The Rich Man's Baby

JULIET STUCK HER FINGERS in her ears, squeezed her eyes shut so tight she saw little white lights and hummed the National Anthem, but it didn’t work. It never did. No matter how hard she tried, her family wouldn’t go away. She should have learned by now that wishing them away didn’t work, but it never hurt to try. With a soul-weary sigh she dropped her hands into her lap and opened her eyes.

She looked from her mother, with a bad perm sticking out every which way from her head, to her brother, whose filthy red baseball hat was turned backward, as always.

As they sat around the kitchen table, Mom and Willie were talking over each other. They both had an opinion about what she should do now that the father of her child had suddenly reappeared. And neither one of them had asked her opinion.

Well, she had one.

“Will you please listen to me for a minute?” she pleaded, but failed to draw their attention. “Excuse me!” she said loud enough to cut through the noise about a father’s responsibilities and child-support settlements.

They looked at her for the first time since the discussion began. “Weren’t you listening when I told you this…” She had to take a deep, steadying breath before she could say the name of the man she had once foolishly thought to be her soul mate. “…Harrison Rivers is not Nathan’s father?”

“Oh, get off it, Julie,” Willie said. “Any idiot can see the kid’s his.”

Frustration getting the better of her, she retorted, “And that qualifies you, doesn’t it?”

“Stop it, you two,” her mother snapped.

“He knew about the bike, didn’t he?” Willie gave a curt nod of his head. “That’s proof enough for me.”

Her mom shifted toward her, the plastic seat cover beneath her squeaking. “Men don’t go around claiming to be babies’ fathers without cause, Julie.” She reached across the yellowed, gold-speckled Formica table and put a hand on Juliet’s forearm. “Why do you keep denying he’s the father? From what your brother says, he seems decent enough.”

“And stinkin’ rich,” Willie added. “He’s got serious bucks. I talked to that friend of mine, Dave, who used to work on the loading dock at Two Rivers Industries, which was the name of the company on the business card he left, and Dave said that if Julie’s guy is—”

“He’s not my guy,” Juliet grumbled. How could she lay claim to a man like that? And since no fairy godmother was going to bibbidi-bop into her life and change her into someone he would want, she had no choice but to deny he was the one. She couldn’t lose Nathan.

“He sure was your guy for…what, fifteen minutes?” Willie laughed then winked crudely at her.

She smacked him on the arm and made him squawk.

“Stop it, you two.”

“Anyway,” Willie continued, “if this guy is the same Harrison Rivers who’s taking over the company so his dad can retire, he’s worth millions.” Willie said it like he was imparting the secret of life, then got up and went to the fridge.

The implications of his words hit Juliet full on. Her stomach rolled, and she had to swallow fast to keep from being sick all over the kitchen table.

Then she started to shake. The tremors were small at first, deep in her chest. But as Willie’s words echoed in her head and both pairs of eyes in the cramped kitchen fastened on her, the reverberations spread throughout her like oil in a mud puddle.

Millions. Harrison Rivers had millions.

Her mother’s normally dour face lit up with excitement as a thought occurred to her. “Maybe you could pick up with him where you left off!”

Juliet could barely speak. “He’s already said he doesn’t want me.”

Tsking, her mother shook her head, then heaved a dramatic sigh. “You realize, don’t you, that takes this thing to a whole new level?”

“Oh, yeah,” Willie concurred as he brought a beer back to the table.

Of course it took things to a whole new level. The level with high-priced lawyers and bought-off caseworkers. The level where someone like her could never stand a chance against someone like him. The level where all her tears and pleas would carry about as much weight as a foam anchor.

Why couldn’t he have been some average guy who might have decided he wanted her for more than one afternoon of fun? A regular Joe-shmoe she could have had a future with.

Before the tremors building inside of her reached a crescendo and she shattered right there in front of them, Juliet shoved back her metal-legged chair, its legs screeching along the floor, and bolted to her feet. “It doesn’t take this thing anywhere,” she choked out. “Because there’s nothing there in the first place. Nat’s mine. Nobody else’s. Mine!” She slammed her open hand down on the tabletop and glowered at her mom and Willie, huddled around the table like a couple of witches around their pot.

“If you’re going to act like that you surely won’t have a say in what we decide to do,” her mother reprimanded.

Willie offered, “I think we should be talking maternity suit.”

Juliet ground her teeth. “That’s what you wear when you’re pregnant and have to go to work.”

He nodded. “Right, right. What we should be discussing here is a maternity settlement.”

Juliet threw her hands in the air. “Paternity. Paternity settlement. Don’t be such an idiot.”

“You’re the idiot,” he jeered.

“Stop it, you two.”

Willie grumbled, “At least you were smart enough to get knocked up by a millionaire.”

Juliet went to the sink and leaned her weight on her hands on the rim. The distorted view of the sunset silhouetting the back shed out the small, cracked window above the sink began to swim as tears filled her eyes once again. She hadn’t been smart at all, letting herself believe in a dream on a bike.

“I’m not sure a paternity settlement is the way to go, Julie,” her mom answered as if Juliet had thrown those words out as an option she would consider. “I think, personally, that child support payments are—”

“No, no,” Willie interrupted. “I think the guy should hand over a huge chunk of change up front now, while he’s still all doe-eyed over finding his kid.”

The image of Harrison crouched before her son with a sticky length of red licorice in his hand and an enraptured smile on his handsome face made Juliet groan softly. Then that image shifted and became Harrison hovering above her, his river-green eyes murky with passion.

She remembered how she’d buried her hands in his lush, golden hair and pulled him down for a kiss. He’d kissed her soft and slow, like he’d known kissing wasn’t something she’d done a lot of, like he’d been coaxing a smoldering ember to flame. And, oh, how she’d flamed.

His mouth had felt like chocolate just starting to melt. His hard, flat stomach had been so hot upon hers she’d thought he’d cook her to the marrow. They had been so good together, so right. Like they would never part.

But they had, and now that she knew who and what he really was, they were so, so far apart. There was no way they would ever be together again like she’d dreamed. He was rich. And he’d already made it plain he didn’t want her. Juliet squeezed her eyes shut and forced the memories away before turning to face her family.

Her mom shook her head, making her fuzzy curls quiver. “No, I think monthly child support payments would be the most profitable—”

The tension that had brought Juliet’s shoulders up around her ears snapped her like a dried birch twig.

“Profitable!” She stared slack-jawed at her family. “I can’t believe you actually said it! Is that all Nat is to you now? Something you can make an easy buck off? Can’t you see that Harrison isn’t going to hand you a wad of money and let me keep Nathan?”

She pointed a trembling finger at her brother. “Willie, you saw how he looked at Nat. He’s going to want him.” Her lip trembling uncontrollably, she looked between the two of them. “Don’t you care that he’s my baby? My world? Don’t you care about either one of us?”

“Mom cares enough to give you a roof over your heads and food in your bellies so you don’t have to go to work or school or anything,” Willie shot back.

“So I don’t have to work? Who do you think tends that store out there? When was the last time you stood behind the counter?”

“Hey, I’m scheduled to start on the green chain at Dover Creek,” Willie protested.

Juliet ignored him. “And as far as going to school, you know I can’t afford to go anywhere yet.”