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The woman beamed at her. “Lady Emma, it’s such an honor to have you in Wynette. I’m Shelby, of course.” Mystified, Emma set aside her notes and rose from the chaise. As she shook the woman’s outstretched hand, the baby squealed and reached for his mother’s hair. “This is Peter.” Her smile faded and her words developed a bite. “The forgotten child.”
“How do you do? Hello, Peter.”
He gave her a shy, droolly smile set off by four small teeth, then buried his face in his mother’s neck. The baby was adorable, and Emma felt a pang of envy. He had curly dark hair, a button nose, and beautiful eyes with sooty black lashes. His eyes were an unusual shade of blue, so deep they were nearly violet.
Something uncomfortable prickled at the back of her neck.
The woman took a seat at the umbrella table and shifted the baby onto her knees. “I thought Kenny might be here, but I should have known he’d do his best to avoid us.”
“He’s, uh, playing golf this morning.” Emma sat next to her. “How old is Peter?”
“Nine months, and he’s still nursing. He’s a bruiser. Twenty-two pounds and thirty inches at his last checkup.” She automatically pushed Emma’s empty iced tea glass out of the baby’s reach. “Kenny’s been in town since yesterday, but he hasn’t made the slightest attempt to come to the house, and I can’t forgive him for that. Ignoring his own flesh and blood.”
Emma’s stomach wrenched. His own flesh and blood. She took in the little boy’s dark hair and violet eyes. Kenny must have looked exactly the same. She felt dizzy. His baby.
Even as she thought it, she struggled for another explanation, but those bright violet eyes were so unusual that the resemblance couldn’t be coincidental, and this woman would hardly be so upset if she were a distant relative. The possibility that Kenny had fathered a child, then walked away, made her feel sick.
“I’m sorry,” she managed. “I didn’t quite get your name.”
“Hello, Shelby.”
She turned to see Kenny approaching. He wore a pair of coral swim trunks and had a yellow towel draped around his neck.
At the sound of Kenny’s voice, the baby’s legs stiffened, then began to pump with excitement. Ignoring Shelby, Kenny tossed aside his towel, then scooped up the little boy and brought him to his face. “Hey, buddy, how you doin’? I was coming to see you this afternoon.”
The woman gave a short snort.
Saliva bubbles dripped from Peter’s bottom lip as he grabbed Kenny’s hair and kicked his chubby bare feet.
They looked so much alike that Emma could only stare. At the same time, the sick feeling in her stomach wasn’t going away. How could he have deserted such a beautiful child? Then again, why should she be surprised? This was a man who always seemed to take the easy way out.
“You want to swim, Petie boy?” Kenny asked.
“Don’t get his overalls wet,” Shelby said. “I just bought them at Baby Gap yesterday.”
Kenny unfastened the straps and slipped off the overalls. “I think we’ll keep that cloth diaper on, just in case you forget to act like a gentleman.” He dropped the overalls on the table and tucked the baby in the crook of his arm as he looked down at Emma. “You want to come in with us?”
Her neck felt so stiff she could barely manage to shake her head.
“Come on, Petie. It’s just us guys, then.”
As Kenny carried the baby into the water, Emma tried to think what she could say to Shelby. She heard a faint sniffle.
“Damn him.”
She looked across the table and saw Shelby’s eyes fill with tears as she watched Kenny and the baby in the water.
Emma’s heart went out to her. The diamond jewelry and expensive clothing showed that Kenny had been generous with his financial support, but that meant nothing if he’d abandoned his responsibility. She was filled with a crushing, irrational sense of disappointment. Despite every signpost along the way, she’d expected better of him.
Emma reached across the table and laid a sympathetic hand on her arm. “I’m so sorry.”
The woman sniffed and gave a self-conscious laugh. “I guess I shouldn’t take it so hard. I must still have a little postpartum depression, what with not losing all my weight and all. But when I look at the two of them together . . .” Her face twisted and a big tear ran down her cheek. “He won’t take responsibility! And Peter is his own flesh and blood.”
Emma could feel her heart hardening against him. Logically, she knew her reaction was extreme—they’d only been acquainted for a few days—but emotionally she couldn’t help it. “He’s despicable,” she said, speaking to herself as much as Shelby.
Shelby looked a bit startled by Emma’s reaction, then gratified. “I guess it takes an outsider to see things clearly. Everyone in Wynette just shrugs it off. They say, well, that’s just the way Kenny is, and then they start telling stories about how he threw a stone through somebody’s window or stood up his prom date. Since he wins golf tournaments now, he doesn’t have to follow the same rules of decency as everyone else.” Once again, her eyes filled with tears. “I just love that little baby so much and—” She fumbled in the pocket of her tunic top for a tissue. “I’m sorry, Lady Emma. I don’t usually get like this, and I really wanted to make a good impression on you. But it’s nice to have some sympathy for a change.” She stood, blew her nose, then picked up Kenny’s discarded towel and walked to the edge of the pool. “Bring him here, Kenny. We have to go.”
“We just got in. He’s having a good time. Aren’t you, Petie boy?”
