Another Man's Child

Marcus nodded, looking about as interested as if they’d been discussing the weather. “So you plan to hire a nanny to care for it?”

It. Not him or her. It. “Yes. I’ve already made some inquiries at the hospital.” She plucked at the bottom of the lounging pajamas she’d put on as soon as they’d arrived home.

“I think that would be preferable to day care,” he said.

Lisa froze, not certain she wasn’t reading more into his casual statement than was there—as she had a tendency to do these days. But it had sounded like Marcus had just expressed a personal opinion where her baby was concerned.

“I thought I’d only work part-time, for the first year at least,” she said tentatively.

“That sounds like a good plan. A child should have its mother with it as much as possible during those first years.”

As he, Marcus, had not. Lisa heard what her husband wasn’t saying. Oh, Marcus, please let yourself be loved as you were meant to be loved. Not just by me. But by your new family, too.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to leave him more than that, anyway,” she said, chuckling. “I’m finding I have some rather possessive motherly tendencies.”

Marcus smiled. “I’m glad.”

He reached for the television control and flipped on the news, which effectively put an end to the conversation. But Lisa was smiling when she went to bed that night. Was Marcus finally starting to thaw? Could it be that she’d be able to have her baby and her husband, too? Was it possible she’d gambled—and won?

SHE WAS STILL ASLEEP when Marcus left for work the next morning. He left her a note on his pillow, telling her good-morning, rather than waking her. He was happy to see that she was finally getting some rest. With her nights constantly interrupted by trips to the bathroom, getting up at the crack of dawn had become too much for her.

He’d be relieved when the whole thing was over, he thought as he drove through the old and elegant streets of New Haven, beautiful even with the gray skies overhead and the slush on the ground. As much as he enjoyed watching Lisa’s body blossom, he was growing increasingly more worried about her as her pregnancy progressed.

Of course, he had his share of apprehensions for afterward, too. Would Lisa still have time for him? Would her baby resent his place in Lisa’s life? She was going to be a very devoted mother, which pleased Marcus, but would she need him around once she had her baby to love?

Disgusted with himself for harboring such fears, Marcus attacked his work that day with a vengeance. He had another meeting with George Blake, and he was going to get the deal done. It was time to quit being Mr. Nice Guy.

Blake and his team arrived fifteen minutes early, but Marcus was ready for them. He led them to the executive conference room down the hall from his office then waited only until Marge had served coffee before beginning the meeting.

“Gentlemen, I think what we’ve worked out here together should just about take care of the future of Blake’s department stores,” Marcus said, cutting to the chase. He held up a copy of the latest proposal for a fifty-one/forty-nine percent merger, allowing Blake’s the fifty-one percent and Cartwright Enterprises the management privileges, all of which were specified in minute detail.

“I have just one suggestion about page fifteen, item one, young man,” George Blake said, “under software implementation for inventory control.”

Marcus stifled a groan. He’d known the old guy was going to find a way to make this difficult. It was time to play hardball. “What would that be, George?”

“I’m not sure that it’s fiscally wise to invest so heavily in a system that will be outdated by the end of the year.”

Marcus’s rebuttal died in his throat. “Oh?” he said. He’d had to fight for months to get George to allow him to put computers in the Blake’s enterprise at all because the old man hadn’t known the first thing about them and, thus, didn’t trust them.

“CD-ROM, all of that, will be a thing of the past before we know it,” George said, tapping the pages in front of him. “If we were buying this two years ago, I’d agree that it would be worth the investment, but at this late date, I say we buy a system that will allow us to move into the future, a system that we can expand on, rather than replace.”

Marcus felt like giving the old man a hug. He grinned, instead. “I’d say that’s sound advice, George. I’ll have my team on it first thing in the morning.”

OLIVER WAS BUSHED. He stopped by Beth’s office after volunteering on Friday, needing to see her in spite of the anger tamped down inside of him. They’d lost another kidney patient that week, one who probably could have been saved if they’d had the new dialysis equipment he’d been campaigning for. Thornton had the money. They just chose to spend it in other places. Such as Beth’s clinic. A few lives gained for one lost, he thought with uncharacteristic bitterness.

“You up for dinner?” he asked, poking his head around her door.

“You bet.” She turned off her computer, grabbed her coat and locked up behind her, watching him all the while.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

They were walking briskly out to their cars, hunched over against the cold.

“Rosie Gardner died today.”

He could see the instant understanding in her eyes as she slowed to look at him. It was hard to blame her for taking the dialysis-equipment money when she looked at him like that.

“I’m sorry.” She linked her arm with his so naturally that he shouldn’t even have noticed. Except that he did. His whole body noticed.