Baby, Our Baby!

She nodded. And somehow she knew that her and Joanie’s lives were about to change…forever. “I want you to know, Cliff, that I’m a good mother. I’m doing my best to provide a secure, loving home for my daughter. I’d do anything for her.”

“I know, Ali. And I can’t thank you enough for what you’re doing for my son. After he comes out of the coma, he’ll still be facing surgery on his leg. So as his father, it’s Jake’s welfare I’m thinking about now, and he needs his daughter.”

Ali tensed. Ever since she found out she was pregnant, this child had been hers…alone. Now Joanie would belong to her father, too. She glanced at the hospital bed where Jake lay half-alive. She had no choice. Her daughter might be the one to help him. She drew a long breath and released it. “When do you want to do this?”

“As soon as possible.”

It was worse when Ali was gone. He missed her touch. Without her encouraging words, the darkness surrounded him, drawing away the warmth, the hint of light. He needed her.

Don’t leave me, Ali.

His heart started to race as he fought to speak, to bring her back to him. He didn’t want to be alone. He tried to cry out, but all he managed was a garbled sound, then the darkness pulled him back in.

The next evening, Ali returned to the hospital with Joanie held protectively against her chest.

Once the elevator reached the fourth floor, she stepped out and started down the hallway toward Jake’s room, her heart pounding in her chest. Luckily her friend was waiting for her.

“Margo,” Ali whispered.

The nurse quickly glanced around, then hurried toward Ali. “Hurry, the head nurse, Brenda, is on her dinner break,” she said as they ducked into Jake’s room. “I figure you have about thirty minutes before she returns.”

Ali opened her coat to reveal her sleeping daughter. Margo smiled at her goddaughter as she caressed Joanie’s head, which was covered in a red knit hat. The baby’s heart-shaped face was fringed with strands of silky black hair. Her little mouth puckered as she made sucking sounds.

“If this precious cargo doesn’t bring Jake out of his coma, nothing will,” Margo said. “Go get ’em, kid.” She kissed the baby’s head and left.

Ali glanced around the quiet room, and a shiver of panic sliced through her. She looked down at her daughter and stroked the baby’s back. “It’s time to meet your daddy, sweetheart.”

After taking Joanie from the sling carrier she’d outgrown months ago, Ali gently removed her daughter’s coat and hat. Joanie usually woke up cheerful. Ali hoped this was one of those times.

A little dazed, Joanie blinked her big brown eyes, then gave her mother a sleepy grin and cooed softly.

Ali’s heart tightened. “That’s my girl.” She hugged her baby as she carried her toward the bed.

“Hello, Jake. It’s me again. Ali. I guess you know my voice by now without me telling you.” Why was she rambling? She drew a deep breath, reached down and touched his arm.

“I stopped by tonight to introduce someone to you.” She studied Jake’s face as she balanced Joanie in her arms. “I brought your daughter. Your dad and I thought that her visiting you might help.”

Ali sat on the edge of the bed and placed her daughter on her lap. Joanie raised her arm and pointed, chatting something unrecognizable.

“Yes, sweetheart. This is Daddy.” She looked at Jake. “This is your daughter, Jake. Johanna June Pierce. She was born February 16, at 3:06 a.m., weighing in at seven pounds eleven ounces. I know I’m a little prejudiced, but when she was born she was the most beautiful baby in the nursery. She still is, for that matter. When you wake up, I know you’ll feel the same way.” She kept her gaze glued to Jake’s expressionless face. There was no change.

Tears formed in Ali’s eyes. “Joanie has your dark hair and beautiful brown eyes. She’s smart, too. She learned to crawl at five months, can play pat-a-cake and loves to sing along with Sesame Street. She even talks. We don’t know what she’s saying, but she tries.” Ali kissed her daughter’s head. “Gran June and I have tried to give her a secure home and lots of love. Joanie has a lot going for her, but there is a big void in her life.”

Ali wiped the tears from her eyes. “She needs a father, Jake. She needs you. Please come back to her.”

Ali took hold of Jake’s hand and scooted closer so Joanie could touch him. Her daughter immediately grasped on to her daddy’s fingers and tugged. Ali listened to her daughter’s gentle chatter and watched as she patted Jake’s large callused hand. Anguished, Ali prayed Joanie’s touch might trigger some reaction.

“Daddy’s hurt, baby,” Ali whispered. “He can’t talk yet, but I’m sure he knows you’re here.” The words choked off in her throat.

To Ali’s surprise, Joanie climbed off her lap and crawled up beside Jake, still cooing her sweet nonsense syllables.

“Daddy’s taking a nap, sweetie.” Ali rubbed the baby’s back as guilt and sadness swept through her. How could she have kept father and daughter apart?

Joanie looked at her mother, then cuddled next to Jake, her tiny fists rubbing her eyes in an obvious display of sleepiness. Ali swallowed back the emotions. “You want to take a nap with Daddy?”

The small child’s chubby arm stretched over Jake’s bandaged chest. She smiled, showing off four tiny teeth. Then her daughter puckered her mouth and made a smacking sound against Jake’s chest.

Ali tucked Joanie’s favorite blanket over them, unable to ignore the resemblance between father and daughter. The whole town would know now who had fathered her child. But for once, Ali didn’t care. Her only concern was giving Joanie a father.

And giving Jake the will to live.

Jake could hear her voice again. He tried so hard to wake up, but something seemed to be holding him down. If he could only open his eyes. But it was so hard…to move. Then he felt Ali’s hand on him, soothing him, telling him he would be okay. But he knew he wouldn’t be okay until he was awake.

Suddenly there was someone else. A baby! His baby. He could smell her powdery fragrance, hear the soft sound of her voice. When he felt the tiny weight against him, it was pure heaven….

Please, God. Let me live. Let me see my daughter.

Ali closed the door to her compact car and started toward the house, careful not to wake Joanie. Her boots made a crunching sound in the three inches of snow piled on either side of the cleared walkway. She stopped on the top porch step of the big brick home with the gabled roof. The house had been in the Pierce family for three generations.

The streetlights glowed overhead, illuminating the quiet residential area. It was nearly nine o’clock, and everyone had been home and eaten supper hours ago. She’d always loved living on Mulberry Street. As a child, she’d felt safe in the small community where everyone knew everyone else. Never had she been afraid to go out and play in the park with her childhood friends.

Now what would the townspeople think of her when they discovered that her child had been fathered by Webster’s favorite son? That Ali had lain with Jake the very night her sister—Jake’s bride-to-be—had left him standing at the altar?

That was the reason Ali had chosen to live in St. Cloud during her pregnancy, letting everyone think Joanie’s father was someone she had gone to college with. The town was only sixty miles away, but even that short distance had kept so many questions at bay—questions that her grandmother had had to face without having answers. Now it was time to tell the truth.

Clutching the railing, Ali climbed the steps to the big house she’d lived in since her mother abandoned Darcie and her. Their mother had decided that seven-year-old twins were just too much to handle, and didn’t fit in to her “free-spirit” life-style. Their father didn’t want to handle them, either, so Grandma and Grandpa Pierce got custody.

Upon learning she was pregnant, one of the things Ali had vowed was that no matter what, Joanie was going to have a stable home. No moving around the country looking for a better life or another man to latch on to. Webster, Minnesota, was going to be a permanent home for these two Pierce women. Which meant that Jake Hawkins probably wouldn’t be around for long. Ali had known that for as long as she had known Jake. He had always wanted out of this town.

He had a wanderlust that drove him to other places—more exciting places. For as long as she’d known Jake, he wanted to go somewhere else. Somewhere that had more to offer than a small town in Minnesota. Ali doubted that even his child would keep Jake in Webster.

Ali unlocked the front door, went inside the large entry and was greeted by her grandmother.

Smiling, the tall, graceful woman pulled her sweater together and folded her arms across her chest when the icy breeze hit her. “Gracious, child. What are you doing with the baby out in this weather? It’s nearly zero out there.”

“It’s not that cold.” Ali opened the closet door and hung up her coat.

“Not if you’re an Eskimo or a polar bear.” Gran June looked at her great-granddaughter. “I can see this little one is unaffected by the cold, too.”

Ali unhooked the baby carrier, careful not to wake her daughter. “What can I say—she’s a winter baby.”

Ali studied her grandmother. At sixty-eight, June Pierce was still a handsome woman. Her fair skin was flawless, except for a spattering of freckles across her nose. Her hair, once rust colored, was now completely white. The mild stroke she’d suffered last year hadn’t seemed to leave any lasting effects. But that didn’t keep Ali from worrying about her. Every day Joanie was getting bigger and more active. How soon before Gran June wouldn’t be able to care for her anymore? How could Ali keep working? She couldn’t afford child care.

Her grandmother smiled. “I worry about you driving in the snow.”

“I’m a big girl, Gran,” she said.

“I guess I’ll always think of you and Darcie as my little girls.” There was sadness in her voice. “Now I have this precious one.”