Baby Business

A normal man would be crazy not to want Macy, Thad thought. She was bright, ambitious, determined, full of passion. And he’d never seen a more beautiful woman. For the first time since his wife’s death, he’d actually felt the stirrings of desire when he saw her this morning, braless and without makeup, her hair mussed from sleep. It was probably just his body’s way of reminding him how long it had been since he’d held a woman in his arms. But he had felt…something.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said, not wanting to address the issue of divorce right now, when Macy was gazing at him with those incredible eyes. “A lot has to go right before we get that far.”

She glanced at the clock again, as though she wished she could turn back the hands, then pinched the bridge of her nose. “So we’d be married, but we wouldn’t live together. Is that what you’re suggesting? A marriage in name only?”

Thad cleared his throat, certain that Macy wasn’t going to like this next part any more than she’d liked the first part. “Actually, I was thinking we would live together here, at your place. Just as roommates.”

“But why? What purpose could there possibly be in—Oh, I get it.” Her eyes narrowed. “We’re back to protecting your investment by controlling my life.”

Thad pushed his plate away and stood up. “I know this whole thing sounds terrible, Macy. I wouldn’t do it if—” if I wasn’t so damn desperate “—if I thought there was another way. But I’m not trying to control you. I just thought you could use someone to look after the house and yard a bit, make you a hot dinner on occasion, drive you to the doctor. You wouldn’t have to move or change anything. Does that sound too much like torture?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “What I’m going through now is torture. I can’t imagine it getting any worse.”

“Then trust me.” He smiled. “And I’ll write you a check for the full amount the moment we say ‘I do.’”

She sighed and shook her head. Then she kneaded her temples. “You’ll sleep in the guest room,” she said at last, “and pick up after yourself, and steer clear of my friends and family, and stay away from Haley. If she doesn’t know you, she can’t be hurt when you leave.”

“Okay.”

“And you’re not going to watch Dr. Biden put me in stirrups. Neither are you going into the delivery room. I’ll have the baby on my own, then turn it over to you.”

“But I want to see my baby being born.”

“Sorry, that’s the deal,” she snapped. “You can take it or leave it. It’s up to you.”

Because of Haley, Thad knew, if he pushed, he could have it all. Macy was bluffing. The businessman in him, the negotiator, told him so. But the courage shining in her eyes, and the sacrifice she was willing to make for her daughter softened his heart. In that moment, his respect for her grew.

“That’s good enough,” he said, and once the words were out, he couldn’t take them back. An agreement was an agreement. The businessman in him said that, too.

He could only hope she’d relent.

“YOU’RE WHAT?”

Macy held the phone away from her ear to avoid her mother’s bloodcurdling screech. She was on campus, in between classes, with a flood of other students milling around, six of whom were in line to use the pay phone after she finished. “I’m getting married,” she repeated.

Shocked silence greeted her on the other end of the line as Edna absorbed the news, then, “But this is so sudden. You’ve never mentioned dating anyone. Who is he?”

Macy watched the trees dotting the rolling campus sway in the wind that funneled down from the canyons above. “His name is Thad Winters,” she said, pushing her hair back, out of her face. “He’s an ad executive here in Salt Lake.”

“Is he successful?”

“Mom, why would that be one of the first questions you ask? Does it really matter?”

“You don’t think it’s important, dear, after Richard?”

Macy chuckled. “I see your point. Okay, I think he’s successful. He has some nice office space on South Temple.”

“He has what?” her mother asked in surprise, and Macy wished she could take back her words. How odd it must sound for her to talk about his office, instead of something more personal, like his home. “Where does he live?”

He could live in South Jordan, Murray, Ogden, Sugarhouse, anywhere in the Salt Lake Valley, for all Macy knew. She hadn’t seen him since he’d made her breakfast the day before, and she hadn’t thought to ask him on the telephone last night when they’d set the date for their wedding. “Um, in a nice house,” she replied vaguely.

“So you and Haley will be moving in with him?”

“No, he’ll be moving in with us.”

“But your house is so small. What if you decide to have more children?”

“That’s a very good possibility. He really wants a baby.” At least that was God’s own truth.

“Right away?”

Macy nearly laughed at the question. They were getting married next Saturday, and she was being artificially inseminated the following week. “I think so, yeah.”

“Then why keep your house?”

“It has charm.”

“And probably termites.”

“I like it,” Macy replied. “It’s close to school and the hospital. Do you know how hard it is to get a rental up here?” Her mother didn’t share her taste for old architecture. Edna liked the new ranch-style homes they had in Las Vegas, where she lived, but Macy refused to let her mother convince her to move out of the Avenues, old plumbing and electrical be damned.

“Listen, Mom, I have to go. There are people waiting to use the phone.”

“But you haven’t even given me the date and time of the wedding, or where it’s going to be.”

And you haven’t mentioned when you might be coming to town to see Haley. Typical. “It’s going to be in your neck of the woods, actually. We were hoping you could be there.”

“You’re coming to Vegas to get married?”

“Yeah, next Saturday. Our plane gets in around nine in the morning. We’ll come by or call you when we get there. It all depends on how Haley is doing and whether we’ll be in a huge rush or not.”

Silence.

“Hello? Mom, did you hear me?”

“Macy, are you pregnant?”

“No.” Not yet, anyway, she silently added, and relinquished the phone.

“DON’T LOOK AT ME like that. You’re the one who got me into this,” Macy told Lisa, who was sitting on her couch, drinking a large Coke and finishing the rest of a McDonald’s Combo Meal.

“I told you to have Thad’s baby and get paid for doing it, so you could help Haley. I didn’t tell you to marry him. That’s crazy. What are you going to do after the baby?”

“Uncontested divorce. And I’ll have to sign over full custody, of course.”

Lisa’s breath hissed through her teeth. “I thought you guys were going to stay out of each other’s personal lives.”

“I guess we’ve decided that if we’re going to have a baby together, there’s just no practical way to keep our distance, not with Thad giving me the money up front. Having me marry him makes him feel more secure. Anyway, he has a point about the baby not being born a bastard. I’ll have a name to put on the birth certificate, and I won’t have to write ‘single’ on every form the doctor or hospital hands me.”

“So he’ll be living here?” She used a french fry to motion at the cramped but comfortable living room.

“Yeah, it’s a point in his favor that he doesn’t expect me to uproot myself, not with Haley in the hospital.”

“Well, I think he sounds like a nice guy.”

“We’ll see if you still think so in nine months.”

Feeling a pang of hunger at the smell of Lisa’s food and regretting her decision not to get something when they went to McDonald’s after leaving the hospital, Macy kicked off her shoes and wandered into the kitchen. “Do you want any ketchup for those fries?” she called.

“No, I’m almost done.”

Macy opened the refrigerator to survey her meager possibilities, and stiffened in surprise when she found it teeming with food. Fresh fruits and vegetables filled the drawers, a gallon of milk and a gallon of freshly squeezed orange juice sat side by side, and lunch meat, a loaf of whole-wheat bread, a large, ready-made salad and a giant jar of pickles were arranged neatly on the shelves. A note was taped to the milk, written in a bold masculine hand, outlining the nutritional requirements of an expectant mother.

“Damn him!”

“Who?” Lisa followed her into the kitchen, her wrappers and McDonald’s sack crackling as she wadded them up for disposal.

“Thad Winters.”

“What’s he done now?”

Macy pushed the refrigerator door open wider so Lisa could see for herself.

“What a jerk!” she exclaimed. “He went and bought you at least a hundred dollars’ worth of groceries. I can’t think of anything worse.”

Rolling her eyes, Macy slammed the fridge door. “It’s the fact that he stocked my fridge without asking me. Doesn’t that strike you as a rather personal, not to mention, controlling, thing to do? He has no right to do stuff like that.”

“I’d call him on it, if I were you,” Lisa teased.

“This isn’t funny. I don’t think he should feel so free to make himself comfortable here.”

“He’s going to be living here in a few days!”

“That’s just it. He’s not living here yet. I still have five days. And I want every one of them.” She turned her back on the offending refrigerator and reached above the sink to make herself a cup of coffee, but she found a note there, too. “Caffeine causes birth defects,” it said in big block letters.

Lisa started laughing so hard she had to sit down.

“I can’t believe you,” Macy complained. “You’ve been on his side from the beginning.”

“I’d love to see what he’s done to the liquor cabinet.”

“You know I don’t have a liquor cabinet. The most I ever drink is an occasional glass of wine.”

“Then tell him you have some Jack Daniel’s stashed away and let him knock himself out trying to find it. That would be a fitting revenge, don’t you think?”

The telephone rang, but Macy made no move to answer it. At this hour, it had to be Thad…or the hospital. Her heart skipped a beat at the second possibility, and she dived for the receiver. “Hello?”

“Macy?”

Thad. She made a face into the phone, but was actually grateful it wasn’t the hospital. “I see you’ve been in my house again.”

“You had nothing but baking soda in your fridge. How can a person survive on baking soda?”

“Okay, that’s it.” Macy set the phone on the table and marched through the living room to the front door, where she promptly removed the spare key from under the mat and shoved it into the pocket of her jeans.

“Hello? Macy?” Thad was saying when she picked up the phone again.

“I’m back.”

“Where did you go?”

“To remove your invitation to enter my house.”

He whistled. “It’s a good thing I know you like me. Otherwise, my feelings might get hurt.”

“Yeah, you sound pretty broken up.”

His laugh rumbled in her ear, and she pictured him lying back in an easy chair, watching the television she heard droning in the background. “I guess I called at a bad time. I just wanted to see if you’d like to go with me when I buy your ring tomorrow. I mean, you’re the one who has to wear it for nine months.”

“No.” He was buying her a ring? Macy hadn’t even thought about those kinds of details. Was there something she should be doing to prepare for Saturday? How far were they going to take this sham of a marriage? “I have to study for finals,” she said, letting go of some of her anger.

“So, any kind of ring is fine?”

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