at his mother-in-law. “I am a reporter, Olivia, and this is news.”
“I don’t mind, dear,” Charlotte said, placating her daughter by patting her arm. “Ben was our hero, saving Harry and me and … oh, dear. Where is Harry?”
“We’ll look for him, Mom.” She turned to her husband. “Why don’t you talk to Mack,” Olivia suggested. “He can explain about the fire.”
Mack shook his head. It would be more appropriate if Jack talked to the squad commander. “I’m sure Chief Nelson would be happy to answer your questions.” He motioned toward him, and Jack left them, hurrying toward Chief Nelson, pen in hand.
Mack saw Jack scribbling furiously during his conversation with the chief, nodding several times. Once he glanced over his shoulder at his mother-in-law and frowned, which told Mack that the cause of the fire had most likely been attributed to Charlotte—just as he’d guessed. She must have been distracted and left something, maybe the soup she’d mentioned, on the stove. He remembered that she’d talked about reading a magazine.
“You’ll be coming home with us,” Olivia was saying when Mack returned his attention to Ben and Charlotte.
“But, Olivia …”
“Mom, you can’t stay here and you can’t stay with Will. Where would you sleep?”
“It would probably be best if you went with Olivia,” Will concurred as Ben nodded. “My apartment’s pretty small with only the one bedroom. I’d sleep on the sofa if necessary, but frankly, it makes more sense for you to go home with Olivia.”
Charlotte nodded. “I’ll need to collect a few things. Ben,” she said, “will you find Harry?”
“I’ll go in with you,” Mack offered. “It’s better if you don’t go anywhere close to the kitchen until after the fire investigator’s had a chance to finish his report and the insurance people have come by.”
Then Mack joined Ben in looking for the cat. They found him a few minutes later, cowering under the front porch.
“It’s all my fault,” Charlotte was saying when they returned, shaking her head as if to erase the memory of that afternoon. “Harry!” She held out her arms for the cat. “Oh, my sweetie …” She nuzzled his broad head and then raised her eyes to Olivia. “I’m still not clear on what happened….”
“Don’t worry, Mom.”
“If Ben and I are going to be with you for several weeks, I’ll help you as much as I can,” Charlotte promised. “I’ll clean and cook and I won’t be a bother.”
“Mom, you’d never be a bother.”
“I’ll bake for Jack,” she said, her eyes lighting up with anticipation. “You know how he enjoys my baking.”
“Jack doesn’t need you baking for him, Mom.”
“Then I’ll cook him a pot roast. Jack’s fond of my pot roasts.”
“Jack’s fond of food, Mom,” Olivia said. “The fact is, I can’t think of a single thing you cook that he doesn’t dig into like a starving man.”
Charlotte beamed with pride. “Jack’s a man of discriminating taste. Haven’t I always said so?”
“Indeed.” Olivia rolled her eyes. “Come on, Mom, Mack and I’ll help you and Ben collect what you need, starting with the cat carrier. Then we’ll go to our house.”
“You’re sure about this?” Charlotte asked.
“Very sure,” Olivia said, and slid one arm around her mother’s waist.
Ben and Charlotte Rhodes would be fine, Mack mused as he followed them. They had family.
Three
Chad Timmons paced his Tacoma apartment and was so deep in thought, he nearly collided with the wall. That just proved it—the woman drove him to distraction. From the moment he’d met Gloria Ashton, it’d been an on-again, off-again relationship. Like some unpredictable wind, she blew hot and then cold. The worst of it was he’d put up with it. Well, he’d had about all he could take. He refused to play her games anymore—and that was what they were. Games. As far as he could see, there was no way he could win because she kept changing the rules. One day she wanted nothing to do with him. The next, she couldn’t keep her hands off him.
Fine. He’d decided he was finished. And he’d stuck to that. Until Roy McAfee had hurtled into his life like a meteorite on its passage to earth. The crater that blast had left was deep enough to bury him.
Gloria was pregnant—with his baby. He was about to become a father.
Talk about changing the rules …
It all added up now. After they’d spent the night together, Chad had felt so sure they could resolve their differences. He was high on love, his head in the clouds, like some sappy walking cliché. The shock of her taking off without a word had made him feel bereft and stupid. Oh, she’d written a note, but that had explained nothing.
So he’d vowed that if this was how she felt, he’d deal with it. He was finished. Chad had resigned from his position at the Cedar Cove Medical Clinic, moved to Tacoma and accepted a job as an emergency room physician. He’d even started dating someone else. Joni Atkins was a lot less volatile and a lot more decisive.
A baby.
Even now, Chad had difficulty coping with Roy’s news. If he was shocked, he could imagine Gloria’s reaction. Her feelings about him, and about a future with him, seemed tentative, ambivalent at best. She’d moved into the Puget Sound area a few years ago to search for her birth parents. Her adoptive parents had been killed in a small-plane crash and she was virtually without family. Then Gloria discovered something that had completely unsettled her. Her birth parents had eventually married and she had a full sister and brother. She’d told him all that on their first night together—which was also the night they’d met. Their relationship had moved from being strangers to being intimate with reckless speed. That embarrassed Gloria and, frankly, him, too. Chad knew better. So did Gloria. Afterward she’d asked for time to connect with her birth family. She’d done that but nothing had changed. Every advance Chad made was met with stiff resistance. Then it happened again. She’d agreed to a date, and they ended up in bed, which was followed by embarrassment and regret on Gloria’s part. Again.
Now Gloria was pregnant.
She hadn’t told him, although now he assumed she’d come to break the news the day she’d met him in the hospital parking lot. How was he to know what she’d intended? As far as he was concerned, they were finished. That seemed to be what she’d requested; according to the note she’d left him, she wanted nothing more to do with him. If she’d changed her mind, it was too late, or so he’d felt at the time. He’d moved on and he’d advised her to do the same.
Roy, Gloria’s birth father, had taken a tremendous risk by coming to see him. Gloria had asked that Chad be kept in the dark regarding the pregnancy, and Corrie, her birth mother, had agreed. But not Roy.
Years earlier Corrie McAfee had become pregnant while in college. Roy hadn’t learned he was a father until after his daughter had been adopted. Apparently it remained a sore point between Gloria’s birth parents. Roy wasn’t willing to let history repeat itself, although Corrie felt the choice should be Gloria’s alone. Going against his wife’s and daughter’s wishes, Roy made sure Chad knew about the baby.
Chad hadn’t decided yet what he should do. He worried that Gloria, who worked as a sheriff’s deputy, might undergo too much stress in her normal job; she needed to be on desk duty. He wanted to talk to her, explain how important it was that she look after herself by eating right, taking appropriate prenatal vitamins, seeing her doctor regularly. While rationally he recognized that she was undoubtedly doing all those things, he couldn’t help wanting confirmation.
Chad reached for his car keys. It’d been several weeks since his life was turned upside down and, so far, he’d done nothing other than rage about the situation, agonize over it and try to settle on some course of action. The time had come to do something.
As he drove into Cedar Cove, Chad stopped at the local bookstore and picked up a baby name book, and a few others he often recommended to his patients. Perhaps that was a waste of money, since Gloria might already own these books, but he didn’t care. It made him feel better. Knowing she didn’t want to see him, Chad thought he’d ask Roy McAfee to give her the books.
He got the address for the private investigator’s office from the business card Roy had left him. Parking on the steep hill, Chad looked down at the waterfront, which bustled with activity on this beautiful September day. Cedar Cove had been his home for five years and he hadn’t realized how much he missed it.
The totem pole at the library caught his eye. Its eagle’s wings were spread wide as though embracing the entire community. He’d enjoyed spending lunch hours at the waterfront park. Visiting the Saturday market had been another favorite activity; he remembered buying produce so fresh soil still clung to the roots. He saw a couple of kayakers paddling near the marina, their smooth, even strokes sending out ripples behind them. Harbor Street was busy, too, with late-afternoon shoppers and people leaving work.
Chad dragged in a deep breath before he tore his gaze away from the scene below. Shoulders squared, he walked toward Roy’s office and stepped inside.
The front desk sat empty. A few chairs were lined up against the wall in the waiting area and an end table held a number of outdated magazines.
“Mack, is that you?” Roy McAfee called from the inner office.
Chad followed the sound of the other man’s voice. “It’s Chad Timmons,” he said, and let himself into the office. He stood in the doorway, uncertain of his reception.
“Chad.” McAfee rose from his chair and extended his hand. “Good to see you. I was wondering how long it would take you to show up.”
“Probably longer than it should have,” Chad confessed. He sank into the chair across from McAfee and set the bag of books on the carpet. The office was sparsely decorated. A desk, a leather chair and a couple of bookcases. The walls were bare except for a large map of the town.
“I guess my news was a bit jarring.”
Chad snorted. “That’s putting it mildly.” Then, because he had to know, he asked, “How’s Gloria feeling?”
“From what Corrie tells me, she’s been suffering from morning sickness, but other than that she appears to be doing well.” He paused and added, “But then I’m not my wife’s favorite person at the moment. She hasn’t quite found it in her heart to forgive me for contacting you.”
“I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not your problem.” Roy dismissed Chad’s comment with a wave of his hand.
“Does Gloria know that I know about the baby?”
Roy leaned forward, shaking his head. “I haven’t said anything and I doubt Corrie has, either.”
“In other words, probably not.”
Roy nodded. “That would be my take on it.”
No surprise there. “I have something I’d like you to give her.” He lifted the sack of books.
Roy regarded the bag and then turned his attention back to Chad. “Are you sure you don’t want to give those to her yourself?”
Chad wasn’t sure of anything. “For now I think it might be best if I stayed in the background. From what Gloria said, she doesn’t want anything to do with me. So it makes more sense for you to do it.”
Roy didn’t respond for several seconds, studying Chad intently. “I don’t agree with you,” he finally said.
The front door opened. “Dad?”
Roy got to his feet. “In here.”
Mack McAfee barged into the office and stopped abruptly when he saw Chad. “Sorry, am I interrupting anything?” he asked, glancing from one to the other.
“Not at all,” his father said, reclaiming his seat.
Mack’s eyes narrowed. “We’ve met, right?”
Chad nodded.
Mack took the chair next to him. “Ah, yes, I remember now. You dated my sister Linnette.”
“Briefly.” That whole scenario had been a disaster, and it had complicated everything else. While Gloria was building a relationship with the sister who didn’t know they were even related, Linnette had developed a crush on Chad. Seeing how Linnette felt about him, Gloria had steered clear.
“Chad asked me to deliver some books to Gloria,” his father explained.
“Gloria?” Mack swiveled his head to look at Chad. “Why Gloria?”
“Actually, I’ve … dated her, too.”
Mack grinned. “It seems you get around.”
Chad responded with a weak smile. “Yeah, I suppose it does.”
“I didn’t know my sister was big on reading,” Mack said, relaxing in his chair, balancing one ankle on the opposite knee. “And if you’re dating Gloria, why don’t you give her the books yourself?”
“These are a baby name book and a couple on pregnancy,” Chad said.
“What?” Mack dropped his leg to the floor. “You and Gloria? Are you telling me you’re—this baby is yours?”
Chad merely nodded.
For an instant Mack didn’t seem to know how to react. Conflicting emotions showed on his face—anger chased by confusion and then indecision.
“Believe me, it came as a shock to me, too,” Chad said, sharing a smile with Roy.
“But … but you’re a … a physician.” Mack stumbled over the words. “If anyone should understand about birth control, it’s you!”
“Again, I’m in full agreement,” Chad said. “It just happened.”
“‘It just happened’ has got to be the most pathetic excuse in the book. What do you intend to do about this?” Mack demanded.
Mack’s anger was justified, and Chad took it to heart. “That depends on Gloria. At this point she isn’t aware I know about the baby.”
“Why not?”
Mack glared at him and Chad looked over at Roy, hoping he’d supply the answer.
“The thing is, your sister specifically asked that Chad not be told. Your mother agreed to that, but I refused.”
“So you went behind Mom’s back?” Mack shook his head as if he already knew the answer and disapproved. “And Gloria’s!”
“I told your mother exactly what I was doing. She wasn’t happy about it. In fact, she still isn’t.” Roy leaned back in his chair, frowning. “I’ll take the books to Gloria and explain that I told you about the baby.”
Chad scowled. He wasn’t ready for Gloria to find that out….
“It’s time I told my daughter I went to see you.”
“Don’t,” Chad said bluntly. “Not yet.”
Roy blinked at him. “Why not?”
Chad tried to clarify his thoughts. “For one thing, I want Gloria to come to me. At some stage she’s going to realize she needs me. If for nothing more than signing the adoption papers. Times have changed, Roy. Fathers have rights, too. Besides, I’m thinking about raising the baby myself.” The idea had only occurred to him a few days ago. He wasn’t committed to it yet, but the possibility was gaining strength in his mind.
“Wait—Gloria’s decided to give the baby up for adoption?” Mack asked. He clenched his fists and stared hard at his father. “You wouldn’t let her do that, would you?”
“It isn’t our decision,” Roy reminded him.
“Yes, but … Okay, fine, whatever, but before that happens Mary Jo and I will raise the baby,” Mack said in clipped tones. “If Chad doesn’t want to do it.” He obviously considered Chad capable of shirking what he himself saw as a duty. “This child is our family’s flesh and blood.”
“More mine than yours,” Chad murmured. But no use debating the issue until they learned Gloria’s intentions.
Roy seemed slightly amused by Mack’s reaction. “Don’t you think you should talk this over with Mary Jo first before you make that kind of offer?”
