Patty Hall - The Baby Barter

“So it’s okay for you to have someone care for Sarah while you’re at work, but not me.” She slammed her compact shut and cocked her head to the side. “Why is that?”

Mack glared at her for a long moment, then much to her surprise, he gave a regretful chuckle. “Stuck my foot in it, didn’t I?”

Thea’s heart did a sudden flip at his crooked smile. Mack had always been a charmer. It would be best if she remembered that. “I’d say so.”

“Sorry.” He leaned back, leaving Thea suddenly bereft of his warmth. “Just had a rotten morning.”

“Please say it’s not the baby. She’s not sick or something, is she?”

He shook his head, twirled his hat between nervous fingers. “Doodlebug is doing fine.”

Now it was her turn to gawk. “You call her doodlebug?”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Is something wrong with that?”

No, quite the opposite. It was endearing, the sort of sweet name a man would give his baby girl. Thea shook her head. “It suits her.”

He seemed glad she agreed with him, at least on his pet name for Sarah. “The first couple of days after I took her to Ms. Aurora, the kids fought over what to call her.”

“I thought she’d always been Sarah.”

He shook his head, the ghost of a memory playing along his smile. “That was Merrilee’s idea. Ms. Aurora generally lets the kids decide what to call any new additions to their family.”

The older woman let the children name the baby? “Isn’t that like the prisoners running the jailhouse?”

Her heart fluttered when he turned the full effect of his smile on her. “Ms. Aurora wants them to feel like they have a say in their family. She gave them a few suggestions, and they voted for the baby to be named Sarah, though Ellie wasn’t too happy about the choice.”

Was Ellie one of Ms. Aurora’s children? Or had Mack adopted other children? “Ellie?”

“A little six-year-old spitfire who has lived with Ms. Aurora since she was barely two weeks old.” He sat down beside Thea then leaned toward her as if to whisper a secret. “They’d just gone to see a matinee of The Wizard of Oz and Ellie wanted the baby to be named after one of the characters.”

“But Dorothy is a nice—”

He shook his head again. “Scarecrow.”

Thea choked back a giggle. “You’re serious.”

“I had to bribe her with a day at the park to get her to agree to the name Sarah.”

Oh, dear. If Mack succeeded in his adoption plans, little Sarah would have him wrapped around her pinky finger. Lucky kid. “The sheriff bribing small children. Isn’t there a law against that?”

“Not yet. Besides, I like pushing the kids on the swing set in the park. Takes my mind off of work.”

Thea studied him as he stared out over the empty room. This was the Mack she remembered, the guy who loved being outdoors, who found joy in simple pleasures like helping his neighbor or pushing a little girl on a swing. She was glad that growing up hadn’t taken that away from him. But what about all his plans for adulthood? Why hadn’t he followed through on his dream of playing football in college, becoming a lawyer like his father? Why had he never left Marietta?

She swallowed the questions burning on the tip of her tongue. It would only complicate the situation more if she learned who Mack had become, what had driven him to stay here, to abandon his dreams. For some unknown reason, she felt disappointed at the loss. “I never intended to hurt you, you know.”

He stiffened, the pleasure of the last few minutes fading. “What do you mean by that?”

“It’s just...” She hesitated, not sure how much to reveal. Maybe if she could make him understand, make him realize how important it was to her to raise Eileen’s baby, it would be easier for him to let Sarah go. “I know you love Sarah, but I love her, too.”

“You don’t even know her.”

“She’s a part of Eileen. She’s my family, Mack.”

“You don’t know that for certain,” Mack said, her words obviously falling on deaf ears. “You’re going to have to produce some proof to get a judge to listen to your claim.”

Thea figured as much. She’d searched through Eileen’s room, through her personal mail, even the journal she kept, but had found nothing except a brief entry a few days after her baby was born. Nothing to prove Thea’s claim to Sarah. “I’d planned on visiting the courthouse after I finished my interview today.”

“No sense wasting your time.”

She glanced up at him. “Why would you say that?”

“Because if Mrs. Williams delivered Eileen’s baby like you say, it wouldn’t have been filed with the county and state yet.” A look of frustration clouded his expression. “As I told you before, Mrs. Williams went up to Tennessee to take care of her sister shortly after Sarah was born. Sarah’s birth certificate still hasn’t been filed. If you’re able to find a certificate on record for Eileen’s baby, then that would be proof that she’s not Sarah.”

That wasn’t the news Thea had expected to hear. She’d need a birth certificate to petition the court to stop the adoption. But if she needed one to prove Sarah’s parentage, wouldn’t Mack need one to get final approval for her adoption? “You can’t adopt Sarah without a certificate, can you?”

His jaw tightened, and for a brief moment, Thea thought she’d have to pull an answer out of him. Then just as quickly, he relaxed—though only a bit. “No,” he agreed, “I can’t.”

So he knew her frustration. “Have you been in touch with Mrs. Williams?”

He shrugged. “I’ve tried. I sent a letter when I learned she hadn’t filed Sarah’s birth certificate but she’s a ways outside of the city limits so I figured it would take a while before I heard from her. I checked on sending her a telegram this morning but they don’t deliver that far up into those mountains.”

“I take it her sister doesn’t have a phone.” Thea didn’t wait for an answer. She was thinking again what it must have been like for Eileen, delivering her baby all those months ago. “Do you think Mrs. Williams tried to talk any of those girls who gave up their children into keeping them?”

She felt his gaze shift to her. Could he see the pain that had consumed her in the days since she’d returned home, the fear that her only chance at a real family had died with Eileen? Or was he too centered on what losing Sarah would mean for him? His answer was to cover her hand with his, warmth to her cool skin, and she relaxed. “This thing with Eileen has really thrown you for a loop.”

“I just...” She leaned her head back against the wall, her fingers threading automatically through his as if hanging on to him for dear life. “I don’t understand why my sister would do such a thing. We weren’t in touch for these past few years, but I’ve read her journal. She talked about how much she wanted a yard full of kids, babies she could love on.” And who would love Eileen back, Thea suspected. “I can’t see her giving her baby away.”

“Maybe she realized she wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility. Maybe she did it out of love.” Mack gently squeezed her hand.

She’d like to think her sister was that unselfish, but Eileen had spent her short life desperate for the affection she never got from their mother. Thea’s love had never been enough for her—she had wanted more. Giving up her baby, a child who would grow to love her unconditionally, wasn’t something Thea could see her sister doing. “She could have left the baby with Momma. I could have asked for an emergency discharge and come home...”

“And cleaned up the mess your sister made just like you always did?” Mack pulled his hand away as if he’d touched his fingers to a hot furnace.