Enchanting Baby

CHAPTER FOUR

MAUREEN SAT IN A BOOTH by the wide window of a small coffee shop, watching as the police cruiser rolled up at the curb. At the sight of it, her chest tightened with dread.

She reminded herself that Ashleigh trusted Officer Eiden. And for that matter, so did she. He had shown her the papers on the man from Denver and had convinced her that this man’s story checked out with the sperm bank in California—the same one Ashleigh had used.

But before this man dropped his terrible news on Ashleigh, Maureen had convinced Eiden to arrange this meeting. Her daughter had endured enough stress in the last three days, the last three weeks. Truth be told, for the last five years.

Why did Ashleigh’s life seem to only get more and more complicated? All Maureen McGuinness wanted out of life was for her driven daughter to settle down and be happy and for her type-A husband to finally retire and share some golden years with her.

But Marvin was working harder than ever, and her beautiful, talented daughter kept having one major crisis after another. Chad’s illness had been so hard on Ashleigh, and Maureen had watched her daughter struggle to regain her balance ever since.

Maureen hadn’t approved of this controversial pregnancy, not at all. She’d wanted her daughter to look to a real future, with a real relationship, instead of finding one more way to wallow in the past. She’d wanted Ashleigh to find a good man and enjoy a happy marriage, the way her sister Megan had. But Ashleigh had forged ahead, intrepid as always, making her own tough decisions, executing her own bold plans. Maureen sighed. She did admire her daughter’s spunk.

But now it appeared all of the torture of Ashleigh’s decision had been for naught. This baby, apparently, wasn’t even Chad’s. It was a stranger’s baby.

Maureen’s jaw tightened with resolve as a dark head and a pair of broad shoulders emerged from the passenger’s side of Officer Eiden’s cruiser. They would make the man prove his claims beyond a shadow of a doubt. She supposed the only logical answer was that they would perform paternity testing on the newborn. Ashleigh’s baby. Her grandchild. That man’s baby.

She rubbed her brow, having no idea how to proceed. What was the proper course of action in such a bizarre situation? After all, this was Ashleigh’s child and therefore Ashleigh would have to make any decision about its welfare. Maureen was only the grandmother. Maybe Ashleigh would actually be glad to have a father for her child, if he was decent and kind…. Then a troubling thought struck Maureen. What if this man had been watching Ashleigh on TV and had some kind of thing for her? What if he was the stalker?

No. That didn’t make sense. Eiden had shown her the report. Oh, it was all so confusing. She had to realize she couldn’t make everyone’s life perfect. And if Ashleigh found out that Maureen had secretly met with this man… Maureen felt like she was wading into very deep water here.

She hated leaving Ashleigh alone at The Birth Place, but she trusted Lydia and the midwives to watch out for her, and it was the only way to talk to this Glazier man alone. They didn’t have much time. She was pretending to get milk. She would have to remember to stop at the store before she went back to the clinic. Maureen sighed. She despised subterfuge.

The little bell above the door of the café tinkled as it swung open, and there stood Officer Eiden. From behind him a handsome young man about Ashleigh’s age studied Maureen as curiously as she studied him. His dark hair needed a trim, but he had compassionate gray eyes that conveyed a worried, saddened state of mind. Well, this was a sad situation, wasn’t it? The fleeting thought that this man would probably father pretty babies crossed her mind, but she quickly banished that idea. Ashleigh did not want this man’s baby. She wanted Chad’s baby. What this man was claiming would throw her daughter’s whole world into chaos.

The two men approached her booth, but when the young officer started to speak, she raised a hand to silence him. “Not here.”

She slid from the booth, and with a jerk of her head indicated that they should follow her out onto the café’s wraparound deck, which featured a panoramic view of the mountains. When she was satisfied that the picnic tables out there were unoccupied, she pulled the collar of her jacket up around her ears, folded her arms tightly under her bosom and faced the two men.

“We don’t have much time. My daughter expects me to pick her up at the clinic soon. First of all, let’s get one thing straight. I don’t want my daughter to know we’ve had this conversation.” With an impatience that betrayed her anger, she slapped a silvery strand of hair away from her eyes. “Is that understood?”

The man, the one claiming to be the father of Ashleigh’s child, pushed a lock of his dark hair back against the mountain wind as well, then spoke quietly. “I assume you are Ashleigh Logan’s mother?”

She nodded tightly, flustered that she’d charged ahead without the proper introductions. Normally, she prided herself on her self-control and impeccable manners. But this was not a Junior League tea. This was a squaring off in a strange little town, facing a man who could destroy her daughter’s peace of mind, what little was left of it. A man who could simply be lying, for whatever twisted reason.

“I’m Greg Glazier.” He stuck out a strong, wind-chapped hand, but he quickly withdrew it when Maureen kept hers tightly closed in the folds of her jacket.

“I am Maureen McGuinness,” she said tersely.

He continued in a calm voice. “Thank you for letting Officer Eiden arrange this meeting.”

Eiden had stepped away and propped a boot on the rail of the deck, keeping his back to them.

“I’m not sure I had a choice, considering your outrageous claims.”

The aspen trees beside the deck made a golden flutter, and the pines whispered with a gust of wind that made Maureen shudder.

Seeming to notice her discomfort, the young man called to Eiden, “Is there somewhere where we can sit and talk privately, out of the wind?”

“I’m fine.” She pressed her lips together.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I’m not.”

Maureen examined Greg Glazier more closely. He did look a little wan. His eyes, she noticed again, were kind and sincere. Not the eyes of a liar.

“Greg’s not well,” the cop explained as he stepped up.

“Altitude sickness,” Glazier elaborated. “It’ll pass.”

“I refuse to go anywhere where anyone could overhear us.” Maureen stood firm. “My daughter has endured enough negative publicity and speculation and gossip and stress as it is. I don’t want to take a chance that some hideous rumor might get back to her that might upset her again. And I don’t want any media to get wind of this.”

“I understand that, ma’am,” Greg Glazier replied mildly. “I agree.”

“We can go sit in the squad car,” Eiden offered, in an effort to temper Maureen’s palpable antagonism.

Maureen gave a short nod of agreement, and they rounded the side of the café and descended the plank steps to the sidewalk. Officer Eiden opened the back door of the cruiser for Maureen. “There’s a Plexiglas shield. So I’m afraid you’ll both have to get in the back seat if you want to have a private conversation. But I’ll be right here in the front seat if you need me.”

“Thank you.” Maureen climbed inside.

The space inside the cruiser was cramped, and with his long legs and broad shoulders, Greg Glazier made it seem even more so. As she settled herself next to him, he adjusted his muscular frame and held it stiffly canted so that his knees didn’t crowd Maureen.

Maureen did not waste words on niceties. “What is this about switching the sperm samples, Mr. Glazier?”

“It’s true.” Glazier scrubbed a hand down his handsome face and released a tense breath. “Even though it’s hard to believe. The cryo bank in California contacted me about a month ago.”

“California Fertility Consultants?” Maureen bit her lip. She shouldn’t have given him any additional information. She reminded herself to be careful with this stranger. He could be some kind of weird imposter, trying to get near Ashleigh. He could have made all this up, based on the storm of publicity that Ashleigh’s pregnancy had created. He could even be the stalker, although that seemed unlikely. Apparently he was a former deputy sheriff.

“Yes, ma’am. California Fertility Consultants. They informed me that the mix-up actually occurred way back at the time of…the storage.”

“Five years ago?” Maureen bit her lip again, rueing the slip, but she found this whole story utterly incredible.

“Yes. Your daughter’s husband and I both elected to bank our sperm at the same time, in October of ’98—”

“I know when it was, Mr. Glazier. It was just before my son-in-law started chemotherapy.”

“I’m sorry he didn’t make it.” Again the man’s hand scraped down his face. He was nice-looking, but right now his skin looked pale, clammy. Was that because he was lying? Maureen wondered if Marvin knew anything about this Greg Glazier. She’d have to make it a point to ask him, the next time she caught him between meetings.

“With the passage of time, our family has adjusted to Chad’s death.”

“I know how that is, believe me. And believe me, I don’t want to cause your family any more pain, but you’ve got to hear me out.”

“That’s why I am here.”

“The day the lab received your son-in-law’s samples, my samples from Colorado arrived in California in the same shipment. We used the same doctor in Denver.”

“I see. If I may ask, why did you elect to freeze your…sperm.” Maureen felt genuinely uneasy, having this highly personal conversation with a stranger. “If I may ask.”

Greg swallowed. He shot a look at the back of the cop’s head that told Maureen he was as uncomfortable about having this conversation as she was. “I’d rather not say,” he spoke quietly. “It’s not important now. The point is my samples were somehow confused with Chad’s.”