dumped us.” Immediately Jenny came to mind. She wouldn’t have dumped her baby. No way! “Terrence and Sheila were the world’s greatest parents,” he went on. “They’re who I think of as Mom and Dad. I don’t need anyone else.”
“Most of the time you don’t need anyone at all,” Shelby snapped. “But some of us do.”
“There are easier ways to find someone to care about than searching for a woman who dumped us.”
“She cares.” Shelby’s voice rose. “Our mother cares. You read the note.”
“I know she’s having a guilt trip all these years later,” Michael argued. “So she sent Megan a stuffed toy and three cute little sweaters. It means nothing. She doesn’t suggest getting in touch.”
“The note said she loved us. Maybe she feels too guilty to ask about getting in touch.”
“Then maybe she’s right to feel like that. After all, she dumped us. She had no guarantee we’d be looked after.”
“Oh, right.” Shelby was angry, and on her high horse. Fighting with Michael had been her chief pastime since she was three. She swiveled on the floor and fixed Michael with a withering look. “She dumped us at Maitland Maternity, where Megan was in charge. Even back then, the press coverage on the place would have told her that Megan would move heaven and earth to get us cared for, and cared for together.”
“If she loved us, then she’d have stuck around to find out that we were okay.”
“She had reasons she couldn’t.”
“Well, I’m not interested in them,” Michael said flatly. “Terrence and Sheila did their best to bring us up. They gave us everything we needed and more, and it seems disloyal to them to go hunting for some woman who took the easy way out.”
“You’re too hard, Michael.”
“I’m not hard. I just see the facts. There’s no room in our lives for someone who never showed the least interest in being our mother.”
“There’s no room in your life for anyone,” Shelby snapped.
Now, that was a bit much. Michael considered her words while his siblings glared at him. He had everyone he needed right here in this room, he thought, and he really was fond of his hotheaded sister.
“Hey, except you,” he told Shelby, trying to prod her into smiling. He tweaked her hair as she sat on the floor beside him. She glowered, and he tweaked again.
“Cut it out!” Shelby protested.
“Then cut out being mad at me. You know you don’t mean it.”
“You’re so darned aloof. You don’t care.”
“Hey, I care about you guys.”
“Not enough to help us.”
“Nope.”
“Because you’re selfish.”
“Because you’re wasting time.” He paused. “And maybe because searching for this woman might be opening yourselves up to a whole lot of grief.”
“Aren’t you even interested?” she demanded hotly. “How can you not want to know?”
“Easy. I mind my own business. Not like some sisters I know.”
“Oh, you are so-” She grabbed the cushion she’d been using to support tiny Greg on the floor. Greg was lying flat on his back now, surveying his toes, and he had no need of it. In a practiced maneuver, Shelby took aim and swiped the cushion across Michael’s head.
Cushion swiping had been a skill Shelby had practiced since she was a toddler. Michael knew it and expected it. He rose and, catching her wrist, hauled her to her feet. He pushed her easily backward so she fell onto the sofa, then laughed into her indignant face.
“Some things never change,” he said fondly. “Isn’t this you all over, Shel? When all else fails, resort to violence.”
“And some things about you never change,” she retorted, hauling her arm back without success to aim with another cushion. “Here’s Michael Lord, resorting to indifference because he might just get hurt if he gets involved.”
“That’s deep, Shel,” he said appreciatively. “You been doing a psychology course on the quiet?”
“I don’t need a psych-”
And she stopped dead.
“I don’t need…” he prompted, but she was no longer concentrating on what she was saying. Her eyes had grown as huge as saucers, and she was staring at his hand as if it had grown another thumb.
“Michael,” she said, and her voice sounded strangled and far away.
“What’s wrong?” It was Garrett who asked the question. Michael had seen where she was looking and gave an inward groan. He knew what was coming. How could he have thought they wouldn’t notice?
“Shel, what’s happening?” Lana was distracted enough to pull away from Dylan’s arms and rise in instinctive protective mode. The siblings might fight as much as they liked, but if there was the faintest thing wrong with one of them, the rest of the brood sensed it in an instant. And reacted accordingly. “Shelby?”
“He’s wearing a wedding ring,” Shelby whispered in horror. “Michael, you’re not married!”
Michael considered this for all of ten seconds. He stared at his family, thinking of one smart reply after another.
None seemed right. In the end, there was only one thing he could think of to say. After all, they had to know sometime.
“Well, yes,” he said softly. “I guess you could say that I am.”
LANA SAT DOWN. It was as if her legs had suddenly gone from under her. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
On the floor, baby Greg looked up in wide-eyed interest. The world was a wonderful place, his infant eyes declared, and his uncle Michael was fascinating if he just stood still.
Which was what he was doing. As were his siblings. Michael looked around at his family, and they stared back like so many frozen statues.
“It’s someone…” Lana gave a soft moan, finally recovering her voice. “Oh, no. It’s someone from the casino?”
“Hell, Lana.” Michael shook his head in disbelief. This at least he could handle. “Will you get it into your head that I hit the gambling scene for a whole three months after Dan was killed? Sure, I was off the rails, but that’s over. You and Shelby have spent the last two years worrying about me.”
“I’ve been worrying, too,” Garrett volunteered. He took Michael’s beer can from his hand. “It’s the Morrow woman, isn’t it?”
“The Morrow woman?” Michael’s eyes narrowed. What sort of a description was that?
“The Morrow woman?” Lana moved. She grabbed Michael’s beer can from Garrett’s hand and thrust it at Dylan, as if it was getting in the way of what was really important. She was practically gibbering. “What Morrow woman?”
But Michael was no longer listening. He was facing Garrett head-on.
“Who told you about Jenny?” he demanded, his voice dangerous.
“Ellie was looking for you on Friday morning,” Garrett told Michael, ignoring his sisters. His eyes didn’t leave Michael’s face. “She called me and told me there’d been a problem with your secretary.”
“Your secretary?” Lana gasped. “Jenny, as in Jenny-your-temporary-secretary? You’re married to Jenny, your secretary? I know Jenny. She’s lovely. But she’s pregnant. She’s huge. Michael, she’s-”
“Well, there you are. I don’t have to tell you anything about it,” Michael interrupted dryly. “You’ve figured it all out for yourselves.”
“Catch me, Dylan,” Lana said dramatically. “I’m going to faint.” And she collapsed with theatrical effect onto the sofa and into her husband’s willing arms. There was laughter in her eyes, but there was no matching laughter in Shelby’s. Lana’s world had expanded with her husband and child, but Shelby’s life still revolved around her brothers and her sister. Her eyes were filled with undiluted horror as she struggled from the sofa to face him.
