Excuse Me? Whose Baby?: Excuse Me? Whose Baby? / Follow That Baby!

“I have to run. Duty calls. Take care!”

“You, too.” After he clicked off, it occurred to Jim that since he’d called Nancy at her apartment, she wasn’t likely to have any test babies lying around needing attention. Had she deliberately cut off the conversation?

He lost his train of thought when he noticed the bicycle parked by the curving stone staircase. And here came Dex, trotting down from the rock garden above.

Leaves and blossoms—lavender, yellow, white—clung to her brown hair, and a frothy pink sweater hugged her curvaceous body above clinging jeans. With her eyes alight, she was the spirit of springtime.

Jim got out and stood in the driveway, feeling like a teenager again. Pure raw lust rampaged through him.

“Where’s Annie?” Without waiting for a response, Dex flung open the car’s back door and crawled in. Her rear end waggled invitingly as she fumbled with the snaps and straps and then, after a dazzling gymnastic maneuver, she emerged with the baby.

Jim dragged himself back to reality. He was supposed to be the suave, urbane host, not some overgrown adolescent tripping over his tongue.

“Did Rocky show you to a guest room?” he asked. “I hope it’s big enough.” There were four bedrooms on the second floor, in addition to the master suite.

“It’s fine,” Dex said as she carried the cooing baby toward the house. “By the way, Grace and Rocky are fighting again. You might want to stop them before they rupture something.”

“Now you tell me.” Jim broke into a lope.

Disputes were nothing new in his household, but they hadn’t turned violent in a long time. Not since the first few days after Grace joined the household, when she’d insisted that Rocky cook hash and rock-hard biscuits the way she liked them. He’d not only refused but insulted her taste buds.

The two of them had known each other distantly in the service, but not until they were both working for Jim had they found themselves cheek by jowl. Each wanted to be top dog, and it had taken a while for them to learn to compromise.

Jim still winced at the memory of Rocky’s black eye and Grace’s limping from their early clashes. After a few painful days, they’d come to an agreement. Grace had relinquished mess food in exchange for the right to maintain such Marine traditions as sounding reveille at six in the morning. and hoisting the flag at eight.

Jim raced through the garden room and veered down the hallway into the kitchen. Cooking smells wafted from the stove, but he saw the burners had been turned off.

Wrestler-type grunts emanated from deep within the house. Heading to his left, Jim passed the utility room and halted in the doorway of the den.

Light streaming through French doors silhouetted the hulking shapes of his two servants. Grace, the smaller of the two but by no means the weaker, had hoisted Rocky onto her shoulders and was twirling him around. Both of them groaned like hogs at feeding time.

“He gets seasick, you know,” Jim said.

The only response was a couple more grunts. He interpreted them as meaning, “What kind of Marine gets seasick?”

“It only points out how dedicated he was,” he continued. “By the way, what’s this fight about, anyway?”

Grace stopped whirling and studied Jim blearily. It was the first time he’d seen the usually spotless maid in such a disheveled condition. Her determination to stick to Marine traditions had led her to insist on wearing a uniform in domestic service, too, although she’d bypassed camouflage for an outfit more consistent with her new duties. Usually she starched and ironed every stitch, right down, he sometimes suspected, to her underwear.

Now, however, her apron was ripped and flopping down at one side, she had a run in her stockings and the frilly white serving cap hung rakishly over her forehead.

“He told me to stick my can of disinfectant where the sun never shines,” she growled.

Rocky, balanced horizontally on Grace’s shoulders, made a low, wheezing sound. Jim interpreted it to mean, “But, chief, the whole house reeks!”

“Yes, I can smell it,” he said, approaching them. “Grace, it isn’t necessary to sterilize the house. Babies aren’t that delicate. Put Rocky down, would you?”

Grimacing, she lowered the butler to his feet. His face, Jim saw, had gone deathly pale.

With a low moan, the butler stumbled across the room and out through the French doors. Jim could hear him puking into the bushes.

“You wash that down with the hose!” Grace yelled. “No fair sticking Kip with your mess! He’s weird enough already.” Assuming a level tone, she addressed Jim. “Do you know, ever since Kip banged his head in that helicopter crash, he thinks letters and numbers have colors?”

“He’s a good gardener,” Jim said. “Now listen, you and Rocky have got to work things out.”

“Just let me pound him a little more,” said Grace. “He’ll come around.”

“That isn’t the way it’s done in civilian life.” Before he could continue, Jim’s spine tingled, and he realized that Dex was standing behind him.

Glancing back, he drank in the appearance of the two bristle-haired females, their lively faces so much alike. He hated to admit it, but the more time he spent around his daughter, the more resemblance he saw to her mother.

Maybe fifty percent, he was willing to concede. At maximum.

Annie beamed at Grace and clapped her hands. “More!” she said.

The room went utterly still. Even Rocky, staggering in through the double doors, paused in mid-stride.

“That was her first word!” Dex crowed. “Wasn’t it? Did she say anything today while I was gone?”

“Just ga ga da da,” said Jim.

“Ba ba,” replied Annie, as if they were carrying on a conversation.

Rocky’s face glowed like a Christmas candle. Grace blinked several times rapidly.

As far as Jim was concerned, the moment was worth more than a hundred million dollars.

6

A WARM GLOW enveloped Dex. Annie’s first word!

True, she’d apparently been requesting more violence, which wasn’t desirable, but she’d spoken. The person inside the cute little shape had communicated directly with them.

It was only a small step to more words, then short sentences. Soon a torrent of speech would spew forth insight into her daughter’s mind and emerging personality.

It’s a miracle.

Dex hugged the baby. How could she give her up?

Her throat clogged as she regarded the three faces watching her or, rather, watching Annie. Rocky’s, pale but delighted. Grace’s, sternly protective. And Jim’s, the handsome features transformed by tenderness.

Was he right? Did their daughter belong here rather than with some adoptive family?

But if Annie were here, Dex wouldn’t be able to stay away. She’d be underfoot, watching from close by as Jim married and as his new wife, no doubt a shining example of all that was nurturing, gave Annie the love and support that Dex couldn’t.

It would break her heart. Dex yearned to be that perfect woman, but she didn’t have it in her. Her fumbling attempts might fool other adults, but they would leave Annie’s needs unmet. And Jim’s, too.

Dex knew even less about relationships than about mothering. None of her boyfriends had lasted long, for reasons that eluded her.

In addition to not understanding men, she didn’t understand herself. She didn’t know, for instance, why Jim had scared her so much on their terrific night together that she’d lied to him about moving away.

She also didn’t understand why he’d forgotten her so quickly and proposed to someone else. It was all too confusing, a swamp into which she would sink forever if she weren’t careful.

Life for Dex was safest alone. And Annie would be safest with a new family. No matter how perfect Jim’s bride-to-be was, surely she would resent being forced to raise another woman’s child.

“I’ll keep a journal about her first words,” Dex said. “So her adoptive parents will have a record of them.”

“Adoptive parents?” said Grace.

“Dex and I disagree on the subject,” Jim told her. He gave no hint that it was out of place for a maid to question her employer’s child-rearing plans.

“They could live here,” Rocky suggested. “It’s big enough.”

“Live here?” Grace echoed in amazement. “What, a pair of adoptive parents move into the baby’s father’s mansion? You’ve been watching too many daytime talk shows!”

“I never watch daytime talk shows,” Rocky replied stiffly. “And I refuse to be taunted into another fight.”

“Because you’d lose,” said Grace.

Jim held up his hands. “Rocky, how’s dinner coming along? Grace, I believe you’ve got liberty call.”

The maid stood her ground for a moment, then nodded. “Thank you, sir. See you at Colors on Monday, if not before.”

“Good night, Grace.”

Dex watched the maid depart through the French doors. After she was gone, Rocky headed for the kitchen.

“What’s liberty call?” Dex shifted the baby onto her hip.

“Free time. It means she’s off duty,” Jim explained.

“And what’s Colors?”

“That’s when we raise the flag. Eight a.m. on weekdays,” he said.

Dex wondered how the future Mrs. Bonderoff would enjoy living on a Marine base. On the other hand, maybe the future Mrs. Bonderoff was a Marine.

“Make yourself comfortable. Dinner should be ready soon.” Jim gestured toward a couch.

“Thanks.” Dex placed Annie on the floor and sat down. The baby crawled to a bookcase and examined the book spines.

“I think you mentioned that you’re a doctoral candidate?” Jim relaxed into an armchair.

“Working on my dissertation,” she said.

“Feel free to bring your materials here,” he said. “I’ve got several computers in the house. You’re welcome to use one.”

“I’m working on my dissertation slowly,” she clarified.

Annie crawled toward the open French doors. Outside, a man’s slim figure materialized, closed the doors and vanished. Dex couldn’t see his features clearly, but got the impression of a sensitive mouth and large, sad eyes. “Who’s that?”

“Kip, the gardener,” Jim said. “He used to be full of bravado, a real rock-’em-sock-’em type. Then he nearly died in a helicopter accident. The brain injuries changed his personality.”

“How come your whole staff is Marines?” Dex asked.

“They’re my buddies.” Leaning back, Jim laced his fingers behind his head. “I was a real rabble-rouser when I got out of high school. Surfing wasn’t enough of an adventure for me, so I enlisted.”

“You postponed college?” Dex asked.

“Not exactly. I took some courses while I was in the service, in the computer field, but I never got a degree,” Jim said. “Not unless you count my honorary Ph.D.”

Dex supposed that wasn’t unusual in his field. She’d heard that Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard. “So when you left the service, your friends came with you?”

“Not right away,” Jim said. “I mustered out ten years ago, when I was twenty-four. When I was twenty-eight, Rocky lost a leg in an amphibious assault. He wasn’t adjusting well to civilian life, so a year later, when I was planning to build this house, I asked if he would manage it for me.”

Come to think of it, Rocky did have a slight limp. No wonder Grace kept besting him.

“What about Grace?” she asked.

“She left the service four years ago, suffering from clinical depression,” Jim said. “It’s a chemical disorder. Under my employee health plan, she got the right treatment, and now she’s fine.”

“How long has Kip been here?”

“He came right after Grace,” Jim said. “His doctors thought gardening would provide a stress-free environment, and it seems to be working. I think he’s lonely, though.”

It was an unusual household. Dex approved of Jim’s loyalty to his friends, but she wasn’t certain how this eccentric crew might affect Annie. She wanted her daughter to have the perfect home.

Rocky appeared in the doorway. “Dinner is served,” he announced.

Dex and Jim went into the formal dining room. In one corner, a playpen filled with toys awaited Annie, and she slipped happily into place.

The long table was set with white linen, bone china and silver service. In the center, candles had been lit. Serving dishes lined a sideboard, offering T-bone steaks, glazed carrots, parsleyed potatoes and Caesar salad.

“Great!” Dex said. “Rocky, you’re a gem.”

The large man blushed. “I like cooking.”

Dex was about to ask who the third place setting was for when Rocky helped himself to a plate and got into line first. Obviously, he was in the habit of dining with Jim.

“What about Kip and Grace?” she asked, falling into place behind him.

“Kip’s too shy to eat in company.” Jim stood close behind her. Dex could feel his warmth radiating against her bottom, and recalled that that had been one of the positions they’d experimented with during their night together. “Grace prefers canned beans and fruit to Rocky’s cooking, or so she claims.”

“Perverse woman,” grumbled the butler as he piled potatoes alongside his steak. “When she wasn’t barking orders at the troops, she used to be quiet and polite. I thought that was her real personality, and it suited me fine. I didn’t know she was depressed.”

“It’s lucky Jim came along,” Dex said. “She must have felt miserable.”

“I wish she was still depressed,” Rocky grumbled. “She didn’t give me so much trouble.”

Jim sat at the head of the table, with Rocky and Dex on either side. As the meal passed in general conversation, she was intrigued to hear that Jim’s stock had shot through the roof, thanks to some new computer chip.

What was the man going to do with even more money? Buy a few new cars, build another mansion, plan the most fabulous wedding of the decade?

She didn’t envy his bride. Dex hated pomp and ceremony. When she got married, she wanted a quiet service with friends and family.

What was she thinking? Of course she envied his bride. Not because Dex wanted to marry Jim, but because she wished she were the type of woman who could.

Being this close to him was agony. She kept wanting to touch his closely shaved cheeks and rumple his sun-streaked hair.

And she kept remembering how much she’d wanted to make love to him on a thick, soft carpet piled with cushions. She could think of so many creative positions, but her carpet was too short and scratchy.

He’d suggested they go to his house and mentioned that he had the ideal carpet in his bedroom. Under no circumstances, she told herself now, would she ever enter that bedroom.

“Looks like Annie’s ready for bed,” Jim said.

Dex gave a little jump. “Excuse me?”

“The baby’s yawning,” said Rocky. “I can take her upstairs.”

“No, thank you.” Dex wanted to enjoy every minute of the scant time she had with her daughter.

“We’ll take care of her,” Jim told the butler. “Go relax.”

“I am relaxed.” He eyed the child wistfully. “My youngest sister has a baby not much older than Annie. She should sleep on her back, you know, without a pillow.”

“Thanks for the advice.”

After he left, Dex said, “You mentioned that Kip is lonely. I think Rocky is, too.”

“He’d like to have a family of his own,” Jim said. “He got the idea, when he lost his leg, that women wouldn’t be interested in him. I can’t talk him into going to a singles mixer or a dating service. He’s sure he’d be a complete failure.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Dex said.

“I think so, too.” Jim scooped up his daughter from the playpen and lifted her to his shoulder. The movement was surprisingly natural, considering that he’d had little experience with babies until this afternoon.

He was a born father, Dex thought with a twinge of guilt as she followed the pair out of the dining room and up a central curving staircase. But Annie needed a mother, too. A real mother who would love her, not merely tolerate her.

Dex needed to know more about Jim’s almost-fiancée. She supposed she could ask him some discreet questions, but it hurt too much to think about the woman.

At the top of the stairs, they emerged into a central court around which opened a number of doors. Dex felt as if she were in a hotel.

Jim headed for the door next to Dex’s. Rocky had pointed it out earlier as Annie’s room, but she hadn’t gone in.

Now she followed the millionaire into an airy chamber with pale yellow flowered wallpaper, canary-and-tan stripes around the upper moldings and a lacy canopy bed. A crib, which must have been delivered that afternoon, stood against the near wall, across from a rocking chair.

At the far end of the room, Dex could see the twilit sky through glass doors. Beyond them lay a rounded balcony edged by a wrought-iron railing.

“This looks as if it had been deliberately decorated for a little girl,” she said.

“It was.” Jim laid Annie on a changing table. “I’ve always wanted children. Now, how do you work this diaper thing?”

Dex showed him. Every time their hands touched, she had to fight down rebellious fantasies.

She imagined that the carpet in his room was tan, as in here. The pile felt thick beneath her feet. If only the two of them could sink into it, could feel it against their skin.

Nearby, Jim’s breathing sped up. Was he thinking the same thing?

That night at the faculty party, they’d found themselves operating on the same wavelength. Noticing the brightness of the stars at the same time. Leaning toward each other as if they’d planned it. Dancing as if they were a team.

It was amazing, considering how different they were. And how incompatible.

I don’t even know what I’m doing here, Dex thought, and inched away. She didn’t belong with a sleekly sophisticated man who made millions in the wink of an eye, or in a mansion that might have been designed for a glittery home tour.

Her parents were bookish people, their house efficiently small and filled with well-organized paper clutter. They couldn’t understand why anyone would waste time on appearances. They weren’t impressed by designer labels or by the nouveau-riche club crowd in their Florida town, either.

Their ideal woman was Dex’s sister, Brianna. The editor of a literary magazine, she was married to an investigative journalist and lived in a small apartment in New York’s SoHo district. They lacked much money and didn’t want kids, but they were the darlings of the intellectual set.

“How’s this?” Jim hoisted their daughter aloft. A pink nightgown covered her neatly diapered body to her evident pleasure.

“Beautiful.” Dex inhaled the scent of baby powder and innocence.

Jim placed Annie into the crib on her back, as Rocky had instructed. The only jarring note was the quilt, which had a geometric design worked in black, purple and white. “Dr. Saldivar’s taste in baby decor was a bit different from mine,” he said, noticing her reaction. “I’ll have Grace pick up something more appropriate tomorrow.”

“There’s no sense investing a lot of money,” Dex told him. “Annie isn’t staying.”

They faced each other from opposite ends of the crib. She could feel Jim seeking the right words, the right tone to change her mind.

“Why are you so determined to put her up for adoption?” Apparently he’d decided on the direct approach.

Because if I can’t be her mother, I never want to see her again. It would break my heart.

She didn’t say so, because she didn’t expect Jim to kowtow to her feelings. He was the most powerful person in this town, and she was, if anything, the most powerless.

Dex struggled to find a more rational reason for her position. In what she hoped was a logical tone, she said, “You’ve got to see how hard it will be for her when people find out about her background. The gossip. The teasing.”

“No one has to know her background,” Jim said.

“The town gossips will want to know who the mother is. And plenty of people have seen Annie with Dr. Saldivar over the last nine months,” Dex said. “Whether they learn the truth or imagine some affair between you and the good doctor, it’ll still be a mess.”

“People may talk,” he conceded. “But…” Instead of completing his thought, he said, “Come here. I want to show you something.” Jim walked to the glass doors, unlatched the slide lock from overhead and opened them. Cautiously, Dex followed him onto the small balcony and into a cooling breeze.

Below them spread the town of Clair De Lune. From this height, she could see the triangular Bonderoff Visionary Technologies plant on the left and beyond a sprawl of high ground to her right, the campus of De Lune University.

Directly ahead, sloping downward toward the distant freeway, lay the town itself. She scanned tree-shrouded neighborhoods, shops, city hall, even the twelve-storey structure where she and Jim had met Annie this afternoon.

“It’s quite a view,” she admitted.

“The view is as much symbolic as it is literal,” Jim said. “I don’t mean to brag, but in a lot of ways I control this town. The mayor consults me about ordinances that would affect businesses. The Chamber of Commerce uses my name to encourage new industries to come to town.”

None of this was news to Dex. “So?”

“Exactly how hard do you think people are going to ride my daughter?” Jim asked.

He had a point, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “Kids can be cruel,” Dex said. “And I don’t want her spoiled, either.”

“You’re making excuses. There’s some other reason you want her to be adopted.”

He was too perceptive, she thought with a flare of alarm. She dreaded having Jim see how vulnerable she was, how much she yearned for things she wasn’t emotionally capable of handling.

“I don’t think I’m cut out to be a mother,” she said as casually as she could. “Lots of women aren’t.”

“But I’m cut out to be a father,” he said.

“It isn’t enough!”

“You want to keep me at arm’s length because we spent a night together, don’t you?” he pressed. “If I were a total stranger with no memories attached, you wouldn’t be so opposed to my keeping her, would you?”

Although she supposed that did make a difference, it wasn’t the real problem. “I don’t hold anything against you,” Dex said.

“There’s no reason you should,” Jim reminded her. “You’re the one who said you were going away.”

“We aren’t suited to each other,” she said. “I accept that.”

“So do I.”

“At least we agree on something.”

He touched her shoulder. Prickles of fire ran across her skin. “Dex, whatever I did to annoy you, please forgive me. Our daughter’s future is too important to throw away.”

She lowered her face, blinking back an unexpected sheen of moisture. “There’s more to happiness than a fancy house and a view from the balcony. There’s love and understanding and emotional support.”

“And I’m going to give them to her,” Jim said.

But if she’s like me, she’ll know from the start that she doesn’t belong here.

Dex had to trust her instincts. This house, and this man, filled her with such panic that she couldn’t bear to leave her baby here. “Whether you agree or not, Annie’s a miniature version of me. Anyone can see it,” she said. “She won’t fit in. And the other kids’ digs and snubs will hurt more than you’ll ever know.”

“Annie’s half me,” Jim said quietly. “She will fit in. She’ll love it here. Please listen…”

His grip on Dex’s shoulder tightened just as she swung around to go inside. The contact threw her off balance, and she stumbled against him.

Instinctively, Dex threw up her hands and braced herself against his chest. She’d forgotten how clearly defined his muscles were, how solid he was and how secure she felt in his grasp, as if nothing could uproot her.

Jim’s arms wrapped around her, and her chin lifted instinctively. His mouth closed over hers, tasting of wine and sultry longing.

Dex indulged herself by cupping his cheek in her palm and then ruffling his hair. Jim guided her inside the house, away from public view, then kissed her more deeply.