She hadn’t realized until just now how much she regretted that. She held out her arms. “Give me a turn with that sweet little thing.” She cradled Jessica Lynn and was carried back sixteen years to when she’d held a freshly bathed and powdered Annie. “God, this brings back memories.”
“My turn,” Helen said, reaching eagerly to take the baby, and cooing at her. Jessica Lynn, her blue eyes wide, gurgled happily back at her, then grabbed for a chunk of Helen’s hair and tugged. Helen patiently extracted the little fist.
“I want this,” she whispered, her face filled with raw emotion. “Why didn’t I know before now just how badly?”
“Because you haven’t let yourself think about anything except your career for years,” Maddie told her. “Now that you’re trying to get some balance into your life and you’ve opened yourself to other possibilities, there it is.”
She reached out and patted Helen’s hand. “Don’t give up. A lot of us had dreams when we were young that we put on the back burner, only to wake up one day and realize it may be too late. I went to college and got a business degree, but it was nothing more than a piece of paper for nearly twenty years while I spent all my time supporting Bill’s career and raising a family.” She gestured around them. “Now, thanks to the two of you, I’m a part of this. It’s not the same as realizing you want a baby, but I get where you’re coming from.”
Helen returned her sympathetic look with a wounded expression. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why weren’t the two of you all over my case before now?”
Dana Sue could barely swallow the laugh that bubbled up. “What would you have done if we’d tried?”
“Which we did, by the way,” Maddie added. “How many men did we try to get you to take more seriously, or at least to go out with more than once?”
Helen sank back in her chair. “I told you to butt out, didn’t I?”
“About a thousand and one times,” she confirmed.
“Sometimes you’re kind of hardheaded,” Dana Sue commented.
“Kind of?” Maddie said.
Helen regarded them with a faint spark of hope in her eyes. “You really think it’s not too late?”
Maddie gave her a wry look. “I just wouldn’t spend the next year doing a pros and cons analysis, the way you usually do. However you decide to approach it, this is a project that needs to be on the front burner, okay? Make an appointment with Doc Marshall.”
Helen looked horrified. “I can’t talk to him about this. He’s still freaked about my blood pressure. He’ll just tell me no.”
“If that’s an issue, any other doctor will tell you the same thing,” Dana Sue said reasonably.
Helen’s jaw set determinedly. “I’ll consult a high-risk-|pregnancy specialist,” she said at once, handing Jessica Lynn off to Maddie. She dragged out her day planner and jotted down a note. “I’ll do it as soon as I get to the office.”
“Do you actually know a high-risk-pregnancy specialist?” Maddie inquired tactfully.
“No, but I can find one. In case you haven’t heard, research is one of my specialties.”
Dana Sue grinned at Maddie. “She’ll know the medical malpractice records of every ob-gyn in the state by noon.”
“And have references on the rest by midafternoon,” Maddie added.
“Mock me if you must,” Helen said, taking a final sip of her iced tea. “I can still tell it’s decaf,” she said, making a face, then sighing. “Remind me tomorrow that I’m giving up caffeine completely, even the one cup of coffee I’ve been allowing myself in the morning. It’s probably not good for babies, right?”
“You could be getting a little ahead of yourself,” Dana Sue said, but at Helen’s daunting look, she held up a hand. “No more caffeine. Got it. It’s not good for you in any case.”
After Helen had breezed out of the spa like a woman on a mission, Dana Sue exchanged a glance with Maddie. “Do you think she’s really serious about this?”
“I think she hit the biological clock panic button this morning,” Maddie said, a worried frown on her face. “Knowing Helen, the alarm will keep going off till she’s solved the problem to her satisfaction.”
“And that means taking a bouncing baby home from the hospital,” Dana Sue concluded.
“Seems that way to me.”
“Maybe we should remind her that a few weeks ago all she could talk about was going on a wild shopping spree in Paris,” Dana Sue suggested.
“I think maybe we just need to stand by and support her in whatever she decides,” Maddie said. “That’s what she’s done for us.”
Dana Sue nodded. “You have a point, but I keep envisioning a two-year-old with a briefcase in one hand and a cell phone in the other.”
The disconcerting image made both of them smile.
* * *
Ronnie had made an appointment with Helen two weeks earlier. He had a hunch if he’d spoken to her directly, he’d never have made it onto her calendar, but her secretary seemed oblivious to any issues between them.
When he was finally admitted to her office, he wasn’t sure what sort of welcome to expect, but it wasn’t the feverish, distracted look on the lawyer’s face as she waved him to a chair.
“I just have to finish this search,” she murmured, her gaze immediately returning to the computer on her desk.
Ronnie sat down and waited. And waited.
“Um, Helen, would it be better if I came back another time?” he asked, after fifteen minutes of hearing nothing but the click of her fingers on the keyboard.
She blinked and looked at him with surprise. “Ronnie? What are you doing here?”
That wasn’t what he’d expected, either. “We have an appointment, remember?”
She blinked again. “Why? I’m Dana Sue’s attorney. I can’t represent you.”
“Not even on this business deal I’m doing?” he asked.
“Why would you want me to?” she said. “You’re not exactly my favorite person.”
“I’d say that’s an understatement, but I was hoping that might
