Carolyne Aarsen - Unexpected Father

All this was delivered in an emotionless monotone that beat at him like waves on sand.

Denny’s heart slowed and then sped up as reality slowly sunk in.

“A month? You never thought I should know this?” Denny felt a white-hot anger mingled with sorrow growing in his gut as his brain caught up with the information Deb had thrown at him so casually.

The baby let out another whimper and he realized he’d been holding her too tight. He eased off, anger still coursing through him.

“You were divorced,” Deb said, as if that explained everything. “Didn’t think you would care. Lila always said you two fought like cats and dogs. Besides, I didn’t have your number and Lila’s phone got stolen in the hospital. Took me this long to track you down.” Her voice grew shriller with each word and Denny struggled to stifle his own anger with her, reminding himself that Deb had also recently lost her sister.

But at least she’d had a month to deal with it.

As her words found a place in his mind, awareness of the weight and warmth of the sticky little girl he held worked its way through his fog of confusion.

“And who is this?” he asked, dropping the diaper bag Deb had handed him into the hallway and looking down at the little girl.

She stared up at him, her deep brown eyes unblinking. Cute little thing even if she looked and smelled as though she needed a bath.

Deb only looked past him into the apartment, nodding as if she approved, then looked back at the little girl now tucked against Denny’s hip.

“That’s Ella. Your daughter.”

“What?” The word burst out of him as another shock jolted him. “No. That’s impossible.” Denny glanced at the little girl he was holding. His angry outburst had erased the smile and her lip quivered again.

He jiggled her to settle her down as he looked back at Deb.

“No way.”

“Yes, way.” Deb continued, “Lila found out she was pregnant after you guys signed the final divorce papers.”

“She was lying. She’s done this before.” Denny felt like he was on an amusement park ride, his head going one way, his body another, and nothing making any sense. Even in his shock he thought of the fake pregnancy that had gotten them married.

“She wasn’t seeing anyone before or after she divorced you. Your name is on the birth certificate as the dad.”

As Deb spoke it was as if her words barreled toward him from the far end of a tunnel. He stared at her as his mind slipped back to his last months with Lila. She had been miserable, staying away all hours, never coming home, and when she was home, all she did was yell at him and complain about being on the ranch.

Denny had started going back to church, trying to find the strength to keep their relationship going. One night she had come home early, in tears. He had asked her if she was unhappy because she was seeing someone else, but she had vehemently denied that.

So he’d convinced her to try again. She had agreed, and he’d believed her. After months of being apart, they had been intimate.

The next day she’d left and the next week he’d been served with divorce papers.

When he’d called her to find out why, she had said it was because she wasn’t happy on the ranch. Never would be and it wasn’t fair to him to stick around and prolong the agony. Those motives had started to sound pretty suspect when Denny found out how much money she’d wanted to settle the divorce.

Denny looked back at the little girl. The girl Deb said was his daughter. “How old is she?”

“Eighteen months.”

“She can’t be mine,” he protested, unwilling to believe what Deb was saying.

“The certificate is in the diaper bag if you want to check,” Deb was saying. “And so is her health care card. You’ll need that if she gets sick.”

“Why didn’t Lila tell me about her?” he insisted as the baby squirmed. “She never said anything about this pregnancy.”

“She said you two never talked after you split.”

That much was true. Lila’s petition for divorce had been a shock, but at the same time a small relief. In spite of his last-ditch effort to keep the marriage going, when he’d received the papers he’d decided not to contest it. Nor had he had any desire to be in contact with her.

The proceedings had been a financial drain. Once Denny had walked away from Lila with precious little in the bank and a bitter taste in his mouth after having to sell the family ranch, he couldn’t face her again. Apparently the feeling had been mutual. He’d never heard from her over the past two years.

“I told her to tell you but she said something about how you wouldn’t believe her. But I pushed and she promised me she would. Obviously she didn’t.” Deb shot a pointed look at the little girl in his arms.

“Anyhow, when she got sick I took care of Ella, but I got another job and another boyfriend and can’t take care of the munchkin anymore. You know me. Not crazy about kids. Then I figured, hey, she’s your kid. You should be the one to do it. Took me a bit to track you down, and so here you are. Clothes are in the suitcase, diapers in the bag. She drinks out of a sippy cup and doesn’t like strawberries. There’s more info on a paper in the suitcase.”

Denny’s brain spun a few more times as he tried to regain his balance. Tried to regain control of the situation.

“What about your parents? Do they know about this?”

“Of course they do. But they told me that I had to do the right thing and find you. Besides, after Lila died, they left on some project out in Bolivia. Can’t get hold of them until they call me. And they won’t be back for about a month or so. So here I am.”

The information she threw at him was like a landslide. One thing after another, leaving him feeling buried.

“How did you find me?” was all he got out as the little girl wriggled in his arms.

“My boyfriend’s friend did some carpentry work for a guy who drove a truck. We met him at a bar. Found out the guy used to work for you. He gave us your number.”

Might have been Stewart, a driver he had fired a couple months back. Probably had it in for him, Denny thought. Awesome.

Then the little girl whimpered and he jiggled her, still not sure what he was supposed to do, trying to find a way to reason with Lila’s sister. Trying to wrap his head around Lila’s death.

Then Deb took a step back and waggled her fingers at the child. “Be good for Daddy, Ella,” she said. Then, without another word, she turned and strode down the hallway and around the corner.

What? She was leaving the baby behind?

Denny looked from the now-empty hallway to the howling little girl, trying to figure out which emotion to hang on to. Fear. Anger. Confusion.

Concern for the little girl in his arms.

“Deb,” he called out, “come back here. We need to talk about this. This can’t be my baby.”

But the only thing he heard was the echo of Ella’s pathetic cries.

Of course his phone would chime right then. He yanked it out of his pocket as if hoping to find some answers there. But it was just his sister Olivia. Asking him to send her money again.

He’d deal with that later.

Then the door to the bookstore opened and there stood Evangeline, her shining hair flowing in waves over her shoulders, her white dress giving her an ethereal look.

And she was looking at him as if he was crazy.

“Everything okay?” she asked, though clearly she could see it wasn’t. He was holding a crying baby and yelling at an empty hallway.

Denny looked from Evangeline to Ella and felt his heart sink.

What was he supposed to do with a baby?

Chapter Three

“Do you need a hand?” Evangeline asked, the howls of the little girl catching at her heart.