“Fine,” she said, as she rose to her feet. “I was just checking. I probably shouldn’t have brought him with me. I’ll just…”
He held out a hand to stop her retreat because he knew she’d misunderstood him. There was no way she was leaving with his son. He’d received the hint in her tone loud and clear. She’d find someone else to take him or simply abandon him.
“What about your parents?”
Her expression grew rigid and in a prickly voice she said, “Didn’t you hear me? They cut me off. I have to make my own way from this point. They’ve washed their hands of me, their spoiled-rotten, tattooed daughter. I can’t handle him anymore, Seth. I can’t afford to take him with me to Japan.” The child regarded him, utter innocence in his piercing blue eyes. “I can hardly even look at him, if you want to know the truth. He reminds me too much of you.”
That stung.
Seth held out his hands. “Give him to me. Of course I want him.”
Tamar handed the solid baby boy over without hesitation, and Seth took the weighty diaper bag from her.
She rubbed her arm as she groaned. “Thank you. He weighed a ton. I’ll be sore for days.” Because she wasn’t used to holding him and taking care of him. Seth wondered who had been caring for this little boy. “His birth certificate and other records are in the diaper bag. You’re listed as his father. Crap,” she ground out, brushing at the fashionable collar of her top. “He spit up on me.”
He opened the front door. “Thanks. Your cab is waiting.”
Seth stood in the open doorway staring into his son’s eyes as the red taillights of the cab disappeared down the street. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Seth as Tamar had walked out of the house and down the sidewalk.
A number of emotions formed a tornado in his chest as he gazed deep into eyes that were exactly like the ones he saw in the mirror each morning. Anger that she’d kept his son a secret from him. Fear that he’d just taken on a job he’d had absolutely no time to prepare for and wasn’t sure he could handle. Wonder at holding this incredibly beautiful child he’d helped make. Compassion, as the little boy’s eyebrows drew together as though realizing he’d just been abandoned. Seth’s heart broke for him and tears burned his eyes as he wondered at how best to comfort—
“I don’t even know your name.”
The baby boy’s mouth opened and he howled distraughtly, tears gathering in his eyes and rolling in fat drops down his reddening cheeks.
Anxiety.
He could barely think, beyond holding the little boy to him and rubbing his back as he spoke soothingly to him and closed the front door. He sat down on the couch and opened the diaper bag to search for the birth certificate. The fact that Tamar hadn’t even bothered to give him the baby’s name gave the whole experience a sense of finality. If ever he’d wanted closure of any kind with her, he had it now. He dialed Jayne’s number. Seth felt lost, unprepared, and awkward. She would know what to do next.
The baby continued to cry and Seth murmured as he looked into his tear-filled eyes. “What have we gotten ourselves into, buddy?”
* * * *
“Feel better?” Grace asked as Jayne sipped her root beer float. Grace had met her at the Dairy Queen on Main Street since she was already in town, and they’d been sitting in the fiery-orange Formica booth talking for the last twenty minutes.
“There’s not much in this world a soft-serve ice cream and root beer float can’t make feel better, but this is huge.”
“I wonder what she wants.”
“You should’ve seen his face, Grace. I wanted to rip her limb from limb for doing that to him. I’m almost afraid to know what’s going on. I don’t want her to stay in Divine, or even Morehead, for that matter. But that little baby, Grace. He was…”
“Spitting image?” Grace asked sympathetically, handing her a paper napkin.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s Seth’s. He’s beautiful.” Tears sprang into her eyes despite her best attempts with the paper napkin. “And he didn’t act like most babies, fussing to get down, wanting to explore, or at the very least, cuddling to his mother.” Pointing outside at the growing dusk, she added, “And this is the worst time of day for him, if he’s been traveling. He’s probably hungry, tired, and cranky with all this crazy crap happening around him. He seemed like he was on guard.”
“So what’s his name?”
Jayne’s eyes met hers. “I have no idea.” Her phone buzzed and then the ringtone version of “Truck Yeah” by Tim McGraw began playing on her phone. She scoffed and rolled her eyes as she recalled Grace’s latest hijinks.
“You needed a special ringtone for your sweetie. Come on, admit it, you love it,” Grace said with glee as Jayne rifled around in her purse looking for her phone. Jayne couldn’t figure out how to change it back but was grateful for the slight break in tension as she answered on the fourth ring. “Hello?” She could hear the sound of a squalling baby in the background. Grace must’ve heard it too because she made a sympathetic sound.
“Baby, she’s gone. Can you come? I…I need some help.” She’d never heard Seth sound so out of his element. Almost panicked.
One minute later, Jayne and Grace hurried out to their vehicles parked side by side in the Dairy Queen parking lot. Grace had a short list in her hand and her phone to her ear as she called out to Jayne, “Give me forty-five minutes to marshal the troops and get through the store.”
“Thank you, cousin! I’ll make it up to you someday.”
Into her phone, Grace said, “Hey, Rachel, hang on a second.” To Jayne she called out, “You and Seth can babysit for us someday! See you in a bit!” The engine on her pretty blue BMW Z4 revved to life, and the stereo blasted until she turned it down, carrying on her conversation with Rachel Wolf. The plan was for Rachel to get on the phone and call everyone while Grace ran to the grocery store for baby things, since she was used to shopping for that stuff.
Jayne inserted the key in the ignition, shock still coursing through her nervous system. Seth was a father. A new single dad. Everything was about to change.
“Shoot! I still don’t know his name.”
She put the car in gear and hoped that Hank Stinson wasn’t sneaking around with his radar gun, watching for speeders.
At Seth’s house, she rang the doorbell and blinked in surprise when the door was jerked open a second later. Seth must’ve seen her pull in. Relief was written all over his face, and she smiled at the sight of him with the crying baby boy in his arms. The small but solid-looking child clung to him like a little monkey, screaming inconsolably in his ear. Seth seemed anything but stoic and calm and Jayne’s heart went out to him.
With one arm he pulled her to him and kissed her soundly on the lips then said, “I was afraid.”
“Of what?” The baby quieted down, seeming curious about this turn of events.
“That you’d wipe your hands of all this. Us.”
“Oh, Seth,” she said with a wry chuckle and a shake of her head. “I’m a little tougher than that. I could see how shocked you were. I was just giving you time to deal with her. I’m here. What can I do?”
“First things first, Jayne.” Seth gestured to the baby. “Meet Tobias Jansen Carter.”
Tobias huffed in a couple of post-crying-spell breaths and whispered, “Toby.”
“I think he prefers Toby.” Seth stroked his cheek, and the tenderness in his expression brought tears to her eyes.
She cleared her throat and tried to swallow the growing lump in her throat. “Then Toby it is.
It would be completely dark soon, and while the baby was cute as all get-out, he was definitely not fresh.
“
Où ma Mimi?
” Her high school French was rusty but it sounded like he’d posed the question, “Where my Mimi?” but Jayne didn’t know how to respond.
“We’re letting in bugs,” she said as she cleared the front door and closed it. “Grace and some of the gang will be here in a few minutes. Tell me what happened.”
Clapping her hands softly together, Jayne held them open for him. Toby responded to the universal signal and leaned toward her. His solid, warm weight settled into her arms, and he patted her hair gently then grabbed a big handful and pressed it to his nose.
“
Ma Mimi.
” Jayne’s heart clenched in sympathy for him as it seemed he hid his face in her hair.
Seth directed her to sit in the recliner and perched on the coffee table in front of her. “While Tamar was talking, he made eye contact with me and…my heart stopped. She said, ‘I can’t handle him anymore. Do you want him?’”
“She did?” Jayne reflexively tightened her grip on Toby but then stroked his back so he wouldn’t be upset by her reaction.
Seth caressed the bottom of Toby’s little socked foot. “I don’t think he understands much English, otherwise I wouldn’t repeat this. Tamar said, ‘I can hardly even look at him, if you want to know the truth. He reminds me too much of you.’ Jayne, I took one look at him and…he owned my heart. How could I say no? How could anyone say no?” Intense emotion sparked in his blue eyes as he held her gaze, seeming at a complete loss to understand how Tamar could be so cruel.
Without even realizing it, Jayne had begun rocking Toby in the recliner. His eyelids grew heavy. “
Ma Mimi
.” His little lip quivered and he began to cry again.
She rose from the recliner and stroked his head as he sat upright again. “We need to get him cleaned up and his diaper changed. The last thing he needs is to fall asleep dirty and then be awakened for a bath. It’s still early. Can you take him and I’ll fill the tub?”
“Sure.”
When she went to release him to his father, Toby clung to her like a little burr. Seth and Jayne smiled at each other.
Seth said, “Okay,
I’ll
fill the tub.” She imagined that she’d just been sent into the twilight zone, and wondered if
she
felt that way how it must be for Seth.
She followed him down the hall. “Who do you suppose Mimi is?”
“I’ve been thinking about it, because he’s been asking for her since Tamar left. It didn’t faze him at all when she walked out. She never even looked back, Jayne.” Seth shook his head as he started the tub filling with warm water. He perched on the side and adjusted the water temperature as she peeled Toby’s socks off. “I vaguely remember Henri speaking to a member of the waitstaff at his manor house and calling them by that name. She had long reddish-brown hair similar to yours.” She held a fussy Toby while Seth hooked the elastic waist on his britches and peeled them off. “Um, Jayne—” Jayne winced at the odor but chuckled when Toby made a heavy-duty grunting sound.
Perfect timing
.
“Knock-knock!” Grace called from the front doorway. “Emma and Charity are with me.”
Seth went to the bathroom door. “Come on in. We’re in the bathroom.”
Jayne could hear bags rustling as packages were laid on the kitchen counter, and voices speaking, then cabinet doors opening and closing.
Jayne smiled when Dr. Emma Rivers peered around the doorway. “Hi, remember me?”
Jayne grinned at Emma as Seth greeted her and introduced her to the baby who was sucking on his fist.
“Grace called and since I was home, she swung by and picked me up so I could take a quick look at him. Hello, little man,” she whispered as she stroked his cheeks. “You made a stinky, didn’t you?” As if in response, Toby grunted and kicked his legs.
“We’re just about to remove his dirty diaper before he gets in the tub,” Seth said as he shut off the water. Grabbing a towel, Jayne carried Toby into Seth’s bedroom and laid him on it, on the bed.
Handing him a newly opened package of wipes, Emma asked, “How long has it been since you changed a diaper, Seth?”
“I’ve never actually changed a diaper.” Although she could tell how out of his element he felt, he didn’t hesitate as he took a seat on the bed and listened to Emma instruct him how to do it and what to watch for.
He stripped off Toby, who looked just as dumbfounded, and then peeled the tapes back, seeming afraid of what he might find. His vulnerability made Jayne smile in commiseration.
Messing with his clothing and the diaper had gotten Toby squirmy and red-faced. His lopsided little frowny face would’ve been comical, if it hadn’t been for a good reason. His little bum was as red as a beet. Toby growled when his dad wiped his dirty bottom clean, and Jayne noted with a chuckle that Seth recognized the sound too. He sounded just like his father when he growled.
“Poor little angel,” Emma crooned. “It’s not too bad though. She must not have been traveling with him very long. We brought ointment. In a day or two that rash will be healed.” Toby squawked when Seth got up to dispose of the offensive diaper and Emma took his place, crooning to him and playing with his toes. She gave him a quick once-over and smiled at Seth. “There’s no question who his father is.”
Seth promised to call Emma’s receptionist in the morning to make an appointment to get him checked out more carefully and make sure his immunizations were all up to date. While they talked, Jayne slipped Toby into the bathtub and gave him a clean washcloth to chew on while she bathed him with the baby wash Grace handed her.
Kneeling side by side next to the tub, Grace and Charity had a fit over the similarity between him and his father and sang silly songs to him until he finally cracked a big grin for them, winning their hearts forever. He made them work for his smiles. That, too, reminded Jayne of his father. But when those smiles came, they were beautiful.