Baby Experts 02 (11 page)

Tessa had suspected this might be the group Vince attended since the session fell over the lunch hour. With one foot in the door, she was ready to wave to the social worker in charge when she saw the woman beside Vince lean toward him. She whispered something in his ear, and he laughed. Sean was sitting on the floor in front of him. Her little red-haired girl crawled on the floor in front of her. The woman, who had beautiful red hair as well, was petite with a cute-as-a-button face. Tessa estimated her age to be about twenty-five.

With a smile still on his face, Vince didn’t even hesitate to talk to her, to pass a fist-size ball to her little girl who looked to be about one. The toddler offered the ball to Sean and Sean tried to take it with his good hand.

“Tessa, come on in,” Sophie Hodgekins invited her from the center of the circle. Sophie turned to everyone there. “Tessa’s our resident pediatrician. She comes to the group now and then to help out.”

Tessa shook her head so Sophie would realize she didn’t have time for that today.

“You have five minutes to come in and say hi,” Sophie persuaded. “You wouldn’t have come up here otherwise.”

She shouldn’t have come at all. She should have just stayed away.

Reluctantly entering the room, she smiled at everyone including Vince. He gave her a nod and she crossed to him. “I came to see if you made it to a group,” she said honestly.

“As you can see, we did.”

The woman next to him extended her hand to Tessa. “I’m Lucy Atkins. Vince was telling me he’s chief of police and I just couldn’t believe that he’d take time off to bring his son in here. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Vince’s face had become stoically removed. Tessa knew he didn’t like to be the center of attention, or the butt of praise. He never showed embarrassment, though, just became very stonelike. She could tell the woman liked Vince and was probably attracted to him. Tessa didn’t see a wedding ring on her finger.

“Single dads can have a rough time of it. I thought the support group might help,” Tessa said, filling in the silence.

“Support group?” Vince asked, frowning.

Tessa knew if she’d called it that before, he never would have come.

“Single moms have a hard time, too,” Lucy interjected. “My divorce left me reeling. Then I turned up pregnant and my ex still didn’t care. I told Vince we should make a playdate for our kids.”

If Tessa could put into words what she felt at that moment, she’d have to admit she was three shades of jealous. She just couldn’t help it. She hated the idea of Vince being with another woman. How stupid was that?

“Playdates are great for everyone getting to know each other,” she suggested lamely, trying to keep up her end of the conversation while just wanting to run to the exit.

“I don’t see this as a support group,” Vince said, returning to the earlier subject. “It’s just a place where parents can learn what kind of play is best for their kids, and how we can educate them as well as have fun. Right, Lucy?”

“Oh, absolutely. And while the kids play, we can exchange recipes.” She threw Vince a coy look. “But in your case, I can just make you something and bring it over.”

Vince wasn’t accepting her offer, but he wasn’t backing away, either. Tessa didn’t know what to think. Was he attracted to Lucy?

Lifting Sean from the floor and into his arms, Vince motioned to the table with zwieback cookies for the kids and coffee for the adults. “I’m going to grab a cookie for Sean.” He looked at his son. “Want a cookie to chew on? Maybe you can make more teeth happen.”

Tessa knew Sean had three new teeth and always had his finger in his mouth, gnawing on it, hoping to produce more.

Purposely Tessa didn’t follow Vince. Instead, she mumbled an excuse about having something to talk to Sophie about and headed for the social worker.

But as soon as she approached Sophie, the leader of the group grinned at her. “You must have suggested that Chief Rossi come to our group to create some interest. I bet we’ll have twice as many moms here next time. To see the chief of police as a dad isn’t an everyday occurrence.”

“I thought this would help…Sean,” Tessa offered.

“Oh, I’m sure it will. But it should also help Vince with any public relations problems. These women will go out and spread the word that he might be a law-and-order guy, but he’s gentle and caring with his son. I think Lucy is already seeing dual strollers in her future.”

The idea of Vince walking down the street, pushing a stroller with another woman, cut Tessa to the quick. She absolutely hated the thought. However, she shouldn’t because
she
couldn’t give him children. He was a wonderful dad and he deserved to have many more kids. Yet she wasn’t the woman who could give them to him—not now, not ever.

“What’s wrong, Tessa?” Sophie asked with concern. “You went pale.”

“Oh, nothing’s wrong. I didn’t grab lunch yet. My sugar’s probably a little low. I’ve got to get back.”

“I’d love it if you’d give a fifteen-minute nutrition talk to this group soon.”

With Vince in the group? Watching Lucy flirt with him? “I don’t know, Sophie. I’ll have to check my schedule. I’ll give you a call when I can free up some time. Maybe one of the other physicians in my practice could help out.”

Sophie gave her an odd look as if she was surprised by Tessa’s reluctance. “Okay, just let me know,” she said agreeably.

Tessa headed for the door, intending to make a quick getaway, but suddenly Vince was there, stopping her. “Thanks for suggesting this.”

She tried to keep her voice light. She swiped a crumb from Sean’s little face as he gnawed on the zwieback. “So
you’re
going to have a cookie for lunch, too?”

He chuckled. “I’ll find a drive-through on my way back to the station after I take Sean home. With all the stimulation here, he’s probably going to take a long nap this afternoon.”

“It looks like you got a lot of stimulation, too.” Once the words were out, she couldn’t believe she’d said them.

He nodded toward all of the women in the group. “They’re a talkative bunch, ready to swap war stories and anything else.” Then with a look over his shoulder, he added, “Especially Lucy. She’s had it tough on her own.”

“She told you all about it?”

“Pretty much. That’s a real shame her husband walked out on her. I can’t believe any man would do that with a woman pregnant.”

With a woman pregnant.

Tessa found she simply couldn’t speak. Ever since her hysterectomy, she’d come to accept the fact she wouldn’t have kids. Although she wanted to adopt, she gave her time and attention to her career and her practice and her little patients. But now the full impact of not having children hit her and hit her hard.

“Tessa?” Vince asked when she didn’t respond.

Again she concentrated on Sean, only Sean, and tried to pull air into her lungs. He was such an adorable little boy and her heart hurt for the little boy she’d lost. At this moment, the grief was as fresh as it had been twenty years ago.

Laying her hand gently on Sean’s head, dragging her thumb across his brow, looking into his sweet face, she felt a lump in her throat that wasn’t going to go away easily.

Her pride helped her manufacture a smile, helped her raise her chin, helped her meet Vince’s eyes. “I’m glad this worked out for you.”

“Vince,” Lucy called. “I found my calendar. We can set up a playdate.”

Before Vince could head for Lucy and a relationship that could progress as fast as both of them might want it to, Tessa said, “I hope all goes well with Sean’s great-aunt. I’ll be thinking about you and wishing you luck.”

Then she left the community room and practically ran down the hall, heading for the stairs instead of the elevator. She needed the physical activity. She needed to work off feelings she didn’t want to carry around with her all day. But she knew she’d be thinking about Lucy and Vince together and the picture of a typical happy family they could make together.

That lump closed her throat again, but Tessa took a deep breath and ran up the stairs.

Tessa hated to admit it, but she felt as if something was missing from her life even though she’d last seen Vince less than two weeks ago.

I’m just concerned about Sean,
she told herself.

But then she dialed his number.

Vince answered with more of a bark than a hello.

“Vince?” she asked, not sure it was him.

“Tessa, hold on a minute.” There was a long pause and then he was back on the phone, but she could hear Sean crying. “I really can’t talk.”

“Is something wrong with Sean?”

“No, nothing a little attention wouldn’t fix. But I thought I could do this myself. Janet’s coming over for supper. I scorched the rice. The asparagus are waterlogged, and I’m not sure the hamburger steaks are edible. This is
really
going to impress her. You wouldn’t have a box of instant rice on hand you could send by carrier pigeon, would you?”

“Actually I do have some in my pantry. Do you want me to drop it by?”

There was silence. “You don’t have anything better to do? I don’t like the idea of you pulling me out of a jam again.”

“By dropping off instant rice?”

He blew out a breath. “Look…here…here’s your dinosaur.”

Sean stopped crying.

“I’m the chief of police,” Vince announced to her. “I’m not
supposed
to get into jams.”

She had to laugh out loud at that one. “This is the real world, Vince.”

“If this dinner weren’t so damn important—”

“If you don’t want me to drop by, you can heat up a can of baked beans.”

After a few moments of silence, he asked, “Do you really want to get involved? Meet Janet? Stay for dinner?”

She
really
hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Do you
want
me to get that involved?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Why don’t you bring over the rice and we’ll go from there.”

Ten minutes later, Vince was letting Tessa into his condo. He still wore his uniform—white oxford, bolo tie and navy slacks. He was jiggling Sean in one arm, his hair was disheveled, his shirt was rumpled and he looked ready to fight a bear.

Tessa handed Vince the box of rice and held her hands out to Sean. “Come here, big boy.” Sean was wearing clothes that had seen a good part of his supper.

“I wanted to feed him so he’d play while Janet and I were eating, but I think I got more on him than inside of him. Babies and hurry-up don’t go well together.” Vince gave her one of those crooked grins that always melted her toes. “I’ve got to change him before I do anything else.”

“Do you want me to do that?” she asked helpfully, not knowing if Vince wanted her to do anything at all.

“You don’t mind?”

“Of course not. It will give me some time with him.” She looked up at Vince. “I’ve missed him.”

I missed you, too
was hanging in the air between them but she didn’t vocalize that thought. Rather, she took Sean to his bedroom to change him.

When she returned to the kitchen, Vince had started a batch of rice in the microwave. “I hope you can’t tell this from the real thing.”

“That depends on what we can cover it with.”

He turned the broiler off. “I thought hamburger steaks would be easy. I should have bought a grill. I think they’re leather.”

Tessa set Sean in his high chair and peeked into the oven. The hamburger steaks were done but not past saving. “I can make gravy. We can use that with the rice, too. It should save the steaks if she gets here within fifteen minutes. What did you do for dessert?”

“I was smart and bought an apple pie at the diner.”

They both laughed, their gazes held and Tessa suddenly felt breathless.

Breaking eye contact, she lifted the lid on the asparagus and shook her head. “Do you happen to have any more of these?”

“Actually I do. They’re fresh ones.”

“Great. We can roast them in the oven to add pizzazz to the meal. Grab a flat pan. I just need some olive oil, salt and pepper and garlic powder, if you have it.”

Tessa was whisking gravy into the right consistency when she asked, “What made you ever decide to invite Janet here for dinner? Rhonda could have cooked.”

“I guess it was stupid but I wanted to do it myself. Mothers do it all the time. I wanted her to see I could handle Sean and provide everything he needs.”

“You’re providing everything he needs by having Rhonda look after him and cook.”

“That’s not the same thing,” Vince muttered.

With high personal standards, Vince was a perfectionist. But with a job and a child, he had to learn to delegate. She stopped stirring and clasped his forearm. Somehow she needed to make him understand. “You have to choose what you do best and get help with the rest. New moms who work run into these problems all the time. They bring their kids in to me and feel guilty because they’re not at home when their child is sick. You and I both know we don’t live in a perfect world. We do what we have to do to get by.”

It suddenly dawned on her that that’s what she’d been doing all these years—getting by. She hadn’t let herself think of Vince. She hadn’t gotten involved in relationships. She hadn’t wanted to take any risks.

Vince’s expression gentled and his eyes went smoky. “Having you here tonight means a lot to me, Tessa.”

She heard the sincerity in his voice, and she knew that look in his eyes. If she took a step closer to him—

The doorbell rang, breaking the moment, reminding Tessa why she was there.

After a few heartbeats, Vince went to the door.

Tessa could hear the exchange.

“I’m glad you could come,” Vince said.

“I hope you didn’t go to any trouble.”

The two of them came into the kitchen.

Tessa smiled at Sean’s great-aunt, who looked elegant in pale yellow linen slacks and a cream silk shirt. She was a strawberry blonde, her eyes blue like Sean’s. She seemed to be at a loss when she saw Tessa.

Vince made the introductions. “Janet, this is Tessa McGuire, a friend of mine. I hope you don’t mind if she joins us.”

Janet looked from Vince to Tessa. “No, of course not. Do you often dine with Vince?” she asked Tessa.

Tessa gave the gravy one last stir. “We’re old friends. We knew each other back in high school.”

Vince’s eyebrows shot up at that.

Janet seemed to absorb what Tessa had said as she went to Sean’s high chair and asked, “May I lift him out?”

“He’s a pretty friendly guy,” Vince told her. “I don’t think he’ll mind. He likes freedom instead of confinement.”

Laughing, Janet removed the tray in front of the baby and lifted him from his chair, careful of his arm and shoulder. “Haven’t you gotten to be a big boy! Your pictures don’t do you justice.” She set her attention on Vince again. “His shoulder’s coming along all right?”

“We’re going to physical therapy once a week, but I do exercises with him every day.”

“Once a week is enough?” she asked as if it wasn’t.

“His physical therapist thinks so. Tessa is his pediatrician. She might be able to give you more insight if you’d like to ask her any questions.”

Sitting in one of the kitchen chairs, nestling Sean on her lap, Janet said approvingly to Tessa, “So you’re a doctor?”

“I sure am.”

Vince motioned Tessa to the table beside Janet. “I’ll set out dinner. Janet, do you drink coffee or tea?”

“Tea, thank you.” She seemed impressed that he’d offered.

In a matter of minutes, Vince had supper on the table. Everything had turned out surprisingly edible.

“This is good,” Janet concluded, finishing off another bite of hamburger steak topped with gravy. “Did Tessa make it, or did you?” she asked Vince.

“Let’s just say I don’t have problems making hamburger steaks or microwaving rice. It’s when I have to have it all done at the same time that it becomes a problem. Tessa helped with the timing and roasted the asparagus.”

Again, Janet looked from one of them to the other, then at little Sean sitting in his high chair, stuffing bits of rice into his mouth, along with some of his favorite cereal.

“Am I going to meet your housekeeper while I’m here?” Janet asked.

“Rhonda is here every day with Sean while I’m at work. You’re welcome to stop in.”

“She won’t mind if I barge in?” Janet inquired.

Before Vince could answer, the cell phone on his belt beeped. He checked the caller ID and then said, “Excuse me. I have to take this.”

After a few curt sentences asking the caller when and where, he closed his phone and rubbed his forehead. “I’m going to have to leave. There was a fire in a restaurant in town and I need to be on the scene. I can call Rhonda—”

Tessa shook her head. “I can stay as long as you need me to. Go ahead, we’ll be fine.” Tessa reached over to Sean and wiped a kernel of rice from his mouth.

“Yes, of course we’ll be fine,” Janet echoed. “I can play with Sean, and with his pediatrician here, I’ll know exactly what to do and what not to do. Do you get called away like this often?”

“Whenever necessary,” Vince stated matter-of-factly. Crouching down to Sean, he rubbed his son’s hair and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, buddy. Don’t give Tessa or Aunt Janet any trouble, okay?”

Sean waved his hand at Vince and babbled in baby talk.

Vince said to Janet, “If I’m not back by the time you leave, I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

Sean’s great-aunt nodded, her gaze on Vince’s back as he hurried out the door.

“He didn’t even get to eat half his supper. How often does this happen?” she asked Tessa.

“I really can’t say, Mrs. Fulton. I do know Rhonda is on call for whenever he has to leave.”

“Does she center her life around Vince and Sean?”

“She’s very fond of them both and considers them like family.”

“But she isn’t family, is she?”

“Family means different things to different people. She doesn’t have blood ties, but she couldn’t care more if Sean was her own grandchild.”

Janet pushed around a spear of asparagus on her plate. “Vince established himself here particularly fast, don’t you think?”

“Sagebrush was his hometown. He brought Sean back here because there’s a specialist in Lubbock.”

“Tell me something, Tessa. Exactly why did Vince have you here tonight? Moral support?”

“He ran out of rice.”

Janet’s eyes widened. “You aren’t serious.”

“I am. I called to see how Sean was doing. He explained you were coming for dinner and he’d burned the first batch of rice.”

“The way you two look at each other, I thought maybe you were here every night.”

How to answer
that
one. What would Vince want her to say? The truth was, if Janet Fulton dug deep enough or asked enough questions, she’d soon find out on her own. “Vince and I married as soon as we graduated from high school. But we lost a baby and it didn’t work out.”

Janet’s surprise was obvious and made her pause. Finally, she asked, “You were in touch all of these years?”

“No, we weren’t. It was a coincidence that Vince turned up at my practice with Sean…or fate. And now we’re working at just trying to be friends.”

Friends with benefits?
a little voice in Tessa’s head asked, remembering each vivid detail of every kiss.

“I…see,” Janet murmured thoughtfully.

But Tessa knew Janet couldn’t really see because she herself couldn’t see clearly. She was more attracted to Vince than she’d ever been to any man but she didn’t want just the proverbial roll in the hay. That’s all that could happen between them, wasn’t it? He didn’t believe he knew how to be a husband. There was a world of hurt between them. She’d be staying and he’d be leaving.

No, she didn’t see anything about Vince clearly.