BEVERLY BARTON – Wanted: Father for Her Baby: Keeping Baby Secret / Five Brothers and a Baby / Expecting Brand's Baby (страница 17)

“I’ll be just fine…once we get Andrew back. I feel so guilty for—”

“Hush that kind of talk,” Leenie said. “You have nothing to feel guilty about.”

“If only I could have stopped that woman from taking Andrew.”

“Mrs. Schmale, you had no way of knowing that the woman had deliberately crashed into your car so that she could kidnap Andrew. You did exactly what anyone would have done,” Frank told her as he walked over and stood directly behind Leenie.

“Please, call me Debra.” She offered him a warm, genuine smile. “I’m so glad that you’re here with Leenie. She needs you, now, more than ever.”

Leenie gasped softly. Frank realized that Mrs. Schmale—Debra—knew he was Andrew’s father, which made him wonder just how much Leenie had told her about him.

“In case you’re wondering, Leenie told me very little about you, not even your name,” Debra said, as if reading his mind. “She didn’t offer the information and I didn’t pry.

“Then how did you know—?” Leenie asked.

“Haley told me about Mr. Latimer. She’s been a frequent visitor. And she is as pleased as I am that Andrew’s father is by your side during this terrible ordeal.”

When Debra looked at Frank, she smiled, but he felt her disapproval and understood she was wondering why he had gotten Leenie pregnant and walked out of her life. Women of Debra Schmale’s generation expected a man to do the right thing, to make an honest woman of his child’s mother.

“You and Haley are a couple of busybodies,” Leenie said jokingly. “And just so you won’t badger Frank, you should know that he plans to be a part of Andrew’s life…once we have him back with us.”

“There’s no news, then?” Debra asked.

Leenie shook her head.

Frank put his arm around Leenie’s waist and pulled her close. “We have every reason to hope that no news is good news, at least for now. The FBI thinks Andrew will be found unharmed. Leenie and I are clinging to that hope.”

Debra eyed Frank’s arm around Leenie.

The telephone on Debra’s bedside table rang. She reached out for it, but Leenie grabbed it to save Debra the effort.

“I’ve gotten a dozen calls already today,” Debra told Frank. “Everyone in Maysville must know I’m out of ICU and in a private room now.”

“Debra Schmale’s room,” Leenie said.

Frank glanced at Leenie, who paled instantly.

Leenie looked at Frank and said, “It’s Kate and she wants to speak to you.”

The muscles in Frank’s belly knotted painfully. He reached out and took the receiver from Leenie.

“Yeah, Kate, what’s up?”

“Moran just called,” Kate said.

“Tell me it’s good news.”

Leenie grasped Frank’s arm.

“It could be,” Kate told him. “Two new infants have come up for adoption. Both fit Andrew’s description.”

“When is he sending in a couple of agents?” Frank asked.

“What is it?” Leenie demanded, tugging on Frank’s arm. “Is it news about Andrew?”

“Everything is set up for tomorrow,” Kate said. “Moran wanted me to tell you something. He made me repeat it twice.”

“What?”

“He said to tell you that it’s sooner rather than later.”

“God!” The FBI operation that had been in the works for several years was coming together. Sooner rather than later. Possibly tomorrow? Was that what Moran was trying to tell him? Was it all going to happen tomorrow, right when Andrew—if he was one of the two infants—would be smack dab in the middle of everything? What if when the feds made their arrests, the two babies were whisked away before being rescued? What if they lost Andrew? What if there was gunplay?

“I’ll bring Leenie home right away,” Frank told Kate. “We’ll skip going to WJMM today.”

“Moran knows you’ll come back to Memphis.”

“Damn straight about that.” Frank replaced the receiver and turned to Leenie, who was squeezing the life out of his arm. “Good news. A couple of infants have been found and it’s possible one of them is Andrew.” He glanced at Debra Schmale and smiled, then gave Leenie a sharp glare, hoping she’d understand why he couldn’t be totally forthcoming with Debra.

“This is wonderful news,” Debra said.

“Keep it to yourself for now, okay?” Frank smiled at her.

“Absolutely.” Debra folded her hands together in a prayerlike gesture.

“We need to go,” Frank told Leenie.

She kissed Debra on the forehead and said her goodbyes, then rushed out of the room with Frank. When they were alone in the elevator, she didn’t wait for him to explain.

“Two more infants have come up for adoption, right?” she asked.

“Right.”

“In Memphis?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re going to Memphis tonight, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“And you want me to stay here in Maysville and wait.”

“Yeah.”

The elevator doors swung open and they emerged on the first floor. Frank grabbed her arm and hurried her outside to the parking lot. She walked quickly to keep up with his long-legged gait. When they reached his rental car, she halted and dug in her heels.

Before she could speak, he grabbed her by the shoulders and said, “Dammit, Slim, stay here in Maysville, will you? Let me be the big, strong man. Let me be your man.”

“You want to be a buffer between me and the big bad world, don’t you?”

“Something like that. After all, I am Andrew’s father. I wasn’t around when you were pregnant or when you gave birth. I should have been. You needed me and I let you down.

“I need to do this for you. Hell, I need to do it for myself. Let me be the one to handle things, and if it is Andrew, I want to be the one to bring him home to you.”

“And if it isn’t Andrew?”

“Then I should be the one to tell you. We’re Andrew’s parents. And if we’ve lost him, we should share that grief together.”

Leenie swallowed, then offered Frank a fragile smile. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “You go to Memphis. I’ll wait here in Maysville for you…and Andrew.”

He cupped her face with his hands, then kissed her.

Chapter Eight

Frank had left for Memphis around eight-thirty last night and called after he arrived at the hotel. Leenie and Kate had sat up until after two this morning, watching television, talking, looking through magazines, listening to Leenie’s substitute on WJMM’s late-night talk show. They had done anything they could think of to kill time. At midnight, while listening to the radio, they made fudge and devoured a third of what they’d prepared. As if by silent agreement, they hadn’t mentioned Frank or Andrew. At two, they’d gone to their separate bedrooms and Leenie had tried her best to sleep. She had tossed and turned for hours. Finally giving up hope of getting any rest, she’d flipped on the bedside lamp and searched for a romance novel in her stash of to-be-read paperbacks. As entertaining as the book was, Leenie simply could not concentrate enough to do the story justice, so around four-thirty, she’d taken a shower and put on jeans and a sweatshirt.

As she passed the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the hallway, she caught a glimpse of her image. She looked bleary-eyed and somber. Her damp hair was secured in a loose ponytail. Faded jeans hugged her hips and legs. A comfy green fleece sweatshirt with an enormous sunflower in the center gave her otherwise pale appearance a touch of color. All-in-all, she was a pitiful sight.

She wondered if Frank had gotten any sleep last night. Probably not. If only she’d gone with him, at least they’d be together right now. But Frank had needed to make the trip to Memphis alone. She understood. And deep in her primitive feminine heart, she loved him all the more for wanting to play the role of her protector.

How was it possible that her whole world had become condensed into one event—into what happened this morning in Memphis, at some immoral, moneyhungry lawyer’s office? Two FBI agents would once again pose as prospective parents, but would they get to see the two infants who were available for adoption? Would one of those babies be Andrew? If Andrew hadn’t been kidnapped in order to sell him to the highest bidder, then she might never know his fate. Could she live that way, never knowing?

When Leenie entered the kitchen, she glanced at the wall clock. Five-fifteen. The meeting was set for nine o’clock this morning. Less than four hours from now. But how long would it take the agents to report back to Moran if they did get to see the babies? It was possible that even after the meeting, they still wouldn’t know if Andrew was one of the two infants.

While preparing the coffee machine, she stared at the telephone. She wanted to talk to Frank, to hear his voice. But he might be asleep. She shouldn’t disturb him.

She reached out and jerked the receiver from the wall phone, then glanced at Frank’s cell number, which he’d jotted down on the bulletin board by the telephone. After dialing, she suddenly had second thoughts and started to hang up, but Frank answered on the second ring.