Forever Fall (15 page)

Mandy couldn’t believe it. Elation replaced all the tension stemming from her run-in with Shannon earlier. “That’s wonderful!”

Instantly, Becky’s smile evaporated. “Don’t get too excited. There’s one catch.”

“Oh?”

“I’m afraid she doesn’t want to meet Catherine.”

“What?” Mandy couldn’t believe that a child, no matter how old, would not want to know her birth mother. “Why not?”

“She says it’s water over the bridge. She has a good life, a husband, two kids and three grandkids, and she doesn’t want to disrupt their lives by bringing this stranger into it.”

“Stranger? It’s her mother, for heaven’s sake, not some
 . . . .
” At a loss for words, Mandy collapsed into a chair in front of Becky’s desk. “But I—”

Becky leaned toward Mandy. She rested her arms across a folder that bore Catherine’s last name. “We made a deal when I agreed to take this on. If the girl didn’t want to meet Catherine, we’d drop it. I gave her Catherine’s name and address, and if she changes her mind, that’s totally her decision.” Becky picked up the folder and stuck it in her top desk drawer. “Now, we
 . . .
you
need to drop it.”

Reluctantly, Mandy nodded. “You’re right. Consider it dropped.” Deep inside, she said a silent prayer that this woman would change her mind.

Granny Jo rested her hand on Mandy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, child. I would have liked to see it end differently, too, but you have to respect the woman’s wishes. And there are plenty of others out there who need you.”

Mandy nodded and got up. “Well, I guess I’ll get back to my
glorious
vacation.”

She hugged Granny Jo and waved to Becky, then left the office, her heart as heavy as it had been when she’d arrived, but for a different reason.

When Mandy arrived back
at the house, she sat in the car for a while, dreading going back inside and facing Shannon. Even though things seemed to be working out with Shannon and the simulator as Mandy had predicted, she wasn’t at all sure her nerves could stand much more of the tension between them.

Thank goodness for Luc, who’d been acting as a buffer between them, which had surprised her. It seemed he’d had a change of heart concerning the simulators, but she didn’t trust that it wasn’t all just a front to throw her off guard. They only had a few more days before the decision would be made.

A few more days, and she’d never have to see Lucas Michaels again. The thought brought no joy, just a weighty sense of unbelievable sadness.

Mandy had just gotten out of the car when she caught the sound of Joey’s wails coming from the house. Heaving a sigh that this probably meant another go-round with Shannon, she climbed the stairs and went inside.

It didn’t take long for her to identify the direction from which the sounds were emanating. She set the single grocery bag containing the few non-perishables on the side table. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she walked down the hall toward the back of the house and entered the TV room. What she saw brought her to an abrupt halt.

Mandy peeked around the doorframe and watched in amusement as Luc paced back and forth with a crying Joey cradled in the crook of his arm. On the floor beside the sofa were several discarded diapers, evidently a valiant attempt to appease the simulated infant.

As if he held a real child, Luc talked to it in a continuous stream of placations designed to soothe the simulator and stop his cries. “It’s okay, Joey. Your mommy will be back soon. You know, she didn’t leave you because she doesn’t care about you. Your mom is just tired and frustrated and wants to be a teenager for a while. Sometimes, mommies don’t really like being mommies and being home all the time.”

The desperation in Luc’s voice brought a wider smile to Mandy’s face. The endearing way he spoke to the simulator, the compassion in his voice all tugged at Mandy’s already vulnerable emotions
 . . .
especially where this tall, handsome man was concerned.

That reaction alarmed her. Why, when she’d sworn to steer clear of any relationships, had her heart made an exception for him?

Before she could come up with an answer, the baby stopped crying and made a sound like a hiccup. Although it appeared as though Luc’s soothing tone had gotten through to the simulator, Mandy knew it wasn’t because of anything Luc had said or done. She’d programmed the simulator to fuss and knew it would start crying again in a short time.

Feeling a bit guilty about eavesdropping, Mandy nearly stepped forward to make her presence known, but as if he didn’t realize the baby had gone silent, Luc, with his back to her, continued to sway while he began talking again. However, his tone had changed from the soothing, sing-song cadence he’d first used with Joey to one tinged with anger.

“It’s not just single moms who don’t want their babies.” He gazed out the window at the lake, but from his tone, something told her that he didn’t see the beautiful vista before him, and that his sight was centered somewhere in the past
 . . .
his past. “Sometimes, even grownup mommies would rather be out having fun than home taking care of their kids.”

What really got to her was not the anger, but the way his shoulders drooped and the ring of sadness in his voice. His words had become personal. Suddenly, she felt as if she’d been listening in on a private conversation, one she had no right to hear. Mandy’s humor at the situation she’d stumbled on dissipated.

Still, she remained out of sight, trying to get a grip on the way the pain in his voice cut deep inside her and brought forth a strong urge to run to him and wrap him in her arms. She wanted to make the hurt she’d heard in his voice go away, to see him smile that smile that made her knees go weak. But she held back.

Why? Was it just because she didn’t want to intrude on a private moment? Or was it something more serious? For the first time, she found herself really assessing her feelings for this man.

At first it had been purely antagonistic. Luc had been an adversary. But little by little, she had come to see him not as the enemy, but just a man who didn’t understand the significance of what she hoped to accomplish. Along with that, somewhere along the line, she’d opened her heart and allowed herself to care for him
 . . .
too much. She’d allowed her heart to overrule her head, and now she found herself teetering precariously on the edge of the same situation her mother had been in when she’d let her hormones guide her actions. But was it just hormones, or was it something bigger? Was it love?

Unwilling to face that possibility, Mandy shook away her thoughts and concentrated on the man holding the simulator. What the situation boiled down to was that she had a choice to make. She could just stand there and eavesdrop, something that went against her nature. Or she could turn and walk away, something that went equally against her nature. Or she could go in there and help Luc.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the room. “Luc?” She looked around as though just realizing he was alone. “Where’s Shannon?”

He spun around, obviously surprised by her appearance. “She took off with her boyfriend an hour or so ago. She must have called him to come get her.” But before he could say more, Joey began wailing again. Luc sighed. “Can’t you stop him? He’s been crying like this for the better part of an hour.”

“Sorry, but I can’t, and walking him isn’t going to do it,” she said, raising her voice to be heard above the racket. “The only way he’ll stop is if Shannon inserts the key in his back or if the battery dies. And the manufacturers make sure those batteries are fairly long-lasting.”

Luc groaned and collapsed on the sofa. He massaged his temples and stared down into the face of the crying baby on his lap. “Then we better go find Shannon. My head is about to split wide open.”

With no other feasible alternative in sight, Mandy agreed. “Let’s go.”

Luc scooped up the crying baby, and together, they hurried to Mandy’s car. He stopped abruptly at the back bumper and turned to her. “Let’s put it in the trunk. That way we won’t have to listen to this noise any longer.”

“Put him in the trunk?”

Mandy stared at him for a moment in astonishment and then reminded herself they were not dealing with a real infant. Putting the simulator in the trunk would not be a cardinal sin. Besides, she wasn’t sure how long Luc had been walking the screaming baby, but, in the short time she’d been listening to Joey’s cries, her temples had also begun to throb. She unlocked the trunk, and Luc placed the simulator inside wrapped in a blue receiving blanket and slammed the lid closed. Although the cries could still be heard, they were muffled by the trunk and not nearly as abrasive to their nerves.

Luc leaned against the car and emitted a long sigh. “I find myself almost sympathizing with Shannon. I’m not sure how much more I could have taken of that.”

“What if Joey were a real baby? Putting him in the trunk of the car wouldn’t have been an option.”

He stared at her, mouth agape. “I’m not a Neanderthal. I know that if he were real, this would not be a solution.”

She flushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you’d put a real child in a car trunk.”

“Absolutely not. I’d have found a way to comfort him and stop his cries. I’m sure that would have done the trick.”

Mandy laughed at his optimism. Luc evidently hadn’t had much experience with real babies. She tossed him the keys and walked to the passenger’s door. “Don’t count on it.”

An hour later,
they had checked the school where the fall dance was being held, the football field, the outlook on Hawks Mountain where the teens went to park and neck, and Terri’s Tearoom where they often congregated after a game or a dance, all to no avail. Shannon and Jeb were nowhere to be found, and Joey was still wailing away in the trunk. In desperation, they decided to head for Jeb Tanner’s house, in hopes that perhaps his parents would know where their son and Shannon had gone.

As they made their way through the back roads to the Tanner farm, Mandy turned to Luc. “You were pretty impressive back there with Joey.”

He glanced at her. Was she being serious or taunting him? “No caveman attributes?”

The dashboard lights illuminated her face, and her expression looked sincere. “On the contrary, you did everything I’ve seen a real father do. I think you’re a natural candidate for fatherhood.”

Her statement stunned him. He’d never thought of himself as a father. Never had any desire to be a father. However, that she thought he’d make a good one warmed him from head to toe. “Thanks.”

Silence enveloped the interior of the car. Finally, Mandy turned in her seat to face him. For a moment she said nothing. Luc waited, apprehension growing like a huge fiery ball in his gut. He knew she wanted to say something, but what?

“What did you mean when you told Joey that it’s not just single moms who don’t want their babies?”

Luc went numb, barely able to feel the steering wheel clutched tightly in his fingers. He’d known for some time that he would eventually have to tell Mandy about his arrangement with Asa and about his childhood in order to make her understand why he’d made the deal. He just hadn’t planned on it being so soon.

She placed her hand on his arm. “Luc, please, talk to me.”

He glanced at her, trying to read her expression in the lights from the dashboard, but he could only see shadows accentuating the hills and valleys of her features. Was she giving him encouragement or pity? He hoped it wasn’t pity because that was the very last thing he wanted from Amantha James.

What do you want from her?

He tried to ignore the taunting voice of his libido. It didn’t make any difference what he wanted. It wasn’t gonna happen. When he told her about the deal he’d made with a devil named Asa Watkins, he’d have to admit that he came into this whole thing ready to betray her to save his home and his job. She’d hate him, and he’d lose any hope he had of ever starting a relationship with her.

A sharp pain wrapped around his heart. Why should that thought hurt so much when he’d only known her for such a short length of time? Unless
 . . . .
No. It couldn’t be. But it sure felt like it.

He’d fallen in love with Mandy.

The thought jarred him so completely that the car swerved into the left lane, right into the path of an oncoming vehicle. Mandy cried out. He quickly jerked the wheel back and managed to get into his own lane before anything catastrophic happened.

He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the car do a U-turn and come up behind them very quickly. Then bright red and blue lights flashed in the mirror, and the sound of a siren filled the air.

“Terrific,” Luc said and pulled the car to the roadside. “Just what we need.”

Mandy looked out the back window, then at Luc. “What’s he pulling us over for?”

“Because of the way I just swerved, he probably thinks I’m drunk or something. Or it could be because I almost hit him head-on.” While they waited for the officer to approach their car, Luc extracted his wallet from his back pocket and slipped his driver’s license from inside it.

He looked in the mirror again and groaned. “Crap!”

“What?”

“It’s Graylin Talbot, Laureene Talbot’s husband. The only way we can get out of this is to fully explain what we’re doing. He’ll go home and tell Laureene, and this will be all over Carson by morning, along with what the school board is allowing us to do.”

Mandy sighed. “I thought we’d dodged the bullet when there was no backlash from Shannon’s friends seeing us. But there’s no way we won’t be exposed now.”

They both stared silently out the windshield while they waited for Graylin.

A face appeared outside Luc’s window. He rolled it down. “Evenin’, Graylin.”

The deputy touched the brim of his hat and leaned down to see who was in the passenger’s seat. “Evenin’, Luc. Miss James.” He looked back at Luc. “Drivin’ a little careless back there, weren’t you, Luc?”

Luc forced a smile. “I was temporarily distracted.”

Graylin smiled at Mandy. “I can see as how that might happen.” He straightened and backed away from the car. “Suppose you get out of the car and walk the white line for me so I can see it’s not more than that.”

Luc laid his wallet on the console and climbed from the car. Just then, Joey, who’d been in one of his pre-programmed rest modes, started to wail. Graylin stepped up to the car and glanced in the backseat. Seeing nothing, he turned to Luc, a frown drawing his bushy brows together.

“Where’s the baby?”

Luc’s stomach hit rock bottom. He sighed. “In the trunk.”

Graylin cursed under his breath and threw Luc a contemptuous look. “Open the trunk.”

Mandy jumped from the car. “Now, Graylin, we don’t want you to get the wrong idea. That’s just a—”

Graylin moved a step back, his hand resting on the grip of the pistol strapped to his side. “Miss Mandy, stay right there. Luc, open the trunk.” Joey let out another ear-piercing cry. “Now!”

Luc moved slowly to the back of the car, inserted the key and lifted the trunk lid, wishing Joey looked more like a doll and less like a real infant.

Joey lay half under the spare tire, evidently tossed there when Luc swerved to avoid hitting Deputy Talbot’s patrol car.

Cautiously, Graylin stepped forward and peered into the trunk. His eyes bulged, and his mouth fell open. “Good Lord!”

Joey emitted an odd gurgling sound and then went silent.

Mandy sighed. “Thank God, it’s dead.”