Kate Welsh - Substitute Daddy

Brett sat back in his chair slowly, taking the words in, thinking about them solemnly. “I agree and I understand what and who prompted it. They’re my parents too. But Gary lied to me. Then he was furious with me for treating you like the person you pretended to be without bothering to tell me you’d been playing dress up.”

She could see beyond his anger to the hurt in his light-gray eyes. They were filled with pain.

“What I don’t understand—” he continued “—is why he kept it from me. We didn’t keep secrets from each other. Why do you think I’m the only one who knows for sure that there’s a baby on the way?”

Melissa leaned back in her chair also, letting her face rest in the shadows as she spoke. “He said the two of you were always having to keep secrets from your parents. He wanted to let you off the hook with this one. That’s all it was, Brett. His commitment to Leigh was a lifetime one. If Gary had told you, he felt he would be forcing you to keep his secret for just as long. We’d originally come up with a scenario in which I would pretend to move to the farm I’d inherited from a distant relative. I was going to say I enjoyed the area and had decided to stay. Since it turned out that I preferred not to visit when you’d be around, he decided updating you and your parents with the story no longer mattered.”

Brett pursed his lips and nodded, then looked off, staring at the barn closest to the house. “I would never have touched you if I’d known the truth. I wish to God he’d told me.”

“Well, you aren’t the only one,” she snapped. She still smarted from his incredulous look when she’d found him in the arms of another woman not twenty-four hours after he’d held her, kissing her in the same way. He’d so dazzled her that she’d almost compromised her principles for him. And that had hurt.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said quietly.

Melissa hated that he saw the truth. “Don’t flatter yourself. You infuriated me. That’s all there was to it,” she lied.

“I didn’t mean to do that either,” Brett said, his voice solemn. “But I know I hurt you. I saw your tears before you turned away. Plus Gary had a lot to say on the subject.” He grimaced. “And I’m sorry, but I was misinformed.”

“Only about my clothing. I’m not a country bump-kin just because intimacy means something to me.”

He nodded. “Fine. I think, considering present circumstances, it’s time we bury the hatchet somewhere other than in each other’s backs.”

She hoped she would never see him again so what did it matter? Forgiving him wouldn’t change anything but there was something to be said for a lack of enemies. Melissa nodded.

Brett sighed, clearly relieved. “Now, about help.”

Melissa stood. “I don’t want your money. Money comes with strings and I don’t want anything tying us to your family.”

She realized her error when he looked up at her, his hair stirring in the breeze. Standing had put her in closer proximity to him. He was too damn handsome by half. She sat back down, hating that his nearness could still affect her.

“I didn’t say anything about strings or conditions,” he said softly. “I offered help.”

“Charity always has conditions, Brett. And there’s another thing about money you don’t seem to understand. Money doesn’t fix your threat. Money doesn’t buy trust. I accepted your apology for the way you treated me at the wedding because I think it was sincerely given, but I haven’t forgiven your threat to me or my child’s happiness. And I won’t, because money also doesn’t buy forgiveness.”

Stung by the truth of what Melissa had said, Brett nodded, ready to leave for the time being, but determined to find some other way to reach her. He refused to do it with legal threats or by scaring her with the very real worry that his mother could turn out to be a threat all her own.

Still he had to do something. He couldn’t let it go at this. Maybe he’d been a lawyer too long. Maybe, as Melissa said, he’d been a Costain too long. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I frightened you. I only came here to offer help. There should be a little left in Gary’s estate, and his child is entitled to it. I’ll be in touch.” He sighed and stood, grappling to say the right thing. Instead he settled for neutrality. “In the meantime, take care of yourself until I see you again.”

He turned away and left her there on the porch. He looked back at her before climbing into his car. She looked like the heroine of an old movie. Sitting in a rocker on the porch of the dilapidated farmhouse with the breeze ruffling her fine golden hair so it shimmered in the dying sunlight, she was too beautiful for words.

Hesitating, Brett fingered his keys before starting his car, forcing his mind into numbness. It was only when he turned onto Route 5 again, that he remembered passing a shopping center with a rather large grocery store. Food was something everyone needed. And what was the old saying? She was eating for two now. If he bought her groceries, he’d help the baby in the only way he could right then, and he’d help Melissa because she could spend what little money she had on other things.

So he found a motel out on the highway, and the next morning at 6:00 a.m., Brett entered a supermarket for the first time in years. It was his housekeeper’s job to keep his cupboards stocked and he hadn’t remembered how much fun food shopping could be. He went up and down the aisles filling the cart to overflowing with everything that looked healthy or useful. Soon it was full, but he’d saved the most important aisle for last. It was the one aimed exclusively toward the needs and wants of babies and small children.

He went down there to remind himself why he was there in the first place. Then the cutest brown bear caught his eye. He picked it up and decided it must be too early in the morning for rational thought. He could have sworn the look in the little guy’s soft golden eyes begged for a home. He put it back on the shelf, but its soft fur caressed his fingertips as he drew them away and its head sort of flopped sadly to the side.

He might have managed to walk away but he remembered Gary buying several toys in the two weeks he’d known about the baby. Gary wouldn’t have put the bear back, so Brett added it to the cart then hustled back to the card aisle. He picked out a gift bag and a matching note card, then headed for the checkout.

Once he returned to the car with sacks and sacks of food and other essentials, Brett wrote a note saying he would be back for a brief visit. He longed to say something else, anything else, but what could he say that would fix the muddle he’d caused with his runaway emotions and tongue the previous day?

Not wanting to spark another confrontation with Melissa, he coasted the last several yards of the drive with the engine off. Then he quietly began transferring the bags from his trunk to her porch. Once done, he returned to his car, turned it on, and got the hell out of Dodge before she sicced her friend the sheriff on him.

The farther he got from Melissa, though, the more thoughts of her haunted him. It didn’t feel right leaving her destitute to face bringing a child into the world. Especially when it was his brother’s child, and being kindhearted had gotten her into this fix. He had to find a way to get her to accept financial help.

She didn’t want strings to his family. He could understand that. His parents, aunts, uncles and cousins had continually treated Gary and Leigh with disdain. And Leigh, who had been hungry for family after losing her own, had been hurt almost as much as his brother by their contempt. No wonder Melissa wanted so desperately to protect the baby she carried from his family.