Baby: MacAllister-Made Read online

  “Yes, of course I will,” Kara said.

  “Thank you. Is Andy going to be at your wedding tomorrow?”

  “Indeed, he is,” Kara said, smiling. “Andrew and I bought him the cutest little suit to wear. The other great news is that I spoke with our social worker this morning, and all the documents are ready for Andrew to sign to adopt Andy just as soon as the wedding takes place. We’ll all be Malones, although I’ll keep the name MacAllister professionally. It’s less confusing for my patients that way.

  “And we’re getting off the subject of your baby’s father by chatting about my baby’s father,” Kara said. “I know you don’t want to talk about your baby’s daddy, but since you plan to keep this child, don’t you think the man has a right to know that he’s going to be a father?”

  “No. Yes. Well, I guess so,” Brenda said, frowning. “Yes, I suppose he’ll have to be told.”

  Besides, Brenda thought, it would be rather impossible to hide the fact since she lived next door to the father of her baby. The father of her baby… Richard MacAllister. Oh, merciful saints, she really couldn’t believe this.

  One night. One. She had made love with Richard on that one night and—bingo—here she was pregnant with his baby. Just one glorious, lovemaking night and…

  How on earth was she going to find the words to tell all this to Richard? He was going to pitch the fit of the century, that was for sure. She wasn’t supposed to be the mother of his child; she was the designated best friend, buddy, pal and chum.

  “Well,” Kara said, getting to her feet and bringing Brenda from her racing thoughts. “I’ve got another patient waiting for me. I’m going to give you a prescription for some prenatal vitamins, plus a packet of information that I’ve put together for my mommies-to-be. If you have any questions, just call.

  “Make an appointment to see me in a month. As for your morning sickness, there are some tips on dealing with that in the material I’m giving you.”

  Brenda stood, and Kara hugged her.

  “Congratulations,” Kara said. “I can say that, now that I know you want this baby.” She placed her hands on Brenda’s cheeks. “Remember this, too, Brenda. No matter how the father of your child reacts, you’re not alone. You’re considered a member of the MacAllister family, and you have a lot of people to stand by you and support you.

  “I want you to know that, especially since your parents are not in Ventura now and you don’t know when they’ll return from their vacation in Greece. Your pregnancy is a confidential matter between us, but when the time comes to let it be known, the MacAllisters will all be there for you.”

  A nearly hysterical bubble of laughter escaped from Brenda’s lips.

  “Did I miss something?” Kara said, dropping her hands from Brenda’s cheeks.

  “No, no. It’s an inside joke.” Brenda closed her eyes and shook her head. “I really wish I hadn’t said that.” She opened her eyes again. “Well, I’ll see you at your wedding tomorrow. You’re absolutely, positively certain that you’re getting married tomorrow afternoon, aren’t you?”

  Kara laughed. “Yes. Everyone has been so patient with our ongoing delays, one after the other. But the big day has finally arrived. Andrew and I are being married in the living room of our beautiful new home, just as we wanted to be. It’s perfect.”

  “Well,” Brenda said, picking an imaginary thread from the skirt of her dress, “I guess Richard must be winging his way home from Detroit by now so he’ll be able to attend the ceremony.”

  “He’d better be if he wants to live to celebrate his next birthday,” Kara said. “I’ve got to dash. Stop at the desk on the way out to make an appointment and get your goodies from Lucy, the receptionist. See you tomorrow, Brenda.”

  Wishing Well Travel Agency, the thriving business that Brenda managed for the globe-trotting owner, was located in one of the popular shopping malls in Ventura.

  To Brenda’s utmost relief she’d been able to blank her mind and concentrate totally on the heavy traffic as she drove back to the agency after seeing Kara and receiving what she mentally referred to as The Newsflash.

  Once inside the temperature-controlled mall, however, the full impact of The Newsflash had seemed to slam against her. She’d sat on a wooden bench next to a fountain, her trembling legs refusing to support her for one more second.

  She was going to have a baby, she thought frantically. And not just any baby. No, not her. She was going to have her best friend’s baby, a child conceived with Richard MacAllister.

  Brenda looked at the people who were bustling past her, wondering why they weren’t staring at her. Surely the fact that she was newly pregnant was radiating from her like a neon sign. She certainly felt different, not remotely close to who she had been when she had gotten out of bed that morning.

  Nope, she thought, as more people hurried by, that group hadn’t paid the least bit of attention to her either. So, okay, her secret was a secret…for now.

  But how long would it be before she looked like someone attempting to smuggle a basketball? How long could she postpone telling Richard that she was pregnant with his baby?

  She sighed. She was so tired, just thoroughly exhausted. Even the hard wooden bench she was perched on was tempting her to curl up on it and take a nap.

  But she couldn’t sleep…she had to think. Richard would no doubt be flying in from Detroit this evening to be on hand for Kara and Andrew’s wedding tomorrow. She hadn’t heard word one from him since he left for Detroit a month ago, the day after the night they’d made love….

  Don’t go there, Brenda, she told herself. She’d spent the past four weeks dragging her mind back from the sensual memories of the lovemaking shared with Richard. That she would never forget that night was a given. Her goal now was to go an entire day without thinking about the ecstasy of what had happened between them.

  Well, she didn’t have time for that mental tug-ofwar. She was probably only hours away from being face-to-face with Richard. She had to decide right this minute what she was going to do about The Newsflash.

  Tell Richard about the baby as soon as she saw him?

  Wait until she was no longer capable of hiding the basketball?

  Move to Siberia and forget she ever knew Richard MacAllister?

  “Get a grip, Brenda,” she said aloud.

  “Yeah, Brenda, get a grip,” a teenager said, as he strolled past her. “You’re losing it.”

  “I know,” she said, then realized the boy, who was a complete stranger to her, was well beyond where she was sitting.

  She shook her head in self-disgust and got to her feet. She had two more hours to work, then she’d head home, have some dinner and wait for Richard to pound on the wall and announce that he had arrived at his apartment.

  Then what? she asked herself, as she made her way through the crowd. She didn’t have a clue. She would just wait and see what popped out of her mouth when she actually saw Richard in living, breathing Technicolor.

  No, she decided, as she entered the travel agency, that was a wishy-washy plan. She had to get it together, be decisive, act like the ever-famous mature adult she supposedly was.

  “Hi, Brenda,” one of the agents, a man in his midthirties said, as she wandered by his desk. “Did the doc tell you what you wanted to know?”

  Brenda stopped and spun around.

  “What?” she said. “Who said I wanted to know something from a doctor, Kevin?”

  “You did,” Kevin said, frowning. “You said you had a doc appointment because you wanted to know what was making you feel tired all the time.”

  “Oh. Yes. I said that, didn’t I?” she said, nodding. “Well, I know what’s making me feel tired all the time, all right.”

  “No kidding?” Kevin said. “Is it— Gosh, Bren, is it really serious? Are you about to cry? Should I get ready to cry?”

  Brenda laughed. “No, Kevin, you don’t have to prepare yourself to cry, but I appreciate your willingness to weep buckets for me.
I’m fine, really. I just have a teeny-tiny problem caused by the antibiotics I took when I had my sinus infection. In time—” eight more months to be precise “—I’ll be as good as new.”

  “Well, great,” Kevin said, smiling. “Glad to hear it.” The telephone on his desk rang, and he picked up the receiver. “Wishing Well Travel Agency. This is Kevin. How may I help you?”

  I’m beyond help, Brenda thought, continuing across the room and entering her office.

  She put her purse in the bottom drawer of her desk, then sank onto the leather chair.

  A plan, she thought. She needed a definite plan of action in regard to telling Richard about the baby. So. Okay. The plan is…

  “Is?” She opened her hands in front of her as though a plan would drop into them from the heavens. “Is? Well, darn it.”

  She propped an elbow on the top of her desk and rested her chin in her palm, staring off into space.

  Richard was flying in from Detroit to attend Kara and Andrew’s wedding. Check.

  She had no idea if he was home to stay for a while, or if he’d have to return to Detroit immediately following the festive event. Check.

  She and Richard had decided weeks before to attend the wedding together, along with the propane barbecue present. Check.

  The MacAllisters were intelligent and caring people, who would pick up in a second on any strain or stress between her and Richard. Therefore, it would not be a good idea to tell Richard about The News-flash before the ceremony, regardless of whether he was going back to Detroit or not. Check.

  So, okay, she would divulge The Newsflash to Richard when they were safely back in her apartment after the wedding. Then she’d hope to the heavens that he was flying out to Detroit where he could get used to The Newsflash, leaving her in peace to come to grips with it herself. Check.

  “Hooray!” she said. “I have a plan.”

  “No,” Kevin said, poking his head into her office. “You have a call on line three. Mrs. Gillispie wants to know if you made reservations for her pit bull’s stay at the Doggy Dude Ranch while she and Mr. G. are in Europe.”

  “The Doggy Dude Ranch won’t take pit bulls,” Brenda said. “Say, Kevin, how would you like to baby-sit a darling little pit bull while—”

  “I’m gone,” he said.

  “Well, cripe,” Brenda said, reaching for the telephone receiver.

  Early the next afternoon Brenda set her purse and a tote bag on the sofa and stared at the far wall of the living room with narrowed eyes, willing it to produce the sound of three solid thumps.

  Where on earth was Richard? she thought, beginning to pace back and forth. She’d fallen asleep on the sofa last evening, clad in her comforting pea-soup robe, having spent long, nerve-racking hours waiting for Richard’s thunks on the wall that never came. Now there was only about an hour left before it would be time to leave to go to Kara and Andrew’s house for the wedding. Why wasn’t Richard home?

  She sighed and pressed one hand against her stomach that felt as it had the one and only time she’d gone on a roller coaster.

  Morning sickness twenty-four hours a day was the pits, she thought, sinking onto the sofa. The material that Kara had given her suggested that a mother-to-be who was suffering from morning sickness nibble on saltine crackers. If she ate one more cracker, she was going to burst, and she still felt yucky.

  “Blak,” she said, then smoothed the skirt of the pretty mint-green dress she’d bought especially for this occasion.

  Her exhausted mind, she decided, leaning her head back on the top of the sofa, was all over the place. One minute she was thrilled to pieces about the prospect of having a baby, the next, scared to death at being a single mother, and always she dreaded the moment when she had to tell Richard she was pregnant with his baby.

  She just wanted to go to the wedding and have a wonderful time with people she adored. She was going to, somehow, push The Newsflash to the back of her brain and thoroughly enjoy herself at the MacAllister gathering. And she would not say a word to Richard about The Newsflash before the wedding.

  But if Richard didn’t hurry up and arrive at his apartment, he wouldn’t even be at the ceremony for her to tell him.

  Brenda frowned. “Huh? Did that make sense?”

  Well, she knew what she meant. Where was Richard, for heaven’s sake?

  Three loud knocks sounded on the far wall, causing Brenda to gasp in surprise at the sudden noise. She jumped to her feet, swallowed heavily as her tummy objected to the abrupt motion, then hurried to the wall to give it two whacks, which were answered by one thump.

  “Okay, this is it,” Brenda said, nodding. “Richard is home and wants me to come over. I’ll just act normally, be chipper and upbeat. I can handle this. No problem.”

  She grabbed her purse and tote bag from the sofa and sooner than she would have preferred she was rapping on Richard’s apartment door. Richard opened the door, then turned immediately and began to walk across the living room, leaving Brenda standing out in the hallway.

  “Come on in, Bren,” he said over one shoulder. “I have to be in front of a mirror to do my tie.” He disappeared into the bedroom.

  Brenda entered the apartment and closed the door behind her.

  In his bedroom Richard stared at his reflection in the mirror above the chest of drawers. Brenda looked beautiful, he thought, really lovely. Her dress was the color of pistachio ice cream, her hair was fluttering around her face in soft, silky waves and—

  Get a grip, MacAllister, Richard ordered himself, as he began to tie his tie. Damn, this had been a long month. A month filled with images of Brenda and memories of the incredible lovemaking they’d shared. He’d done one lousy job of erasing their fantastic night together from his mind. Really lousy.

  He’d replayed what they’d shared over and over in his mental vision until he’d been ready to holler the roof down with frustration over not being able to forget what had happened.

  Well, he was home now, having put in tediously long hours to complete the assignment in Detroit at long last. He’d be able to view Brenda in the proper manner again. She was his best friend. That was it. Pure and simple. The way it had always been and always would be.

  “Got it,” he said, nodding at his reflection.

  He strode from the room and entered the living room to find Brenda standing just inside the door.

  “Hey, make yourself comfortable,” he said, stopping in the middle of the room. “We don’t have to leave for a while yet. Sit. I’ll get the wedding present and be right back. Did you bring your bathing suit? Oh, yeah, you have your tote bag. We’re going to christen Kara and Andrew’s new pool after they get hitched. This should be a great party, don’t you think?”

  Richard spun around and left the room.

  Brenda took a much-needed deep breath and walked forward to sink onto the sofa.

  She’d forgotten to breathe, she thought, taking another long breath. She’d just stared at Richard as though she’d never seen him before in her life. She’d been viewing him, she realized, not as her buddy, but as the father of her child. The whole concept was so strange, new and foreign that she’d failed to inhale then exhale, finally causing little black dots to dance before her eyes.

  But she was fine now. Had her act together. She was in control. Richard was the same ol’ Richard. Granted, he looked like a million dollars in his tan suit and dark brown shirt and… But no big deal. He was always handsome as all get-out, because he was a very handsome-as-all-get-out man and…and she was mentally babbling like a nutcase.

  Richard returned with the huge present that was wrapped in paper with silver bells and doves as a design. He set the gift on a chair.

  “That’s heavy,” he said, then smiled at Brenda. “How are you? I’m late getting in because we got stacked up above Denver, but I made it with time to spare. I’m showered, shaved and spit shined. Hey, want to hear some trivia from Detroit?”

  Richard sat down on his favorite lumpy recline
r.

  “Okay, here we go,” he said. “Motown trivia. Brenda, my pal, did you know that a shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes? How’s that? Dynamite, huh? I have another one, too. Ready? There are more chickens than people in the world.”

  Richard punched one fist in the air.

  “Yes!” he said. “Great stuff. You’re going to have to go a stretch to beat those, Bren. I really outdid myself this time. So? What have you got for me? Lay some new trivia on your buddy, here.”

  “Richard,” Brenda said, then promptly burst into tears. “Richard, I’m…I’m pregnant…with your baby.”

  Four

  Brenda blinked away her tears and stared at Richard, who was staring at her.

  The emotions displayed on Richard’s face, Brenda realized, were changing so fast it was like an old-fashioned slide show…click…another one came into view. If it wasn’t for the fact that The Newsflash was causing Richard such obvious confusion and turmoil, it would be fascinating to watch.

  The first expression she’d seen register on Richard’s face had been rather smug, as though she was kidding around and he’d figured that out immediately, a “Yeah, right, Bren” expression.

  Then he exhibited openmouthed incredulity, then his mouth snapped closed, accompanied by a sharp shake of his head indicating disbelief, then his eyes widened with the realization that what she had announced was true.

  And now…what was this? A smile was tugging Richard’s lips? No, certainly not. But…yes, he was smiling and it was growing bigger, becoming a full-blown grin.

  Oh, poor Richard. He’d gone right over the edge of his sanity because of The Newsflash. He was sitting there grinning like a fool.

  “We’re…we’re going to have a baby?” Richard said, getting to his feet, the smile still firmly in place. “That is so fantastic, so…” He frowned. “But I thought you were on the Pill.” The smile slowly returned to his face. “A baby.”

  “Richard, for heaven’s sake,” Brenda said, “get a grip, would you? This is not a smiling matter. Read my lips. I…am…pregnant. Me. Your buddy, your pal, your chum Brenda. The antibiotics I was taking for that sinus infection nullified the birth control pills.”