Sun-Kissed Baby

Chapter Two

Carlee had never been to the Blue Moon Lounge but quickly recognized the decor Alicia had described—potted palms, ficus trees, hanging baskets of ferns and philodendron, and brilliant-colored tropical birds squawking in bamboo cages. Water trickled down a rock wall into a rock-bordered pool swimming with goldfish, and floor-to-ceiling windows offered a spectacular view of the azure sea beyond. Alicia had enjoyed working there, and had made good tips.

Carlee figured the late afternoon was a good time for her to drop by. She intended to be finished before the “happy hour” crowd arrived.

A man wearing khaki slacks and a bright floral shirt greeted her. “May I help you? I’m afraid the bar isn’t open yet.” He gave Scotty a questioning glance. “I hope you aren’t planning on bringing him to Happy Hour.”

“Oh, heavens, no! I was a close friend of Alicia Malden. This is her son, Scotty. I assume you knew her?”

“I sure did,” he said, his tone instantly compassionate. “I’m Jim Martin, the manager. We all thought so much of her, and I want you to know how sorry we are. I wanted to make it to the funeral, but there was something else I couldn’t get out of. I pitched in on the flowers, though, and I know that some of the girls here went.”

“They did, and the flowers were beautiful. Tell me, how long did you know Alicia?” Carlee asked.

“I’ve only been the manager for seven months, so I knew her for that long. I thought she was nice, very hardworking.” He looked puzzled. “Is there something you need from me?”

“No, because you didn’t know her very long, you won’t have the information I’m after. Is Marcy Jemison around?”

He motioned to glass doors opening out to a deck overlooking the beach. “She’s outside taking a breather with some of the other girls before the rush starts.”

She thanked him and made her way out to where Marcy was propped on a railing with two other young women, all dressed in the familiar white shorts and blue blouse that Carlee remembered Alicia wearing.

Marcy squealed with recognition and held out her arms to Scotty. This time, he went to her with a big grin.

“This is Alicia’s baby,” she announced to the others, whirling him around and hugging him. “Isn’t he adorable?” Then to Carlee, “What brings you to the beach?”

Soberly, Carlee replied, “Our conversation at the cemetery.”

Marcy’s eyes went wide. “Oh, wow. That’s great. So you’re really going to nail the guy. Good for you.”

Carlee hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. All she wanted was to ask Scotty’s father to accept his responsibilities. If he refused to believe Scotty was his, then it would be a different story. She wasn’t going to let another man mess with her life if she could help it. Besides, Scotty deserved the support of his father.

She turned to the other two women, who were obviously taking everything in. “Did either of you know the man Alicia was seeing?”

One shook her head and the other explained, “We’ve only been here a month and didn’t know her very well, but we went to her funeral because we liked her.”

“It was so sad,” her friend added. “But we talked about it later, how tired she seemed all the time. She would sit down every chance she got, and I thought she was breathing heavy a couple of times.”

If only Carlee had insisted Alicia see a doctor. Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda, as the taunting saying went. It was too late for regrets now.

Carlee felt her frustration growing. “Well, is there anybody working now who was here when Alicia was seeing her mystery man?”

“Bonnie Handel was,” one of the girls on the railing said with a snap of her fingers. “I heard her say she’s been here since the place opened four years ago. Others come and go, but not Bonnie.”

“Why should she leave?” the other said with a snicker. “She’s the hostess and the cashier and gets to sit on a stool behind the counter all night. She doesn’t work her fanny off like we do.”

Carlee, feeling a wave of excitement, cried, “Where can I find her?”

“Try looking over your shoulder,” Marcy said, handing Scotty back to her.

Carlee guessed Bonnie to be in her mid-fifties. She was attractive with silver-tinted hair and ice-blue eyes framed by shimmering turquoise shadow. The black satin blouse she was wearing with tight white slacks revealed the care she had taken of her figure through the years.

Carlee quickly introduced herself and explained why she had come.

“We can talk in the office.” Bonnie led the way, and once they were inside, closed the door, leaned against the desk and flashed a big grin. “I want you to know I’m glad you’re going to try and track him down. The creep deserves to have to pay through the nose for walking out on that poor girl. If it’d been me, he’d have never gotten away with it, and I told her that.”

Carlee soberly agreed. “I know. I tried, too.”

“She fell for him like a ton of bricks, and I can’t blame her, because he was nice-looking. A real hunk. She lit up like a launch from the Cape the first night he came in. He was in her station, all by himself, and she hovered over him like you wouldn’t believe. He started coming in every night, and I’d see them leave together and knew things were getting hot.

“She’d talk to me about him a little from time to time,” Bonnie continued. “I’m older than the others are, and I’ve always been a good listener, so they come to me with their troubles sometimes. Alicia said he was married, but he was trying to get a divorce—only his wife was giving him a hard time. I told her I’d never known a married man yet who was fooling around that didn’t say the exact same thing. But she said she believed he really cared about her, and even when he quit coming around, she held out hope he’d come back.”

Scotty was getting heavy and starting to fret. Carlee sat down in a chair and poked his pacifier into his mouth. “How long were they together? Do you remember?”

Bonnie pursed her lips in thought, then said, “Oh, it was only a few weeks. She really fell hard and fast. It was something, all right. She totally flipped for the guy.”

“And then he just disappeared,” Carlee said, more to herself than Bonnie. “Maybe she was right in figuring he went back to his wife. She said she wasn’t going to chase after him, that if he really loved her, he’d come back to her on his own.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Bonnie rolled her eyes. “And he swore he did, too. She told me that. He said it was love at first sight, that he’d never felt like that about a woman before. He had a line, all right.”

“Did she ever tell you his name?” Carlee probed hopefully. “She’d refer to him only as Nick, and once I asked her for his last name, but she wouldn’t say.”

“Well, she said that from the very beginning he made her promise to keep everything between them hush-hush, because if his wife found out, she’d make it that much harder for him to get the divorce. How come you’re looking for him? To get him to take the baby?”

Carlee was taken aback. “No, no, of course not. I love Scotty and plan to raise him myself.”

“Were you related to Alicia?”

“We were best friends, but she wanted me to have him. She signed a paper naming me guardian right before she died, and…” Carlee trailed off, embarrassed to share so much information. All she wanted was the name of Scotty’s father and where to locate him. She didn’t want to confide anything.

Bonnie gave a disgusted snort. “He wouldn’t want him, anyhow. But since that’s not what you’re after, then it can only be money. Good luck there, because after he abandoned her like he did, I can’t see him paying child support unless you want to take him to court. That means paternity testing, hiring a lawyer to go after him. You’re talking big bucks.”

Carlee hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “I just want to find him and give him a chance to do what’s right. After all, he doesn’t even know he has a child and—”

“What’s that you say?” Bonnie stared at her incredulously, hands on her hips. “I don’t think I heard you right.”

Uneasily, Carlee repeated herself.

“Honey, is that what Alicia told you—that he didn’t know she was pregnant?”

With a chill of foreboding, Carlee hugged Scotty a little closer. “She said she never got a chance to tell him, because all of a sudden he just stopped coming around. And like I told you, she wanted him to come back because he loved her, not because he felt obligated, so she didn’t go looking for him.”

Bonnie swung her head from side to side, laughing softly, sadly, then said, “Boy, if pride could be bottled and swallowed, Alicia would have stayed drunk on hers. She was just too ashamed to tell you the truth—she did tell him she was going to have his baby, but he told her to get an abortion. They had a fight over it, right out there on that deck one night after we closed. I know, because I heard every word. It was real smoky in here that night, and I wasn’t feeling good and went out to get some fresh air before checking out the register. They didn’t see me in the shadows.”

Carlee felt sick. “I…I don’t believe it.”

“Believe it, honey, ’cause it’s true. He told her to get an abortion, and she told him to go to hell. And that’s the last anybody ever saw of him around here.”

Now she knew why Alicia had not wanted to talk about asking him for help. He’d been, in her mind, as shiftless and irresponsible as her father. And when he’d so cruelly and callously told her to have an abortion, it had been just as humiliating as when her father’s lover had thrown money in her mother’s face.

It all made sense now, and she was even more determined to find this guy and make him do right by Scotty. She said as much to Bonnie.

The woman nodded with understanding and allowed that she didn’t blame her one bit. “The no-good creep should have to pay through the nose. I hope you do find him.”

“Yeah, right,” Carlee said bitterly as she stood and prepared to leave. “I don’t even know his name.”

“Well, I do.”

She had already turned but whipped about to stare in wonder. “I thought Carlee never told you.”

Bonnie smiled. “She didn’t. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t know it. He was paying his bar tab one night and dropped his wallet. Everything fell out of it. I bent down to help him pick it all up and happened to get a look at his driver’s license. His name is Nick Starke.”

Carlee felt like shouting with joy. “And did you see his address—where he lives?”

“Just the town. He snatched it out of my hand like he didn’t want me to see it. I thought that was funny at the time, but figured maybe he was afraid I’d find out who he was and call his wife and tell her about him cattin’ around with Alicia.”

“So what town? Where?” Carlee was shaking.

“I have no idea where it is, but I remember the name because it’s so weird for Florida—Snow Hill.”

“Snow Hill, Florida. Nick Starke.” Carlee rolled the words around in her suddenly dry mouth. “Starke…” she whispered. “Starke…Groves…”

“What’s that?” Bonnie asked.

But Carlee was halfway out the door. “Thank you so much, Bonnie. You’ve been a great help.”

Carlee’s head was spinning she was so excited. One day at the gift shop, her boss had been talking about all the big orange growers in the state, and now she recalled him saying that Starke Groves was one of the largest and most profitable.

He’d also said it was located in the oddly named town of Snow Hill, Florida. And if Nick Starke had anything to do with Starke Groves, he could well afford to help support his child.

The parking lot was filling up quickly as people getting off work arrived to unwind at Happy Hour. As soon as Carlee backed out of her spot, someone pulled in. Scotty let out a howl, and she realized she’d dropped his pacifier somewhere.

“Oh, baby, I’ll never be able to find another parking place and go back,” she told him, anxious to get home and get on with her search, now that she knew where to look and who to look for.

A voice called, “Hey, wait up a minute.”

She slammed on the brakes and turned to see Bonnie running toward her, waving the pacifier.

When she reached her, she said, “I remember how my kids pitched fits when I lost theirs.”

Thanking her, Carlee started to drive away, but Bonnie stopped her. “There’s something else.”

Carlee tensed.

“Have you thought about the possibility that Scotty’s daddy might try to take him away from you once he finds out he’s his?”

Carlee hadn’t, but was quick to remind her that Alicia signed a paper giving Scotty to her.

Bonnie shook her head. “That doesn’t mean a hill of beans. Not if he can prove he’s the father. Besides, are you the court-appointed guardian, or are you just going on the paper she signed?”

Carlee hated to admit all she had was Alicia’s note.

“Well, maybe you should consider asking him to take him, anyway. You obviously can’t afford to raise him yourself, or you wouldn’t be trying to track the man down.”

Fiercely, Carlee fired back, “He told Alicia to have an abortion, remember? I would never give Scotty to him.”

Bonnie sighed and leaned against the car. “Look, I know none of this is my business, but I just like to try and keep young girls like you from making big mistakes. You try to keep Scotty on your own with the financial problems you’ve got, and sooner or later Child Welfare will take him away from you and stick him in a foster home. Wouldn’t he be better off with his natural father if his father wants him and can take care of him?”

“If he didn’t want him before he was born, he won’t want him now.”

“That’s not necessarily true. When a man is cheating on his wife and he finds out his girlfriend is pregnant, sometimes his first reaction is to tell her to get an abortion. He thinks it will solve all his problems. Things are different now. The baby is here, its mother is dead, and any decent man would want to take over and raise him.”

Carlee slammed her palms against the steering wheel. “If he were a decent man, he never would have walked out on her. He’d have stood by her. So what makes you think I want somebody like that raising a baby I couldn’t love more if I’d given birth to him myself?”

“Because you want the best for him.”

“And who says his father is the best?”

Bonnie shrugged. “Not me. I’m just trying to make you realize that whether you like it or not, Nick Starke might want Scotty, and if he does, you’ll have a hard time stopping him. But on the other hand, you might be doing the best thing for Scotty. After all, Nick didn’t seem like a lowlife. Sure, he breezed in, swept Alicia off her feet, then walked. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t make a good father. Think about it. And if you decide you don’t want to take a chance on giving Scotty up, then leave it alone. Don’t go looking for trouble.”

Carlee spent another restless night. Bonnie had given her a lot to think about. And even though she hated to admit it, as much as it would hurt to give him up, the reality was that Scotty belonged with his father if he was fit to have him. And that was where the problems began. If Nick Starke wasn’t fit, she didn’t want him to know Scotty was his, because she didn’t want to fight him for custody. And if he was a member of the Starke Groves family, he’d have the money to hire lawyers to take him from her. As it was, she couldn’t even afford to pay one to go through the necessary legal procedure of having her officially named Scotty’s guardian.

So she was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

The bills were mounting. She had no money coming in, and even if she went out and found a job, she would not get paid right away. And the apartment manager had let her know in no uncertain terms that if the rent wasn’t paid within ten days, he would start the process to evict her.

Close to dawn, she decided to track down Nick Starke. If he were still married, he might not want his wife to know he had fathered a baby by another woman and be willing to quietly pay support and stay out of Scotty’s life. On the other hand, if she checked him out and ultimately came to the conclusion he was a scoundrel, then she would not tell him about Scotty. Times might be tough, but she would manage somehow.

That morning, as soon as she got Scotty fed and bathed, she called information in Snow Hill and asked if there was a listing for Nick Starke. When told there wasn’t, she asked for the number of Starke Groves.

A woman cheerily answered. Carlee took a deep breath and asked, “Does Nick Starke work there?”

“Indeed he does. He’s the owner.”

“The…the owner…,” Carlee whispered in stunned echo. She’d thought he might be a family member, but not the actual owner.

“Would you care to leave a message? He’s not here right now.”

Now that she had found him, Carlee wanted to quickly learn as much as possible. “Can you tell me how to get in touch with Mrs. Starke?”

The receptionist paused, then crisply replied, “There is no Mrs. Starke.”

So much for him quietly paying child support. Now to plan B, which was finding out what kind of person he was.

“I’m Elaine Streeter,” the woman on the other end of the line said. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

When Carlee hesitated, not knowing what to say at that point, Elaine continued, “If you will leave your name and number, I’ll have Mr. Starke call you back. But I should tell you that if this is about a job, he doesn’t do the hiring. You’ll have to see the grove manager, Mike Thurston. But he’s not in right now, either, and he doesn’t hire over the phone. You’ll have to come in and fill out an application.”

Carlee was surprised. “You mean you’re hiring now? But the season doesn’t start for months.” Then she cried, “Valencias! You’re harvesting Valencias.” They were a late-season variety of oranges that matured from March to June, and she had often wished Ben Burns had grown them so Jupiter Groves would have stayed open longer.

“Well, isn’t that why you’re calling?” Elaine Streeter sounded as though she was becoming annoyed. “If not, then what—”

“Yes, yes, of course I am.” It was the answer to a prayer. Working at Starke Groves would give her the opportunity she needed to find out everything she wanted to know about Nick Starke before letting him know Scotty was his.

“Good. Because we’re desperate. The regular migrant workers don’t show up this time of year. They’ve already gone to California, where they’ve got steady work till fall. We’re short of women on the packing lines, but the pickers get paid more, if you think you’re up to that.”

“Of course I am.” It sounded wonderful, but there was Scotty to be considered. “I have a baby that’s a little over a year old. What kind of facilities do you have for child care?”

Elaine sounded pleased to tell her that they probably had the best of any grove in the state. “The Starke family has always taken care of their workers, whether year-round or migrant. We have a wonderful day-care center and one of the caretakers is even an LPN—licensed practical nurse. You won’t have to worry about your baby at all. Just come on in today.”

“It will be tomorrow morning. I have to pack.”

Nick Starke stared at the stack of mail on his desk. He hated being inside doing paperwork, preferring to be in the groves. He enjoyed the whole process of growing fruit, from standing on a ladder and handpicking to watching the oranges roll along the assembly line for grading and stacking in boxes. He was a grower through and through and could not imagine any other kind of life.

Elaine peered through the open door to say she was going to lunch. “I’m going to Newt’s place on the river. The word’s out he’s got fresh alligator tail. Want me to bring you a basket?”

“Do I ever.” He loved the delicacy, which tasted like fried chicken but was sweeter, more succulent, and not nearly as greasy.

“Oh, by the way—some woman called this morning, and when she found out you weren’t here wanted to know how she could get in touch with Mrs. Starke. I told her there was no Mrs. Starke.”

He frowned. He and Gina had been divorced almost five years. He didn’t even know where she was and no longer cared. It was strange that any of her friends, old or new, would try to contact her at the groves. “Did you get her name?”

“No. Actually, she was looking for a job. Maybe she thought your wife would hire her since you weren’t around. I told her she’d have to talk to Mike.”