Another Man's Child

“Well, he left her when she first told him she was pregnant.” The confidence just slipped out naturally, as if he were sitting here with Barbara and they were discussing their daughter, just as they’d done through every other crisis in Lisa’s life. Except that he knew full well that the woman across from him wasn’t Barbara. And he wanted to confide in her, anyway.

“He what?” Beth said, her eyes wide with shock.

“He was only gone for a weekend, and according to Lisa, everything’s been fine since he came home. But I know my son-in-law. He’s honorable, he loves my daughter, and he’s also one of the most stubborn individuals I’ve ever met. And if he’s still got it in his head he isn’t meant to be a father…”

Beth paled. “He doesn’t want to be a father? Then why did he put himself through all those tests?”

“It’s because of the tests. The results, I mean. Men like Marcus tend to approach the crises in their lives logically, and he’s determined that maybe he wasn’t meant to be a father at all, that perhaps it’s best he’s sterile because he may be inadvertently saving a kid from an unhappy childhood.”

r /> “But that’s so wrong.” Beth frowned. “He had a fever when he was a child that wasn’t attended to quickly enough. I told him that. His parents had left him with a nanny who was more interested in her boyfriend than in Marcus, and by the time his parents returned home from a trip they were on, his fever had been too high for too long.”

Oliver put down his fork. “I knew nothing of this.”

“I don’t think Lisa knew, either, until I asked Marcus if he ever remembered having a high fever. He made it sound like it was no big deal.”

“I suspect that my son-in-law learned very early on not to expect much from his parents.”

They were both silent for a minute, and Oliver wondered why it was that some parents never understood that children were gifts to be cherished, not brushed aside. And why some people who were meant to be parents had that chance snatched away. He thought of his little Sara, of the few precious years they’d had with her, and couldn’t imagine having missed a single moment of her life. How he still ached for a glimpse of her laughing eyes.

Beth touched his hand, bringing him back to her. “You think Marcus is still working himself to the bone?”

His hand tingled where she’d touched it. “Probably.”

“So the baby hasn’t helped their problem at all.”

Oliver hated to hear her sounding so despondent. “It’s helped. It’s helped Lisa. She’s smiling again, dreaming again. And if nothing else, seeing Lisa happy will help Marcus.”

“But how long is she going to be happy if he isn’t?” Beth asked.

That was a question Oliver couldn’t answer.

“I SAW THE GREATEST MOVIE over the weekend,” Beth said later, over dessert. By some unspoken understanding, they’d steered away from the conversation of Lisa and Marcus through the rest of dinner.

“What’d you see?” he asked, pushing aside the guilt that accompanied his thoughts of Beth more and more these days, guilt that grew with his eagerness to hear whatever details of her life she wanted to give him.

But all the while she told him about the movie, Oliver was wondering who she saw it with and then wondering why it mattered to him. He must be crazy. Beth Montague was almost young enough to be his daughter. She was the wife of his dead colleague. His daughter’s best friend. She hadn’t even had children yet, and he was going to be a grandfather. And she wasn’t Barbara.

So why, when she smiled at him, did he feel like kissing her?

BETH SHOWED UP at Lisa’s office the next afternoon, interrupting Lisa’s dictation.

“I thought Wednesday was your early day,” she said, propping her hip on the edge of Lisa’s desk.

Lisa put down the mike from her dictaphone and shut off the machine. “It is, but Marcus is working late tonight, so I’m taking the time to get caught up on all this.” She motioned toward the charts and correspondence littering the top of her desk.

“He’s working late again? He was working on Friday night when we went looking for baby cribs. I thought the idea was that you’d both stop working yourselves to death.”

Lisa shrugged. “I have. And he will. Just as soon as he gets this Blake deal done.”

“I don’t know, Lis.” Beth frowned. “There will always be other deals.”

“Of course there will, but this one is far more than just business to Marcus. He really cares about the old guy.” She filled Beth in on the difficulties Marcus was having with George Blake.

“You sure that’s all it is?” Beth asked.

Lisa loved her friend, and she was glad Beth cared, but sometimes she wished she didn’t care quite so much. “He just needs time, Beth. I knew it would take him a while to come to grips with the baby, and I’m willing to wait. I had a chance to prepare, but it came as a complete shock to him.”

“I kind of expected to hear from him.”