Believe Me (Hearts for Ransom Book 3) (14 page)

“Tacos are on the table,” Claire called to Spencer, who was in his bedroom.

She knew, as soon as she saw the look on his face, something was bothering him.

Where’s Zoey?” he asked as he sat at the table.

“I already fed her and put her to bed.” She searched his eyes. “Is something wrong?”

He wouldn’t meet her gaze for a moment, but suddenly she found herself looking at a young man’s determined face.

“I want to know who my dad is. I’m fifteen years old. I know about sex and babies, Mom. I don’t care what happened, or that my dad was a jerk who didn’t care about you or me. I just want to know who he is.”

Claire looked at her son for a minute. He was growing up so fast. He wasn’t a child anymore, but he wasn’t a man yet, either. And here he was, practically begging to know about the man who fathered him. She made her decision.

“His name was Tim Sheffield. What do you want to know about him?” Spence was right; he deserved to know about his father.

Her son looked at her with disbelief in his eyes, like he hadn’t expected her to tell him anything. “Tim Sheffield?” She nodded. “Do I look like him at all?”

“You’re built like him. He was big and strong for his age like you are.” She searched her memory, trying to find images she buried years ago, and then she found one. “The way you walk and stand reminds me of him.”

“Why?” Spencer asked. “Why didn’t he want to be my dad?”

Claire searched for the right words. “Tim didn’t love me. He didn’t even really know me. I was young and naïve, and I thought if we…were together…he would care about me. But he didn’t. Because he didn’t care about me, he didn’t care about my baby. He didn’t want anything to do with any part of me, and you were a part of me. Do you understand?” She prayed he did.

Spencer had tears in his eyes. “I was almost a boy like that. If Mason hadn’t taught me it was wrong, I would have had sex with any girl who would let me and,” he looked embarrassed, “there are lots of girls who would let me.”

“The important thing is you’re not the same kind of boy your father was. You learned better before you hurt a girl the way he did me.”

“Only ‘cause Mason taught me.”

Even though she knew Mason had been teaching Spence to be one way while Mason was living just the opposite lifestyle, at least the man managed to teach her son to do the right thing.

“You really love Mason, don’t you?” she softly asked.

“I can’t help it, Mom. I wish Mason was my dad.” He looked at her, unshed tears still in his eyes. “Seth is so lucky. He loved Bo, and Bo loved him, and now Bo’s his dad. I’m not a kid, and I know I can’t just make Mason my dad by wishing he was, but I still do anyway.”

“I understand.” And she finally did. “I love you more than you’ll ever know, and I’m prouder of you than I can say.”

“I love you, too,” he told her. “Thank you for telling me about my father. I’m sorry the guy was a jerk and hurt you so bad.”

“Hey.” She waited until he was looking at her face. “I got you out of the deal, didn’t I? I don’t call that bad.”

She stood up and gave him a quick hug and a kiss. Before she could start crying, she spoke. “We’d better eat our tacos before the hamburger gets colder than the vegetables.”

She had some thinking to do.

“He’s coming around. Mason, can you hear me?”

Mason didn’t know where he was, or who was talking to him. He just wanted to sleep.

Somebody gently slapped his face. “Mason, you need to wake up now. Open your eyes.” The voice was firmer.

Mason tried, and finally managed to open them.

Two nurses and a doctor he didn’t recognize stood there. The doctor must have been the one talking to him.

He could barely speak. “What’s going on?”

The doctor shone a penlight in his eyes and probed Mason’s scalp. “Ouch!” He had found a sore place on Mason’s head.

“You’re a lucky man, Mr. Wright,” the doctor informed him. “Your legs somehow stayed supported, and you landed on your back, so I’m fairly certain you didn’t reinjure your breaks. You hit your head pretty hard, but it looks like you’ll just have a goose egg to show for it.”

Mason looked at Emily. What was the doctor talking about? Was he having some weird sort of dream? And shouldn’t he be in his wheelchair? How had he gotten into his bed?

The doctor conferred with Emily, and then he and the two nurses left.

“What happened?” he was finally able to ask her.

Emily was visibly shaken. “I stopped in to see you on my way home and found you mostly on the floor out cold. From what we could tell, you tried to stand up from your chair and somehow twisted around so you fell to the side. You’re just so lucky you fell onto your right arm, and not your left. And your legs stayed pretty much where they were.”

“My head?” He winced as he gently touched the swollen area on his scalp.

“You hit it on the table on your way down.” She still looked upset. “At least you didn’t end up with a concussion on top of everything else.”

Mason tried to remember. He had been sitting in his chair watching television. He was tired from sitting for so long and not sleeping well the past couple of nights, so he must have fallen asleep.

“I don’t remember trying to stand up. I fell asleep.”

She frowned at him.

Then he had an idea. “I used to sleepwalk when I was a kid. Could that have been what happened?”

She looked a little better. “That’s about the only thing that would make sense unless you were trying to hurt yourself and just denying it now.”

“I promise you I wasn’t.” There was no way he’d ever do that. “I want to get better and get out of this place. I’ve been doing everything the doctor tells me to, really, Emily.”

She looked at him for a few moments before sinking into a chair. “You’re going to give me a head full of gray hair. I’m going to look like a grandma before this baby gets here.” She slapped her hand over her mouth, and her cheeks reddened. As her fingers trailed down her chin, she produced a lopsided grin. “I’m not supposed to say anything. Logan wants to announce it on Christmas.”

“So you and Logan are having a baby?” He smiled in spite of his new headache.

She nodded. “In June. But you have to promise not to tell anybody. Logan will kill both of us.”

“I promise,” he assured her. “You’re going to be a great mom, Emily.”

“I hope so.” She glowed with happiness. “I know Logan will be the best dad in the world.” She froze. “I’m sorry, Mason. I wasn’t thinking.” She gently touched his hand. “Have you seen Zoey again?”

“No.” He still couldn’t believe how that had played out. “Claire decided I could be Zoey’s father, but then we both realized how it would affect Spencer if he found out the truth.”

“Oh.” Emily’s brow furrowed. “I hadn’t thought about that. What about his father?”

“I don’t know,” Mason admitted. “I don’t think Claire is much older than I am, so she could have only been fifteen or sixteen when Spence was born.”

“That’s too young to be a parent at all,” Emily stated. “Let alone a single one.”

“I know it.”

“Since you’re okay, I’d better go.” A beautiful smile graced her face. “Logan will be getting home, and I don’t have the slightest idea what to fix him for dinner. Maybe I’ll stop for some fattening take-home. I’m going to have a big belly soon, anyway.”

Mason laughed with her.

Before she left, she made sure he was secure in his bed, the rails up and locked. “In case you try to sleepwalk again.”

As she was walking out the door, Spencer walked in.

“My goodness, Spencer Hadley,” she declared, “if you grow much more, you’ll be able to borrow clothes from Bo.”

Spencer grinned and blushed a little at the compliment. After exchanging a few words with each other, Emily left and Spencer walked on into the room.

He sat down beside the bed and rummaged through his backpack until he pulled out his math book. “I’ve got a pretty big assignment today, Mason. My teacher doesn’t care that Christmas is only a couple of weeks away.”

Mason thought Spencer seemed different—more self-confident somehow. “Besides the big math assignment, anything else going on?”

Spencer grinned. “My mom finally told me about my dad. He was a loser like I always figured, but now I know his name and the kind of person he was.”

A funny feeling came over Mason. “What kind of a person was he?”

“The kind I would be if you hadn’t been my big brother. The kind that uses girls and doesn’t care about their feelings—only about what he wants.” His grin widened. “I told Mom I wished you were my dad.”

Mason felt even guiltier, which he hadn’t thought possible. He was worse than the boy Spencer described. He was a grown man who treated women that way. And he had been such a hypocrite, telling Spencer how he should live while Mason was doing the exact opposite. No wonder Claire couldn’t stand him. He did the same thing to her Spencer’s father did, but it was much worse because he was an adult who knew better.

Spencer held up his paper. “Will you look at number four? I’m not sure I did it right.”

As Mason took the paper, one thought was on his mind. He wasn’t certain he had ever done anything right.

Claire looked at the selection of laptops. She was finally going to buy one for Spencer’s Christmas present. She’d left a happily cooing Zoey with Louise, and Judy was a few aisles over looking at software, trying to find some kind of program for Spencer’s new computer.

Judy walked around the corner, holding out a package. “Do you think he’d like this one?”

Claire took it and looked it over. The disc contained over forty different logic games. “I’m sure he’d enjoy this. He’s smart, and he loves to figure things out.”

Judy looked sad. “Bryan is, too.”

“I’m sorry.” Claire handed the game back to her. “I’m sorry for any part I played in his decision to—”

“He’s where he needs to be,” Judy announced, pasting a smile on her face. “He admitted he has a drinking problem and checked himself into that VA hospital for rehab.”

“It’s just so sad you and your mom won’t get to spend his first Christmas home with him.”

Judy brightened up. “At least this way he’ll have more Christmases for us to spend together. He could have been hurt or worse if you hadn’t kept him from driving that night.” She shook her head. “That’s enough about Bryan. Which computer are you buying for Spence?”

Claire was pleased. The more expensive one she saw Spence check out several times was on sale at a price she could just afford. She smiled and pointed at it. “The one he wants.”

Thirty minutes later, Claire joined Judy in the mall’s food court. She left her package with her friend, who was happily digging into an enormous taco salad while she went and treated herself to a burger and fries.

“I’m going to get one of those great big hamburgers and a humongous order of fries to take to Spencer when I pick him up from the hospital pretty soon.”

“How’s all that going?” Judy asked. “Has anything more happened with Mason?”

Claire studied her French fries. “I guess he proposed.”

Judy nearly spit out a mouthful of her soda. “He did what?”

“He offered to marry me and adopt both my children.” Her eyes met Judy’s. “At least as far as Spence would know he’d be adopting both of them. I would never make Mason adopt his own daughter. I’d find out how to do it, and have him added to her birth certificate.”

“Are you actually considering it?” Judy asked incredulously.

Claire shrugged. “At first I couldn’t imagine it happening in this lifetime, but that was before I realized how much Spencer wants a father, and how much he wants him to be Mason.”

“But could you live with Mason as his wife and raise Zoey together?” Judy shook her head. “Spencer will be graduating and going off to college in a couple of years. Then what?”

“Does a person ever really outgrow the need for parents?” Claire asked. “I mean, I haven’t had any since I was a teenager, but there are still times I feel like I need them.” She smiled sadly. “Not really my parents, I guess…just some imaginary ones who love me enough to accept my children and me.”

“So you’re actually considering marriage to Mason Wright.”

“I am,” Claire admitted. She really was.