Scrambled Babies (27 page)

Steve stood up with Maury.  He’d love to have the five mil, but he needed that one mil right now!  He had no way to pay for the Alice house otherwise.  And he did love the Alice house.  Or rabbit house, as Maddy called it.  The notion struck him how much warmer that house would be with Maddy and Paeton and Kelsey in it.  Then he caught himself. 
What am I thinking about?  I haven’t even had a date with her yet.  One kiss?
  The incredible pain of the split with Crystal swept past.  He wasn’t ready for another blow like that. 

Then he remembered his pager.  He fished it from his pocket. 
Paeton!
 He thought those vibrations from the pager were somewhat special.  Was he falling for this woman?  Or was it only the screwy circumstances arising from the scrambled babies that were propelling their relationship?  It was too soon to tell.  The first thing he had to do was call Paeton, then head down the coast to do a game in San Diego.

Maury and Steve reached the street.  “Thanks, Maury.  You think we’ll be all right?”

“Yes, I think so.  I don’t know how hard they play.  I suppose the lawyers could argue there’s some kind of fraud element here.  You know, something like Mr. Mom passing off someone else’s kid as his.  But we’ll have to wait.  Listen, I have to get back to New York.  Call me if that mil doesn’t show by tomorrow night.”

They shook hands.  “Right.  I’ll call as soon as it hits.  Safe flight.”

Steve went around the corner to call Paeton on his cell phone. 

“Hello?”

“Hello, Paeton?  Steve.”

“Steve!  Hi.  They’re boycotting my books.”

“Wow!  I’m sorry.  Well, they’re trying to take away my five million.”

“I heard.  It looks as if we need to support each other.  Speaking of support, Fred has an idea to staunch this bloodbath.”

“Great.  What is it?”

“We’re going to video Kelsey and Ryan, find a sponsor, and have viewers text the gender the way—”

“What are you talking about?”

Paeton laughed.  “Never mind.  I’ll give you the whole scoop on Saturday.  I know you’re too busy, so have Greta call Fred’s office.  Megan is coordinating the whole thing.”

Steve had never heard a sound as wonderful as Paeton’s laugh.  “Okay.  I trust you and Fred.  I’ll tell Greta about it.  See you Saturday.  Eight o’clock, sharp.”

“I’ll be ready.”

Steve moaned to himself.  He was ready for more than dinner!

#

It was Friday night when Steve got the brainstorm.  He was sitting in his hotel room in San Diego.  He had finished broadcasting the Padres–Red Sox game.  Pedro Romero of the Padres was a longtime good friend of his.  They had been roommates at UCLA and played football together.  Pedro had taken the less damaging career route of baseball over football.  If Steve could pull this off, he could save his contract with ComfyDype.  But the plan had one major snag—he would have to cancel his dinner date with Paeton!

Steve shuddered at the thought of calling Paeton and telling her.  But time was against him.  He had to act now. The mil still had not shown up. Every day that went by brought him closer to disaster with the diaper company and to losing his Alice house.

As the plan gelled in his mind, he kept thinking of Paeton’s response. 
Maybe she’ll understand.  We can go out Sunday night and
—
!
  He knew he was kidding himself.  He was certain he was following a pattern laid out by however many jocks had preceded him.  He was being self-centered.  He was letting her down!  He was being a jock!  But he had no other choice.  He had to execute his plan, then somehow make it up to her. 

Steve dialed a number.  “Pedro Romero’s room, please.  Thank you.  Pedro?  Steve Kaselman.  Listen, can I buy you dinner tomorrow night—” and Steve choked, “yeah, Saturday night after the game?  Great!  By the way, I hear Gilliam’s got a wicked change-up now.  Watch for it.  Okay.  See you tomorrow night.”

Steve guiltily replaced the phone.  He was finally getting his contract under control at the expense of feeling like a jock-heel!  What had Paeton said when they first spoke?  Arrogant, egotistical, something, something jock.  And now he was cancelling their
first
date! To be with a baseball player!  He was doomed!  But that’s the way things had to be.

He eyed the phone uneasily.  It seemed to be taunting him.  “Go ahead and call her.  I dare you!  Jock!”

#

Paeton picked up the phone.  “Hello?”

She knew someone was on the other end, but no one responded.

“Hello?”

“Paeton?  Hi.”

“Steve?”  She immediately felt goose bumps all over.  She was still basking in their first kiss.  Why was he being so hesitant?

“Uh, yeah, it’s me.  Uh, Paeton, I hate to do this, but the sports business, you know how unpredictable it is and—”

Her heart fell.  She knew.  “You’re canceling our first date!”

“How did you know?”

She felt a protective shield go up around her feelings.  What else did she expect?  He was a jock just like all the other jocks.  “Well, good, because I have to work all weekend on that TV show Fred is cooking up anyway.”

“Good, good.  The ComfyDype boys are trying to dump me, and I have to scurry to keep it from happening.  I have to take a player to dinner on Saturday.  But maybe Sunday we can—”

A terrible chill came over her.  She rubbed her arms.  “I guess you didn’t hear me.  I said I’m busy
all
weekend.”

“Paeton, please don’t do this.  You know how much I wanted to take you out.”

“No, that’s okay.  Dinner is probably dumb for us to do anyway.  What do we have to talk about?  Fred and Megan have the whole thing under control.  We have nothing to do but watch.”

“Paeton, don’t  talk like that.  I want—wait a minute.  A second ago you said you had to work all weekend.”

Paeton pressed her free hand to her tightening chest.  She was fighting back tears.  She had to get off.  “Oh, there’s someone at the door.  I’ll call you later.  Bye.”

Paeton quickly slammed down the phone, the room blurry in front of her. 
Let down again!  Let down as always! Paeton, when will you ever learn!

#

It was happening in every baseball park in the country.  The broadcast from Cleveland was typical.

“It’s a beautiful day here in Cleveland, sports fans.  This is Rod Kerring, and we’re ready for the first pitch of the game as Sandoval steps into the batter’s box.  Pierce gets the sign and delivers.  Strike on the outside corner.  Wait a minute.  What’s that on Sandoval’s cap right under the Nike logo?  Check it with the glasses, Hal.  It’s a what?  A patch shaped like a diaper?  Specifically, shaped like the ComfyDype logo?  Wow!  Folks, I’ve been broadcasting these Indians games for eight years, and I never thought I’d live to see the day when a strapping baseball player would wear a diaper-shaped patch on his cap.  Just another minute here.  Pierce has one on his—my goodness, baseball fans, every member of both teams has a ComfyDype patch on his cap.  It’s baseball history, fans.  They’re all in ComfyDypes!  We’ll let you know why it seems to be ComfyDype day for the players as soon as we can figure it out.  By the way, the count is three and two.  Still nobody out.”

Steve was in his Beverly Hills Arms suite channel-surfing all the baseball games in progress.  It was the Wednesday night after the missed Saturday night dinner.  As far as his business life was concerned, he couldn’t have been happier.  What a great bunch of guys.  Every player, to a man, was wearing one of the ComfyDype patches that Ollie’s forces had sent the teams.  Ollie hadn’t been absolutely comfortable with the idea, but Steve and Maury talked him into it. 

Now Steve could relax.  People all over the country would be tripping over themselves to buy ComfyDype diapers.  He would have a solid deal with those jerks.  He would have the network off his back.  And he could concentrate on the other important thing in his life—Paeton McPhilomy!  Which he was royally screwing up. 

She had hung up on him Friday night.  Then she wouldn’t answer the phone for—how many days was it now?  Five?  He didn’t have the courage to knock on her door as he had done one other time.  He had come up with a genius plan to solve his contract problem.  Now he had to come up with something as good to solve his romance problem.  Ironic as it seemed, he knew his plan would in some way have to do with jocks.

Steve mused.  Somehow he’d have to create his own logo.  Then he had to find a way to get Paeton to wear it on her heart.

#

“Hurry, Mommy!  Daddy will be here any second.”  The name stung Paeton’s heart.  Madison was jumping up and down in excitement with her mother in the bathroom, where Paeton was applying her makeup.

Paeton looked down, trying not to sound frantic.  “Stop calling him that, Madison!  He is not ‘daddy’ in this family.”  But suddenly Paeton wondered how that name might work in her family. 
There I go again!
  Why was Steve Kaselman such a problem?  Why did she keep letting him back in?

Of course, part of the answer to that question was the wily ways of Steve Kaselman.  The Thursday after the canceled Saturday night dinner, Paeton had needed to meet with Fred about the TV show.  She left Madison and Kelsey at the hotel in the care of Rosa.  While Paeton was gone, Steve had appeared unannounced at her door, charmed his way past Rosa with a box of toffee, and wangled his promised “little talk” with Madison.

During that small private moment with Steve, Madison had told him of her interest in baseball, and Steve had reacted by inviting them both to a game the following Saturday where he would be announcing.  Paeton knew very well Steve was using Madison’s interest as a way to renew contact with Paeton.  And going against every logical reason she could think of, she had allowed it to happen.  She rationalized on the ground of not wanting to squelch Madison’s interest in something.  But she knew her heart was still beating for him.  He made her furious!

Madison
bent her head in a pout.  “He’s Ryan’s daddy.”  Then Madison flung another dart—“I wish he would be my daddy.”  The remark shot Paeton’s right hand, the one pressing the lipstick, clear across her cheek.

“Madison, for heaven’s sake!  You have a daddy.  I know it’s hard with your daddy not being with us.  And I miss him too.  But you only get one daddy.”  Paeton was trying to correct the lipstick smear while at the same time trying to avoid an added mascara problem.

“Unh-unh!  Cody has
two
daddies.  He stays with one sometimes and the other one sometimes.”  Madison was now past her pouting and enjoying the discussion.

Paeton produced another lipstick smear with her quivering hand.  She let out an exasperated sigh.  Why was it so important she look just right?  It was only a baseball game, for heaven’s sake.  The last time she saw him she was in sweats, and she got kissed.  Maybe she shouldn’t dress up.  She returned to Madison’s comments.  “Cody has two daddies because his mother got divorced, honey.”

“Could you get divorced so I could have another daddy?”

Paeton had to bend down and hug Madison.  “Oh, Maddy, Maddy.  I wish you did have a daddy.  It’s too soon for Mommy to get married again so you can have a daddy.  I have to get married, sweetheart, not divorced.  Understand?”

“Yes.  If Steve gets divorced, then you two can get married.”

Paeton’s heart flip-flopped!  The bittersweetness of the topic was killing her.  “Honey, Steve and I are not getting married.  We hardly know each other.”