Daddy To Be Determined. Muriel Jensen

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      He decided she could use a break. “No,” he replied. “She called me because you wouldn’t answer her knock, and she knew you hadn’t eaten. She was worried about you.”

      “I was probably sleeping. I’ve had a difficult couple of weeks and I haven’t slept very well. Then I was taking pills and she gave me that toddy….”

      “She had other guests coming in last night to whom she’d promised the room, so she had to…remove you.”

      The silence was thick for a moment. He could hear her sorting through words for the right thing to say. Then she uttered a little sound of exasperation and blurted, “There’s just no subtle way to ask this.”

      He couldn’t see her in the rearview mirror because she was lying down. He had the weirdest sensation that he was having a conversation with an invisible woman.

      “Ask what?”

      There was another heavy pause, then another abrupt question. “Did I say anything to you about…” She stopped as though it was just too hard, after all, then seemed to reconsider and began again. “Did I ask you if you’d been sent to impregnate me?”

      He had to admire her willingness to confront an uncomfortable situation head-on.

      “Yes, you did,” he answered. Then he decided he could give her another break. “Of course, I was confused, but after you passed out and my mother was packing up your things, we saw the newspaper. It explained some.”

      Natalie groaned aloud, a muffled sound that suggested her hands were probably over her face. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m usually the epitome of decorum, but then I don’t usually drink. I guess that little bit of brandy made me more direct than it’s safe to be. I apologize if I offended you.”

      He turned into the clinic parking lot. “I’m a builder who’s spent most of his time working in the company of other men. I’m not offendable.”

      “But your girls are so sweet,” she said, a trace of self-loathing in her voice, “and I can tell by the way you are with them that you’re trying to provide a gentle, protective upbringing, and here I’m pushed into your life, trying to compromise you before I even know your name, then passing out cold.”

      He parked in a spot near the door and hurried around to the passenger side. He slid the van door open and found her sitting up, her face blotchy, her eyes grim.

      “I didn’t tell them that part,” he said with a reluctant grin. “And they just thought you were asleep.” He placed a knee on the edge of the floor and managed to lift her off the seat and out of the van.

      “Well…I’m sorry.”

      “You can stop saying that.” He bounced her once in his arms to firm his grip on her, then carried her inside. “If it’s anyone’s fault that you fell, it’s mine.”

      “I’m not talking about falling.” She lowered her voice as they walked into the cool, quiet office. “I’m talking about…”

      “You’re talking too much.” He whispered the last two words as a woman in a lab coat came out from an inner office.

      She took one look at Natalie’s ankle and waved him back into one of only three examining rooms.

      Dr. Greg Fortuna, a man about Ben’s age who’d given the girls their back-to-school inoculations, bustled into the room, frowning solicitously over Natalie’s injury.

      He’d been in Dancer’s Beach less than a year, but he was well liked and respected. Ben had worked with him on a volunteer committee for the men’s mission and considered him a friend. Vanessa thought he looked like Antonio Sabato, Jr.

      “Greg Fortuna,” he said, shaking Natalie’s hand. “Hi, Ben. Did you mow this poor woman down?”

      “I fell over a two-by-four,” Natalie explained.

      “Oh. You working with Ben?”

      “No, this was in his living room,” she replied. Then she seemed to doubt the wisdom of admitting that—as though thinking that Ben expected discretion—and she turned to him, looking stricken.

      He wondered absently what her life had been like that she second-guessed every word and every move. It was clear from what she’d said and from the newspaper article that the last two weeks had been difficult, but this self-doubt seemed to be of long standing.

      “She’s visiting from Philadelphia,” Ben said. “She stayed at Mom’s, then Mom ran out of room, so the girls invited her to stay overnight with us.”

      Natalie looked grateful for the slightly fictitious intervention.

      “Looks like just a sprain,” Greg said, “but we’ll x-ray it to be sure. Just sit tight, Natalie, and we’ll wheel you right into the lab.” He turned to Ben, uncertain of their relationship despite his careful explanation. “You coming?”

      Ben picked up a copy of Popular Mechanics from a small table in the corner. “I’ll wait right here.”

      “Good enough.”

      Ben was just getting into an article about winterizing outdoor pipes when his cell phone rang.

      “Bijou Development,” he answered, tapping his pockets for a pen.

      “Henrietta Caldwell said she saw you carrying a woman into the van!” his mother said, not bothering with a greeting. “Is Natalie Browning still asleep?”

      Henrietta Caldwell lived across the road and was one of his mother’s church cronies. He suspected she’d reported on him before.

      “And how did Mrs. Caldwell happen to observe this?” he asked, closing the magazine.

      “It was perfectly innocent,” his mother replied defensively. “Her husband has this telescope set up in the attic….”

      “Yeah. And there are so many stars out at eight-thirty in the morning.”

      There was a huff of dismay, then a testy, “Are you going to tell me if she’s all right or not?”

      “She’s going to be fine,” he replied, tossing the magazine back on the table, knowing his momentary respite from the women in his life was over. “But she did fall in the living room and sprain her ankle. At least Greg thinks it’s just a sprain.”

      “Are you at the clinic?”

      “Yes.”

      “I’ll be right over.”

      “Mom…”

      “Breakfast is over and all my guests have scattered. I’ll be right there.”

      She hung up without giving him another chance to protest.

      She arrived before Greg returned with Natalie from the lab. Lulu was wearing fuchsia and looked as though she belonged on the cover of some fashion magazine for senior women.

      “If СКАЧАТЬ