Adopt-a-Dad

CHAPTER EIGHT

HE WENT OUT, but he didn’t return to the wedding. He’d be grilled within an inch of his life if he did. The look in Ellie’s eyes as she’d headed for the family portrait session warned him he was in for it. But the interrogation could wait.

Besides, he was convinced his brother and sisters would give him a hard time if they thought he’d left Jenny alone. Garrett and Lana had seemed far too fond of Jenny, and even Shelby seemed to be coming around.

So…

So he drove to his friend Harvey’s, drank a few beers, watched a ball game on TV and tried to keep his hand out of sight so Harvey wouldn’t notice the ring.

Not that Harvey would. He wasn’t into wedding rings.

Nine o’clock. The ball game ended. There was time to watch another, but just as Harvey flicked the remote, the phone rang. Harvey gave an apologetic grin and took the phone into the kitchen. He came back a couple of minutes later, a sheepish expression on his face.

“Sorry, but I need to kick you out, Mike,” he said. “Something’s come up.”

“Like…” Michael stared at his friend’s face, confounded. He’d never seen Harvey look like this before. “Like a woman?”

“Rose,” Harvey said, a dreamy expression drifting into his eyes. “I took her out last week. It was the first time she’s agreed to date me, though I’ve been asking her forever. It was worth the wait. She’s really something. She needed to go to Vegas to see her parents for the weekend, but I said if she got back in time, maybe we could go out together tonight-grab a burger or something.” He paused, and the sheepish grin intensified. “So she called. Guess this means she’s interested, huh?”

“I guess it does,” Michael said slowly. He rose. “Well, I’ll be off then.”

“I knew you wouldn’t mind. Hey, this morning when you didn’t show, that had to be a woman, right?”

Michael hesitated.

“I knew it,” Harvey said, interpreting his silence as confirmation. He clapped Michael on the shoulder and beamed. “Must be something in the water and we’re all catching it. See you next week, buddy-that is, if you’re not busy. Or if I’m not busy. But hey, I hope we are.”

OKAY, fate was telling him it was time to go home, Michael thought, and maybe it was. Nine was late enough. Jenny would most likely be in bed by now. He’d hit the cot himself, then get up early tomorrow and be at work before she woke. They’d start their independent lives together as of this moment.

Was Harvey right? Was there something in the water? He didn’t think so. He sure didn’t feel like a dose of domesticity.

He felt…trapped.

He drove his Corvette into the garage, his mind filled with dark thoughts. He entered his darkened house the same way and looked around as if he was expecting a wife in curlers, with rolling pin upraised. Which was crazy. No one was up. The lights were all off, and Jenny’s bedroom door was shut.

So. This was what he wanted, wasn’t it? He didn’t need to check on her. She’d be fast asleep.

He flicked on the living room light, frowned at the white sofa-she was right about that!-then went into the kitchen to make himself a coffee. He sure didn’t feel like sleep, though he didn’t know why. Just then a knock sounded on the outside door.

Who?

He opened the door, and it was Gloria.

There was a Gray Suit with her.

Michael’s first instinct was to slam the door shut on the pair of them, but the official beside Gloria looked just official enough to make him pause. This wasn’t one of Gloria’s thugs. It was the older of the two immigration officials who’d started this whole mess.

Even so, he only opened the door wide enough to speak, not to let anyone in.

“Mr. Lord?” It was the official speaking. He held out a card. “Henry Harness from Immigration. Can we come in?”

“No.” Short, blunt and to the point. The man took a step back and stared. Apparently he wasn’t used to people saying no to him.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard,” Michael told him. “No.”

“Can I ask why not?”

“Because you’re with the lady.” Michael nodded perfunctorily at Gloria. “This woman has been causing my wife grief, and she’s not welcome here.”

The man flicked an uneasy glance at Gloria, which made Michael wonder just how much he was being paid to take an interest in these proceedings. Where on earth had Gloria dug up an immigration official at nine-thirty on a Sunday night?

“There’ve been allegations of wrongdoings in relation to your marriage,” the man said, and Michael grunted.

“Yeah. Let me guess by whom.”

“I just need to satisfy myself that your wife is with you,” he said. “Unless I can do that, then tomorrow I’ll instigate investigations.”

“At whose request?”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’d better try harder then,” Michael said flatly. “My wife and I have filled out every required form and satisfied all criteria. But this woman…” He raised his eyebrows and gazed at the elegant Gloria as if she was some form of pond scum. “This woman came around to my wife’s old apartment last night while we were in the process of packing her belongings to come here. She made certain threats, and some of them were physical. She upset her so much that my wife hardly slept last night. Tonight, Jenny’s barely asleep, and here she comes to upset her again. My wife’s eight months pregnant. This is harassment and-”

“She’s not here,” Gloria said triumphantly. “I told you. The marriage is a sham.”

“Do you have a warrant?” Michael demanded of the official, ignoring Gloria completely.

“A warrant?”

“To search,” Michael said patiently. “I assume you know what a warrant is?”

“I…” The man was right off balance. “No, but-”

“Then go away and get one. And while you’re at it, I’d take out some insurance on events that may happen if you badger my wife into giving birth prematurely. Because I’ll sue you for every cent you’ll ever earn and then some.”

“I didn’t mean…” The man was flustered. “I’m sure if we inquire-”

“She’s not here.” Gloria was vitriolic in her certainty. “I tell you…”

“I’m sorry,” the official said heavily. “I can’t force my way in, no matter how-”

“How much are you being paid?” Michael asked, and the man flushed.

“There’s no need to take this further this evening. Good night, Mr. Lord. I’ll come back in the morning.”

“If you bring my wife’s ex-mother-in-law with you, then you’re not welcome.”

“We’ll act through the proper channels,” the man said stiffly. “I don’t believe this lady is central to our inquiries.”

“I’m sure she’s not,” Michael said pleasantly. “And if I were you, I’d make sure those channels of yours are legitimate, or I won’t answer for the consequences.” And he closed the door on the pair of them.

SHE MUST HAVE HEARD.

As he closed the door, Michael expected Jenny’s bedroom door to fly open. She had the downstairs room. The front door and her bedroom door were only feet apart. Unless she was sound asleep, she must have heard every word that had been said.

There was nothing. Only absolute silence from within. He heard Gloria’s car start and disappear into the night. They’d well and truly gone.

So why didn’t Jenny come out?

She must be exhausted, he told himself. She’d been up way before him this morning, and the wedding had been both a physical and emotional strain.

He didn’t want to wake her, but…

“Jenny?” he said softly, trying to fight his increasing sense that something was wrong. “Jen?”

Nothing.

She was asleep, he told himself firmly. Her bedroom door was closed, and that was that.

But he couldn’t for the life of him go to bed without checking. He was being stupid, paranoid, intrusive, but he opened her bedroom door just a crack.

Her bed was still beautifully made up, and it was empty. So was her bedroom.

Where on earth was she?

Michael stared at the untouched bed for all of two minutes, his mind racing in every direction.

Had she left him? His eyes roved around the room, taking in her folded pajamas on the pillow and her husband’s photograph in the frame beside the bed.

She wouldn’t have left that behind. So where?

The conversation on the way back from the wedding played uneasily in his brain. I seem to be getting deeper and deeper into a quagmire. I should never have agreed to marry you.

She was confused, she was depressed and she’d been alone all night.

Hell, he never should have left her!

Where could she have gone? His head was spinning as he tried to find answers. She didn’t have a car. She didn’t have any money, and if she was leaving, then surely she’d have taken her few possessions. So where?

The river.

The answer came so suddenly it was like a bolt out of the blue, and it scared him stupid. No! She couldn’t be that depressed!

I should never have agreed to marry you. I’ll have to do something.

She wouldn’t be so crazy, so desperate!

But he was already moving toward the door, and he was starting to run.

HE SEARCHED for half an hour without finding her. He was close to breaking point, as angry and frustrated as he’d ever been in his life. And scared. Surely she hadn’t done anything stupid, he told himself over and over. Surely she couldn’t…

He forced himself to slow down, walking along the hiking trails, methodically searching every park bench and every twist and turn of the water’s edge. His eyes searched the shadows under the trees. If she was here, then he’d find her-if she wanted to be found.

An autumn fog was settling over the water, making the pools of light from the lamps strange and distorted. The bats that made their home under the bridges were swooping low over the water, and the stillness was almost eerie. If he called her name, the sound would echo up and down the river and achieve nothing-except make him feel like he was going mad.

Which was just how he was feeling. Crazy! This was unbearable. He thought back to the Jenny of this morning, bouncing up and down on the hopscotch court in her wondrous clothes, dancing with her little girls, helping light the candles on the birthday doughnuts.

She’d felt great. Free. And this afternoon he’d made her feel so guilty she’d wanted to end it.

But not like this. Surely not like this.

He’d call the cops.

No. They wouldn’t come. He knew enough of police procedure to know what would happen if he called. “How long has your wife been missing? Maybe only an hour? Was there any disagreement? Oh, right. Well, then, we suggest you sit at home and wait it out.”

He couldn’t sit at home. He’d go nuts.

Where the hell was she? She had so few options. No friends. No family. Just Gloria waiting to force her back to England.

“Jenny?”

Finally he couldn’t help himself. He stood on the bank, staring at the black, slow-moving water, and he called. Her name echoed back to him, over and over. Jenny… Jenny… Jenny…

No Jenny answered, but there was a whimper from below.

A whimper? It wasn’t a human sound, but it was enough to make him peer where the bank steeped sharply forward.

There was a huddled figure right at the water’s edge. Dark and large.

Dear God… He clambered down with a speed he didn’t know he possessed, put a hand on the figure’s shoulder-and Jenny’s face turned to greet him.

FOR A MOMENT the relief was so great he couldn’t believe he’d found her. He stood, stunned, with his hand on her shoulder, her white face looking at his. Jenny was here. She was safe. She was alive!

“Dear God, Jenny…”

His legs wouldn’t hold him anymore. He sat down hard beside her and shoved his head between his knees. For the first time in his life he came close to passing out.

“Michael?” A soft hand ran through his hair, and her voice, when she spoke, was thick with concern. “Michael, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” He gasped and sucked in a great lungful of fog-filled night air. “What’s wrong? Jenny, have you any idea what…” He gave another gasp and shoved his head down again.

Silence. He sat, recovering from fear, and she didn’t say a word. Just waited.

Finally he raised his head. He stared at the water, where the scudding mist was moving and swirling in shredded ribbons and the bats were flying low. The river was black and mysterious beneath, hiding all. If she’d been in there…

“How long have you been sitting here?” he asked at last, his voice detached. He didn’t look at her.

“A couple of hours. Michael, I’m so sorry if you’ve been worried.”

“A couple of hours?” He sighed. “Can I ask why?”

“I came down here for a walk,” she told him. “I’m- I’m sorry if you were worried, but I was sort of upset after you left me. And then I found Socks and I didn’t know what to do with him. It all just seemed too difficult.”

“Socks?”

He looked sideways, then really looked and saw what he’d been too upset to see until now.

She was wearing a coat-a garment he vaguely recognized as his. It was the black trench coat he used for night work. The coat was vast and dark, ideal for checking security at three in the morning when he didn’t want to be seen, when he wanted to check that his outdoor security guards were doing what they were supposed to be doing. The coat had been hanging in his back entrance, and it disguised her bulk, but there was something apart from Jenny and baby underneath. Her pregnant bulk was…bigger?

“What,” he asked fascinated, “do you have under your coat?”

“I told you,” she said patiently. “Socks.”

“And Socks is a…”

“Dog.”

“Right. A dog.” He nodded sagely, tossing the idea around in his head while his heart rate settled to almost normal.

“What sort of dog?” he asked at last, cautiously. His head was starting to work again, recovering from blind panic.

“A big dog.”

“A big dog. Right. Any more specifics?”

“Well, he’s a sort of…” She hesitated. “I guess a lot’s gone into his breeding,” she said at last. “Maybe that’s all I can tell.”

He nodded again. “So. We have a big, nondescript dog of uncertain parentage called Socks.” He was buying time. “Jen, can I ask why he’s sitting under your coat?”

“He was cold.”

“I see.” He didn’t, but he wasn’t confessing that for a minute. “Do you think he’s warm now?”

“Maybe.”

“Then do you think you could let him out now so we can go home?”

“He’s still frightened. He’s shivering.”

“Jen…”

“I don’t know what to do with him,” she said in a small voice. “I can’t take him back to your place-I mean, you’ve done so much for me already. And I can’t leave him here.”

“You mean he’s a stray?”

“I guess so. He has no collar and he looks starving.”

“Right. A stray.” Michael was still having trouble keeping his heart beating in any sort of normal rhythm, but a stray dog was something he could deal with. Practical. “It’s okay, Jen. We can handle this. If you don’t want to leave him here, then we’ll take him to the city pound.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Michael, look. You need to see him.” She hesitated, then unfastened the top three buttons of the coat. “Come on, Socks. Come on, boy.”

Socks came out-sort of. Two eyes peered from beneath her coat, brown pools of misery and distrust. The eyes looked warily at Michael, decided they didn’t much like what they saw, then disappeared again into the coat’s vastness.

“It’s okay, Socks. He’s a friend.” Jen unfastened a couple more buttons, and the dog’s head was revealed in its scraggy splendor. It was the head of a definitely peculiar dog, Michael thought, dazed. Scruffy, to say the least, with matted hair that was a dirty golden brown. The dog’s ears drooped down like a cocker spaniel’s, but his head looked more like a Labrador’s-a Labrador on a bad hair day.

As Jenny had said, a whole lot had gone into this dog’s breeding, but she was obviously seeing something Michael couldn’t.

“He’s just lovely,” Jenny breathed, hugging him close. “Oh, Michael…”

“No.” Michael shook his head with certainty. “You’re wrong there, Jen. This dog is not lovely. This dog is weird. Seriously weird. I’ve never seen a dog like this in my life.”

The dog looked at him reproachfully, and so did Jenny.

“Why,” Michael asked carefully, still buying time, “are you calling him Socks? Is he wearing a collar?”

“No collar. You should see his ribs.” She held the dog closer, as if he needed protecting. “He’s truly a stray. No one wants this dog.”

Michael could see exactly why.

“Then why Socks?”

“He has white socks. Or they might be white after a bath. And he reminds me of a dog I had as a kid.”

“You had a dog like this?”

“Well, no.” Jenny broke into an involuntary chuckle. “Socks One was a basset hound. But he looked at me the same as Socks Two.” Her smile died, and she stared over the river. “My aunt had Socks One put down when my parents died.”

“When was that?” Michael asked, startled. He knew nothing about this woman, he realized. Nothing!

“When I was ten.”

“Your parents died when you were ten?”

“Mmm. In a car crash. I lost them-and then I lost Socks.”

His heart twisted, and he put a hand on her shoulder. Socks looked up as if he wasn’t the least bit sure he wanted to share, but Michael wasn’t in the mood for dealing with a jealous dog, especially one with ears like this. “I’m sorry, Jen,” he told her, and she shrugged.

“Things happen. I guess you know that as well as anyone. You were adopted, too.”

“So your aunt adopted you?”

“Sort of.” Jenny’s tone changed, hardened. “My parents left me a house, you see, so my aunt and her boyfriend moved in. They took over my life, and that was the end of Socks. They had him put down. It was also the end of my house. I was shunted off to boarding school, the house somehow got sold, and the funds disappeared into never-never land.”

“Oh, Jen…”

“You had better luck with your adoptive parents, though.”

“Yeah.” Michael thought back to his childhood. There was no chance of a dog like Socks being put down in the Lord household. If anything, there’d been pets to spare. There was certainly love to spare.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“And Lana says your birth mother loved you.”

“I wouldn’t know about that.” His voice hardened. “I know nothing about her.”

“And you don’t want to know?”

“The past is history. There’s no need to rake it up.”

“It stays with you, though,” she said softly, staring again at the river. Socks stared with her. Four reproachful eyes. “You can’t let it go completely. If my parents hadn’t loved me, and if I hadn’t known that and remembered it in the bad times, then I don’t think I could have gone on. It’s part of who I am.”

“It’s dead and buried.” His voice was unnecessarily harsh, and he bit his lip, but Jenny looked bleak.

“Is it?”

“It has to be.”

“Dead and buried.” She took a jagged breath. “I just wish it was,” she said bleakly, her face twisting in remembered pain. Her voice cracked, then she seemed to catch herself. “I’m sorry.”

“Jenny, what’s wrong?” He stared, puzzled, but she shrugged, pushing away remembered nightmares.

She took a deep breath. “No, that’s enough of that. I’m just- I was thinking of something I told Peter. But I don’t know what I’m thinking of now. You’ve come down here in the dark just to find me, and here I’ve taken your coat without even asking.” She made as if to pull it off, but he stopped her. The dog whimpered against her, as if expecting to be hauled out and thrust away. His big ears disappeared inside the coat. Socks was staying put.

But Michael was no longer thinking of Socks. “Why did you come down here?” he asked gently, watching her face. The emotion in her eyes was tearing at something deep in his gut. She was so lost, so at sea.

“I came out for a walk to try to decide what to do,” she said with quiet dignity. She had herself in hand again. “I can’t figure how we can stay together in your town house. It’s crazy.”

“There’s no choice.”

“There is. I just need to find another place to stay, somewhere Gloria can’t find me. Then if immigration comes, you can contact me.”

He thought this through and found an immediate flaw. Or rather, the flaw was looking at him again. “You intend on taking Socks with you?”

“I…” She faltered. “I guess I’ll find a place where I can take him.”

“There’s no landlord that’ll take a dog like this.”

“I don’t need to stay in the city,” she said calmly, as if this was a decision she’d made hours ago. “I can go out into the country somewhere. Get a place to stay on a farm or something.”

“Oh, sure,” he mocked. “Farms take in dogs like Socks all the time. And you can always race from a farm to my place at a moment’s notice when immigration officials arrive asking questions. They were here tonight.”

“Here!” Her eyes widened. “You mean at your home?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, Michael.”

“It’s okay,” he said, flinching at the fear in her eyes. “They think you’re safely in bed. In my bed. They had no right to search, and I didn’t let them in. But if you think you can stay someplace else…”

“I must be able to,” she said in distress. “I must!” The fear was still there, with a hint of something else. The knowledge of being trapped?

That was pretty much how he was feeling, Michael acknowledged bleakly. Claustrophobic. Closed in. Hell, they’d done this in such a rush they hadn’t thought it through.

But if he’d had time, would he have acted differently? Michael found himself searching his heart as he watched the misery on her face. Would he have done the same thing? Or would he have waved her off to Mexico alone, to face childbirth and her future with nothing and nobody?

No way! He saw the courage in her eyes and knew he would do no such thing. He’d hurt her this afternoon, he’d hurt her badly. She’d come here to try to figure out a way to get out of his life-for his sake, not her own. Here she was, distress on her face, and it was all on his account, not hers. He’d caused it by showing her how unhappy he was with their situation.

“Hey, Jen.” Reaching out, he touched her face. It was cool, as if the damp and fog had penetrated. She gave an involuntary shiver, and he flinched. Guilt swept in like a physical kick in the rear. Hell, he was being a total jerk. He’d suggested this. He’d married Jenny, despite her doubts. His sense of honor was telling him to accept that fact and move on.

“Come on, Jenny,” he said gently. “Let’s take Socks to the pound and get you home.”

The fear and distress changed in an instant. Her eyes searched his, and her mouth tightened to stubbornness. “No, Michael, I can’t.”

“Can’t?”

“Socks is not going to the pound. I’m sorry, but…”

“You’re not seriously suggesting we keep him? Jenny, that’s impossible.”

“I am keeping him.”

“But…”

“If you won’t let me move to the country, and if I have to stay with you, then I’m sorry, but he’ll have to stay with us, too.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, I know I’m being a pest and I know you don’t want me to stay, but you’re out all day. He won’t cause any trouble. You’ll see. You’ll hardly know he’s there. And it’s only for the next few weeks…while I need to stay.”

“Jenny, I am not a dog person.”

“You’re kidding.” She put her hand down and brought the dog’s face out from where it had been pressed against her breast. Gently, she raised it so those great brown eyes were looking straight at Michael. He stared down and tried to look away-and couldn’t.

“How can you say you’re not a dog person?” she asked reproachfully. “You look Socks in the eye and tell me that. He’s the most wonderful dog.”

“You know nothing about him.” Michael glared, and the dog-Socks-looked soulfully back. “He’s probably vicious.”

“Oh, yeah!” Her voice was mocking. “You see how terrified I am.”

“When he’s been fed he might have a totally different personality.”

The dog whimpered and licked Jenny’s hand. Good grief, he really was the strangest-looking mutt. His golden-brown hair was straggly and moth-eaten, and he looked as if he hadn’t had a bath in years. But he gazed at Jenny with a slavish adoration that said if he had a choice of half a side of beef or Jenny, he’d choose Jenny any day. Vicious? Well, maybe not.

“Yeah, one sniff of red meat and he turns into Attila the Hun!” Jenny was seeing exactly what he was seeing. She chuckled and ran her fingers under the dog’s ears. The dog looked mutely at her. “I’d like to see that.”

“Well, I wouldn’t,” Michael said bluntly, trying not to think about what her fingers were doing. Trying not to imagine what those fingers could do if they touched him. “For Pete’s sake, Jen, you’re probably catching all sorts of diseases right at this minute.”

“I must have already caught ’em,” she said cheerfully. “I’ve been cuddling him for hours. He’s staying.”

“There’s a no-pets clause in my title,” he said, driven against the wall and still fighting, but Jenny shook her head. Her eyes were mischievous. Honestly, she was like a chameleon, flashing from one mood to the next.

“Nope. Nice try, though. The lady living next door to you in the very same block has a pug called Basil. I met her this evening and was introduced to Basil in person.”

“You met Mavis?” He stared at her, appalled.

“Yep. Is there anything wrong with that?”

Michael groaned. “Jenny, Mavis is the biggest busybody in the neighborhood. What on earth did you tell her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did you tell her we were married?”

“Well, I sort of had to,” she confessed. “She kept asking, and what was I supposed to say? So I did, but it made me feel dreadful. Like it was an invasion of your privacy-to have some strange woman running around saying she’s your wife.” She struggled to her feet, still holding the dog, rejecting Michael’s hand as he made to help her. “No. I can manage on my own.” She took another deep breath, searching for words. “I’m sorry, Michael, but I’m afraid that’s the last time I’m going to say it. If I keep feeling guilty I’ll go under. So let’s forget the sorries, forget the guilts and just take Socks home and get on with it.”

“Take Socks home?”

“And me. And the bump.” She smiled, but there was lingering anxiety behind her eyes as if she was expecting to be slapped. This woman had been slapped more than once in her life, Michael realized, and the thought made him feel ill.

“Jen…” But she was still speaking.

“Take your wife, our unborn child and our dog home to bed,” she said gently. “Welcome to domesticity, Michael Lord. We somehow seem to have jumped right in at the deep end, but I’m afraid there’s nothing for us to do but to swim. Together.”