Another Man's Child

“How’s she doing?” he asked, his arms crossed in front of him as he toyed casually with his wineglass.

“She was making love with my father,” Lisa blurted. She still couldn’t believe her father would get involved with a woman young enough to be his daughter. It upset her every time she thought about it.

A full minute had passed before she realized that Marcus wasn’t saying anything. He was looking out to sea, and Lisa could almost envision the wheels turning around in his head.

“Define making love,” he finally said:

“Her shirt was undone. He was…touching her. They were kissing.” It embarrassed her to talk about it.

She was shocked when Marcus turned to her and grinned. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said.

“You aren’t appalled?”

“I think it’ll take some getting used to for sure, but think about it, Lis. They’ve both already had, and lost, their mates. In spite of their age difference, they’re at about the same point in their lives, settled in their careers, their homes. They’re practically perfect for each other.”

“She’s young enough to be his daughter,” Lisa said. She kept picturing herself with Beth’s father, or Marcus’s had he still been alive, and she shuddered.

“Not technically,” Marcus said, reaching under the blanket for her hand. “She’s five years older than you, Lis.”

“There’s an entire generation between them.”

“But if it’s not a problem for them, why should it be for us?”

“He loves my mother,” Lisa said softly, and suddenly knew where her shame should be directed. Not at her father, but at herself. She was jealous.

“And Beth loved John every bit as much, honey. I suspect they both understand that. It’s probably why they were drawn to each other in the first place.”

Lisa sighed. “I’m being a jerk, aren’t I?” she asked, not at all proud of herself.

“Just being human, love,” Marcus said. He leaned over and kissed her.

“Well, it is going to take some getting used to,” she said when she could finally think coherently again.

Marcus nodded. “It all makes sense now, though.”

She frowned. “What makes sense?”

“A conversation I had with Oliver a while back. I thought he was talking about his career, but he must have already been seeing Beth. He was saying something about looking at the years still stretching out in front of him and wondering where to go from there. He asked if I thought he’d be acting like an old fool if he started over.”

Lisa’s eyes pooled with tears. Marcus’s words gave her a whole new insight into the man she’d taken for granted all her life. He was much more than just a father. He was a man with needs and desires, a man who still had a lifetime stretching out in front of him. A man who, despite his loss, was still capable of finding love with the right woman. It was time she recognized that. And loved all of him.

“So you think we should tell them we know?” she asked, suddenly just wanting to get it over with.

“They don’t know you saw them?”

Lisa shook her head.

“Then I think we ought to let it be until they come to us. It should be their call.”

“I just don’t want them to feel as if they have to hide from us,” Lisa said, understanding now the change in her friend over the past months, the times when Beth had avoided her. Although, when Lisa had needed a friend, Beth had still been that friend. Lisa was ready to return the favor.

THE HOSPITAL CALLED the next morning. They were removing Sara’s ventilator. Randal wanted Lisa present.

Marcus held, her hand all the way to the hospital and during the minutes standing next to Sara’s bed while the technician removed the tape that held Sara’s life support secure. As before, the baby protested the attention, but she didn’t seem, to Lisa to be putting up as much of a fight. Her little arms and legs weren’t squirming quite so energetically. Lisa broke out in a cold sweat while they stood there watching. And waiting.

Marcus stood silently beside her. Lisa wondered if he realized how crucial the next moments were. She wondered if he allowed himself to care at all. And suddenly she didn’t want him there. Not if he wasn’t there for Sara’s sake. She didn’t want anybody in the room who wasn’t pulling for her baby. Sara deserved a supportive family, not a disinterested bystander.

But before she could do more than release her grip on Marcus’s hand, the tube was gone. Sara blinked at the sudden need to pull in her own air. The room was silent. There were no little wails like the last time. Nothing to indicate that the baby was going to help herself.