BEVERLY BARTON - Having His Baby

“She does now,” Tallie said. “The father is here—” she pointed to her eldest brother “—and he’s the type who ikes to take charge of situations.”

“I’m Dr. Farr, Mr...?”

“Jake Bishop.”

“Hank and Caleb’s brother?” the doctor asked.

“That’s right.”

“And you’re the father of Donna’s baby?”

“Looks that way.”

“Do you want to be with Donna during the remainder )f her labor and the delivery of your child?”

Did he? Could he? “Yeah, I want to be with her,” he answered finally. No woman should go through childbirth without the baby’s father, Jake thought. And no kid should grow up without a dad, the way he and his brothers and Tallie had.

Jake followed Dr. Farr back into Donna’s room. The atendants turned and stared at him.

“This is Jake Bishop.” The doctor introduced him.

‘He’s the baby’s father.”

All the women smiled warmly and moved aside to allow him space next to the bed.

“What are you doing here?” Donna glared at him. “Where’s Sheila?”

“Everybody thought I should be present for our daughter’s birth,” Jake replied.

“She’s my daughter!”

“She’s our daughter, sugar.” Jake took Donna’s hand in his and lifted it to his lips.

She narrowed her eyes and glowered at him. “You didn’ t even know she existed until a few hours ago! You have no right to make claims on my baby. You weren’t supposed to be a part of her life. You’re totally unsuitable to be Louisa Christine’s father.”

Jake kissed Donna’s hand, then sat in a chair one of the attendants scooted over to him. “Louisa Christine sure i a mouthful for a little baby. Maybe we should call he Christy or Lou.”

Donna jerked her hand away. “We will do no such thing I’m naming her in honor of my grandmothers and I’m go ing to call her Louisa!”

“Sure thing. You call her whatever you want to cal her.”

“Don’t you patronize me, J.B.! Dammit, I mean Jake.’

“I don’t mind you calling me J.B.”

“That’s not your name, is it? If you’d told me you were Jake Bishop the night we met, I wouldn’t be in this situation now.”

Jake leaned over, lifted his hand to Donna’s face and caressed her moist cheek. “Are you sure about that, sugar As I recall, nothing short of an act of God would have prevented what happened between us.”

“Why you...you...you...” Donna spluttered furiously.

“Calm down,” Jake said. “What will these fine folk here think if we keep fussing with each other?”

Donna glanced around the room at the attendants, who tried to pretend they weren’t listening to every word of the not-so-private conversation. “Right this minute, I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks.”

Dr. Farr motioned to Jake. “Are you ready to be a father, Mr. Bishop?”

Was he ready to be a father? Hell, no! He’d been a renegade and a black sheep all his life. A hell-raiser, who had avoided responsibility and commitment for as long as he could remember. The last thing on earth he was ready for was fatherhood.

But prepared for the awesome task or not, he was about to have fatherhood thrust upon him. Without prior warning. With no preparation.

Jake stood, leaned over and kissed Donna’s forehead. “I’m here for the duration, whether you want me or not.”

Donna grabbed Jake’s hand. He grasped tightly. They gazed into each other’s eyes for a brief moment.

“I want you here,” Donna admitted, doing a sudden about-face in attitude. “Don’t leave me, Jake.”

Two

Following the last of Dr. Farr’s instructions, Jake cut the umbilical cord. His heartbeat thundered in his ears as an exhilaration he’d never known rushed through his body.

“How about a good look at your daughter, Donna?” Dr. Farr indicated for the nurse to lay the newborn on Donna’s abdomen. “She seems to be perfect in every way.”

Jake stepped back, took a deep breath and gazed at the woman who had just given birth to his child. Despite the time in labor and with her makeup melted away, Donna was still beautiful. So beautiful that at that precise moment the sight of her and his infant daughter hit him like a sledgehammer to the gut.

Tears trickled down Donna’s cheeks as she smiled. “Oh, my, isn’t she beautiful?”

“Looks just like her daddy,” one of the attendants said. “All that black hair and those big brown eyes. It’s unusual for a baby to be born with such dark eyes.”

A lump formed in Jake’s throat and his heart skipped a beat. That tiny, wet, pink bundle that the nurse lifted from Donna’s belly and held up for his inspection did look like him. This little girl was a Bishop, through and through.

The nurse cleaned Louisa Christine and dried her off, rubbing her briskly, then weighed and measured her. “Nine pounds, five ounces! And twenty-one inches long. She’s a big girl.”

The nurse quickly wrapped the baby in a warm, pink blanket and placed a cotton cap on her head. Jake watched in amazement as his daughter opened her little mouth and let out a piercing wail.

“Nothing wrong with her lungs, huh, Doc?” Jake said.

Dr. Farr nodded. The attendants laughed softly. Donna turned her head so that she could see her child while the doctor finished his work. Then she gazed up at Jake. “Will you go out and tell everyone that I’m all right and that Louisa is just perfect?”

“Sure thing.”

“Will you come back after you’ve told them?”

Jake paused, walked over to the bed and wiped several damp strands of cinnamon hair from Donna’s forehead. “I’m not going to leave you, sugar. I’ll be around for as long as you need me.”

Her smile was faint and the look in her eyes questioned his sincerity. He supposed she had no reason to trust him. After all, they barely knew each other. He was scarcely more than a stranger to the mother of his child.

“I’ll let the folks know that there’s a gorgeous new addition to the Bishop family.” Jake headed for the door, stopped abruptly after he opened it, and glanced back over his shoulder. “I think maybe we should get married.”

Before Donna had a chance to reply, he walked into the hall and closed the door behind him. Within seconds the Bishop clan surrounded him, bombarding him with questions.

Warding them off with hand motions, Jake laughed. “Hey, cool it, y’all. Mother and daughter are fine. Donna came through like a trooper. And our daughter is one hundred percent Bishop. She weighs nine pounds and five ounces and she’s twenty-one inches long. And she’s got a mouth as loud as her aunt Tallie’s.”

Tallie punched his shoulder. “Smart aleck,” she teased.

“When can we see them?” Sheila asked.

“As soon as they get through in there with Donna, I guess,” Jake replied.

“Then you’ve got time to do some explaining,” Tallie said. “Just how is it that our friend Donna wound up pregnant with your baby and nobody knew you were the father?”

Hank and Caleb laughed. Their wives gave them warning glances, which sobered them immediately.

Peyton Rand put his arm around his wife’s shoulder and said, “Tallie, honey, I think it’s fairly obvious that nine months ago Jake and Donna were together. And if I understand correctly what Susan has told us, Donna and Jake didn’t bother to exchange last names or past histories at the time.”

“Is that right?” Tallie tapped her foot on the shiny, wood-look tile floor.

“Yep,” Jake said sheepishly. “Donna and I spent one weekend together and parted company. We didn’t plan on ever seeing each other again. Believe me, I was startled when I saw her at Hank’s wedding reception and shocked when I noticed she was very pregnant.”