I nod. That makes sense, I guess.
Louise reaches inside her note pad and pulls out a card. “I’ll see you at the hospital, where I’ll arrange the paternity testing, but in case I forget later, here’s my contact information. I know it’s not ideal, but there’s nothing you can do until we get the results of the paternity test, so my advice is to just sit tight.”
That doesn’t seem like an adequate game plan to me. I mean, if this is my child, shouldn’t I be there when the doctor examines her? Shouldn’t I be able to see her?
It’s like she can read my mind. Louise adds on, “Mr. Bay…I know this is difficult, but under the law, the baby is now a ward of the State of Arizona. You technically don’t have any legal rights as of this moment. But perhaps you’d like to see her before we leave?”
I’m both terrified and relieved at the same time. I give another stupid nod at Louise and then Pepper’s taking me by the hand to lead me over to the ambulance. Louise follows and the other paramedic—a young female—places the little girl into Louise’s arms, who in turn thrusts her notebook at me to hold.
I take it without question but step in and take a closer look at the baby. I hadn’t really noticed details before because I’d been all kinds of crazy out of my mind when I found her. Now I’m able to take in the thick, dark thatch of hair that could either be inherited from me or Lida. The baby’s eyes are dark blue, same as mine, but I’m not sure if that means anything. She’s not crying right now but seems to be staring up sort of blankly at Louise. I wonder if that’s because she’s so young, that perhaps she just doesn’t understand what’s going on.
I hope to fuck she doesn’t know what’s going on.
That her mother left her abandoned on a porch at nighttime.
After I gawk at what could be my child for a few moments, Louise turns to her car. Pepper and I follow her, and as she buckles the tiny little girl into her carrier on the backseat, the police car and ambulance leave.
I stare at her through the car’s back window after Louise shuts the door. She takes her notepad back from me that I’d been holding but I don’t take my eyes off the baby. I vaguely hear her telling Pepper that we’re to go through the emergency room entrance, where she’ll meet us in a bit.
It’s not until Louise’s car pulls away and is out of sight that Pepper speaks. “You okay?”
I turn to look at her. “No.”
“I can imagine,” she murmurs, and then nods to my SUV still sitting in my driveway running with the headlights on. “Why don’t you get that in your garage and I’ll go get my purse. We’ll stop for some coffee on the way to the hospital, okay?”
I can do nothing but nod in agreement. My world has just been turned upside down and I’m not sure I’d be able to drive myself if it came down to it. I consider calling Bishop, but then realize there’s nothing he can do for me that Pepper hasn’t already volunteered to do.
I stare after her as she walks back over to her house, all aglow with ridiculously garish Christmas decorations that don’t seem quite so silly to me anymore.
I realize…I’ve got more important things to worry about these days.Chapter 3Pepper“That was anticlimactic,” Legend mutters from the passenger seat to my right. I spare him a glance, and he looks back at me with a wry smile.
I smile back, as he’s referring to the two-second procedure of a nurse running a cotton swab on the inside of his mouth to gather DNA. We were at the hospital for about an hour, mainly waiting for Louise to find us in the emergency waiting room. She led us back to where a nurse was waiting in a small office and the paternity test was administered.
Less than a minute later, Louise is ushering us out the door, assuring us she would call him when she got the results, which normally took two to three days but would take longer since it was a Friday night and the lab is closed on weekends.
“Thank you,” Legend says quietly and I don’t look back at him. I can hear the gratitude in his voice. “I’ve been such a dick to you since we became neighbors.”
It’s a good thing he’s really gorgeous because it makes it easy to forgive his surly ways. His dark hair, longish on top and shorter on the sides along with stormy blue eyes that can be oh so expressive is a good combination in my opinion.
“Not really,” I tell him, stopping what I’m sure would be a fabulous apology. “Honestly…it was all kind of amusing to me, so don’t be sorry.”