The Brennan Baby

Her dour expression did not go unnoticed. “I bet the bubonic plague got a less hostile welcome,” Dev said dryly.

“I, uh, I was just seeing if Shelly and Heather are home.” Gillian started toward her apartment. His mere presence threatened her.

“Neither one is there. They’re both working till midnight for the next few weeks. I saw their names on the OR schedule,” he added.

“Oh.”

“I heard knocking out here.” Devlin felt obliged to explain his appearance. She was looking at him as if he were a serial killer closing in on his latest target—which happened to be her. “Anything I can do?”

Gillian shook her head no. She was almost to her door....

Devlin crossed the hall to block her entry, positioning himself in the frame the same way he’d done on the day he had moved into the building. But that time, at least, she’d been inside with Carmen and Mark as allies. Now Mark was back in L.A., Carmen was in Detroit, and here she was, stuck in the hall with no buffers against Devlin’s intimidating presence.

“No friends around as backup this time, huh?” He arched his dark brows.

Gillian was disconcerted that their thoughts were so similar. It was almost as alarming as being trapped with him like this, face-to-face with their child in her arms.

“I’ve been thinking about those friends of yours,” Devlin continued. “How did they know who I was? You never introduced me to them and I know I hadn’t met them before.”

Gillian said nothing.

“Did you tell them about me?” Devlin pressed.

He looked quite pleased by the possibility that she’d been discussing him with others. Such egotism deserved to be quashed! “I told them that some jerk I used to date had moved in across the hall,” she said with asperity. “When you showed up at the door, they drew their own conclusions. And they’re more than friends, they’re my family,” she added proudly.

“Your family?”

“You find it so hard to believe that I could have a family?” Gillian was instantly, angrily on the defensive.

“No, of course not, but—”

“But you visually stereotyped Carmen and Mark and decided that we don’t fit together genetically. Well, so what? We can’t all be whitebread chromosonal clones, like you and your sister ”

And Ashley. Gillian gulped. Why had she ever introduced the potentially explosive topic of genetics and family? Being in Devlin Brennan’s presence seemed to scramble her wits and remove the usual barrier of caution between her thoughts and words. All the more reason why she must avoid him. “Move, Devlin. I have things I have to do and—”

“Are you all adopted or something?” Devlin studied her with an intensity that unnerved her.

She looked away from him, focusing on Ashley, who was gnawing on her tiny fist. “We were unadoptable but we did share a foster home together for a number of years.” Stop staring at me, she silently ordered.

If he received her telepathic command, he did not obey it. He continued to gaze thoughtfully at her. “Thinking back on it, you never mentioned your family while we were seeing each other. Not a word. I don’t even know the names of—”

“There are too many names to name,” Gillian said flippantly. “At one time or another I was probably a foster sister to everybody who passed through Family Services in Detroit.”

“But how did you end up in foster care? What happened to your—”

“Devlin, these questions are pointless. And too late,” she couldn’t resist adding.

“Maybe I should’ve asked them before,” he conceded. “And maybe you should’ve volunteered some information, Gillian.”

“Maybe I sensed that learning my family history wasn’t exactly a priority of yours,” Gillian retorted defensively. Telling her family history was never a priority of hers; she was ashamed of it. “As I remember, you wanted to do other things than talk.”

“True, but we sure spent plenty of tune talking anyway.” Devlin smiled slightly. “I told you about my folks and my sister and all the places we lived, among other things. For that first month we were together, I sometimes wondered if we were ever going to do anything but talk.”

“I know, I know. You expected sex on the first date and I held out for a whole month. Well, if you were so bored, you shouldn’t have called me back.”

“I didn’t say I was bored, did I? I liked talking with you. You’re the only other person I’ve ever met who knows as much about TV shows as I do. The only other person I’ve ever met who’s seen every single episode of ‘Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp’ and remembers all the plots. Or at least the only one who’ll own up to it.”

“Well, you’re the only other person I’ve ever met who knows all the words to every song in the five volume set of TV theme songs,” countered Gillian. “You actually used to ask to hear it. Most people beg for mercy if I try to play it.”

“I ended up buying my own five volume set,” Dev confessed wryly. “I missed listening to yours when you took it back.”

“I bet your TV theme songs aren’t kept anywhere near your ultracool CD collection with all the right titles. After all, you like to pretend you’re such a blues fan ”

“I am a blues fan!” insisted Devlin.

“Sure you are.” Gillian arched her brows. “And I’m Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp’s secretary.”

“Everybody but you pays homage to the blues, Gillian. The blues are universally cool. You are the first and only person I’ve ever known who says they’re dull and dreary.”

“Which they are. I like to listen to cheerful, peppy music.”

“Cheerful, peppy music is insipid.” Devlin grinned. They’d had this pseudo-argument many times before.

“You’re saying that the ‘Brady Bunch’ theme is insipid?” Gillian feigned shock. “That’s blasphemy!”

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Guilty as charged.”

They both laughed. Ashley regarded them curiously and said something that sounded like “Glx.”

Devlin smiled at the baby. “Are you offering an opinion, Ashley? What does ‘glx’ mean?”

Gillian stared from the child to the man, and apprehension shivered through her. What in the world was she doing, laughing it up with Devlin Brennan, her daughter’s father? Who had no idea that he was her daughter’s father!

And she fully intended to keep it that way. She’d known from the moment that the stick in the home pregnancy kit had changed colors that she was going to have and to raise her baby alone. Mark and Carmen and the others might tease her about being an optimist, but Gillian knew that she was actually a realist.

Which was why she’d chosen not to involve anyone else in her pregnancy and Ashley’s existence, except her beloved “fosters” who’d already proven themselves to be loyal and trustworthy. She knew they wouldn’t hurt her, and she was equally certain that Devlin Brennan would. So she hadn’t given him that chance. Nor would she.

Ashley started to bounce in Gillian’s arms, leaning toward Devlin. He interpreted the baby’s movements as a bid to go to him and held out his arms, ready to take her.

Gillian was not about to hand over the baby to the man who’d fathered her. She pulled back, tightening her arms protectively around her child. “Good night, Devlin.”

Her voice, her expression, was cold enough to freeze fire. Devlin stared at her, baffled by her abrupt shift in mood, from laughing to glaring. From accessible to icily remote He placed a hand on Gillian’s shoulder She was rigid with tension.

Their eyes met. “Why?” he asked quietly.

A flash flood of fear surged through her. What had she given away? He couldn’t have figured out the truth about Ashley, could he? “W-what do you mean?”

“Why did you break up with me?” He amazed himself by asking the question he’d vowed never to ask her.