From Here To Paternity

“Well, of course you do,” said Chastity. She picked up the serving spoon. “Pass me your plate.”

Chapter Four

“I think I need another drink,” Brand said.

Chastity spooned up the steaming casserole. “Help yourself.”

So he carried his glass to the refrigerator and got some more ice. She’d left the Crown Royal on the counter. He splashed in two fingers and then added club soda.

Thus fortified, he took his seat again. “Smells great.” He sipped the drink.

“Dig in.”

They ate in silence for a while. She didn’t push him. It wasn’t her way.

She was slicing more bread off the loaf when she sensed he was watching her. She set down the bread knife. “Okay. Out with it.”

“No matter what people are saying, I’m not the father of Sissy’s baby.”

She made a snorting sound. “Well, of course you’re not.”

He sipped his drink again. “You’re sounding pretty damn sure about every little thing this evening.”

“I know what’s what, thank you very much. I know my own son.”

He tipped his glass to her in a salute. “Meaning?”

“Meaning, how can you be the father of that baby when you never laid a hand on that poor, confused Sissy Cooper? You could never do a thing like that. Not only because you wouldn’t take advantage of a mixed-up kid, but also because you are and always have been in love with her sister.”

“I didn’t say I was in love with Charlene.”

“See now, that’s what comes of bein’ overly careful. You can’t even admit what’s in your own heart.”

“And I’m not necessarily talking about marriage.”

“Do you see me putting words in your mouth?”

“I’ve never thought I’d make a good husband.”

“No kidding.”

He grumbled, “And who knows if she’ll ever even give me any kind of break. She never has until now. Plus, it’s not only folks in town whispering that I’m the baby’s father. Sissy claims I am.”

Chastity clucked her tongue. “That girl. Always stirring the pot. And where is Sissy, anyway?”

He glanced toward the door to the hallway, just to make sure it was shut. “Nothing I say leaves this room.”

“This is family business. I will not say a word to anyone.”

“Charlene has no idea where Sissy is.”

“But the two of them must have talked, when Sissy arrived with the baby….”

“No.”

“But…”

“Charlene woke up yesterday morning and found the baby on her couch. There was a note from Sissy saying how she needs a break from being a mother—and by the way, I’m the dad. Charlene came flying over to my place and demanded that I take responsibility.”

“And you told her you aren’t the dad.”

“I told her.”

“Did she believe you?”

“I don’t think she knows what to believe.”

“It’ll be no easy task, gettin’ back in her good graces.”

“Gee, Ma. Tell me something I don’t already know.”

The diner was closed Sundays.

A good thing, too. Charlene had needed a free day for a trip to Grass Valley, where she stocked up on formula and diapers, bought a crib and a changing table, baby clothes, blankets and the hundred other things a person needed with an infant in the house.

At home again in the afternoon, she managed to assemble the crib and the changing table. She put them both in the guest room off the kitchen, washed all of Mia’s new bedding and clothing and put them away.

With Mia’s room set up, she’d started thinking she was really going to need day care. She called Gracie Dellazola, the wife of one of Old Tony’s great-grandsons—and the sister-in-law of Glory, who’d had a baby by one of Brand’s brothers the year before. Gracie had a two-year-old son and she babysat the kids of a couple of Charlene’s customers.

“Of course I can take her.” Gracie quoted an hourly rate and said she could watch the baby from Monday through Friday. “But unless you’re really stuck, I can’t do Saturdays. I like to save the weekends for the family.”

“I understand. I’ll figure something out for Saturdays.” She might have to bring another waitress in to open up that one day. It was doable. “If you could keep her from quarter of six until two or so, Monday through Friday? Is that too much?”

“No problem.”

“I’m figuring I can drop in and take her off your hands, now and then, when things aren’t too crazy at the diner.”

“Sure—and listen, if you need anything…”

My sister. I need my sister to come home, I need to know she’s okay, not in any kind of trouble. I need to keep this baby safe…. “Thanks. I’m fine.”

“Sometimes,” Gracie said softly, “a woman needs a friend.”

Charlene felt the moisture pool in her eyes. She cleared her throat. “See, that’s what I love about livin’ in the Flat. Neighbors like you, Gracie. You make it all worthwhile.”

“I’m here. That’s all. I can listen. And I know how to keep my mouth shut.”

“Thank you.”

“Tomorrow morning, then?”

“We’ll be there, Mia and me. With bells on.”

And speaking of wonderful neighbors, Chastity Bravo called that evening at a little after eight. Charlene had always liked Chastity. She liked Brand’s brothers, too—even Bowie, who’d been a hopeless drunk and general hell-raiser before he left town last year. Just because she couldn’t tolerate Brand didn’t mean she had anything against the rest of his family.

Chastity said, “I heard you were taking care of your sister’s baby for a while, and I just wanted you to know if you need anyone to babysit now and then…”

“Gracie Dellazola said she could take her. But thanks so much, Chastity, for offering.”

“I’m glad to. My schedule’s pretty flexible, and the truth is I really enjoyed having a baby around.” Glory and her baby had stayed with Chastity for a while right after the baby was born.

“Well, if there’s a time Gracie can’t take her, I’ll be calling.”

“See that you do.”

Charlene said goodbye and felt better about things—at least for a while.

Her worrying about Sissy just wouldn’t stop, though. Really, she was glad to have Mia, happy to take care of her for as long as Sissy needed her to.

But where was Sissy?

And was she okay?

She read Sissy’s note over and over, looking for clues as to how she was doing and where she might have gone. The note gave her nothing, though—not when it came to Sissy’s circumstances or her current location.

Monday and Tuesday Charlene got used to the idea of working her schedule around Mia. Both days she picked the baby up after the lunch rush and went home for a couple of hours, then she took Mia with her back to the diner until she closed up at five.

By Wednesday, she was feeling pretty good about the way it was working out. Mia seemed happy enough spending her mornings with Gracie and Baby Tony. Since she was such an easy baby, she was no trouble at the diner. And Gracie’s sisters-in-law had a whole lot of baby stuff between them. They loaned Charlene a playpen for the diner and one for the house, a baby seat and a baby pack that hooked on in the front. Since she never took the baby to the diner when she actually had to work the tables, it was fine. She could have Mia in the office while she did her bookkeeping, or even sitting in her little seat out in the main part of the restaurant, if necessary.

If only she weren’t so worried about Sissy, she’d be feeling pretty good about the way things were going.

Wednesday evening, when she and Mia got home from the diner, she did the thing she really didn’t want to do.

She called her aunt Irma in San Diego and asked if Irma might know of a way that she could get in touch with Sissy.

Irma Foxmire hadn’t changed. She was as self-righteous and judgmental as ever. In that tight, chilly voice of hers she said, “Well, Charlene. What can I say to you? Your uncle Larry and I haven’t seen Sissy in over a year—not since before she came to stay with you. No, she has not called. I have no idea how to reach her. And you haven’t called, either, as a matter of fact.” Irma exhaled, a hard sigh of anger and impatience. “Is there some emergency we should know about?”

It was the moment to mention Mia. Charlene let that moment pass. As she’d told Brand, she wasn’t giving Mia up to CPS. And she was afraid if Irma knew about the baby, the first thing the woman would do was to call them and have Mia taken away.

“Hello? Charlene? Are you still on this line?”

“I’m here, Aunt Irma.”

“Answer my question, then. Please.”

“No. There’s no emergency.” Not that I know of, anyway. “I’m just trying to get hold of my sister, that’s all.”

“She didn’t even have the courtesy to leave you a phone number where you could reach her?”

“Aunt Irma—”

“Never mind. You don’t need to tell me. I already know. And I must say, if she’s gone, well, just think of it as good riddance to bad stuff. I certainly do. That girl was nothing but a heartache and an ongoing trial to Larry and me. We gave her everything. And look how she turned out.”

“Aunt Irma. I’m asking you nicely to stop running Sissy down.”

Irma wasn’t listening. But then, she never did. “Just forget her. I’m telling you, Charlene. Forget her. It’s the only way.”

It was too much. “No, I will not forget her. She’s my sister and I love her.” Temper, temper, Charlene thought. I am going to shut up now. But she didn’t. “And in case you don’t remember, Sissy was a sweet, funny, loving little girl before you took her away to live with you.”

Irma gasped. “I did what was right for her, at considerable cost to myself and my marriage. Your sister has messed up her own life, thank you very much. All I ever did was to feed and clothe her and try to bring her up right—and I don’t wish to discuss this subject further.”

“Hey. Fine by me.” The line went dead. “Bitch,” Charlene muttered to the dial tone. She hung up and glanced over at her niece, who was cooing happily at the butterfly mobile suspended above the playpen. “All right. I know what you’re thinking. I should have been more reasonable. But that woman just makes my blood boil.”

Mia made one of those noises that sounded like a giggle.

“Okay. I’m sorry I called her a bitch. I mean, she is one. But it’s not nice to say so. And I hope when you get old enough to talk, you’ll be a more forgiving person than your Aunt Charlene.”

“Go-wahhhh…”

“My sentiments, exactly.” The doorbell rang. “Terrific. What now?” She marched into her tiny foyer, flung the door wide—and found Brand waiting on the other side.

Chapter Five

He said, “Since Sunday, I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to come over here.” He gazed at her hopefully. He seemed so sincere and he was so tall and broad-shouldered and handsome and…capable looking.

She could have hated him just for that alone. For looking like everything she wanted and needed in a man—when he wasn’t. “Okay. I’ll bite. Why in the world would you want to come over here?”

He stuck his hands in the pockets of his khaki slacks and lifted one fine, hard shoulder in a shrug. “It’s not right you should have to take care of that baby on your own. Let me…help out.”

Okay, now. That was a stunner. “Let you what?”

“I want to help out.”

“What did I tell you about helping? I believe it was ‘don’t.’”

He frowned. “But you need help. You shouldn’t have to do this on your own.”

“So you’re admitting it, then? Mia is yours.”

“Charlene. How many times do I have to say it? I never slept with your sister, so that baby can’t be mine.”

There was no point in arguing with him. No point in even talking with him. “Brand. Go away. Just, please, leave me alone.” She swung the door shut. But it wouldn’t go. Because his foot was in it. She glared at him through the narrow space that remained between the door and the door frame. “Move your foot.”

“Let me in.”

She looked down at that foot of his and then back up at him. “I ought to call the sheriff on you.”

Brand said nothing, though one golden-brown eyebrow sort of inched toward his hairline. And his foot? It stayed right where he’d put it a few seconds ago. Stuck firmly between her door and the door frame.

It was either start screaming at him—or let him in where she could yell at him in the privacy of her own home. “Fine,” she said between clenched teeth.

She turned from him and marched into the living room—past the playpen and around the coffee table. Brand came in behind her and quietly shut the door as she dropped to the sofa. She could see him in her side vision, though she refused to look directly at him. Instead she focused on Mia, who continued to make those happy little baby noises and stare up at the butterfly mobile as if it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen.

He came and stood above Charlene. She kept her gaze on the baby.

“You’re not even going to look at me?”

She was not. “If you’ve got something to say, get it over with.”

From the corner of her eye she could see his hands hanging at his sides. They tightened. And then he must have caught himself because they visibly relaxed.

Those hands…

Sometimes she could still remember the way they felt, touching her—and why, oh, why did she have to think about him touching her right now, when he was standing six inches away, waiting for her to give up and face him?

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Surely she’d heard wrong. She raised her head and met his waiting eyes; though, only a second before, she’d promised herself she wouldn’t. “What?”

“I said, I’m sorry for ten years ago. I shouldn’t have walked away from you. I didn’t know what the hell else to do. I was twenty years old and incapable of being the kind of man that you needed then. I knew I’d make one lousy husband. I was certain it would be a disaster—not only the marriage part but also trying to be an instant dad to a nine-year-old kid. I couldn’t deal. So I broke it off.”

She stared up at him. “You couldn’t deal…”

“That’s right. I was a coward and I ran. I left you to fight for your sister on your own.”

“And now you want, what? My forgiveness? For me to tell you it’s okay and I’m over it? Well, Brand, I know I should be over it. I should be…a bigger person than I am. But I’m not a bigger person and I’m not over it.”

“I know you’re not.”

“I don’t even want to talk about it.”

“Fine.”

She wanted to…oh, she didn’t know what she wanted to do. But it included violence. And even blood. “Fine?” she demanded.

“That’s what I said.”

“No, Brand. It’s not fine. It’s not fine at all.”

He kept his mouth shut, probably because he knew that whatever he said at that moment would only cause her to start shrieking. He stared down at her, waiting—for what, she had no idea.

The awful question, the one she couldn’t stop asking herself—and him—rose in her mind again, Had he slept with Sissy?

Did she actually believe he could do such a low, rotten thing? Beyond not being the kind of man she could count on, was he also a liar and a cheat, a guy who’d have sex with her own little sister and then deny that her sister’s baby might be his…?

Her stomach was clenched so tight, she feared she might be sick. With a soft cry of misery and frustration, she put her head in her hands.

“Damn it, Charlene…”

She heard his voice above her, sounding every bit as miserable and frustrated as she was—and right then, she knew.

She was certain. He couldn’t have done it, couldn’t have slept with Sissy. He just…well, he wouldn’t, that was all.

So while she would continue to judge him and find him guilty when it came to what had happened ten years ago, she had a gut-deep, undeniable surety that he was innocent of seducing Sissy. No matter how hard and loud she insisted otherwise, she believed him when he said he hadn’t laid a hand on her sister.

Which meant either she was ten kinds of hopeless, gullible fool when it came to him—or Sissy had lied outright about something really important. Lied with breathtaking cruelty, choosing to accuse the one man she knew Charlene couldn’t bear to deal with, the only man Charlene had ever loved….

It was all just too ugly.

Too sad.

Too wrong.

And Charlene was tired. She was bone-deep weary of being furious at Brand, of denying her real and growing anger at her sister.

She lowered her hands and folded them in her lap and drew her shoulders back. “All right,” she said. “I’ve heard your apology. Are you finished?”

“No.”

“What else?”

“I just want to help, that’s all. Maybe make up a little for what I didn’t do back then.”

Surely this wasn’t really happening. Brand in her house, saying he was sorry, telling her he wanted to make up for the past. “You want to help…”

“Yeah.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Never been more serious in my life.”

He wanted to help….

Incredible.

As she cast about for an appropriate response to that one, she glanced Mia’s way and saw that her niece had fallen asleep. Charlene shook her head. “Look at that.”

Brand asked cautiously, “You mean the baby?”

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