relative in Delainey’s family tree that she knew of and all notion she could have been Hunter’s daughter had to be put to rest.
Delainey’s only regret was her child might never know her absent father. She had only Micky’s name. They had never gotten around to phone numbers, let alone emails. Even as she tried to remember any contact information, she had realized Micky had been very elusive. All searches, even those the private investigator had conducted, had come up empty.
When Delainey could no longer harbor the slightest hope Hunter was the father, she gratefully acknowledged her beautiful daughter could help her deal with never seeing him again, ever.
Now Hunter was here and she couldn’t even be in the same room with him.
When she had been shifting papers around for an hour, she glanced at the clock.
Three o’clock. Her mother would have picked up Brianna from school. They were probably having a snack, or Dad had taken her out sledding by now.
Delainey wondered if she should just slip out the back door, go home and never come back. Maybe if she had $150,000 for law school. Loans, grants and scholarships went only so far. She needed a job, this job, for the next three months and then as often as law school would allow. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed her parents to help care for Brianna while she went to school. She’d pay them back. She’d use her increase in pay from being an attorney to make Brianna’s life the best it could be and she’d boost her parents’ meager retirement funds.
The piles she still had stacked on her desk reminded her she didn’t have to hurry away or even leave her office. She had enough work on her desk to keep her busy for a month. Right now she’d do her job.
That was the best revenge she could come up with.
Oh, heaven help her.
* * *
“MAMA, WILL YOU be looking for a daddy for me when you’re away at law school?”
Brianna’s sweet high-pitched voice came from the backseat of Delainey’s small car. She had made a quick stop at her parents’ home and hustled Brianna into the car in case her mother had heard about Hunter.
Helen Talbot would have to chat about wasn’t it wonderful that such a nice and handsome man like Hunter Morrison was back in town, and maybe they could invite him to dinner and maybe they could invite him to marry this single mom and rescue her from the disappointment of a life she had arranged for herself. Her mother would never say most of those things, but she would think them from time to time. Delainey couldn’t get upset, as her mother only wanted what was best for Brianna and her.
“Law school is going to be very hard, sweetie, and I don’t expect to have much time to look for a husband,” she answered in her mother voice.
Brianna was silent, and Delainey was sure the subject wasn’t finished.
“How hard can it be?”
Delainey smiled at this one. “What brings this up all of the sudden?”
“Duh.”
Delainey stayed silent. Duh had been banned from their conversations as too derogatory and too often used.
“Sorry, Mommy. Sorry I said duh. I know you’re very smart. But I’ve been looking for a daddy for years.”
“Years?”
“Well, I think I’ve been wondering all my life if I could get one.”
“That’s fair....” And normal, and it broke Delainey’s heart that there had been no prospects.
“What about Lenny? He was at our school talking to us about being a police officer. He’s not married.”
“That’s Officer Gardner to you. He’s engaged to be married. In fact, we’re invited to his wedding reception in a few weeks.”
Delainey pulled into the driveway of her small two-bedroom home on the upper part of White Pine Court. The house was surrounded on three sides by the beautiful long-needled tree designated as Maine’s state tree.
“Do I get to wear a new dress?” her daughter asked as Delainey pulled into the one-car garage and turned to look at her daughter.
She had to laugh at the expression on her daughter’s face. “If you use those big brown eyes of yours on Grandma, I think you’ll get a new dress. You two pick out a pattern and we’ll go shopping for the cloth.”
“Yeah. Maybe she’ll make a new one for you, too, and you can find a daddy for me at Lenny—at Officer Gardner’s wedding ’ception.”
As Delainey opened the rear door, Brianna clicked the safety belt and leaped from her booster seat.
“How would you do it, if you were looking for a husband for me?” Delainey asked.
Brianna raced to the door ahead of her mother, as was their normal pattern.
“Well, I suppose I could make a pro-and-con list like we did in school last week when we were deciding where to send the money we raised for charity.”
Delainey squeezed her daughter’s hand as she let the two of them into the mudroom, wondering what Brianna truly wanted to know.
“But, Mommy.” Brianna stopped and tugged until Delainey paused and faced her. “If looking for a daddy means you have to go away, I don’t think I want a daddy at all. Are you sure you have to go away to school?”
“I’m not going to be very far away, only a couple hours. I’ll see you every weekend.”
Brianna looked up at her with pleading eyes. “Can I come and stay with you in your apartment?”
“I won’t be there much and when I am, I’ll be studying or sleeping. Maybe both.”
“You can’t study and sleep at the same time,” Brianna said in a very sober tone as she put her backpack on the desk in the corner of the kitchen and then washed her hands at the sink.
“Apple and chicken breast or green salad and a hamburger?”
“Apple. I want to eat while I do my daddy list.” She hummed as she dug a pad of paper out of her pack. “I need to decide if I need a daddy at all.”
How much of Brianna’s life was she going to miss while she was at school? It had never seemed to be the right time to leave her daughter. When Brianna was a baby, leaving her for weekdays, even with loving grandparents, had been out of the question—even if her mother’s arthritis had been up to it.
She washed an apple and cut it into chunks.
“Mama?”
She looked down to see Brianna, who had appeared suddenly at her side, staring up at her.
Delainey smiled. “Here’s your apple. Do you want peanut butter?”
Her daughter’s eyes widened into the look Delainey knew meant she was troubled. “Mama, is there something wrong with us?”
