Formula: Father

“Well, come on. Spill.”

“Oh,” Abby said, glancing toward the counter. “It’s been a three-ring circus around here lately, I swear. I don’t know if you’ve read anything about what’s been happening.”

“I know about the baby left on your back steps. Have you figured out who the father is?”

“Well,” she said, leaning closer and lowering her voice, “that’s a story all its own. After we found the baby, this woman, Tanya Lane, showed up with that nightmare from Tattle Today TV, Chelsea Markum—”

“I’ve met her before. Once she gets wind of a story, she never backs off.”

“I’ll say. Anyway, Tanya claimed the baby was hers and that my brother R.J. was the father.”

“R.J.? Are you kidding? He’s the straightest person I’ve ever met.”

Abby nodded. “So you can imagine how that freaked him out. Especially when Tanya said that he’d deserted her when he found out she was pregnant!”

“This is positively surreal!”

“Oh, there’s more. We lost a lot of patients over that. And I can’t tell you how many regrets we got at first for the twenty-fifth-anniversary party. Which you’re invited to, by the way.”

“When is it?”

“A week and a half.”

“Okay, go on.”

“Tattle Today must have had some real suspicions about Tanya, though, because they put up fifty thousand dollars for an exclusive interview with whoever proved to be the real mother. Of course, busloads of women showed up, each one claiming the baby, and thanks to an article in the tabloids, every one of them swore Jake was the father.”

“My God. Jake. Is he still Mr. Mystery?”

“That’s an understatement. Jake hadn’t been home for five years, so they figured he couldn’t defend himself. But it didn’t do them any good. None of them knew that there was a birthmark on the baby.”

“A birthmark?”

Abby nodded. “Right above his belly button.”

“So Jake was off the hook?”

“Not quite. He came home after Mother called him, with a very pregnant woman in tow.”

“Another mystery baby?”

“Imagine our delight.” Abby sighed.

Darcy was having trouble assimilating all this in one sitting. It must have been a madhouse. “So what happened?”

Abby took a drink of water and signaled the waitress. After she ordered a piece of pie, Darcy ordered the sundae. When they were alone once more, Darcy looked at the menu again, then tried to get the waitress back.

“What’s wrong?” Abby asked.

“I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Do what?”

“Eat a hot fudge sundae.”

“Why not?”

Darcy felt a tug of emotion in her chest and swallowed a little lump in her throat. “I’ve been a slave to food for sixteen years. Every mouthful mattered. Calories were the enemy, and I could never let my guard down.”

“That must have been awful.”

“You have no idea. I always felt like I was being punished. But no more. I’m not going to do that to myself, not even for one meal. I’m going to eat like a normal person. If I can figure out what normal people eat.”

“We eat hot fudge,” Abby said, her smile understanding and warm, making Darcy feel she’d made the right choice coming to Maitland Maternity. “Not every day, but we do eat it.”

“The mind fairly boggles.”

“If you have any trouble on the dessert front, just call me. I’ll do my best to lead the way.”

“It’s a deal.” Darcy put the menu down. “So where were we?”

Abby frowned. Played with a packet of sugar. “Jake came home with his pregnant friend. In the meantime, we had another surprise arrival. Connor O’Hara, my cousin, whom we’d never even met before. It turns out that he’s the father of the baby. His girlfriend, Janelle, saw all the hoopla on television, and she came to claim the baby.”

“Why did she abandon the baby in the first place? I can’t imagine any mother doing that.”

“I know. But she said that she and Connor had broken up and then she couldn’t find him. She’d lost her job and had no family of her own, so she brought the baby here, knowing Connor was related to us.”

“Why didn’t she just knock on the front door?”

Abby shrugged. “I’m not sure. I haven’t spent much time with her. Or Connor, for that matter.” She looked away, and Darcy was surprised to see her cheeks infuse with pink. “I was a little busy.”

“Oh?”

She held out her left hand, flashing a beautiful diamond ring.

“You got married?”

She grinned. “I sure did.”

“Who is he?”

“His name is Kyle McDermott.”

Darcy watched as Abby’s mouth softened into a smile of pure contentment. It was so clear she was in love. Radiantly in love. Darcy had to look away.

“He’s wonderful,” Abby went on. “Stubborn as a mule, but his heart is so good. Darcy, you’ll love him. We’ll have dinner, okay? Soon.”

“I’d like that,” Darcy said.