Having My Baby (4 page)

The baby’s cry wasn’t anything like the cries of all the other babies he’d heard before. This baby’s cry was mild in comparison, bordering on soothing, like music to his ears.

Derrick looked over his shoulder and smiled into the camera before turning back to Jill.

“It’s a boy,” the doctor said.

“We did it,” Jill said, her voice weak.

He thought she was talking to Chelsey until he realized Chelsey had joined the nurses down south.

“
You
did it,” he said. He reached for the cup of ice chips and after he’d fed her a few, he gently applied lip balm to her cracked lips. Then he stood back and watched the nurse hand Jill her baby…their baby.

Chapter Three

The next day, Derrick ignored the cell phone vibrating in his pocket. He climbed out of his car, grabbed the bouquet of flowers from the backseat, and made his way across the parking lot to the entrance of Sutter Medical. He’d already talked to his mother, his father, Maggie, and four of his siblings. They all wanted to drive to the hospital to see the baby.

Well, everybody except Maggie. Maggie wanted to wring his neck first for not listening to her. Then she wanted to see the baby. Instead, she told him she would see him at the Los Angeles County courtroom at three o’clock tomorrow afternoon if he wanted any chance at all of gaining partial custody of his baby boy.

Now all he had to do was talk to Jill. It was seven o’clock in the evening. He’d planned on visiting Jill much earlier, but after getting little sleep and taking a dozen phone calls, time had gotten away from him. His son had yet to be named since Jill agreed to wait until today to make a decision. He liked the name Joe and Matt, nice healthy strong sounding names, but Jill hadn’t seemed thrilled by either of his choices. His sisters, on the other hand, were rooting for names like Colton and Deandre because, according to Mom, they really liked the show American Idol.

He called the hospital this morning and was transferred to Jill’s room but nobody picked up. Although he’d only known Jill for a little more than a day, he felt pretty good about her being the mother of his baby. For one thing—she wasn’t Sandy; for that alone, he was grateful.

A reporter greeted him about halfway across the parking lot and shoved a microphone in his face. She was tall with dark shiny hair slicked back out of her face. “Hello, Hollywood. Is it true Jill Garrison is having your baby without the benefit of sleeping in your bed?”

The nickname “Hollywood” had been given to him fifteen minutes after he signed his first contract with the Los Angeles Condors, something about his “magnetism.”

He remained silent. Reporters were like ants. If they got in his way, he stepped on them. If they kept to the side, he ignored them.

She followed on his heels. “Is it also true that you didn’t know Jill Garrison until yesterday when police stopped you for voyeurism?”

Derrick wondered if the reporter had talked to Jill’s friend. He kept his eyes focused on the entrance ahead.

She held the microphone higher, closer to his mouth. “Why are you here?”

Derrick merely smiled, mostly because the question was annoyingly amusing.

“Perhaps,” the reporter went on, “you’re not aware that Jill Garrison left with Ryan Michael Garrison only minutes ago.”

He pushed his way through the revolving door, leaving the reporter in the dust.

Ryan Michael Garrison
.

No, he hadn’t heard, but he wasn’t going to take the reporter’s word for it. Jill wasn’t due to leave the hospital until tomorrow. She told him she’d wait for him to visit today before she filled out any important hospital documents.

Five minutes later, Derrick arrived at Jill’s room and found it disturbingly empty. The smell of antiseptics and Pine-sol drifted up his nose. An eighty-year-old candy striper came in after him. Her salt and pepper hair was tied back with a red ribbon that matched the color of her lips.

He laid the bouquet of flowers on the empty bed. “She’s gone,” he said.

The nice old lady smiled at him. “She said you would understand since she needed to get started on preparations for your wedding.”

“Wedding?”

The woman nudged him with her elbow. “Sorry. I forgot. Her friend said it was a secret.” She put her fingers to her mouth and pretended to zip her lips together.

He forced a smile. “Sandy?”

“Yes, Sandy. Nice girl.”

“You have no idea.” Derrick picked up the flowers and gave them to the candy striper. “These are for you,” he said. Then he headed out of the room and toward the elevator. To think Jill Garrison had the gall to call him a liar when all the while she was making plans to run off. Talk about calling the kettle black.

~~~

“I can’t believe it has come to this,” Jill said. “I feel like a fugitive.”

Sandy snorted. “Fugitives go on the run. You’re just going home. You’ve done nothing wrong. That man has no right to collect money for his semen and then ask for it back as if he merely loaned out a sweater or something.”

“Mom,” Sandy’s four-year-old daughter asked from the backseat, “what’s a seeman?”

Sandy glanced at Jill and then looked back at the road. “A
sea
man,” she explained to Lexi, “is a man who spends his days out at sea collecting shrimp.”

“Wike a sea horse?”

“Exactly.”

“How’s Ryan?” Jill asked Lexi, even though she could see her son perfectly well from her position in the passenger seat. “Does he look like he’s still sleeping?”

Lexi looked over at the bundle in the carrier. “Rine moved his weg. I think he wants out.”

“We’re almost there, honey,” Sandy told her daughter. “Just a few more minutes.”

“What am I going to do?” Jill asked Sandy as she turned back around. “I can’t believe it has come to this.”

“You have to stay strong. Derrick Baylor wants his son. I didn’t trust him the moment I spotted him at the park sitting in that flashy car of his. Seeing his lawyer on the news confirmed my suspicions. He wants Ryan and he’ll do anything, absolutely anything, to take him away from you.”

“I don’t know,” Jill said. “He didn’t seem like the type of man who would take a baby from its mother. I should have talked to him before I left the hospital. Grabbing my things and running off a day early seems a little hasty.”

“Before you say another word to Derrick Baylor we need to find you a good lawyer. Second, we need to contact CryoCorp and see what the deal is. They’re going to want to know if somebody is leaking client information. I, for one, do not want you-know-who—”and they both knew she meant Lexi’s biological father“—knocking on my door when I least expect it.”

Jill wondered what that had to do with CryoCorp, since Lexi’s father was the real deal. Sandy had fallen in love with the man. She’d thought she had found her Prince Charming. But he’d left her soon after Lexi was born. Jill sighed. “You’re right. I don’t have time to deal with Derrick Baylor anyhow. Chelsey called earlier to tell me that Dave Cornerstone is having major problems with graphics, and I have two contributing authors telling me they haven’t received their paycheck. My monthly column is due in three days.”

“I know your little guy came sooner than expected,” Sandy said, “and having that man pop out of the woodwork like that didn’t help matters, but more than anything else right now, you need to stay upbeat. I’m going to help you get through this. Besides, as your editorial assistant, it’s my job to keep you happy.” She paused and then added, “If things get too crazy, you could always call your mother for help.”

“Are you kidding?”

Sandy slowed the car before making a right on West Lake Boulevard. “Maybe now is a good time to bury the hatchet,” Sandy advised. “Your parents have more money than The Donald. They can afford to get you the best lawyer.”

“I can’t do it.”

“You mean, you won’t.”

“I can’t and I won’t. Since the day I was born, my parents have used money to get me to do things their way. The moment I touch my trust fund, they will have won. Mom and Dad will hop on their private jet and fly over here so fast it’ll make your head spin. Then they’ll start ordering me around again,” she added wistfully. “Before you can count to ten they’ll have a man all lined up for me to marry. A clone of every other man they’ve set me up with: tall; thin, straight nose; impeccably dressed with one of those ultra-short haircuts with too much pomade. I’ll never let anybody buy my love again.”

“Not even Thomas?”

Something deep inside of Jill twisted. “Not even Thomas.”

Sandy pulled the Jeep to a stop in front of the apartment building. “Do you miss him?”

“Not anymore,” Jill said. She shifted in her seat so she could look Sandy straight in the eyes. “The man left me at the altar. I thought that was something that only happened in the movies. He didn’t even have the courtesy to give me a call. Instead, he left me standing at the church all alone to stare into the face of humiliation.”

“He said he had his reasons. Do you know what they were?”

Lexi huffed. “Can I get out, Mommy?”

“In a minute, honey. Take off your seatbelt and gather your things.”

Jill felt herself getting all stupid and misty-eyed…and that bothered her. She didn’t want to feel bad or sad or anything at all when it came to Thomas. She wanted to forget about him—the man she thought she had loved. The man she had planned to spend the rest of her life with. She wanted to move on with her life. Thomas had made his choice and now she’d made hers. It was over.

~~~

“The court will appoint a mediator within the next thirty days. Until then, case dismissed.”

Derrick and his lawyer, Maggie, were excused.

“God I’m good,” Maggie said with the same wide smile Derrick remembered all too well.

“You
are
good,” he agreed.

She punched him in the arm. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like we’re teenagers again.”

He followed her out of the courtroom and down the hallway. He should have been happy, should have been celebrating the fact that the judge had just granted him a hearing with a court appointed mediator. But in that very moment, there was only Maggie.

Her heels clicked against the floor as he followed her down the hallway. She wore a short-waisted jacket and a snug-fitting skirt that showed off her shapely calves. Her hair was rolled up in a practical sort of bun he wasn’t used to seeing on her. He quickened his pace and stepped in front of her before she arrived at the exit.

She stopped and laughed because that’s what she did—that was the kind of person she was. She made the world a happier place by lighting it up with her wide smiles and quick-to-laugh nature.

He wanted to kiss her. Aaron was not his biological brother. Hell, after what he did, he wasn’t even his friend any longer. They were merely living together. Maggie was still single. Two could play at this game.

“Derrick,” she said in her lawyerly voice. “We’ll get together next week to discuss our plan of action. I’ve got to go.” When she lifted her chin and their eyes met, he swore she could see right into his soul. Without thinking about what he was doing, he stepped close, raised a hand to the back of her head and removed the pin from her hair. Thick blonde hair fell to her shoulders. “There,” he said. “That’s the way I remember you.”

“Derrick, stop it.” She pushed his hands away.

“It’s been a long time. I just need to look at you for a moment. I want to thank you for coming all this way. You were always there for me, Maggie. When I needed a friend, somebody to talk to…it was always you.”

“You give me too much credit. You had your family and—”

Before she could finish her sentence, he leaned forward and covered her mouth with his, her words disappearing on his lips. Instead of passion-filled bliss, he felt a
thunk
against his shin when she kicked him.

“What the hell is going on?”

Derrick recognized the voice as Aaron’s. He pivoted to his right just in time to take a fist to the face.

Derrick staggered backwards before regaining his balance. He raised a hand to the side of his face. “Impressive. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

Aaron looked wildly at Maggie, ignoring Derrick altogether. “I told you he was still in love with you, but you didn’t want to believe me. Tell her,” Aaron said, turning back to Derrick. “Tell her you love her. Tell her the truth.”

One corner of Derrick’s mouth tilted upward. “I don’t have to tell her anything.”

“Come on,” Aaron said, taking Maggie’s arm. “Let’s go. And you,” he said, turning to Derrick. “Get a new lawyer because this is the last you’re going to see of us.”

As she was led away by his friend, the guy he used to call his brother, Derrick looked at Maggie. Her eyes had a lost, sad look to them.

His hand fisted. He was angry with Aaron, but also angry with himself for not using more self-control.
What the hell was wrong with him
?

That same night Derrick sat in his big empty home and, for the first time since purchasing the eight thousand square foot hulk of a house two years earlier, he wondered what he’d been thinking. He had a big home, nice cars, everything people talked about wanting. He had a career he loved. And yet here he sat, staring out the large paned window, watching the rising tide, and wondering what the hell it was all for? The lights were off but the television was on, giving the room a soft glow and throwing odd-shaped shadows across the walls. He held an ice pack to the left side of his face.

Kissing Maggie had been a stupid move on his part, and yet if he were given the chance, he’d do it again. Aaron was just as much to blame. Aaron knew how he felt about Maggie. Hell, every guy in Arcadia had felt the same way about her. She was pretty and smart, and she was a flirt. Always had been, always would be. They all liked her, which was exactly the reason why they all took a solemn pledge to never take Maggie too seriously. In plain English: she was off limits.

Nothing, especially a female, his brothers had all agreed, would ever come between them. But Aaron obviously didn’t understand the meaning of a pledge. After Maggie left for college, they’d all swept their brow with relief. At least he had because he knew then what he knew now: he loved Maggie, and yet he had been willing to give up love over digging a trench between him and his brothers. He thought he’d made the big sacrifice, but now he could see he’d made the worst mistake of his life. He should have gone after Maggie years ago and told her how he felt. He never should have let her out of his sight.