Adopt-a-Dad

Katie smiled and moved to take the little one from Jenny’s arms. “Let his daddy hold him,” she suggested, and before Michael could murmur a protest, the baby was lying cocooned in his arms.

He was a tiny, five-minute-old redhead. Wide eyes stared at Michael, filled with awe at this amazing new world. Wondrous eyes. Jenny’s eyes. And yet…

These eyes belonged only to this new little person, and Michael, looking at him, felt a protective urge that knocked him sideways. What had Katie said? Let his daddy hold him.

“You’re calling him Peter, aren’t you, Jenny?” Abby asked, watching Michael with a smile of satisfaction. Jenny shook her head, tears slipping down her cheeks, unchecked.

“Nope. His name is Gary Richard Lord.”

“Gary Richard Lord?”

“Where did that name come from?” Katie asked.

“Richard was Peter’s father,” Jenny whispered. “Peter loved his father, and my son should have a part of his birthright. But Gary… I have a sense about Gary. I think a man called Gary Larrimore died a long time ago, and his death is the reason I’m lying in this room right now. With all my new family.”

“JENNY, we don’t even know if this Gary Larrimore had anything to do with us.”

“Yes, we do.” Jenny was almost asleep. She was snuggled into her pillows, her baby son in a makeshift crib by her side, and the world had let them be. There were only Michael and Jenny-and their tiny infant son beside them.

“You don’t know Gary Larrimore is my father,” Michael said steadily, trying not to turn and look at his-at the baby. “And even if he was…”

“He is. I can feel it.” Her eyes smiled at him with a trace of a twinkle. “Call it a mother’s intuition.” And then the twinkle faded. “And I can’t bear it,” she whispered. “The thought of your mother being pregnant all those years ago and her Gary being killed before you were born. Leaving her with a toddler, and heartbreak, and all those unfulfilled dreams. I can’t get her out of my mind, Michael. Whatever she did, wherever she is, or whatever she’s done, this is my way of saying thank-you.”

“Thank-you for what?”

“For giving me to you.”

And her eyes closed and he was left with nothing to say.

“GARY RICHARD LORD.” Garrett stared at his brother in amazement. Michael had left his wife and was in the living room. Megan had made up a bed for him next to Jenny, but he wasn’t ready for sleep yet. Garrett had sensed that, and was waiting in the darkened house when Michael emerged. The oldest Lord brother was clearly bewildered. “After…our father?”

“After some person she’s imagining was our father.”

Garrett’s eyebrows lifted. “Real or not, that’s quite a compliment.”

“It is.” Mike’s lips thinned, and he looked grim. “She’s generous through and through, my lovely Jenny. She just gives and gives.”

“So why the grim look?”

“We’re not really married.”

“Hey, I think you are,” Garrett said gently. “The way you look at her…”

“But not the way she looks at me,” Michael burst out. “Oh, she’s grateful-incredibly grateful-and I know she’s attracted, and she’d never do anything to hurt me, but as for love…” He took a fast pace around the room, then paused and stood staring out at the drenched garden. “Some aristocratic lowlife back in Britain killed that for her.”

“You mean he mistreated her?” There was caution in Garrett’s question. It was absolutely out of character for his brother to be exposing his pain the way he was now.

“Yes. No! I don’t know.” Michael was still staring outside, talking almost to himself. The events of the past few hours had shaken him to the core, and it showed. “The way I see it, he married her to frustrate his mother and he never stopped letting Jen know she was trash. As if Jen could ever be thought trash by anyone! But now…” He took a deep breath. “That little baby in there is the next Earl of Epingdale-in fact, I guess he’s that already, since his father’s dead. And before he died, Peter extracted a promise from Jenny that he’d be brought up to take over his title.”

Garrett shook his head at that. “If it means giving him up, then Jenny won’t do it. Even I can see that.”

“Of course she won’t,” Michael said grimly. “But it’s tearing her heart out. She made that promise on his deathbed, and then when it came to the crunch, she couldn’t keep it. She couldn’t abandon her baby to Gloria.”

“There’s no blame in what she’s doing.”

“She blames herself. And this child is partly Peter’s, no matter how much I want him.”

“And?” Garrett paused, but the question was already half answered. “You really want him?”

“I want him-and I want his mother-more than anything else on God’s earth,” Michael said simply. He hesitated, but his heart was exposed for all to see, and there was nothing left to do but explain. “Before Jen, I thought I’d cut myself off from everything. You know more than most that I’ve tried hard enough. But she needs me, Garrett, and she’s so darned proud. She’ll take my offer of an identity and she’ll spend the rest of her life trying to pay me back, but I don’t want payment. I want her! She must see it. She’s just filled with love, aching for love.”

“Have you told her how much you want her?” Garrett’s voice was suddenly urgent, and it made Michael blink.

“No,” he said slowly. “How can I? It’ll put more pressure on her. It’d be like insisting that if she lives with me, she has to love me, too. In her position she’ll say yes just to please me.”

“It’s not possible that she loves you?”

“Of course she loves me,” Michael exploded. “She’s so kindhearted she’d love anyone. Look, until I get rid of the ghost of this Peter, I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting anywhere near her, and how can I get rid of a ghost?”

He paused at a sound. “What…” There was a scrambling at the French windows, and a low voice speaking urgently.

“Shh, you dumb mutt. You want to wake everyone in the house?”

“It’s Shelby,” Garrett said, his eyes creasing with laughter as he crossed to open the door. Shelby came bursting into the room, her auburn hair damp from the rain and her running shoes squelching with water. “What on earth are you doing here?” he started to ask, and then stopped dead as he saw the dog at her side, and the dog caught sight of Michael.

It was as if Socks were drowning and Michael was the only lifeguard for miles. He launched himself at Michael, leaping right off the ground and catching his shoulders with his huge paws.

Michael was left with nowhere to go. He stood enfolded in soggy dog while Socks licked and whined and wriggled out his loneliness and frustration at being abandoned.

There was a stunned silence from Shelby and Garrett, and there was not a lot Michael could say, either.

“Mmff…” he finally managed to get out, but it didn’t make a heap of sense. Shelby grinned. She’d changed into jeans and a T-shirt, which were mud-spattered. She wiped wet hands on her jeans and looked at Michael and Socks with affection.

“What do you think he’s trying to say?” she asked Garrett, and Garrett chuckled.

“Thank you very much for bringing me my dog?” he suggested. “Yeah, that must be it.”

“Mmff…” said Michael.

“Yeah, that’s definitely it.” Garrett grinned. “Good thought, bringing him here, Shelby. You wanted to keep the family together.”

“Actually,” Shelby said carefully, “when I got home there was a message on my answering machine from Michael’s neighbors. Several messages, in fact. They’d been looking for him all over. I bet when you get home there’ll be messages on your phone, too. Seems Socks was howling the place apart. So what could a girl do…”

“But reunite brother and dog,” Garrett finished for her. “Gee, I hope Megan has a decent floor cleaner.” And then he frowned at another tap on the window. He turned, and there was Lana, signaling to be let in, her arms piled high with baby clothes and nightwear. “Lana…”

“Hey, it’s a family reunion.” Lana entered, dumped the clothes on a chair, then looked at Michael. Her face cleared. “So that’s where he is.”