Wanted: Father for Her Baby: Keeping Baby Secret / Five Brothers and a Baby / Expecting Brand's Baby

“Please, call me Debra.” She offered him a warm, genuine smile. “I’m so glad that you’re here with Leenie. She needs you, now, more than ever.”

Leenie gasped softly. Frank realized that Mrs. Schmale—Debra—knew he was Andrew’s father, which made him wonder just how much Leenie had told her about him.

“In case you’re wondering, Leenie told me very little about you, not even your name,” Debra said, as if reading his mind. “She didn’t offer the information and I didn’t pry.

“Then how did you know—?” Leenie asked.

“Haley told me about Mr. Latimer. She’s been a frequent visitor. And she is as pleased as I am that Andrew’s father is by your side during this terrible ordeal.”

When Debra looked at Frank, she smiled, but he felt her disapproval and understood she was wondering why he had gotten Leenie pregnant and walked out of her life. Women of Debra Schmale’s generation expected a man to do the right thing, to make an honest woman of his child’s mother.

“You and Haley are a couple of busybodies,” Leenie said jokingly. “And just so you won’t badger Frank, you should know that he plans to be a part of Andrew’s life…once we have him back with us.”

“There’s no news, then?” Debra asked.

Leenie shook her head.

Frank put his arm around Leenie’s waist and pulled her close. “We have every reason to hope that no news is good news, at least for now. The FBI thinks Andrew will be found unharmed. Leenie and I are clinging to that hope.”

Debra eyed Frank’s arm around Leenie.

The telephone on Debra’s bedside table rang. She reached out for it, but Leenie grabbed it to save Debra the effort.

“I’ve gotten a dozen calls already today,” Debra told Frank. “Everyone in Maysville must know I’m out of ICU and in a private room now.”

“Debra Schmale’s room,” Leenie said.

Frank glanced at Leenie, who paled instantly.

Leenie looked at Frank and said, “It’s Kate and she wants to speak to you.”

The muscles in Frank’s belly knotted painfully. He reached out and took the receiver from Leenie.

“Yeah, Kate, what’s up?”

“Moran just called,” Kate said.

“Tell me it’s good news.”

Leenie grasped Frank’s arm.

“It could be,” Kate told him. “Two new infants have come up for adoption. Both fit Andrew’s description.”

“When is he sending in a couple of agents?” Frank asked.

“What is it?” Leenie demanded, tugging on Frank’s arm. “Is it news about Andrew?”

“Everything is set up for tomorrow,” Kate said. “Moran wanted me to tell you something. He made me repeat it twice.”

“What?”

“He said to tell you that it’s sooner rather than later.”

“God!” The FBI operation that had been in the works for several years was coming together. Sooner rather than later. Possibly tomorrow? Was that what Moran was trying to tell him? Was it all going to happen tomorrow, right when Andrew—if he was one of the two infants—would be smack dab in the middle of everything? What if when the feds made their arrests, the two babies were whisked away before being rescued? What if they lost Andrew? What if there was gunplay?

“I’ll bring Leenie home right away,” Frank told Kate. “We’ll skip going to WJMM today.”

“Moran knows you’ll come back to Memphis.”

“Damn straight about that.” Frank replaced the receiver and turned to Leenie, who was squeezing the life out of his arm. “Good news. A couple of infants have been found and it’s possible one of them is Andrew.” He glanced at Debra Schmale and smiled, then gave Leenie a sharp glare, hoping she’d understand why he couldn’t be totally forthcoming with Debra.

“This is wonderful news,” Debra said.

“Keep it to yourself for now, okay?” Frank smiled at her.

“Absolutely.” Debra folded her hands together in a prayerlike gesture.

“We need to go,” Frank told Leenie.

She kissed Debra on the forehead and said her goodbyes, then rushed out of the room with Frank. When they were alone in the elevator, she didn’t wait for him to explain.

“Two more infants have come up for adoption, right?” she asked.

“Right.”

“In Memphis?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re going to Memphis tonight, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“And you want me to stay here in Maysville and wait.”

“Yeah.”

The elevator doors swung open and they emerged on the first floor. Frank grabbed her arm and hurried her outside to the parking lot. She walked quickly to keep up with his long-legged gait. When they reached his rental car, she halted and dug in her heels.

Before she could speak, he grabbed her by the shoulders and said, “Dammit, Slim, stay here in Maysville, will you? Let me be the big, strong man. Let me be your man.”

“You want to be a buffer between me and the big bad world, don’t you?”

“Something like that. After all, I am Andrew’s father. I wasn’t around when you were pregnant or when you gave birth. I should have been. You needed me and I let you down.

“I need to do this for you. Hell, I need to do it for myself. Let me be the one to handle things, and if it is Andrew, I want to be the one to bring him home to you.”

“And if it isn’t Andrew?”