Instant Daddy. Carol Voss
concerns. If Scott and Karen hadn’t taken him under their protective wings in college, he’d have no one. With his lack in the relationship department, how would he be able to relate to a little boy?
Then there was his research, a demanding taskmaster that took everything he had to give. He lived it, breathed it. He’d focused on ALS research as a result of Scott’s diagnosis. And as Scott’s condition worsened, too many nights Peter slept on the cot in his office rather than making the drive downtown to his dingy, furnished apartment. Even when he had to be away from the lab, he was thinking, planning, solving problems related to his research.
Fine by him. Without his dedication, the experimental drug wouldn’t be ready for testing. The drug that could be Scott’s last chance.
Drugstore bag in hand, he climbed out of the van.
Jessie lifted Jake out of his seat and pushed the door shut. “You ready to meet my dad, Dr. Sheridan?”
“Sure.” A lie. He doubted her father would take too kindly to the man who got his daughter pregnant and hadn’t taken responsibility for her or the baby. Never mind that she hadn’t bothered to tell him. Maybe Peter could hold his own with that fact. “Please call me Peter.”
“Peter,” she repeated, as if trying it out.
He liked the way his name sounded coming from her lips. “What’s your father like?”
“He’s a straight shooter. Protective. A great dad. And he loves Jake.”
Peter heard love and pride in her voice, along with challenge. “Glad you’re not in my shoes?”
She shot him a look that might pass for sympathetic.
Oh well. If talking to her father was the price to pay for a couple cheek swabs, bring him on. With fresh rain making the earth smell new again, Peter followed Jessie up the driveway into a backyard exuberant with flowering bushes and plants. A child’s swing set filled the corner under a tree. The whine of a small motor came from a covered patio running the length of the house and outfitted as an outdoor living area. A muscular, weathered man sat at a workbench, using an electric sander on a long board. Had to be Jessie’s father. “Your dad looks busy.”
“He builds custom furniture in his free time. He has a shop in the garage.”
“Papa!” Jake squealed.
Mr. Chandler switched off the sander and rose to Peter’s height. “Hey, Jake. How you doing, little buddy?”
Jessie walked over to her dad.
Mr. Chandler bent and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Your mother called. Said you were on your way.”
The understanding passing between father and daughter hit Peter like a blow. So much said with just a look. The same understanding Jessie and her mother had shared. Communication real families enjoyed. He couldn’t imagine communicating with his son like that.
Mr. Chandler reached across his workbench to give Peter’s hand a firm shake. “Dr. Sheridan.”
“Peter.”
“Max.”
“I want you to know how sorry I am about Clarissa’s death.”
“Thank you.” The older man shifted his gaze to the ground as if checking his emotions. Then he raised his eyes, held out his arms and Jake lunged from Jessie’s arms to his. “How’s my little buddy?”
Jake gave his grandpa an enthusiastic hug.
Peter found himself smiling at the comradery between the two. It was hard not to smile at just about everything about the little guy.
“Come on, Jake.” Jessie held up the tinfoil package her mother had sent with her. “Help me put supper in the oven to stay warm, okay?”
“’Kay!” Jake yelled as if Jessie had given him a very important assignment.
Max let him slide to the ground.
Jessie grasped the boy’s hand.
With a purposeful strut, Jake headed for the house with Jessie gliding beside him.
She was probably leaving so her father wouldn’t have to pull punches. “You will make that phone call?” Peter reminded.
“I will,” she called over her shoulder.
Peter dragged his gaze back to the man on the other side of the work bench.
Her father’s eyes bore into Peter’s until the screen door slammed behind Jessie and Jake. “My wife and I are very proud of both our daughters. But for reasons I’ll never understand, Clarissa felt her research was more important than being a mother. What I want to know is why she found it necessary to keep her baby a secret from you.”
Off and running. “I don’t know the answer to that question.”
Max studied Peter, sadness filling his lined face.
It must be hard to lose a child.
“I could use something cool.” Max strode to the back wall. He pulled a couple cans from an under-counter refrigerator, strode back to Peter and handed him a can of Dr Pepper.
“Thanks.” Peter popped the lid, the hiss of carbonated air filling the silence between them.
Max raised his soda. “To reasonable men.”
Peter could hope. But the steel glint in Max’s eyes warned him to stay on his toes. He raised his can in a toast, then took a sizable swallow, the liquid cold and refreshing.
Max drank thirstily before he lowered his can and focused a narrow gaze on Peter. “Clarissa and I had our differences of opinion, but she knew what she was doing when she gave Jake to Jessie. Jessie’s the best thing that could have happened to that boy.”
Peter had no argument with that. Just thinking about the love on her face when she looked at Jake made him smile. “She’s wonderful with him.”
“Think about it, Peter. If Clarissa had been a different person, she might have given him to some agency for adoption. You would never have known you had a son. And little Jake would have been lost to all of us.”
Peter could only stare at the man as he absorbed his words. Rather than blaming Clarissa for leaving him out of the loop, maybe he should be thankful for the things she’d done right. He could only imagine how difficult the situation had been for her.
But Max wasn’t finished. “The way I see it…the measure of a man is in how he takes care of his family. If you’re the man I hope you are, you’ll do what’s best for Jake. If you don’t, you don’t deserve to be his father.”
Somehow Max had managed to challenge Peter’s integrity, prod him to live up to it and shame him if he fell short. The man was good. “Of course, I want what’s best for Jake.”
Max took a drink of his soda. “What’s best for Jake is Jessie.”
As if summoned, she walked out of the house, Jake in her arms. “Jake left his musical car out here.”
She was just as pretty in jeans and a green T-shirt as she’d been in her sundress, Peter noted.
“Want a Dr Pepper, Jess?” Her father looked at her expectantly.
She shook her head.
“Did you talk to your lawyer?”
“Yes. He said I’ll have to give you DNA samples eventually anyway, and I’d just as soon do it now.”
“Great. Then let’s get started.” Peter swept the kits out of the drugstore bag he carried.
Max gave him a level gaze. “There’s more to being a father than DNA, Peter.”
“Of course there is.”
“Like feelings, love, commitment. How do you feel