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Briar chewed her bottom lip, considering my offer. “On one hand, you’re a stranger but on the other, it’s probably a good idea for you to get used to having a baby around, at least part of the time anyway. I guess we have to figure out custody stuff because we live on opposite sides of California.”
“Let’s see what the DNA test says first,” I suggested. “No sense in putting the cart before the horse.”
She shrugged, rising. “I don’t how to tell you that Jessica wasn’t like that but I get it. You didn’t know her like I did. Victoria is yours. The test will confirm it.”
I wasn’t going to argue. Instead, I handed her my card and scribbled my cell phone on it. “Call me when you’re ready and I’ll pick you up. I live in Coronado.”
She accepted my card, murmuring, “Fancy,” before stuffing the card in her purse. “Okay, I’ll go check out of the motel and then give you a call.”
I nodded, watching as they left my office. I peeked out to see if anyone had been lurking but the office was blessedly empty today. Thank God for small favors.
I returned to my office, sinking into my chair, blowing out the breath that felt trapped in my chest.
A baby?
I’d never expressly set out to never have children but I always thought it would be the traditional way, starting with a wife.
Not with a random woman showing up with a kid in her arms, claiming the kid was mine.
If the DNA test showed the child wasn’t mine, I’d try to be gentle and send them on their way but I wasn’t going to play house with two strangers. Easy enough to handle.
But if the child was mine? A flush traveled my body. What was I going to do? My career was stable but it wasn’t conducive to being a daddy to a toddler. I worked long hours, my career was my life and I liked it that way.
Hell, I loved it.
I found great satisfaction in serving my country.
None of that would matter if the DNA results came out conclusive. I’d have to step up. I would never run from my responsibilities but what did that mean for Briar as the child’s secondary legal guardian? Was I supposed to share custody with a woman who lived in Berkeley?
A low throb began to pulse behind my eyeball. I grabbed a few aspirin from my desk drawer and tossed them back just in time for my buddy, Halford to walk in and catch me.
“That good of a day, huh?” he asked, grinning.
I shook my head. “You have no idea.”
“Is it Petro again? I swear I don’t know why he’s not retired yet. The man is a fossil.”
“It’s not Petro. You’re going to want to sit down for this,” I said.
Halford grinned, intrigued. “You’ve got my attention. Spill. What’s going on?”
I didn’t know where to start in any way that wasn’t a clumsy mess so I just dumped it out. “Two years ago, I had a brief relationship with a woman named Jessica. According to her best friend, Briar, I’m the father of Jessica’s baby and now that Jessica has passed, legally, I share custody with the best friend. That’s it in a nutshell.”
Halford’s eyes bugged. “Seriously?” He took a long minute to process. “Whoa, that’s…I mean, do you buy it? Do you think the woman was a gold-digger looking for a military pension to grab onto?”
I shook my head. My memory of Jessica wasn’t extensive but what I remembered of her, she hadn’t been like that. She’d been a nice woman, fun to be around, and pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way. “I don’t think so,” I finally answered. “But anything is possible. We’re going to have a DNA test done.”
“Good thinking. Gotta have that paper trail.” He paused a minute before asking, “And if the kid is yours?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what it means to be a father. I’m good with remaining a bachelor but now, if the kid is mine, I have to start thinking about what it means to be a dad.”
“Here’s an idea, and I’m just spitballing here, what if you just signed away your parental rights? No one says you have to be a part of this kid’s life if you don’t want to be. I mean, do you think the woman would be willing to raise the kid by herself?”
I didn’t know —and I didn’t know how I felt about that option either. Both my parents were dead but they’d been good people. They would’ve loved being grandparents. It was one of my heaviest guilt trips that I’d never actually made that happen for them. As an only child, that job had been squarely on my shoulders.
And yet they’d never said one word to me about their disappointment. I guess I just shouldered that burden on my own.
Now, a little girl might be mine.
