His Unexpected Family (4 page)

Chapter Five

T
he next evening, Emily pulled open McRuben’s front door, a blast of air-conditioning meeting her in a welcoming wave. There was no lineup, and the only other patron was an old man nursing a coffee in a disposable cup by the bathrooms.

A bored teenager took her order, and Emily watched in silent delight as he filled her fries up to overflowing. When the boxed burger was deposited onto her plastic tray, Emily’s mouth watered in anticipation. Extra pickles, extra mayo and a dab of their secret sauce... This was the kind of dinner she looked forward to more than she cared to admit.

“Need a hand with that?”

Emily started at the familiar voice and looked up to see Chief Taylor standing there in uniform.

“Chief!” She looked down at her tray piled high with burger, fries, a milk shake and a sundae and felt her cheeks heat.

“Get me the same, would you?” He pointed to her tray and put a bill on the counter.

“Do you have a secret love of fast food?” she teased.

“I’m actually here for a perfectly professional excuse.” He shot her a grin, the most relaxed Emily had seen him yet.

“I don’t believe you.” She felt a smile tickle the corners of her mouth.

“All right, truth be told, I want a burger. But since you’re here, it could save me some time.”

“That’s more like it.” She chuckled, picking up Cora’s car seat.

“Let me carry this for you.” He picked up her tray.

Leading the way to a booth by a window, Emily looked back over her shoulder. “So what is this good professional excuse of yours?”

“Just some unanswered questions, mostly, Miss Shaw.”

Greg waited until Emily had Cora settled on the bench beside her before he eased into the seat opposite her.

He nodded his thanks to the teen who put down an identical tray to Emily’s in front of him. “About Jessica—does anyone know why she was coming to Haggerston?”

Emily shook her head. “I don’t know, but I guess I’d assumed she’d been on her way here. Her dad was here, after all. I did ask people at the funeral, but no one was really sure.”

He unwrapped the burger and peeked inside, his expression unreadable. “What is this?”

Emily laughed. “You did ask for what I was having.... It’s a burger with extra pickles, mayo and secret sauce. It’s delicious. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”

Greg took a cautious bite, then smiled. “Good.” He wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “I normally do extra bacon and tomato.”

Emily raised her eyebrows as an idea struck her. “I should start putting some bacon on this. That would be perfect.”

Greg shot her an amused look and then sobered. “So no one knew Jessica was coming?”

Emily shook her head. “Everyone was saying the same thing—we had no idea she was pregnant, let alone already a mother. We hadn’t heard from her in a long time.”

Greg nodded slowly. “Did she have drug problems? What would isolate her from her family like that?”

“Well...” Emily opened a ketchup package and made a little mound to dip her fries into. “Her parents were good Christian people, and Jessica was the black sheep of the family. She was the one who went out partying as a teenager and defied her parents at every turn.” She shrugged. “When she moved out of her parents’ house and went off to the city, she came back a couple of times for family events, but things were pretty strained between her and her parents.”

“But no substance-abuse problems?”

Emily shook her head, opening another packet of ketchup as she talked. “I think their biggest problem was that she was sleeping around, and they didn’t like it. She drank a little at parties, but I don’t think she was ever involved in drugs.”

“Why not?”

“She put herself through a fine-arts degree,” Emily said, raising her gaze to meet his. “She painted and drew. She was quite the artist. She worked too hard to get that degree on her own. She couldn’t have done it high.”

“So more of a free spirit.”

Emily nodded. “Don’t you remember her from Steve?”

“No.” He shook his head and popped a fry into his mouth. “I didn’t know Steve terribly well, not well enough to know his sister.”

“Why does any of this matter?” she asked, turning her attention to the food in front of her. She took a bite of her burger, the mixture of meat and condiments hitting her brain right in the pleasure center. Greg looked at her thoughtfully for a long moment, as if weighing his words. Finally, he shrugged.

“Maybe it doesn’t,” he admitted. “I just don’t feel quite right about all of this. There’s something missing. It might be nothing, but...” He shrugged again.

Emily licked a dab of ketchup off her finger, regarding Greg thoughtfully. Tiny lines were starting to appear around his eyes, and she could see that he shouldered a great deal of stress. He had the rugged features of a man accustomed to hiding his thoughts, but she could see something behind his eyes that she recognized—kindness.

“I suppose I should tell you,” Emily said quietly, “that Steve is contesting my custody of the baby.”

Greg winced, then nodded. “Yeah, I could see that coming.”

Emily shot him a quizzical look, and he put his hands up. “Not because you aren’t an excellent choice to raise the baby, but because these things do tend to happen.”

Emily sighed. “Well, regardless, I have a big decision to make.”

“What decision is that?”

“Whether to fight this in court or not.”

“That is a big decision.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She smiled sadly. “I just don’t know what the best thing is for Cora. A big legal battle hardly seems in her best interest, but then, Jessica chose me, and I’d like to think that was for a reason.”

Greg sighed. “So how are you holding up?”

“I have good friends, but the family is already choosing sides. My mom will always be behind me, but I was close to my uncle Hank, too—that’s Jessica’s dad. He’ll want his son to raise Cora, no doubt...”

“It’s getting complicated,” he said softly.

“Very.”

“What do you want?” he asked.

“To raise this baby.” She looked over at Cora sleeping peacefully in the car seat. “I can’t have children of my own.”

“Oh, I see.” He nodded and took a bite of his burger.

Stupid,
she thought to herself. It was a personal thing to blurt out, and she wished she could take the words back. What did Greg want to know about her fertility?
Seriously, Emily,
she chastised herself.

“So what are you going to do?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She took a long, creamy sip of her milk shake. “It’s just so complicated.”

“I can see that.” His blue eyes met hers, and she was relieved to see compassion in them.

“I wish I knew why Jessica chose me instead of her brother. If I knew that, I’d know if I should be fighting for this or not. I need to know what she wanted, really wanted.”

He nodded slowly and leaned back in his chair. The comfortable quiet stretched out between them as they each finished their burgers.

“Greg?”

He raised his eyebrows in response.

“Are you going to be investigating my cousin’s death?”

“I’ll be looking into it,” he said. “I don’t have any reason to suspect foul play, but I’d like to get a few questions answered to put my own mind at ease.”

“While you’re doing that, would you mind keeping an eye open for something that might explain why she chose me?” Emily asked.

“Like what?”

“I wish I knew. I just need a few answers, too, about now, and I don’t know how to get them.”

Greg was silent for a moment, his gaze moving slowly over her face. His blue eyes seemed to be filled with conflicting emotions, something he wasn’t hiding very well. Finally, he took a deep breath. “Sure.”

“Really?” Emily laughed nervously. “I didn’t think you’d agree.”

Greg smiled at that. “I think you could use a favor about now.”

“Thank you. This means a lot to me.”

Just then, Cora began to cry, a thin, hiccup-y wail coming from the car seat, and Emily rummaged through the baby bag for a bottle.

“I’m prepared.” She gave him a wink and gently picked up the wriggling Cora in her arms.

* * *

Emily tried to give Cora the bottle, but the baby scrunched her eyes shut and wailed all the louder, turning her face away from the milk. Emily patted her and shushed her, but to no avail. She peeked in the diaper and felt her little face for fever. At first, Greg’s thoughts were focused on the crying, wondering when it would stop, but then he saw Emily’s face and he felt a sudden surge of sympathy. She looked ready to cry, too.

“What’s the matter?” Greg asked.

Tears welled up in Emily’s eyes, and she shook her head. “I’m not her mother.”

Greg could hear the pain in Emily’s voice as she said it, and the thought of the tiny thing crying desperately to find her mother—the mother who had been absent for a couple of weeks now—was heartrending.

Cora wailed harder, her face turning red as she cried out her frustration or grief, Emily patting her little rump and shushing fruitlessly. The restaurant was empty except for them, and when he looked over at the teens working, he found them staring.

“Can I try?” he suddenly asked, and as the words came out of his mouth, he was already regretting them. He was more of an iron-pumping kind of guy than a baby-soothing kind of guy, but there was something about the sadness in Emily and the unwanted audience that made him want to fix it if he could.

Emily agreed mutely, and he took the squirming infant out of her arms. What was he thinking? Cora screamed, her eyes squished shut and her tiny tongue quivering with the effort of her wails. When he tried to hold her close, she writhed and wriggled. He wasn’t sure exactly how to hold her, but he decided to simply use logic. When apprehending a suspect, first you needed to stop the perpetrator and then subdue the limbs. Cora’s legs were squirming quite actively, so he simply pushed the little knees up and pulled her against his chest. Once she was there, she seemed a bit surprised by her position, so he took advantage of the pause in her cries to hum a low, soft note.

It wasn’t a song. It wasn’t anything, really, just a low sound in his throat that rumbled in his chest. Cora gave a few more squirms, then leaned her tired little head onto his chest, listening to the sound. Emily came around to his side of the table.

“Have some milk, sweetie,” Emily murmured, and she slid the bottle’s nipple into Cora’s mouth. The infant started to suck noisily.

“There.” Greg caught her eye and grinned. “Now don’t move...”

Emily gave him an impressed look. “Wow, you’re good with babies.”

“I’m normally not.”

“How did you know what to do?”

“Lucky guess?” He looked down at the top of Cora’s little head with the damp little swirls of golden-red hair. “I think I just surprised her.”

The sound of Cora’s soft slurps as she drank her milk filled the space between them, and he looked down at Emily with her dark hair swept away from her face and her long lashes brushing her cheeks with each blink. She sat close to him on the bench as she held the bottle for the baby to drink, and the soft scent of her shampoo mingled with the scent of baby. Just another couple of inches and she could rest her head on his shoulder, too. He pulled his thoughts away from dangerous ground.

“I’ll have to remember that trick.” She smiled sadly. “I can’t change the fact that I’m not her mom.”

“Steve’s wife wouldn’t be her biological mother, either.”

“Well, that’s true.” Some of the sadness left her eyes, and he felt gratified to see it. She was hard on herself, that much was obvious. And she was under a tremendous amount of pressure.

What would it be like to belong with Emily and Cora? This was a sweet moment with the baby in his arms, drinking her bottle, and Emily so close to him that if he just leaned over... No, this wasn’t productive. There was no point in imagining what it would be like to have a family—to have them.

“Maybe you should take her back,” Greg said gruffly.

“Oh, no,” Emily replied, nonplussed. “You seem fine, and she seems happy.”

With that, Cora finished the bottle and Emily moved around to her seat across the table from him. Greg looked from Emily to Cora and back to Emily again.

“Burp her, would you?” Emily said. “Here’s a cloth.”

She said it so matter-of-factly, as if asking someone to burp a baby was the most natural thing in the world, that he found himself wondering if it weren’t in fact the most natural thing in the world. He took the proffered cloth and put it over his shoulder the way he’d seen Emily do it. Granted, she was more graceful, but after a couple of tries he managed it, and he started to gently tap Cora’s back.

“You know, I used to see myself with a whole houseful of kids.” Emily turned her attention to her fries, swirling them slowly through the ketchup. “I don’t even know why I thought I’d have so many. I suppose it comes with always having a class full of five-year-olds.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m grateful for the chance to raise one child. It’s all in perspective.”

Cora let out a resounding burp, and Greg looked down at her with a grin. He’d never expected burping a baby to be so...satisfying. It was as if he’d just slam-dunked.

“Nicely done.” Emily grinned at him, popping another fry in her mouth. “What about you? Do you ever think about having kids?”

Greg felt the moment disintegrating around him, caving in on itself like the old mall when a wrecking ball connected with a load-bearing wall. He shook his head.

“Not at all?” Her brow furrowed as her eyes met his. “You don’t want kids?”

“No,” he said. “I don’t.”

It was the truth, wasn’t it? He couldn’t lie to her, but he could see the disappointment in her eyes as he admitted what was inside of him. No matter how adorable Cora was, no matter how sweet it might feel to imagine having a family of his own, children were simply out of the question.

Chapter Six

T
he next day, Emily stood at the kitchen sink washing a sink load of dishes while her mother rocked Cora. The sink was loaded full of pots and pans, some muffin tins sitting to the side taunting her with the sheer amount of scrubbing they were going to require. It was a bright and sunny day, and as Emily stood there by the sink, wrist-deep in soapy water, she could see some robins poking through her lawn in the shade of an apple tree. It was peaceful.

Emily’s mother stood behind her, Cora in her arms. She looked down at the baby with the wide-eyed expression people used with babies, and Cora looked entranced. Emily chuckled softly as she rinsed another mug and put it in the dish rack.

“Uncle Hank came by this morning,” Emily said.

“Poor man.” Her mother sighed. “Did seeing Cora help him at all?”

“I don’t know.” Emily put her attention into some egg welded onto a plate. “He didn’t stay long. He cuddled her for a little while, then he said he had to go.”

“I can’t imagine how he must be feeling right now....” Her mother put Cora up onto her shoulder and leaned against the island. “To lose a daughter.” She shook her head. “It’s unthinkable.”

Emily nodded.

“He and Jessica had a complicated relationship,” her mother commented thoughtfully. “That would almost make it worse, I think.”

“What happened between them?”

“He thought that being tough on Jessica would straighten her out.” Her mother shrugged her shoulders. “Was he wrong? I guess so, considering that she left and never really came back. He thought she needed more discipline, and by the time he realized he was wrong in that call, it was too late.”

Emily pulled another plate out of the sudsy water and looked back at her mother. “I think it did him some good. He said Cora looks a lot like Jessica did as a baby.”

“She does, doesn’t she?” The older woman looked down at Cora’s little face. Her mother had been a natural redhead once upon a time, and now she dyed it back to red, but it never looked very natural anymore. The line of white at her roots didn’t help.

Emily was avoiding the topic that was on her mind, but she was afraid to bring it up. Had Uncle Hank felt uncomfortable in her home because of Steve contesting custody? Did he think she was taking something away from his family? She washed a pot, rinsing it in hot water and listening to the sound of her mother making mouth noises for Cora.

“What about the custody thing?” Emily asked finally.

“What do you mean?” her mother asked.

“Has anyone said anything?”

Her mother was silent for a long moment. Then she took a deep breath. “Uncle Hank hasn’t said anything, but he isn’t much of a talker. Your aunts didn’t think too much of Jessica, so they think that she should have left her daughter to Steven. He was her brother, after all. Grandma is just really sad. She says that Jessica did a good thing by leaving Cora to you, and she thinks Steven is being willfully difficult....”

Emily listened as her mother went on with a description of everyone’s opinions on the matter. She knew that every family member would have one, but it was another thing hearing them all. She probably shouldn’t have asked.

“...Aunt Helen thinks that Sara wants to raise Cora because she gave Jessica such a hard time when they first got married. She thought Jessica was far beneath her and didn’t make any bones about it. Aunt Helen thinks that Sara feels like she needs to prove something. My cousin, Edith, on the other hand...”

“Mom?”

Her mother stopped. “Yes, dear?”

“What about you?”

“I think that Jessica made the best choice in choosing you. I think Cora would be a lucky girl to grow up with a kind and loving mother like you.”

Emily shot her mother a grateful smile. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you, too, sweetie.” Her mother smiled. “So what are you going to do?”

“I’m not entirely sure. What would happen if I fought this?”

“It’s hard to tell.” Her mother laid Cora back in the bassinet and dangled a toy above her. “Steven would be angry, very angry. It would really affect your relationship with him.”

“And Uncle Hank?”

“He’s just grieving Jessica right now. I don’t know. People would choose sides....”

That was exactly what Emily was afraid of—a big, tragic divide in a large family. The Shaws had big yearly family picnics. Everyone came with all of their children and grandchildren. There were games, more burgers than anyone could eat and a whole lot of gossip and chatter. Emily met cousins she saw only once a year, but it felt good to be a part of the Shaw clan. They had something special—a unity that defied the modern tendency to fracture.

“And what if I lost this case?” That was Emily’s biggest fear—that after all of this trauma to the family, she’d lose the case anyhow and have nothing to show for it.

Her mother didn’t answer that. She just exchanged a sad look with her daughter.

“Is it worth it?” Emily asked.

“Only you can answer that.”

That was true enough, and Emily knew it. It was almost harder that way—having to make this decision that would affect all of them on her own. Jessica had named her the guardian of her daughter. Emily was the one with legal rights to the baby, and she was the one being brought into court about it. No one else could make this decision for her.

“I think this is different for you because of your condition.” Her mother sighed. “You have more to lose.”

Emily couldn’t help but agree. It had been two years since her doctor explained her medical situation to her. There had been months of testing, culminating in a day of exploratory surgery. When she awoke from the anesthetic, her doctor sat down beside her bed and met her gaze levelly.

“It’s worse than we thought, Emily.”

“How bad is it?”

“The endometriosis has affected every part of your reproductive system. This is a severe case.”

He had explained that another surgery was recommended. It was a solution that sounded like good news to her, and she felt a rush of relief. But then he had explained that the surgery would be a hysterectomy. Her symptoms would go away, her pain would be gone and she’d feel normal again. She’d have her life back, but—the kicker—she’d never have children.

But the surgery was her only option. She was infertile.

Emily and her mother had discussed the options long and hard. She had been in severe pain for the better part of a year. Her job was at stake. The school relied on her, and with her condition, she wasn’t going to be able to continue teaching.

It had been the hardest decision she’d ever made, but she’d made it. The surgery had done all that the doctor had promised, and after a lengthy recovery, life had gone on, but there had always been a small part of her that quietly mourned the children she would never have.

“Is it possible that God has a different child in store for you?” her mother asked now.

Emily’s heart constricted at those words, and she winced. “I’ve thought about it, Mom,” she admitted, “but it would hurt. A lot. I’m crazy about Cora. Is that called bonding? I don’t know. The thought of just giving her up to someone else and walking away makes my heart physically hurt.”

Tears rose in her mother’s eyes, and she nodded. “I know that feeling,” she whispered.

Cora started to fuss, and Emily’s mother passed the baby to Emily. She tucked her little legs up underneath her and held her close the way Greg had done. Cora settled against Emily’s chest and let out a contented sigh.

“That’s a cute trick.” Her mother chuckled. “Look at you!”

“Actually, Greg showed me this one.” Emily blushed. “He’s surprisingly good with kids.”

“You seem to see quite a bit of him,” her mother prompted.

Emily just shrugged.

“I don’t believe that for a minute.” Her mother laughed softly and folded her arms across her chest.

“We...” Emily paused, unsure of how to explain it. “Greg is great. I don’t know what’s happening, exactly.”

“So something is happening?”

“Mom, stop it.” Emily chuckled. “I don’t know. To be on the safe side, I’d say that nothing at all is going on between us. We’re friends.”

Her mother nodded, but looked unconvinced. “He seems like a nice man.”

A nice man. Yes, Greg was most definitely a nice man, and so much more. He was kind and compassionate. He was strong and solid; a guy with a veiled sense of humor and compassion when it mattered most. Emily looked lovingly down at Cora’s downy head. Emily’s mother looked down at her watch.

“I hate to rush out on you,” she said, bending to kiss Cora. “But I’ve got to get back home. Your dad and I have a date.”

“A date?” Emily raised her eyebrows with a grin.

“He’s taking me out for dinner.” Her mother let out a girlish laugh. “And I’m buying a new dress.”

Emily laughed. “Go. Have fun. I’ll be fine.”

“Love you, Emmy,” her mother said, blowing her a kiss. “You’re doing just fine.”

“I know.” Emily chuckled. “Now go knock his socks off.”

Her mother grabbed her keys from the counter and headed to the door. Turning back, she shot her daughter a playful grin. “I fully intend to!”

* * *

Later that evening, Emily sat in her big, overstuffed armchair, her feet tucked up underneath her. A novel lay on the arm of the chair, untouched. Cora slumbered in her bassinet, and Emily leaned her head back with a tired sigh. It had been a long day—the kind that reminded her that she was doing this on her own.

She’d honestly thought that having a large, supportive extended family would be a bigger help than it was. While she had lots of advice and plenty of offers to babysit, there was one thing she knew she was missing—someone to sit on the couch with at the end of the day. Someone to say, “Wow, what a day.” Someone to share the memories with.

It would be nice to have a loving husband next to her during all of this, but she was no fool, either. If meeting the right guy was this hard when she was single without children, meeting Mr. Right just got a whole lot more complicated now that she was a single mom. How many guys wanted to jump into parenting with both feet? Not Greg.

She blushed at that thought. How come when she thought about husbands and marriage lately, Greg popped into her head?

As if on cue, the phone rang, and Emily looked around to try to spot the handset. It took her three rings to find it—this time in the bowl of fruit in the middle of her kitchen table. This lack of sleep was affecting her more than she liked to think.

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Greg.”

“Hi.” Emily couldn’t help but smile as she walked back toward her seat, but from the bassinet, she could hear Cora begin to fuss. It was the wet-diaper fuss—she could already tell the difference between whimpers. Pushing herself up from her chair, she went over to pick up the baby.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“Pretty good.” She bent over the bassinet and scooped Cora into her arms. “It’s been a long day, though. It’s tiring, you know?”

“You sound like you have it under control, though.”

“I really do.” She felt a little wave of pride as she looked around herself. “I mean, doing it alone is going to be a challenge, but I think I’m doing just fine.”

“Good.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “I guess I just wanted to check up on you.”

“Professionally?” she teased, laying Cora down on the receiving blanket she had on the floor for this purpose.

“Not really.” He laughed. “I can’t find any professional excuse to call you at eight o’clock at night to say hi.”

Emily blushed at that. “Well, it’s nice all the same.”

Cora wriggled as Emily pulled the wet diaper away, kicking her little legs happily at her new freedom. She wiped and cleaned and put on some more diaper cream, then Emily reached for a fresh diaper.

“Oh, no...”

“What’s the matter?”

“Oh, it’s okay.”

“No, really. What’s wrong?”

Emily closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “For all my bragging about having it all under control on my own, I’m out of diapers.”

“Completely out?” There was humor in Greg’s voice.

“Yes.” She fought back her rising irritation. She really did think she had it all under control, and suddenly she was faced with the frank reality that when problems came up, she was the go-to girl to take care of it. All of it.

“Do you need a hand?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll do this on my own.” She pushed herself up and looked around. “I guess I’ll just have to put her back in the wet diaper and go pick up a new package. I’m sorry, sweetie,” she cooed softly to the baby.

“Am I the sweetie?” Greg joked.

Emily just laughed.

“Let me pick you up some diapers,” Greg said, serious now.

“I need to do this stuff on my own,” she said. “I’ll figure it out.”

“Says who?”

Emily blinked at that. “I don’t know.... My own stubborn pride?”

“Diapers come in different sizes, right?”

Emily smiled and shook her head. “She’s just graduated to size two.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” he said. “Can your pride take it?”

“It’ll have to.” Emily silently grimaced. “Thank you, Greg.”

“No problem.”

As she hung up the phone, Emily looked down at little Cora, still happily kicking her legs and enjoying the breeze.

“He’s nice,” Emily said in the singsong voice she often used with Cora. “Isn’t he? He’s a nice man....”

Cora seemed to agree.