Baby, Our Baby!

Ali went to Jake’s side and picked up his hand. “Like what?”

“Maybe you should bring Joanie in.”

Ali gasped. “I can’t. She’s just a baby.”

“But she’s Jake’s daughter. Her being here could be just the thing to bring him around.”

Ali drew a long breath. “I don’t know….”

“What if it helps Jake?”

Ali studied Jake’s lifeless hand. “But the hospital has rules. How could I get them to let her in?”

Cliff began to smile, reminding her so much of his son. “Let me worry about that.”

She nodded. And somehow she knew that her and Joanie’s lives were about to change…forever. “I want you to know, Cliff, that I’m a good mother. I’m doing my best to provide a secure, loving home for my daughter. I’d do anything for her.”

“I know, Ali. And I can’t thank you enough for what you’re doing for my son. After he comes out of the coma, he’ll still be facing surgery on his leg. So as his father, it’s Jake’s welfare I’m thinking about now, and he needs his daughter.”

Ali tensed. Ever since she found out she was pregnant, this child had been hers…alone. Now Joanie would belong to her father, too. She glanced at the hospital bed where Jake lay half-alive. She had no choice. Her daughter might be the one to help him. She drew a long breath and released it. “When do you want to do this?”

“As soon as possible.”

It was worse when Ali was gone. He missed her touch. Without her encouraging words, the darkness surrounded him, drawing away the warmth, the hint of light. He needed her.

Don’t leave me, Ali.

His heart started to race as he fought to speak, to bring her back to him. He didn’t want to be alone. He tried to cry out, but all he managed was a garbled sound, then the darkness pulled him back in.

The next evening, Ali returned to the hospital with Joanie held protectively against her chest.

Once the elevator reached the fourth floor, she stepped out and started down the hallway toward Jake’s room, her heart pounding in her chest. Luckily her friend was waiting for her.

“Margo,” Ali whispered.

The nurse quickly glanced around, then hurried toward Ali. “Hurry, the head nurse, Brenda, is on her dinner break,” she said as they ducked into Jake’s room. “I figure you have about thirty minutes before she returns.”

Ali opened her coat to reveal her sleeping daughter. Margo smiled at her goddaughter as she caressed Joanie’s head, which was covered in a red knit hat. The baby’s heart-shaped face was fringed with strands of silky black hair. Her little mouth puckered as she made sucking sounds.

“If this precious cargo doesn’t bring Jake out of his coma, nothing will,” Margo said. “Go get ’em, kid.” She kissed the baby’s head and left.

Ali glanced around the quiet room, and a shiver of panic sliced through her. She looked down at her daughter and stroked the baby’s back. “It’s time to meet your daddy, sweetheart.”

After taking Joanie from the sling carrier she’d outgrown months ago, Ali gently removed her daughter’s coat and hat. Joanie usually woke up cheerful. Ali hoped this was one of those times.

A little dazed, Joanie blinked her big brown eyes, then gave her mother a sleepy grin and cooed softly.

Ali’s heart tightened. “That’s my girl.” She hugged her baby as she carried her toward the bed.

“Hello, Jake. It’s me again. Ali. I guess you know my voice by now without me telling you.” Why was she rambling? She drew a deep breath, reached down and touched his arm.

“I stopped by tonight to introduce someone to you.” She studied Jake’s face as she balanced Joanie in her arms. “I brought your daughter. Your dad and I thought that her visiting you might help.”

Ali sat on the edge of the bed and placed her daughter on her lap. Joanie raised her arm and pointed, chatting something unrecognizable.

“Yes, sweetheart. This is Daddy.” She looked at Jake. “This is your daughter, Jake. Johanna June Pierce. She was born February 16, at 3:06 a.m., weighing in at seven pounds eleven ounces. I know I’m a little prejudiced, but when she was born she was the most beautiful baby in the nursery. She still is, for that matter. When you wake up, I know you’ll feel the same way.” She kept her gaze glued to Jake’s expressionless face. There was no change.

Tears formed in Ali’s eyes. “Joanie has your dark hair and beautiful brown eyes. She’s smart, too. She learned to crawl at five months, can play pat-a-cake and loves to sing along with Sesame Street. She even talks. We don’t know what she’s saying, but she tries.” Ali kissed her daughter’s head. “Gran June and I have tried to give her a secure home and lots of love. Joanie has a lot going for her, but there is a big void in her life.”

Ali wiped the tears from her eyes. “She needs a father, Jake. She needs you. Please come back to her.”

Ali took hold of Jake’s hand and scooted closer so Joanie could touch him. Her daughter immediately grasped on to her daddy’s fingers and tugged. Ali listened to her daughter’s gentle chatter and watched as she patted Jake’s large callused hand. Anguished, Ali prayed Joanie’s touch might trigger some reaction.

“Daddy’s hurt, baby,” Ali whispered. “He can’t talk yet, but I’m sure he knows you’re here.” The words choked off in her throat.

To Ali’s surprise, Joanie climbed off her lap and crawled up beside Jake, still cooing her sweet nonsense syllables.

“Daddy’s taking a nap, sweetie.” Ali rubbed the baby’s back as guilt and sadness swept through her. How could she have kept father and daughter apart?

Joanie looked at her mother, then cuddled next to Jake, her tiny fists rubbing her eyes in an obvious display of sleepiness. Ali swallowed back the emotions. “You want to take a nap with Daddy?”

The small child’s chubby arm stretched over Jake’s bandaged chest. She smiled, showing off four tiny teeth. Then her daughter puckered her mouth and made a smacking sound against Jake’s chest.

Ali tucked Joanie’s favorite blanket over them, unable to ignore the resemblance between father and daughter. The whole town would know now who had fathered her child. But for once, Ali didn’t care. Her only concern was giving Joanie a father.

And giving Jake the will to live.

Jake could hear her voice again. He tried so hard to wake up, but something seemed to be holding him down. If he could only open his eyes. But it was so hard…to move. Then he felt Ali’s hand on him, soothing him, telling him he would be okay. But he knew he wouldn’t be okay until he was awake.

Suddenly there was someone else. A baby! His baby. He could smell her powdery fragrance, hear the soft sound of her voice. When he felt the tiny weight against him, it was pure heaven….

Please, God. Let me live. Let me see my daughter.

Ali closed the door to her compact car and started toward the house, careful not to wake Joanie. Her boots made a crunching sound in the three inches of snow piled on either side of the cleared walkway. She stopped on the top porch step of the big brick home with the gabled roof. The house had been in the Pierce family for three generations.

The streetlights glowed overhead, illuminating the quiet residential area. It was nearly nine o’clock, and everyone had been home and eaten supper hours ago. She’d always loved living on Mulberry Street. As a child, she’d felt safe in the small community where everyone knew everyone else. Never had she been afraid to go out and play in the park with her childhood friends.

Now what would the townspeople think of her when they discovered that her child had been fathered by Webster’s favorite son? That Ali had lain with Jake the very night her sister—Jake’s bride-to-be—had left him standing at the altar?

That was the reason Ali had chosen to live in St. Cloud during her pregnancy, letting everyone think Joanie’s father was someone she had gone to college with. The town was only sixty miles away, but even that short distance had kept so many questions at bay—questions that her grandmother had had to face without having answers. Now it was time to tell the truth.

Clutching the railing, Ali climbed the steps to the big house she’d lived in since her mother abandoned Darcie and her. Their mother had decided that seven-year-old twins were just too much to handle, and didn’t fit in to her “free-spirit” life-style. Their father didn’t want to handle them, either, so Grandma and Grandpa Pierce got custody.

Upon learning she was pregnant, one of the things Ali had vowed was that no matter what, Joanie was going to have a stable home. No moving around the country looking for a better life or another man to latch on to. Webster, Minnesota, was going to be a permanent home for these two Pierce women. Which meant that Jake Hawkins probably wouldn’t be around for long. Ali had known that for as long as she had known Jake. He had always wanted out of this town.

He had a wanderlust that drove him to other places—more exciting places. For as long as she’d known Jake, he wanted to go somewhere else. Somewhere that had more to offer than a small town in Minnesota. Ali doubted that even his child would keep Jake in Webster.

Ali unlocked the front door, went inside the large entry and was greeted by her grandmother.

Smiling, the tall, graceful woman pulled her sweater together and folded her arms across her chest when the icy breeze hit her. “Gracious, child. What are you doing with the baby out in this weather? It’s nearly zero out there.”

“It’s not that cold.” Ali opened the closet door and hung up her coat.

“Not if you’re an Eskimo or a polar bear.” Gran June looked at her great-granddaughter. “I can see this little one is unaffected by the cold, too.”

Ali unhooked the baby carrier, careful not to wake her daughter. “What can I say—she’s a winter baby.”

Ali studied her grandmother. At sixty-eight, June Pierce was still a handsome woman. Her fair skin was flawless, except for a spattering of freckles across her nose. Her hair, once rust colored, was now completely white. The mild stroke she’d suffered last year hadn’t seemed to leave any lasting effects. But that didn’t keep Ali from worrying about her. Every day Joanie was getting bigger and more active. How soon before Gran June wouldn’t be able to care for her anymore? How could Ali keep working? She couldn’t afford child care.

Her grandmother smiled. “I worry about you driving in the snow.”

“I’m a big girl, Gran,” she said.

“I guess I’ll always think of you and Darcie as my little girls.” There was sadness in her voice. “Now I have this precious one.”

Ali’s throat felt raw. She went to her grandmother and placed a kiss on her cheek, careful not to disturb the baby. “Oh, Gran, you have been so good to me and Joanie. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” her grandmother answered with her arm across Ali’s shoulder. “And as long as I live, you can count on my being here for you two.”

I hope you’ll always feel that way, Ali prayed silently. She pulled back. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

Gran June frowned. “Sure, honey. Is there a problem?”

Ali hesitated. “No, just something I should have told you long ago. Come with me while I put Joanie to bed.”

Ali climbed the winding dark oak staircase to the second floor. The hardwood floors of the old house creaked as they made their way down the hall toward Joanie’s room.

Ali opened the door and went inside the pink-colored nursery. An animal lamp on the dresser cast a soft glow in the room. Ali went to the dressing table and removed her daughter’s jacket and hat. Already the little one was in her pj’s, and she’d just had a diaper change before leaving the hospital. Ali placed Joanie in the crib and gently patted her back until the baby reached for her favorite blanket and quickly dozed off.

“It’s amazing how she manages to fall asleep without so much as a fuss,” Gran June said. “You were like that. Now, Darcie would let you know how she hated bedtime.”

For a long time, they both stood by the crib and watched Joanie sleep until finally Ali spoke. “I took Joanie to the hospital tonight to see Jake.”

Gran June took Ali by the arm, and they walked out of the nursery. She didn’t say another word until they were downstairs in the kitchen.

“I had a feeling that’s where you went,” Gran said. “A baby should know her father.”

Ali stared in shock. “You knew Jake was…Joanie’s father?”

Seeing her grandmother’s nod, Ali collapsed into a chair at the table.

“I didn’t at first,” Gran June verified. She went to the stove, picked up the kettle and filled two mugs with hot water, then dropped tea bags into the cups and returned to the table.

“You didn’t come home the night Darcie left Jake at the church. When Joanie was born with all that dark hair, I figured out what must have happened.” Gran sat down. “I knew you were never promiscuous. I also knew how much you loved Jake Hawkins.”

Ali gasped. “Was it that obvious?”

“No, honey.” The older woman reached across the table and took Ali’s hand. “But as much as Jake hung out at this house, I could see how you looked at him, and how you’d hang on his every word.” She smiled. “There’s nothing wrong with having a crush on a boy.”

“Yeah, sure, especially when he’s your twin sister’s boyfriend.”

“I’m not condoning what you did, Ali. But Darcie did leave Jake on their wedding day. Jake wasn’t anyone’s boyfriend that night. I was just worried that he talked you into something—”

“No! Jake was never out of line. I was naive, but I knew what I was doing that night. I wanted to love him, and I can’t regret what happened, Gran June. Because of Jake, I have a beautiful baby daughter.”

“Have you given any thought as to what will happen when everyone finds out about you and Jake?”

“I haven’t thought of much else. And what about Darcie? I was going to tell her, but she hasn’t been home since that day. I can’t tell her over the phone. She’ll hate me. She’ll claim that I stole Jake.”

“The only claim anyone can make now is that Jake Hawkins is Joanie’s father. Darcie made her choice. She’ll have to live with that. The only two people you have to worry about are Jake and your daughter.”

Ali went to the hospital before work the next morning. She liked the peaceful time she shared with Jake. As much as she wanted him to wake up, she knew there was a possibility that he would hate her. Would he understand that she hadn’t known what to do when she’d found out about her pregnancy? That she’d been terrified over facing the community’s censure, when everyone in town learned she’d slept with her sister’s man?

A garbled sound made her whirl around and stare at the man in the bed.

Jake groaned, his breathing harsh.

She rushed to the bed. “Oh, God, Jake. You’re waking up.” Reaching for his arm, she shook it. “C’mon, Jake, wake up. It’s Ali.”

She began to pray silently. Please, Jake, open your eyes. Even if it means you take one look at me and tell me to get lost. I don’t care. Just please wake up. Her throat tight, she leaned closer and managed to whisper, “Jake. It’s me. Ali. You can do it. Wake up.”

Jake groaned again and moved his head, as if trying to hear her voice better.

Ali’s heart drummed in her chest as she sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up Jake’s hand. She rubbed the back, then the palm, before lacing her trembling fingers through his.

“C’mon, Jake. You can do it. So many people need you. Your father has been camped out here for days. But the most important of all is your daughter. Don’t make her wait any longer. She needs her daddy,” Ali whispered, staring at his face, hoping for a reaction. None.

Tears crowded Ali’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She had to concentrate on Jake. She had to bring him back. Leaning closer to the man she’d never stopped thinking about during the past eighteen months, she spoke softly. “I need you, Jake. I need you so much.” She pressed his hand against her mouth and kissed his fingertips. “You’ve got to wake up.”

Suddenly she felt a slight movement where her lips touched Jake’s fingers. She gasped, then covered his hand with hers. “Jake?”

His long slender fingers twitched again. A jerk of his jaw had her holding her breath. “C’mon, Jake. You can do it. Come back to us.”

Another groan, and her gaze shot up to discover a pair of dazed midnight eyes staring back at her. Her tears pooled, then dashed down her cheeks. “Oh, thank God!”

Jake blinked several times and silently looked around the room, as if to orientate himself to the strange surroundings. “Jake, you’re in the hospital.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “There was an accident. We’ve been so worried about you. Oh, Jake. You’re back. You came back to us.”

Jake opened his mouth, as if to speak, but he only managed a hoarse gasp.

“Here, let me get you some water.” Shaking like crazy, Ali managed to pour water into a glass, then helped him take a drink.

Jake rested his head back on the pillow and stared at Ali. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Although he hurt like hell, the pain seemed to dissipate as her hands stroked him. So many times he’d thought about Ali, and wondered what happened after that night….

Now he knew.

His gaze fixed on her face, her beautiful face. Gentleness shone in her green eyes, and he wondered how she could have kept his child from him.

“Ali?” The words came haltingly past his parched lips. “Where…where’s my…daughter?”

Then the darkness claimed him once again.

Chapter Three

Jake heard her voice again, soft and soothing, willing him from the darkness. But it was so hard to wake up. Damn, not again.

Suddenly there was a different voice. A man’s. His father? Jake began to fight the weakness, refusing to give in.

“Wake up, son,” his father called out. “Wake up.”

“Cliff, maybe we should wait,” Ali said. “Remember what the doctor told us. He needs rest.”

“I know, but I can’t be at peace until I see for myself that he’s out of the coma,” Cliff insisted. “I want him to know I’m here. That I care.”

“He knows you’re here. But he needs sleep,” Ali said.

Jake groaned.

Cliff’s voice grew more insistent. “Jake?”

Jake blinked his eyes open and tried to focus. Relief rushed through him as he glanced around the familiar room. Thank God. He’d been able to wake from his dream. Slowly he turned his gaze to the man by his bed. His father. The man who had raised him. The man he’d never really known. Jake’s chest tightened at the sight of the deep lines on his old man’s face.

“How you doin’ son?”

Jake blinked and moved his head. He felt like hell, but he didn’t care. “H-hurt,” he said hoarsely, unfamiliar emotions tightening his throat as he looked up at Ali. “Water, please.”

“Sure.” Ali poured water into a glass from the pitcher on the table.

Jake watched her closely. Her nervousness was apparent as she tried hard to avoid eye contact. But he couldn’t stop gazing at her. He’d thought a lot about Ali over the past months, but still he hadn’t been prepared to see her. He remembered her as the quiet sister, but he had never expected to find the beautiful woman standing before him.

She had golden red curls pulled back from her oval face, the silky strands draping to her delicate shoulders. Her clear green eyes were large and mesmerizing, but there was a hint of shyness in their depths.

His gaze moved down her body, triggering his memory of their night together. Once, he’d thought, she’d been too slender, but not anymore. Her figure had blossomed into nicely rounded curves. Was that because of the child she’d carried? His child? Damn, he still couldn’t get used to the idea.

Ali slipped her hand around the back of Jake’s neck and helped him raise his head. Surprised by the surge of awareness that shot through him, Jake had to concentrate on getting the straw between his lips. He finally managed the simple task. Exhausted by his efforts, he dropped back to the pillow.

“Maybe I should leave,” Ali said as she looked at his dad. “Jake’s pretty tired.”

“No,” Jake protested. “Don’t go.” He’d be damned if he’d let her leave him alone with his father. “H-help me…sit up.”

Ali resisted. “Maybe you shouldn’t, Jake.”

“Yes. We need to talk…our daughter. Please, Ali…”

She nodded stiffly, then reached for the bed control. She brought Jake to an almost sitting position. He thanked her.

“I want to see…my daughter?”

Ali shot a glance at Cliff. “I don’t know. Since you’re in the hospital…”

Jake also looked at his father. “The Hawkins name can open some doors. Right?”

“Sure, son. You want to see your daughter, you’ll see your daughter.”

“Today,” he insisted. “I want to see her today.”

“Look, son. You’ve just come out of a long coma. You had us worried to death.” His voice was shaky. “I think you need rest.”

Jake grimaced as he tried to shift his body. No one was going to keep his child from him. A child who was a part of him, who would give him unconditional love. “I need…my child.”

Cliff started to argue, then changed his mind. “I’ll arrange it.” Relying on his cane, Cliff left the room.

Ali didn’t say anything until they were alone. “It might be better if you wait to see her.”

“For whom, Ali? Not me. You’ve kept my child from me all these months. It’s been too long as it is. I want to see her now.”

Before Ali could answer, the door opened and Jake’s doctor came into the room. “I hate to break this up,” he said, smiling, “but we need to run some more tests on our patient here.”

Jake didn’t want any tests. “Doc, can’t they wait?”

“I’m afraid not,” Dr. Walters said sternly. “I have you scheduled for an MRI in fifteen minutes.” He smiled again. “Count yourself lucky, Jake. It’s a miracle you came out of the coma. You must have a guardian angel looking after you.”

Jake met Ali’s gaze, and awareness surged through his battered body. “Yeah, she had a heavenly voice that kept calling me back. I’ll always be thankful.” He pulled his attention back to the doctor. “Just tell me that my daughter can visit me.”

The older man hesitated, then nodded. “There shouldn’t be any problem as long as she doesn’t have a cold or anything contagious. You need all your strength to heal. As much as your case has been the talk of the hospital, we like to see our patients get well enough to leave. You, Jake, still have a long recovery ahead of you.”

Jake shifted in bed, feeling every ache and pain. He knew it was going to be a long time before he was back to normal. The apparatus that held his leg motionless above the bed indicated he was going to take quite a while to heal. He’d use the time to think about his future. And his daughter’s.

“I really better leave now,” Ali said as she backed toward the door. “I have to go to work.”

“Ali.” Jake had to struggle to call her name.

She stopped.

“I mean it. I want you to bring our daughter as soon as possible.”

Ali regarded Jake for a long time. “I’ll be back with Joanie tomorrow.”

Ali hadn’t realized her hands were shaking until she stepped outside the hospital room. She leaned against the wall and drew a deep breath as the scene with Jake replayed in her head. He’d had an angry look that was unfamiliar to her. His eyes had been cold, distant, and deep lines etched his ridged jaw. He was so unlike the Jake she’d remembered. This Jake would never forgive her for not telling him about Joanie’s existence.

She walked to the elevators, stepped inside and pushed the button for the ground floor. A sudden tautness banded her chest as the car began its descent. Joanie wasn’t going to be just her little girl anymore. From this day forward, she’d be sharing her with Jake…and her grandfather.

Once on the first floor, Ali walked to the cafeteria where Margo had been waiting for her at a table in the corner.