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The standoff continued and Grant began to feel uncomfortable beneath the boy’s unflinching regard. In frustration, he glanced toward Harley who watched the entire exchange with a thoughtful expression.
Grant raised his eyebrows at Harley, demanding that she step in. When she caught his eye, she seemed to shake herself and nod.
“Daniel, honey, can you please open your mouth so Dr. Everett can touch that little cotton swab to the inside of your cheek. It won’t hurt.”
At last, the boy opened his mouth, not to give Grant the opportunity to pop in the swab, but to release a string of words in a foreign language. Recalling that Harley had been in Thailand for the last few years, Grant guessed it was Thai.
“We need to run a test,” his mother explained in English, demonstrating that the boy was bilingual. “Would you be happier if I did it?”
Another string of foreign words came out of the boy’s mouth.
“Doesn’t he speak English?” Grant asked, impatience building as the boy’s defiance continued.
Grant’s familiarity with children stopped shortly after conception. Once the pregnancy was deemed viable, his part was done and the mom-to-be became the responsibility of an obstetrician. If asked which part of his vocation he preferred, Grant would always choose science over the handholding his patients often required as they negotiated the deeply emotional journey from infertility to parenthood.
“Of course, he does,” Harley said, “but he’s unhappy with me for dragging him back to America and taking him away from his friends and all the people he knows in Thailand. This is his way of coping.”
It seemed less like coping and more like punishing his mother, Grant mused as he handed the swab to Harley. “Maybe you should do it.”
As if this was what Daniel had been waiting for, as soon as his mother presented the swab, he opened his mouth wide and let her gather the sample. Grant was torn between amusement and annoyance as he secured the sample. The seconds that followed were tight with awkward tension.
“The test will take forty-eight hours to run,” he told Harley, getting to his feet. “I should probably take your number so I can let you know the results.”
She stood as well and handed him a Zest business card. He slipped it into his pocket and turned to Daniel. What did he say to this child who was in all likelihood his son? Retreating into professionalism, Grant stuck out his hand to the boy.
“It was nice meeting you, Daniel,” he said, realizing that the next time he saw the boy he’d know for certain that the child was his.
Daniel received a nudge from his mother before saying in his clear young voice, “You have gray hair, so you must be really old. Are you a grandpa?”
* * *
Harley smothered a groan as Daniel’s question hung in the air. Leave it to her son to strike at the heart of what had caused Grant to reject her five years earlier. Her gaze strayed to the touch of gray in Grant’s temples. In her opinion, the premature change in color added even more distinction to his already elegant appearance.
“Dr. Everett is too young to be a grandfather,” Harley declared, shooting Grant an apologetic smile. While she was accustomed to her son’s outspoken personality, his directness wasn’t always well received. “As you can see, Daniel has inherited my tendency toward bluntness.”
“He’s curious,” Grant replied. “Nothing wrong with asking questions.”
No doubt Grant identified with his son’s curious nature and could keep up with the myriad of things Daniel wanted to know about far better than Harley could. Thank goodness for the internet so she could look up fact-based questions. Others had been more difficult to answer. Her father had suffered a second stroke two years earlier and passed away. When she talked about him to Daniel, her son wanted to understand why people died. She’d struggled with an explanation he could grasp and his follow-up question of who he would live with when she died nearly broke her heart.
After saying their goodbyes, Harley herded her son from Grant’s office. As they headed home, she found herself grappling with the consequences of telling him about Daniel. Her son deserved a father, but she wasn’t sure that Grant had any idea what it took to be a parent, much less be the sort Daniel needed. Would Grant love him unconditionally and be willing to sacrifice anything to make Daniel happy? If he displayed any reluctance to be in his son’s life, her decisions about the future would be clear.
But what if Grant embraced his new role? The man might be driven by logic, but when something penetrated the shell around his heart, he was capable of a deeply emotional response. Grant wouldn’t be indifferent to his son. Pondering this new reality pained her in a way she hadn’t expected.
Daniel was her whole world. Since finding out she was pregnant, he’d been her top priority, the reason she did everything. With Grant accepting that he was Daniel’s father, he’d surely want to have some say in how his son was being raised. A whole new batch of anxiety besieged Harley as she realized she would have to share her son. Not only that, but the decisions she made surrounding Daniel were no longer going to impact just the two of them. Grant also had a stake in the boy’s future. How had she not considered this before?
By the time Harley received the call she’d been waiting for, she’d worked herself into a complic
ated state of dread and hope. Seeing Grant’s number light up the screen, she gripped her phone tight and barely heard his greeting above the blood pounding in her ears.
“The test confirms that I’m Daniel’s father,” Grant said, delivering the official results in a dispassionate tone, which was at odds with someone who had just discovered he had a son.
Harley knew better than to take his lack of reaction at face value. No doubt he’d require time to absorb the news and was determined to proceed in a reasonable manner. “We should get together and discuss how to handle the situation going forward,” she said, meeting his objectivity with steady composure.
“We have a lot to talk about,” he agreed. “Are you free for dinner tonight?”
The thought of spending the evening with Grant sent a thrill rocketing through her, but she shut down her strong reaction. She needed to put her son’s needs ahead of her own.
“Tonight should be fine. I just need to confirm that I have a sitter for Daniel.” She’d briefed Jaymes on the situation with Grant and her friend had offered to watch Daniel any night this week. “What time would you like to meet?”
