Baby Daddy (7 page)

“Fantastic.”

He set an over-sized ceramic mug in front of me, then poured the dark steaming brew into it.  “Black?”

“
Oh no.  Cream and lots of sugar.”

He put a tray with a small pitcher of cream, several different kinds of sweetener and a bowl with both brown and white sugar cubes in front of me.

I helped myself to several sugar cubes, then popped one in my mouth for good measure.  The coffee would sit better if I had something in my stomach.

Gerald entered the kitchen with a bag of empty beer bottles and cans he’d probably gathered from the patio area.  “Well good morning, Killeen.  Did you kids have fun last night?”

“I did.  A couple of them might have had a little too much fun.  Liberty and I left around midnight, and the party was still going strong.”

Gerald looked surprised.  “I’m
amazed Liberty lasted that long.  Back on the collective, they go to bed at sundown.  I don’t think they have electricity.”

I looked at him sharply.  “How did you know that?”

“Uh...Roger kept up with . . .” Gerald’s head spun around as he noticed Tulsa and Dallas in the doorway.  “Come on in...coffee?”

“Oh God yes
...black,” Tulsa said in a ragged voice, then reached up and pressed her fingertips against her temples.

“Quit yelling,” Dallas commanded in a loud whisper as he slumped on a barstool and leaned forward, resting his head on his folded arms.

“Good morning, everyone,” Reno said cheerfully as he joined us.  He looked surprisingly unaffected by last night’s free-flowing shots.  “Is that my mug?”  He sat on an empty barstool just as John carried three mugs to the counter, set them down and filled them to the brim.  John walked to the refrigerator and took out a large glass pitcher which he also placed on the counter.

“H
ere’s some fresh-squeezed orange juice,” he said.

I looked at it with longing.  But orange juice didn’t sit well
in my stomach lately.  It definitely didn’t taste as good coming up as it did going down.  Over the last few weeks I’d become an expert on seeing my food a second time.  Orange juice wasn’t as bad as milk, but it was worse than water.  Luckily, since my face-down visits with the toilet usually happened in the morning, there wasn’t anything chunky or truly disgusting.  But I passed on the orange juice, focusing on keeping my coffee down.

“That looks good,
” Liberty said as she sat next to me at the island.

“Well good morning, Liberty,” Gerald greeted her.

“Sorry I’m late
.  I never sleep past sunrise.  I don’t know what got into me.”

“Co
ffee, orange juice or maybe tea?” John offered.

“
Definitely, the orange juice,” she said with a gentle smile.

“
Sure thing.” John got a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with juice.  “Okay...I’m taking orders.  Shout ‘em out.”

We were hesitant at first, but John encouraged us, and soon we were eagerly w
atching him prepare our waffles, eggs, bacon and Texas toast.  All of us except Dallas, who was still in the throes of a raging hangover, offered to help, but John waved us away.

I was curious about Liberty’s unusual lifestyle, so I had to ask, “I’m sure all of us have heard crazy things about life in a commune.  What’s it really like?”

“Oh...it’s very peaceful.  We try to never have any stress or strife in our lives.  Last year the green bean crop didn’t come in, but we always plant extra of everything else, so we had a lot of corn and potatoes to make up for it.  We give the extra away to the homeless.”

“What happens if someone needs a doctor?  Or has a baby?  You don’t have money to go into town
or to the hospital, do you?” I prompted.

“There are people from all walks of life in our community.  We are able to take care of most our needs.  Babies are born with the help of a midwife,
and we stitch our own cuts and things like that.  Last year we had a man with a broken leg when a trailer fell on it, and we traded with the clinic in town some food, clothes and labor to repaint the outside of the building for setting his leg.  It always works out.  They said they would treat us at no cost, but we always pay our way.”

Wow, that didn’t sound very peaceful to me.  If I did decide
d to have this baby, it was definitely going to be in a hospital with some good drugs to dull the pain.

John set platters heaping with hot food in front of us, and we all transferred our attention to filling our plates and our stomachs.

“I have a question,” Reno asked when we were sitting back with just pools of syrup, streaks of jelly and bread crumbs on our plates. “What gives with these glass globes sitting everywhere?  There are dozens of them.”

Gerald
smiled.  “
Glass
globes?  If Roger were here, he’d be so insulted.  There are actually seventy-four, and they are not just glass.  He would tell you they are blown cut-crystal and they each have a different map of the world carefully hand-papered onto the sphere.  He has a video somewhere of the process.  They are quite collectible and some are very rare.  It was a dream of his to travel around the world, but he never made it out of North America.”

“A man with his time and money?”
Tulsa exclaimed.  “I’d travel to Greece and Turkey.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland,” I said.  “My mother’s family was from there a couple generations back.”

“I’d go to an island somewhere,” Reno added his preference.

Dallas
who was feeling much better after getting some food in his stomach agreed, “Yeah.  Lots of beautiful women in bikinis...maybe even topless . . .”

I looked at him with surprise.  “You don’t strike me as the beachy type.”

His full, masculine lips spread slowly into a smile.  “Well, maybe it’s time I loosened up a little.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I had a feeling it was a step in the right direction.

CHAPTER EIGHT

We walked into the study as a group of five and took the
same seats we had yesterday. A few minutes before noon Harlan walked in.

“Hello all,” he said.  “
Make any new friends last night?”  He looked at each of use individually and smiled a greeting before sitting in his chair.

“A
ny questions come up I need to get back to you on?”

Dallas raised his hand first.  “I’d like to see the last three years P&L, balance sheets and cash flow
statements.  I’m not convinced the agency can support all of us, and I don’t want to commit to something I have no information on, you know?”

“I
can understand that.  I thought I could give you all a tour of the office on Sunday so as not to disturb the people during regular working hours.  We can pull up some files that you can go over.  Then I can arrange a meeting with the CFO to answer your questions.”

“CFO?
” I asked.

“Chief
Financial Officer.  He does all the financial reporting, including all the bookkeeping and taxes.  Other questions?”

Reno nodded. 
“Could you clarify what it means to be active or passive in the running of Scandals?”

“
Roger was proud of what his agency represented and the reputation it has earned.  He wanted to keep it running as a family business.  He also knows how difficult it is to run a business with absentee owners, and he saw the advantage of having just those of you who truly want to be involved in the agency to have any input...and benefit.  Roger appointed me as the independent executor of his estate which simply means I am free to settle with his creditors, set aside any exempt property, manage the property of the estate, sell assets for payment of debts or taxes and distribute the remaining estate to those entitled to it.  In other words, I decide what passive or active means in the context of what Roger wanted because I knew his wishes on the matter.”

“Are we the only ones?”
Tulsa inquired.

“
Once Roger got the agency running, he devoted a great deal of his time researching his past, to put it tastefully.  He was pretty sure you five are the only children he sired, and once the will is probated, it will be very difficult for someone to come along at a later date and claim a part of your inheritance.  Not to say it isn’t possible, but highly improbable.”

Harlan stood
and walked to the white board.  He picked up a black marker and had just uncapped it when he looked at the doorway and smiled.  “Ah, Christopher, glad you could join us.”

My back was to the door, so I had to turn around to see.
My stomach did a little twist that had nothing to do with nausea.  Christopher was drop-dead gorgeous.  Tall, tan and muscular, he looked like he’d just stepped out of a Calvin Klein ad.  Oh God, I had to get these hormones under control.  This was no time for me to get all crazy about a guy.  I had nothing to offer but trouble.

“As promised, Roger’s
business partner in Scandals and possibly your business partner as well, Christopher Tate.”  Harlan smiled at the young man, then turned to us.  “Christopher, this is Reno, Tulsa, Dallas, Killeen and Liberty.”

Chris
topher smiled and nodded to each of us in turn.  “Hello all...welcome to Austin.”

Was it my imagination, or did his gaze linger on me a split second longer than the others? 
Killeen, get it together.  He has absolutely no interest in you.  Brandon pretty much screwed any chance you might have had with a man like Christopher...as if you could ever attract him anyway.
  I turned around and looked down at the blank pad of paper in front of me as he walked to the other end of the table.  But the image of his wind-tousled medium brown hair, strong, chiseled jaw with just the right amount of stubble, broad shoulders stretching against the soft cotton of his polo shirt and long legs encased in tight faded blue jeans was etched on my corneas.

“
Before you sit, would you give everyone an overview of who you are and what you’ve been up to lately?” Harlan asked.

Christopher
nodded.  “Sure Harlan.  I met Roger when I was almost nineteen years old.  I lived with my mom in Round Rock, just up the road from Austin.  She was his secretary.  He let me do odd jobs around the office to make extra money for college.  When I was about twenty-one, which is the minimum age in Texas, I got my P.I. license.  After graduation, I came on full time and took over a lot of the easy stuff.”

“What kinds of things?
”  Reno asked.

“
Internet research, business background checks, locating missing persons and verifying addresses.  I tracked down owners of houses, cars and buildings and collected information on driving records and birth and death certificates.  Then I graduated to surveillance duty, which is surprisingly boring, identity theft, welfare investigations, asset searches, anything that came through the door.”

“Do you guys do any bail bonds stuff?
” Reno asked.

“We
subcontract that out to a couple of beasts and we split the reward.  That’s dangerous stuff, that and repos.”

“When did you start managing the office for Roger?” Tulsa asked.

“About three years ago, which was just Roger’s way of getting out of the things he didn’t like to do like hiring and firing and dealing with internal issues.  His talent was with the clients.  No matter how bad the news, Roger had a way of breaking it to someone so that they didn’t blame themselves or even feel bad about it.  And when there was good news, he celebrated right along with them.”

“That’s sort of what killed him, isn’t it?” Tulsa asked bluntly.

Christopher frowned and looked down as if he was struggling to contain his emotions.  He was silent for a couple of minutes before he looked back at us and stated flatly, “Roger was a good, honest man, and he didn’t deserve to die like that.  No one does.”

It was sort of an ambiguous statement that created more questions in my mind than it answered.  But there was no doubt about Christopher’s feelings for Roger.

“A lot of what Scandals gets involved with is tied to people being dishonest,” Liberty spoke quietly.  “Doesn’t all the evil in people bring you down...you know, bum you out?”

Christopher focused his attention on Liberty and smile
d ruefully.  “It used to.  Many of the cases we handle are people who have done something bad, broken the law or treated each other badly.  Cops are too busy with the really bad guys, so if we don’t spend the time to track down the rest, they would probably stay free and continue to lie or cheat or steal.  However, a good percentage of our clients are there for positive reasons, like finding a long-lost relative or helping someone feel safer or happier or more secure.  Those are the ones that make it all worthwhile.”

“But it sounds so negative,” Liberty persisted.  “Even when you’re helping someone, it’s because someone else has done something
wrong.”

“Everything in life has a yin and a yang, a good and a bad, a hero and a villain. 
He leaned forward, his hands splayed out on the table.  “For every bad guy that generates revenue for us, there is someone who is on the other side of the deal.  You know...the honest business owner who has been stolen from, the kid who lost his dog, a daughter or wife or mother who has been sexually harassed or someone who is trying to get their day in court with solid evidence and have someone deal with the paperwork.  There’s a sense of accomplishment and value that usually offsets the terrible things that you see people doing to one another.  I look at it like we’re the knights, slaying the dragons and saving the world from wrong doers.”

I felt myself drooling.  Who didn’t fall for a dragon-slaying knight?

“Can I ask you a financial question?” Dallas asked.

“Shoot.”

“You seem like you’re not pissed that we showed up...I mean your piece of Scandals is worth a lot less with us involved,” Dallas voiced the concern we had all considered.

Christopher’s
eyebrows raised and his lips pursed.  “Two reasons.”  He looked at Harlan.  “Can I tell them?”

Harlan laughed.  “Son
, in a week or two my job is done.  Today’s the day you all either find a solution or create a problem...it’s your call.”

“Well
, first, on the money side, Roger paid me well and left me a generous lump sum in his will, and I’m real happy with that.  I’m not worried about losing a percentage of the agency as much as I am concerned about having the agency lose its prestige.  Second, one job I was assigned by Roger was keeping tabs on you guys.  I knew when you moved, when you needed a prom dress or your mothers needed grocery money or when there was a chance like a scholarship or something that would help out. I kept Roger up to speed.  I feel like I know you already.”

“It’s like we have another
half-brother,” Tulsa said sarcastically.

I groaned.  Oh no, I did not want to think brotherly thoughts about Christopher.  It was quite a relief to see that h
e had dark cobalt blue eyes, not at all like me or my half-siblings.  I had to admit that I wasn’t comfortable that he knew so much about us when we knew almost nothing about him.  Just how much
did
he know about me?  Brandon?  The pregnancy?  For some reason, it was very important to me that he not know...at least until I decided what I was going to do.

Christopher
sat down but didn’t break eye contact with us.  “You all probably have a different opinion about Roger and certainly you’re entitled to it.  My dad deserted us when I was about three, so my mom was, for all practical purposes, single. Roger helped us out and provided a masculine role model for me.  In a lot of ways Roger was my dad.  He was there when I needed him.  Now it’s my turn to return the favor and be there for you guys.  And no, it’s not what you’re thinking...my mom and Roger were never involved in a romantic way.  He didn’t think it was cool to have inner-office romances.”

Well, that was bad news
...for me.  I think being a co-owner would definitely fall in the category of inner-office.

Christopher
continued, “Listen...I can’t stand here and tell you I know how you feel ‘cause I don’t.  I never will.  What I do know is that I’ve given my adult life to Scandals, and if you elect to come work
with
me I’ll do everything I can to make your transition easy.  But I won’t sugar-coat it.  Private investigation can mean long hours, a lot of research and a little danger, but I’ll be right there, too.  I’m a very hands-on manager, and I like doing field work.”

Hand
s-on had a nice ring to it. 
Killeen, pull it together
, I reprimanded myself.  I looked up and caught Christopher looking at me.  To my extreme embarrassment, I could feel my cheeks burn, and I knew he couldn’t help but notice.  He didn’t say anything, but I saw the corner of his sexy mouth twitch, which made it even worse.  He was laughing at me.  I, who didn’t get nervous at the bottom of the seventh with bases loaded, was breaking into a sweat because a guy was looking at me.  God, I’m a mess.

“Time for a break,” I announced and stood, suddenly anxious to g
et out of the room so I could regain my composure.  Without waiting for anyone else to speak, I left and hurried to the bathroom.

I locked the door and went to the sink.  The face looking back at me was pretty, in an outdoorsy sort of way.  My hair was
almost straight with just a little curl and naturally blond, but hours out in the sun had streaked it so it looked like I’d had it professionally colored.  I had a decent figure...for now.  But why, I moaned, had I picked today to look so messy?  With my hair pulled back into a ponytail, almost no makeup and baggy clothes, I must look pretty awful.  That visual did nothing to boost my self-confidence.

Oh well, what difference did it make anyway?  Christopher was out of my league and off limits
...and there was no reason on earth he would want to get involved with a woman who was carrying another man’s child.  Damn Brandon, anyway.  This was all his fault.  Which didn’t really matter because bottom line, it was my problem.

I
splashed cold water on my face.  Christopher’s opinion of me outside of the agency should be of no consequence.  He was going to be my co-worker...if I decided to stay.  Nothing more, nothing less.

I took a few deep, steadying breaths and returned to the room, determined to ignore my raging hormones.

Christopher and Tulsa were talking about computers and security when I walked in and sat down.  They chattered on for a few moments until Harlan’s phone rang.  He took it out of his pocket, glanced at the caller ID, frowned and exhaled.  “I’ve got to take this.”

From the minute I
had walked into Roger’s mansion, Harlan’s attention had been 100% focused on us.  I was surprised that he would take a call in the middle of the meeting, which was silly because, of course, he had other clients.

Christopher continued his conversation with Tulsa, so
I spun my chair around and tried to act like I wasn’t listening to Harlan’s call, but I wanted to hear more.