A Weekend Getaway (10 page)

“You’ll have to
be more specific. Ivy and I had tons of fights.”

That was true.
“That time I stayed to help you clean up and...” She couldn’t say it. They’d
never talked about it. Were it not for her pregnancy, she might’ve convinced
herself it’d only happened in her imagination. “We, you know.”

They stopped
walking and his eyes studied her. “I always felt bad about that. Like I’d taken
advantage of you.”

Even though it
had been her first time, she’d been more than willing. Yet she blamed him, too.
She shook her head. “There’s something I never told you...because two weeks
later you and Ivy eloped.” On a stupid weekend trip to Vegas. “I didn’t want to
be a burden.”

“A burden? Stop
talking in code. What are you trying to say?”

“Okay...here
goes...” She watched the sand blowing across the beach. “I got pregnant.”

He jerked back
as if she’d burned him. “What the—? Is this some kind of joke?”

She shook her
head. “No.”

“I would’ve
noticed if you were pregnant. Unless—”

“I didn’t have
an abortion if that’s what you’re thinking. I could never do that. I simply
wore baggy clothes and no one even noticed the extra pounds.” If Parker had
ever really looked at her, he would have noticed. But Beth pushed the thought
away. No need to bring up old hurts.

“You’re telling
me you had a baby. My baby?” He dropped his shoes into the sand.

She nodded.

He walked in a
circle, clutching his head. He paused to face her. “Where is he? Or she?”

“It was a girl.
I placed her for adoption.”

“How could you?
You had no right!” He stabbed a finger at her. “I never signed anything. You
couldn’t give my baby away without my permission.”

She took a step
back. The saliva in her throat dried up. She’d never seen him this mad at
anyone except Ivy. “You were married. You didn’t want to hear that I was
pregnant.”

“You cheated me
out of my only child!”

“I didn’t know
that back then.” Her blood pressure spiked. “It wasn’t easy for me! I was all
alone trying to figure out what to do.”

“So how did you
keep me out of the loop?”

Father Unknown.
She could see it typed on the birth certificate in her mind’s eye. “I didn’t
name you as the father.” She’d always felt additional shame from those handling
the adoption. It was as if she were labeled a slut, with so many sexual
partners she didn’t know who the father was. When in reality she could never be
one of those girls who had sex just for fun. She didn’t have the body or the
mind for that. She took relationships seriously. Unfortunately, because of
those dumb bonding hormones, she’d been even more in love with the unattainable
Parker after she’d shared a bed with him.

He paced,
clenching his fists. “I thought Ivy was self-centered and manipulative, but
you’re a piece of work, too.” His voice echoed in the distance. “Go away. Get
out! Get out of my sight!”

“Fine!” She
took off running across the sand, tears welling in her eyes.

His response
had been anger. Extreme anger. She’d banked on it and yet experiencing it was
too much. She kept going without looking back.

# # #

Parker grabbed
his Italian leather shoe and flung it into Lake Michigan, as if he were
throwing to home plate to stop a run. When he threw his other one, he did so as
if he were aiming at Beth. What a cold-hearted bitch! She had no right to keep
his daughter from him. No right.

He could’ve
been a dad. He could’ve taught his girl how to sail, how to fish, how to swim.
He could’ve shown her the Eiffel Tower, the Alps, the pyramids. He had the
resources to give her every advantage. Could her adopted parents do that?
Strangers. His child grew up with strangers!

Spotting a
piece of driftwood, he lunged for it and hurled it into the gray water. His
shoulders remained tight. Nothing he did made him feel better. He could throw
every pebble on this beach into the water and yet rage would continue to boil
inside him.

Wait a minute.
What about Ivy? Had she known about the pregnancy? After all, she and Beth had
been roommates. He ran back to the house so he could confront her.

He jerked open
the sliding glass door to an empty room. The music had stopped playing. Hearing
the soft thump of Ivy’s jewelry box closing, he marched into their master
bedroom where his wife wore a silver sequins dress. The black walls made the room
appear especially dark. The decorator called the room with its shiny surfaces
and chandelier “Hollywood Glamor”—perfect for Ivy, but he wasn’t a big
fan. “Did you know about this?”

She finished
putting in a dangling earring and faced him. “What?”

“Did you know
about Bethany’s little secret?”

“I don’t know
what you’re talking about. I invited her here because I’m worried about you. I
thought seeing an old friend might be good for you.”

His heart
pounded inside his chest. It looked like Ivy had a gig to go to. “Singing
tonight?”

Nodding, she
glanced back at her mirrored dresser to appraise her ensemble. “I’d hoped Beth
might come and watch, but she took off like a bat out of hell. What did you two
talk about anyway?”

He hated how
his body pulsed with anger as he paced back and forth. Even his ears rang. This
was so unlike him. “I still can’t believe it.” He forced himself to sit on the
bench at the end of the bed. Ivy had insisted they needed a place to sit in
there, yet he couldn’t remember the last time anyone had used it. He put his
face in his hands.

Ivy, teetering
in her high heels, came near and placed her palm on his shoulder. “What’s going
on? Tell me.”

He sighed.
“Beth said she got pregnant in college.” He heard Ivy gasp and he continued
since this wasn’t the truly unbelievable part. “She said she put the baby up
for adoption. And she claims the baby was mine.”

Ivy pulled her
hand away from his shoulder. She crossed her arms and looked pissed. “That’s
the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Why would she say something like that? Is
she crazy?”

He stared at
the floor, blinking. Thinking. He knew he shouldn’t have fooled around with
Beth, but she was so different than Ivy. Beth was sweet and looked at him with
pure adoration. That night he’d needed that. And now…

Was Ivy going
to blame him for something he did before they were married? He wouldn’t put it
past her. That’s how she was. Over the top, emotional. Her cruel words always
cut him, and she never meant any of her apologies. She’d take some time, calm down
and seduce him as her way of clearing the air. At twenty, he’d allowed his
libido to override his brain. At thirty, it was getting harder and harder to
do.

“She couldn’t
have your baby because you never slept with her.” Ivy shifted her weight.
“Right?”

Parker raked
his hand through his hair. He was dying. He had a child that he’d never known.
And now his marriage could be in jeopardy. What the hell? “I did. Once.”

Shock flashed
across her delicate features. Her dark eyes glared at him. “You slept with my
best friend?”

There she went
with the dramatics. “Beth was your roommate.”

“You want to
argue about who my best friend was? You slept with Beth!” She slapped his
shoulder. “How could you?” Another slap. “When? When we were married?”

“No, no. Before
we got married. You and I were broken up.”

“I know that’s
not true. You and I were together non-stop. We had disagreements, but we never
broke up.”

“You’d said you
never wanted to see my face again.” He looked up at her thin body towering over
him as he sat.

“I was just
mad. You knew that. So when exactly was this love child conceived?”

He thought back
to the night he’d been so insecure, he’d taken advantage of Beth. Why had he
slept with her? The only conquest he couldn’t brag about to the guys. How could
that have made him feel better? But somehow it did. That’s because in the dark,
Beth wasn’t a fat girl with a crush on him. Beth was gentle and kind and made
him want to love her.

He pushed those
thoughts away. “Apparently she found out she was pregnant about the time you
and I went to Vegas.” Ivy had surprised him with the plane tickets. He’d
thought it was her way of apologizing for their latest fight, the one where she
said he was a loser and that she understood why his dad hated him. Because he
was selfish. The irony was that Ivy had been pressuring him to quit the
Leadership Club and spend all of his spare time with her.

The Vegas trip turned
out to be a ruse to get him to marry her. She’d confessed she was pregnant and
that her family would be mortified if she had an illegitimate child. Ivy had
cried, her mascara running down her cheeks, as she sat on the satin comforter
in that Vegas hotel room. Parker, well, what could he do? He’d been the one to
convince Ivy to go on the pill so he could stop wearing protection. Marrying
her was the right thing to do. Plus her impulsive personality would keep him on
his toes, he told himself. Life with her would never be dull.

Ivy shook her
head. “I would’ve known if she had a baby. We all would’ve, don’t you think?”

He shrugged.
“Apparently not. I believe her. She doesn’t have any reason to lie now.” Beth
was always as honest as honey is sweet. Or so he thought. Now she stung like a
bee.

“Well, I don’t
have time for this.” She walked over to her mirror and checked herself out one
more time. After she fluffed her short, curly hair, she tweaked her necklace.
“I’ve
gotta
go.” She exited the room without even a
wave goodbye.

Parker hadn’t
been to one of Ivy’s shows in years. He knew she liked to flirt with the
audience and with her fedora-wearing piano player, getting the attention she
fed off of like a vampire did blood. The last thing he wanted to do was watch. Ivy
definitely couldn’t be counted on when Parker’s health declined. His marriage
functioned with the spark long gone, just like his parents’ relationship. He
shook his head. If he weren’t dying, he’d have to admit, that he and Ivy
weren’t going to make it to their golden anniversary. He’d take a stand and
tell her to move in with her piano player, whom he suspected was also Ivy’s
lover. Parker wasn’t sure, of course, but Ivy always stayed out late after her
shows and she came home tipsy, smelling of cigarettes and cologne. He’d
confronted her once, but she’d laughed it off, saying his jealous side was kind
of sexy.

 
Oh, how he’d like to have a healthy
relationship with someone who was more of an equal and not a selfish child. But
there wasn’t time.

In fact, time
was running out on everything. He picked up his phone and dialed the one person
he could trust.

CHAPTER NINE

Speeding away
from Parker’s house, Beth struggled to keep control of the wheel. Her whole
body shook with adrenaline. Parker had yelled at her. Hatred had flared in his
eyes. Somehow the actual event went worse than she’d imagined. What if Drew
reacted just as badly? She couldn’t stand it if she lost the only man who had
loved her back.

It scared her
to see the anger twisting Parker’s face. It hurt because she’d loved him once.
But to be honest, it hadn’t been mutual. And it had been a long time ago.

As she drove
down the winding road, her mind looped backwards.

After Parker
broke her heart, she’d moved on with her life, eventually finding Drew. Finally
discovering what true love felt like.

She had always
believed in love. That was the frustrating part of being overweight because no
one ever asked her out. In high school and college, her thin friends fell in
and out of love while she stayed home watching Bridget Jones’ Diary and eating
pints of Ben & Jerry’s. She knew that movie was supposed to be about the
chunky girl finding Mr. Right, but truth be told, Renee
Zellweger
was a toothpick compared to Beth. In real life, guys wanted the toothpicks.

Early on Beth
discovered she had a knack for matchmaking. To her it was so clear who would
fit together and pop with chemistry. Guys wanted a good personality only after
they’d fantasized about the girl giving them a striptease. If he didn’t want to
see her naked, he didn’t want to date her. Girls, however, could be swayed by
other factors such as earning potential and interest in becoming a family man.
Good looks still mattered, but she’d heard once that a short man was just as
attractive as a taller one if he earned an extra $40,000 a year. That was
according to some on-line dating service. Which, in Beth’s opinion, didn’t have
a clue about matchmaking.

Four marriages
had resulted from her keen sense of what made a couple compatible. She’d helped
Sarah and her husband meet back in college. Plus a girl in her dorm and the
treasurer for the Leadership Club had been her idea for a match up. Then at
work, she’d found two of her male customer service representatives female
counterparts. She could sense a yin and yang connection in her bones. She took
pride in her ability and lived vicariously through her friends. By the time she
was thirty, she’d practically given up. She focused on her job and told herself
that would have to be enough.

That’s why it
had been so hard for her to believe what happened last year when she’d set up a
woman from her apartment building with the nice computer guy from work.
Aracelli
was a pretty, twenty-nine year old Ph.D. candidate
who claimed she had terrible taste in men. She always went for the flashy,
brusque guy who could get her into the best restaurants then talk on his cell
phone throughout dinner. If a guy needed “fixing”, she felt drawn to him. In
other words, she needed help recognizing a good catch and Beth knew just the
guy.

When
Aracelli
knocked on her door complaining that the date
hadn’t gone well, Beth had been surprised.

She considered
the man. He was successful, smart and good-looking in a nerdy kind of way. “You
have to realize that your instincts are all wrong about men. Drew’s a good guy.
Trust me.”

“It doesn’t
matter if I like him or not. He’s not into me,” her friend said, pulling her
shiny black hair out of its twist.

Beth surveyed
the woman dressed in a pencil skirt and silk blouse. She had high cheek bones,
beautiful Spanish eyes and could chat about politics or movie stars with equal
enthusiasm. Why hadn’t Drew been interested? “How do you know he’s not into
you? Maybe he had a headache or a big project on his mind.”

“I know because
all he wanted to talk about was you: How do you know Bethany? Does she have a
boyfriend? What does she do on the weekends?”

At these
questions, Beth’s heart soared. Drew actually liked her? But he was tall and
thin. He didn’t have to settle for a short chubby girl. How could he possibly
be interested in her?

Seeing the
expression on Beth’s face, the woman in her apartment smiled back. “All night I
was mad at you, but now I see you’re totally surprised. Obviously, you didn’t
have a clue. And you told me, you had a sixth sense about these things. Hmm.
Some matchmaker you are.” She pulled off her heels and padded barefooted out of
Beth’s apartment. “Good luck with Drew. I think I’ll go back to picking my own
dates from now on.”

Beth could
hardly sleep that night, anxious to go to work and see the computer guy’s cute
face.

A squirrel
scampered across the road in front of her and she slammed on her brakes, bringing
her mind back to the present. Waiting for the animal to pass, she realized her
shudders had diminished and her breathing had almost returned to normal.

She smiled a
little, remembering how she’d had to make the first move with Drew. Sometimes
she forgot that guys—even handsome ones—could be shy. She stopped
by his office after all the tech support people had left for the day and stared
at the back of his rust-colored hair, working up her nerve. Finally, she
cleared her throat to get his attention. When he turned around, she struggled
to find her voice. “Um, I hate to bother you but my computer keeps freezing up.
Can you help me?”

“I don’t
usually handle those things. I’m a software engineer.”

“Oh.” She
shoved her hands in the front pockets of her slacks. “I just figured since you
work with computers, you might be able to fix it.”

“I’m on a
deadline with this program I’m working on. I’ll leave a note for tech support,
though.” The Star Trek Enterprise slowly sailed across his computer screen.

If it weren’t
for
Aracelli’s
inside information, Beth would’ve
given up. Drew was smart, cute and single. That was a rare trifecta once a
woman passed her twenties. “Who’s your favorite captain?”

“Huh?”

She pointed at
his screen saver.

He turned
around and glanced at the outer space scene. “Captain Kirk, of course. He set
the standard.”

“Shatner
overacted.” Making a fist, she quoted a famous line from the series. “We need
more power, Scottie.”

He cocked his
head at her. “Are you a
Trekkie
?”

 
“Growing up, my dad and I watched reruns
together.” When he had a few minutes in between saving souls. “I always felt
bad for the guys in the red shirts when they beamed down to a strange planet.”

He smiled, his green eyes twinkling. “Because you knew they
were going to die.” He tugged on his ear, which for some reason she found
endearing. “So, original, Next Generation, or Voyager?”

 
“If the original truly represented the
future, it seems likely to me that more of the officers would’ve been female. I
mean, the only woman on deck with Kirk was
Uhura
and
she was basically a telephone operator.”

Drew
laughed, flashing his beautifully white teeth. “But she was a lieutenant. Did
you know the actress who played
Uhura
planned to quit
until Martin Luther King, Jr. told her it was one of the few shows he let his
kids watch? He said she was doing something important, portraying not a ‘black
role’ but ‘an equal role.’”

“I suppose
that was pretty impressive for 1967.”

“Let me
guess. Your favorite captain was
Janeway
from
Voyager.”

“She was
pretty great.”

“If she was
so great, then why did they cancel her show?”

“Because
most Star Trek nerds are guys.”

Again, he
laughed and this time she joined him.

She did
some quick thinking. “I think technically Star Trek: Voyager lasted more
seasons than the original.”

Smirking,
he took a deep breath. “You know what? I could use a break. I’d be glad to take
a look at your computer.”

He walked
with her to her cubicle and fiddled around with her perfectly functioning
desktop. “It seems all right to me.”

“You’re a
genius.”

“But I
didn’t do anything.”

They stared
at each other without saying another word. Her eyelashes blinked slowly. She
hoped he could read the look in her eyes. Tucking a lock of hair behind her
ear, she sent a psychic message his way: Ask me out! Ask me out!

He pushed
away from her desk. “I need to get back to work.”

“I’m going
for a bite to eat. Want to join me?” Biting her bottom lip, she held her breath
as she waited for his answer.

He
hesitated. “I’d love to, but I really can’t.”

Her spirits
plummeted.
Aracelli
didn’t know what she was talking
about. Why had Beth let herself forget that guys who looked like Drew never
wanted to be seen with a woman who filled out her clothes as much as she did?
She shut off her computer while he walked away. Slowly, she gathered up her
things to take home: a half-eaten Snickers bar, her purse, her coat.

Across the
room, he paused. He turned and pulled on his earlobe. Then his cell phone rang,
he checked the caller
i.d.
screen and answered, “Hi
Missy.” Beth completely wrote him off then.

But a
couple days later, they ran into each other at a pizza joint and struck up a
long conversation.

Within a
few casual dates of watching Star Trek DVDs and taking Emma for ice cream, Beth
knew they were meant for each other. Spending time with Drew was as comfortable
as hanging out in sweats on the weekend. For some crazy reason, he liked
spending time with her, too. Before she knew it, they were fixing up his house
and furnishing it with period pieces together.

It had
taken thirty-three years to find someone who adored everything about
her—including her looks. She’d never be so lucky again.

After she braked
at the small town traffic light in front of her, she squeezed her eyes shut.

She’d never
be so lucky again.

# # #

Attorney Stanley Brink’s office smelled of Swisher Sweet
cigars—a scent that intensified when Parker shook the man’s hand. A scent
that reminded him of college, where he’d smoked a celebratory stogie every time
he’d aced a test.

Despite the gray sky that peeked through the office’s large
windows, Stan’s office was warm. Comforting, even. It almost put Parker at ease
with its antique furnishings and photographs of wildlife.

Almost.

Parker had done
business with Stan for the last decade, relying on the man with fierce eyes and
graying temples to handle lawsuits and any other legal issues that arose with
Parker’s Mall Land business. But when the middle-aged lawyer gestured toward a
tufted leather chair—the same leather chair Parker had sat in numerous
times before—it felt like he was there for the first time.

Sitting on the
matching wing-backed chair next to Parker, Stan took his iPad from the side
table.

“Like I said on
the phone,” Parker began, “I’m totally blindsided by this. This woman I knew
back in college claims that I have a child.”

Stan typed a
few notes, but kept the device’s screen out of sight. “And you want me to pay
her off? Make sure she doesn’t go public?”

Parker stared
at Stan. “No, no.” He wanted to lash out. He wanted to hurt somebody. Make
someone pay for the unfairness of life. Bethany was the obvious target. “I want
you to sue.”

Stan’s eyebrows
pulled away from his graying temples. “Aren’t you afraid she’s going to sue
you
for back child support?”

Parker sighed.
“She put the baby up for adoption without my knowledge. I’m not sure why she
told me now, but it’s not to get money.” Maybe because she knew he wouldn’t be
around much longer. He hated pity. “I want a chance to know my daughter. I
deserve that.”

“You said this
happened in college? How old is this child?”

Parker did some
quick math. “Fifteen, maybe sixteen, I suppose.”

Stan cleared
his throat and put down his iPad. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his
nose. “You want to fight for custody of a sixteen-year-old? That’s ridiculous.
You’d never win. It could be years before it’s settled and by then, the child
would no longer be a minor.”

“I have to meet
her. I deserve to be a part of her life.” Parker stood up and started pacing.
His business was strong. His marriage: not so great. But he realized as he
faced death, he’d missed out. He didn’t have much in his life that made him
want to smile, but when he thought about having a little girl, his heart
warmed. “I still can’t believe Beth did this to me.”

“As you know,
family law isn’t exactly my specialty.” Stan started writing some notes on his
iPad. “But I think we could sue the birth mother for the intentional infliction
of emotional distress. Tell me how this has affected you physically. Trouble
sleeping, depression, loss of work?”

Parker cracked
his knuckles. He had some of those symptoms but Beth wasn’t to blame. “I don’t
know. Do I have to say such personal things?”

Stan cocked his
head at him. “We’ll have to document how this has hurt you. Give me all the
information you have on the mother and child. I’ll start drawing up the
papers.”

“The birth
mother’s name is Bethany Morris.” Parker stared out the window at the dismal
scene. The half-bare trees lining the street reminded him of jagged forks
poking into the sky. Cars drove by with their headlights on even though it was
ten a.m.
Winter
, the season of death, would soon push
autumn out of the way. “I don’t know the girl’s name. I don’t know anything
about her.”

Stan remained
quiet for a moment. “But you’re sure she’s yours? Perhaps this woman and child
are working together, hoping to get a piece of your fortune.”