Page 61 of This Baby Business
“Anambulance? I knew it!” Mary Helen shrieked.
“Foryou, ma’am,” Levi said. “The rest of us won’t need one.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Campbell now had a definite edge to his voice.
Mary Helen went into overtime with the breathing. “I’m on a beach in Maui. I’m on a beach in Maui.”
So was he. On a sandy white beach with a gorgeous blonde…Carly. He executed his smoothest landing and taxied slowly enough to have been given a tranquilizer, all for Mary Helen, who now laughed and babbled about how she’d reached yet another milestone. He congratulated her, accepted her hug and silently hoped she’d never fly with him again.
He followed his passengers through the hangar. Mary Helen had a small group waiting for her with signs that read You Did It! and Party Tonight!
“We need to talk,” Levi said through a tight jaw when he caught sight of Stone.
Stone simply nodded in the direction of his office. This would be good. Levi would tell Stone in no uncertain terms that he was sick of being used. Just because he was the NFG didn’t mean he got to have all of the crappy assignments. He’d paid his dues. No more hysterical women. Or nervous dogs. He was drawing a line and that was final.
He stepped into the office, ready to tear Stone a new one when he saw Mrs. Lane. She sat in a chair, hands folded on her lap. Eyes red rimmed. She’d been crying.
Super.
This one he couldn’t blame on Stone. “Something wrong?”
“I’ll give you two a few minutes alone.” Stone shut the door to his office.
“Yes, something’s wrong. My husband! He’s taken official leave of his senses. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but there was no emergency screening. He lied to all of us.”
Levi swallowed, relieved there was no more bad news. “I know.”
“When did you find out?”
“Saturday.”
“I pressed him to call the court and cancel it. He kept saying there’s no need. And then he finally confessed. I suppose he expected you to think we’re such great people for letting it go, but all he’d intended to do was make you miserable. Force you to hire an attorney and spend money. God only knows what he possibly thought he could achieve with this. He’s done nothing but use fear tactics on you since the moment we found out you were the father.”
Levi couldn’t argue that point. He’d tried to understand it was the grief talking, but Mr. Lane had only made everything between them far worse. “There’s no reason you two can’t have a relationship with Grace. I never wanted to keep her away from her grandparents.”
“But that’s not enough for my husband. He’s depressed, and lately the only thing he does in his spare time is feed on his anger. What happened was horrible and we won’t ever quite get over it. We can’t do much about it now, but Frank won’t get help. He wants to beat himself up about what he could have done to have a better relationship with Sandy. But we tried. We always tried. She didn’t want to have much to do with us after she left home.”
“You’ve both been through something no parent should ever have to go through.”
She sniffed. “I sometimes wonder if Frank wants Grace or if he just wants to keep her away from you. All he thinks about is punishing you for taking Grace from us. But he forgets that Sandy made a choice to be with you at some point. And it wasn’t fair that she never let you know about Grace. I’m sorry for that, too.”
“Thank you.”
Damn, that was a first. He’d never expected sympathy from Sandy’s parents for his situation, but it was true that what she’d done was wrong. Every time he thought about the fact that, had circumstances been different, he would never even have known about Grace… She would have been raised as another man’s daughter.
Still, Levi felt guiltier than ever before. The problem with temporary, with no strings, was that it wasn’t really true. Was it? He’d been kidding himself for years. Or maybe he’d just been lucky in the past and his luck had run out. Sandy was someone he’d been with for one night. Someone he’d never know now, but he had a child with her. Grace had half her DNA from a woman he’d never get a chance to know. He was tied to her, through their child, through her parents.
Mrs. Lane took a breath and dabbed at her eyes. “Sorry to bother you with all this. I know you’re busy planning a wedding and everything.”
Levi coughed and hit his chest. “Um, yeah. That’s mostly Carly’s deal.”
“Of course. You men just get to show up and look suave and dapper.” Mrs. Lane stood. “Anyway, I wanted to tell you the truth as soon as I could. I want to see Grace, of course, every chance you’ll give me.”
“And Frank?”
“I don’t know or care what that old man is doing anymore. We’re getting a divorce.”
CHAPTER24
