The Doctor's Accidental Family. Jacqueline Diamond

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СКАЧАТЬ me.” Alice sighed. “He says he can handle it by himself, but if I’m not there, things will fall apart. This tour is too much for one person to coordinate. I told him to cancel it until Linda’s older, but he insists we have to strike while the iron is hot.”

      “That’s hardly a reason to divorce him.” Discovering that she’d buttoned her shirt crooked, Zady started over. She’d promised to meet Nick in less than fifteen minutes.

      “He’s high-handed and condescending,” Alice burst out. “I assumed we’d be true partners. Instead, he acts as if he’s the boss and I’m the employee.”

      Zady could hardly suggest Alice learn to tolerate such a situation. Still, she couldn’t encourage her friend to abandon her marriage, either. “Sit down with him and figure out a compromise. Your little girl needs both her parents.”

      “You really love her, don’t you?”

      “Of course!” Zady said. “I just wish I could spend more time with her.”

      “You wouldn’t...do anything, would you?”

      “Do anything?” Then it hit Zady what she meant. “Of course not!”

      Nearly four years ago, after Alice had learned that her body was no longer producing viable eggs, she’d wept on Zady’s shoulder. She’d have been content to adopt and Bill had agreed, but as the only child of high-achieving parents, he’d longed for a baby to carry on his family’s genetic heritage. And Alice wanted to provide one.

      As an obstetrical nurse, Alice had colleagues who had been willing to waive their usual fees for the in vitro procedure, but she and Bill would have had to go into debt to pay for an egg donor. Without hesitation, Zady had volunteered, and the process had brought the women even closer.

      When their baby girl was born, Zady had been thrilled to be chosen as godmother. Alice and Bill had considered her part of the family, welcoming her offers to babysit Linda.

      After they moved to the Los Angeles area, she’d driven down from Santa Barbara occasionally to babysit on weekends when they were tied up with seminars. But these past few months they’d grown distant. Zady had assumed her move to Orange County would help, but now she understood why Alice had been reluctant to confide in her.

      “I know you counted on us to raise Linda as a married couple.” Alice’s voice trembled. “But this is beyond my control.”

      “I would never interfere.” Zady had signed legal papers surrendering her rights. And much as she loved her goddaughter, she was in no position to raise a child unless there was no other option.

      “I’m glad you called. It’s been hard for me to get any perspective on the situation.” Alice broke off as a toddler’s voice squawked in the background. “Oh dear, she’s finished her nap already.”

      The girl’s cry of, “Mommy, I need you!” cut straight to Zady’s heart. When she’d last seen Linda, the child had just begun stringing two words together, and now she’d spoken a whole sentence. She was growing up fast.

      Without me. But that had been the arrangement, and she had no intention of trying to change that. “Will you consider having a serious discussion with Bill?” Zady asked. “Or is it too late for that?”

      “No. I was just letting off steam. I haven’t consulted a lawyer or anything.” Alice sounded less frazzled. “You’re a terrific friend. I should have remembered that sooner.”

      “Please stay in touch. I care about you.”

      “I’ll call with an update when I have one.”

      “You can count on me.”

      After they said goodbye, Zady finished dressing and applied makeup, her mind whirling. Would Linda really have to grow up in a single-parent home? Surely a five-minute conversation with her hadn’t resolved Alice’s problems.

      Zady had believed she was doing the right thing by donating her eggs and entrusting her daughter to two loving parents. Surely interfering now would be selfish, and possibly harmful. Or was she rationalizing?

      It would be hard to focus on Nick’s issues with his son while her thoughts were buzzing with what she’d learned. But she’d promised to be there for him and his little boy, and Zady meant to keep her word.

      * * *

      NICK WISHED HE’D done more than muck out the empty fast-food sacks and grocery receipts littering his blue coupe before Zady climbed in. As he steered onto the freeway with Zady belted into the seat beside him, her soft floral fragrance sensitized him to the messy accumulation of lint, fingerprints and window streaks that a bachelor took for granted.

      But surely there was another cause for her remote attitude than his messy car. Since she hadn’t brought it up, he risked a guess. “In case you’re worried, Marshall didn’t seem concerned about you and me having a friendly chat yesterday.”

      “Did you mention today’s trip?” Zady asked.

      “It never came up.”

      “I’ll tell him tomorrow, unless you’d rather I didn’t talk about your son.”

      “No, that’s fine. I corrected his erroneous impression about my relationship with Caleb.”

      “How’d he take it?”

      “Oddly enough, with a touch of envy.”

      Zady didn’t respond. She continued gazing out the window at a cluster of low-rise buildings.

      It wasn’t an inspiring landscape. Far from the beach and harbor from which the town’s name derived, the view included stretches of modest houses punctuated by big-box stores and light-industrial buildings.

      Zady’s silence left room for Nick to ponder what lay ahead. He’d concentrated on paying off his debts and saving for a down payment on a house, equating economic security with providing a loving home. But I’m his father. Having grown up largely without one, Nick, of all people, understood what a painful hole it left in a child’s heart to live apart from his father.

      He’d considered his cousin incredibly lucky to have a dad who stuck around. But judging by Marshall’s comments yesterday, Upton Davis’s occasional presence hadn’t been enough.

      “I’ve been thinking,” he said aloud. “Maybe I owe it to my son to bring him to live with me.”

      Zady swiveled toward him. “I realize these are his grandparents, but to a little kid, they’re like parents. He must have bonded with them. You can’t just yank a kid out of a happy home because you love him.”

      What did she know about it? “My goal is to keep him safe and happy,” Nick protested. “I’m questioning whether I’ve been fair about that.”

      She folded her arms. “You brought me along for my feedback, right?”

      “Yes. And?”

      “And I have the impression that you’ve been willing to stay on the fringes of his life if that’s what’s best,” she returned. “If he’s happy with his grandparents, why change СКАЧАТЬ