wasn’t. She was focused and normal and completely predictable. I thought we were perfectly matched. She was a dental assistant and she seemed to be content to be that and a coach’s wife. She didn’t encourage me to pursue a medical degree and I guess I used her as an excuse not to do so. I think the whole idea scared me at the time, even though it was something I’d always fantasized about. You know how it goes. I was twenty-two, been in school since I was five, thought I was ready to get on with my life…I won’t say Gretchen and I were deliriously happy, but we got along well enough during the three years we were married. Until she ran off with the dentist, of course,” he finished with a grimace.
Mia had met him not long after that humiliation, when he was still stinging from his wife’s betrayal. She’d never met Gretchen, but from the few things he had told her, she doubted that she would have liked her very much, even though Connor had been very careful not to say anything too derogatory about his ex.
“Sounds like Gretchen had a little more in common with Brandy than you’d realized,” she murmured.
He winced and pushed a hand through his already-messy sandy hair. “Maybe I just have a knack for picking the wrong women.”
“You still haven’t told me why you think you have to quit medical school. Or what the lawyer told you that upset you so badly.”
The way his jaw tightened let her know that he was deliberately taking his time about that. Whatever it was, she could tell it was major.
“What I didn’t know when Brandy left was that she was pregnant,” he said after drawing a deep breath. “With my child. Apparently, she didn’t want me to know because she didn’t want that bond between us.”
“You have a child?” Mia asked, her eyes going wide.
He nodded, looking dazed again. “A little girl. She’s six years old. Her name is Alexis.”
“Oh, my God.”
He gave a short laugh that held no humor. “Yeah. That was pretty much my reaction.”
“And you never knew anything about this?”
“Nothing. I haven’t heard a word from Brandy since she took off, leaving me a note saying it had been fun, but she was ready for some new adventures.”
“And now she wants you to be a father to her child?” Becoming incensed on his behalf, Mia let go of his hands to clench her own into fists. “What does she want? Money?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s not that.”
“Then what?”
“Brandy didn’t raise Alexis. She gave the baby to her mother in Springfield, Missouri, to raise, and then she took off again. A year ago, she was killed in some sort of accident in New Zealand.”
“She’s—”
“She’s dead,” he reiterated bluntly. “And as of two days ago, so is her mother. A massive heart attack. Which is why the lawyer contacted me.”
Connor watched Mia’s face as the realization dawned on her. “They want you to take the little girl?”
Still finding it hard to believe himself, he nodded. “Alexis has only one surviving maternal family member. An aunt, Brandy’s older sister. The aunt doesn’t want to raise the child. She thought I should be notified before she turned Alexis over as a ward of the state.”
“Oh.” Relaxing the fists she’d clenched, Mia twisted her fingers in her lap. “So they knew about you.”
“Brandy gave them my name. In case anything ever happened to her, she said, or in case her daughter ever wanted to know who her father was.”
“Do you think there’s any chance she lied? That you aren’t the father?”
“There will be paternity tests, of course, but Brandy was not a liar. She was almost ruthlessly honest about everything. Apparently, I’m even named as the father on the birth certificate.”
“So you believe Alexis is your daughter.”
She seemed to be trying to convince herself. He nodded, anyway. “If Brandy said she is, then I don’t seem to have any other choice. The lawyer—his name was Haskell. Art Haskell, I think. Anyway, he said it’s up to me what I want to do now, but I need to make a decision quickly. Brandy’s sister is giving me until Monday to decide whether to accept custody or to relinquish my parental rights so Alexis can be adopted by someone else.”
“But you’ve already made up your mind.”
He wasn’t surprised by her insight. Mia probably knew him better than anyone else in the world. “I have no other choice,” he said again. “She’s my daughter, Mia. I can’t just turn my back on her.”
His daughter. The words felt alien on his tongue. Somewhere in Missouri was a six-year-old child with his DNA. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a photograph Haskell had given him. “This is Alexis.”
He noted that Mia’s hand wasn’t quite steady when she took it. He could certainly understand that.
She studied the picture for several long minutes, then looked up at him somberly. “She looks just like you.”
He’d seen the resemblance immediately. Alexis looked like a feminized version of himself at the same age, down to the little dimple in her chin. “I know.”
“She really is your daughter.”
“I know.”
Handing the photo back to him, she shook her head as if to clear it. “Okay, I understand why you feel an obligation to her. But are you sure you want to take responsibility for this child you’ve never met and who has never met you? That’s an enormous undertaking.”
“Tell me about it,” he muttered. “At least most single dads have the advantage of being in the kid’s life from the beginning. I don’t know how she’s going to react to me. But what else can I do, Mia? Turn her over to the state? Would you be able to do that if it were your child?”
She hesitated a moment, then shook her head. “Of course not. Nor would I expect you to. That’s just not who you are. It’s not going to be easy, Connor, but you know that.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“Still, I can’t bear the thought of your quitting medical school. Not now.”
“I hate it, too,” he admitted glumly. “But what else can I do? You’ve seen how much of a time commitment it requires. There’s just no way I can handle that and raise a kid by my self.”
“Isn’t there anyone else who can help you? Someone from your family?”
“If my mom were still around, she’d be thrilled to help. She always wanted grandkids,” he said, sadness gripping his heart. But his mother had died of cancer. He still missed her every day.
“My only surviving grandmother lives in Nebraska and is in poor health, so she’s not an option. My dad is a great guy, but he’d be no help. He’s been a traveling salesman my whole life.
