And Baby Makes Three

She nodded. ‘Yes, we do.’

‘I’ll call for you tomorrow night, at seven.’

‘Good. Then you’ll be in time to help me put Mike to bed. He’d never forgive us if you didn’t.’

‘That’s what I hoped,’ he said quietly.

He touched her face with gentle fingertips. Then he was gone, walking away through the park.

Kaye almost closed the front door, but kept it open just a crack while she watched him vanish into the darkness. One question had been answered. A hundred more still remained. But the sudden peace and contentment in her heart were overwhelming.

Later that night, in his hotel room, Jared threw himself on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to come to terms with the evening. In one way it had been just as he expected. In another it had been a stunning surprise.

He’d known Kaye would be changed, but he’d been unprepared for what he’d found: a woman with sad eyes and a way of withdrawing into herself without warning. She retained the wit of her younger days, but she was no longer light-hearted. Instead there was an air of haunting mystery that had never been there before.

His fault? Almost certainly. He must find out and comfort her, if she would let him. Perhaps her barricades were there to exclude him most of all? And could he blame her? No. He must accept the blame as his own.

Another new experience.

But the biggest shock had been Mike. Sitting on the stairs, reaching out to the child by sharing things they had in common, realising that they were one in mind and perhaps in heart- nothing in his life had prepared him for that. If this dazzling little boy turned out not to be his he would be bitterly disappointed.

But he had no fear of that.

From his pocket he took a small photograph of a pretty girl with a rounded face, fair hair and blue eyes. It was his own mother, taken when she was young.

In Jared’s mind Mike appeared beside the girl. He gave a sigh of satisfaction. The same face. No doubt of it.

Now he knew what he’d come to find out, and the way ahead was as clear as a racetrack, with the chequered flag in sight.

CHAPTER THREE

NEXT day he texted.

Glad rags tonight. J.

She texted back.

Shame. I was going to try out a new helmet. K.

His message came back.

Me too. J.

By seven o’clock she was ready, in a dress of deep blue that brought out the depths of her eyes, and her hair had been arranged in a clever combination of elegant and casual. Hell would freeze over before she let Jared suspect she’d taken trouble about her appearance. Even though she had.

‘You’ll knock his eyes out,’ Ethel said with satisfaction. ‘He’ll wonder how he stayed away from you for so long.’

‘That’s not the idea,’ Kaye protested untruthfully.

‘Isn’t it? You’re not human, then.’

‘It’s for Mike’s sake. He needs his father and I’m going to make sure they get to know each other. Nothing more.’

Ethel nodded wisely. ‘Well done, darling. You keep telling yourself that.’

The doorbell rang before she could think of a reply.

‘I’m not late, am I?’ Jared asked, smiling.

‘Bang on time.’

‘Mum, is that him?’ Mike’s voice came from upstairs and his face could be seen through the banisters.

‘Right here,’ Jared called, bounding up the stairs.

Their voices dropped. Mike seemed to be doing most of the talking. Kaye just heard, ‘She doesn’t like-’ and Jared’s reply, ‘I’ll remember that.’ Plainly Mike was giving his instructions and Jared was taking mental notes.

At last Jared said, ‘I’d better go now.’

‘Yes-don’t keep her waiting,’ Mike advised solemnly. ‘She gets mad.’

‘Oi, cheeky!’ Kaye called up the stairs, and was rewarded with two male guffaws.

‘Goodnight, Mike,’ she said, climbing the stairs to reach him. ‘Go to bed, go to sleep, and stop organising my life.’

‘That’s the trouble with women,’ Jared confided to the child. ‘They need us to organise them, but they won’t admit it.’

Mike nodded. They shook hands.

‘Bed,’ Kaye said firmly, kissing him.

‘Night.’ He kissed her and vanished into his room, from whence came the sound of giggling.

‘Let’s go before I get into any more trouble,’ Jared said hurriedly.

Outside, he had a taxi waiting to take them to a restaurant whose plain exterior belied the luxury within. A waiter led them to a table in a discreet corner and hovered to take their order for aperitifs. Jared consulted her taste, giving the matter his whole attention-as he did everything in life, Kaye realised.

Disconcertingly, it served to antagonise her again, as she recalled a hundred newspaper tales of glamorous women he’d escorted, wining and dining them just like this, while she’d been left alone, struggling to raise the son he neither knew about nor wanted to know about.

When the waiter had departed Jared leaned back in his seat, grinning.

‘I need this drink,’ he said. ‘Mike doesn’t let you get away with anything, does he?’

‘I’m sorry if he made you nervous,’ Kaye said.

‘I reckon he’s always going to make people nervous, because he seems to get one step ahead. What a great kid!’

‘Yes, he is,’ she said eagerly.

Tonight she must tell him that he had a son. If he rejected that, she would manage somehow. After all, rejection was what she was used to. But Jared seemed drawn to the child, and perhaps Mike could really have a father. Only he mattered.

To prepare the ground, she continued, ‘The teachers tell me he’s advanced for his age. He’s only five, but he’s already starting to read and write. He’s good at drawing, a dab hand on a computer, and he’s got this great outgoing personality. I envy him that.’