Michael's father (18 page)

''I don't think this discussion concerns you," Kel said bluntly, responding to Reed's conmient about who might be at fault.

"Mean's a friend of mine." Reed took a step forward so that he stood next to Megan. Protectively near her, Kel noticed with irritation.

"Reed."

Megan set her hand on his arm, but Kel missed whatever it was she said. For a moment, it seemed to Kel that he was looking at a family. Mother, father, child. Just the way it should be. Only the child just happened to be his, not Reed Hall's.

'*The discussion still doesn't concern you," Kel said.

Reed started to say something but Megan forestalled him. "Could you put Michael down for his nap?" He hesitated, looking from her to Kel. "Please." She emphasized the word by tightening her fingers on his arm. "Please, Reed."

"Sure. Come here, champ. It's nap time for you." Michael clung to his mother.

"It's okay, Michael. Go with Uncle Reed," Megan told him.

He held on a moment longer before allowing Reed to peel him away. Kel caught the uneasy glance the boy thiew in his direction and wond^ed if it was just that

he felt shy around strangers or if Michael sensed the tensions in the room and had decided to place the blame squarely at Kel's feet.

A not entirely unjustified opinion, Kel thought. And watching another man carry his son away did nothing to improve his mood. Reed Hall held the boy with the ease of familiarity, a familiarity Kel bitterly resented. He watched until the two of them disappeared through a doorway that led to the rear of the house and then turned his gaze to Megan.

His eyes were ice green and just about as warm, Megan thought. She resisted the urge to shiver and set her hand on the back of the wing chair. She was still so darned weak from the pneumonia.

"Uncle Reed?" he sneered. "Is that the term for it these days?"

Megan flushed beneath the accusation in his eyes but she refused to look away. **Reed has been a very good friend to both of us," she said steadily.

"FU just bet he has," Kd muttered.

Megan didn't respond. She wasn't going to defend her relationship with Reed, not to Kel, not to anyone. She wondered if Reed had been right. Maybe it had been a mistake to write to Kel. At least she could have waited until she was feeling a little stronger.

Of course, it was the pneumonia and the lingering weakness that followed it that had made her decide to contact him in the first place. It had suddenly struck her that if something happened to her, Michael would be left alone. If she'd waited imtil she was stronger, she might have talked herself out of writing to Kel, and

no matter how difficult this was for her, she knew it was what was best for her son.

* * All right, I want him,'' Kel said abruptly.

**Wh-what?" Megan felt as if she'd just been kicked in the chest. "What do you mean, you want him?"

"That's why you contacted me, isn't it? Because you figured I'd want the boy? Well, I do. I assume I'm listed on his birth certificate?"

Dazed, Megan nodded. She seemed to have lost track of the conversation somewhere. Kel thought she wanted him to take Michael?

"Then there shouldn't be any problem with my getting custody," he said briskly. "There'll be a lot of paperwork but—''

"There won't be any paperwork." She heard the shrillness in her voice but made no effort to lower it. "Why would you think I wanted you to take him?"

"Because you've discovered that being a single mother isn't easy. Maybe Uncle Reed doesn't mind being an uncle but he objects to being a daddy." Kel shrugged his indifference to her reasons. "I don't really care why. I just want to be sure the transition is as easy for him as possible."

"There's not going to be any transition." Megan's hand was trembling as she lifted it to her head. She wanted to sound forceful but she couldn't seem to catch her breath. Damn this weakness. Her voice soimded more shaken than commanding. "I'm not giving you custody of my son."

"My son, too," he reminded her in a silky voice. "Fathers have rights these days, especially in court."

**In court?'* Megan stared at him. She was suddenly light-headed, and it seemed as if the floor was rocking under her.

"Megan?" Kel's voice was sharp. She looked white as a sheet, he thought. Abruptly, he remembered what she'd said about having been ill. She swayed and he took a quick step toward her. "Are you okay?"

"Fm fine," she said weakly and promptly fainted.

Kel caught her before she hit the floor, lifting her in his arms as easily as if she were a child. Not that she weighed much more than a child, he thought, shocked by the fragile feel of her in his arms.

He held her against his chest for a moment, staring into her face. With her eyes closed, the signs of illness were even easier to read, the hollows under her cheekbones, the blue shadows around her eyes. She must have been very sick. Had she come close to dying? There was a tight, hard knot in his chest at the thought. All the times he'd thought of M^an, he'd never considered the possibility of her death. And he didn't like considering it now.

Shaking his head, he carried her over to the small sofa and laid her down, tucking a throw pillow under her head for support. Her arm dangled off the side of the sofa and he picked it up and laid it across her stomach. It made her look distressingly like a corpse. Cursing under his breath, Kel crouched beside the sofa and took her hand in his, patting it gently. It seemed as if, in movies, they always patted somebody's hand if they fainted. Or dashed water in their face. He decided to start with the patting.

Maybe he'd been too hard on her, he thought, watching her face. He*d been so angry, he hadn't ev^ tried to soften his words. But it had seemed like a reasonable assumption, he thought defensively. If she didn't want him to take the boy, why had she written to him at all? Despite the popular myths of motherhood, it wasn't as if women didn't change their minds about wanting children all the time. His mother had walked out on him and Ck)lleen. If he remembered rightly, Megan's mother hadn't wanted her. Hell, that made it practically a tradition on both sides of the family, he thought with black humor.

"What happened?" Reed's sharp question made Kel glance over his shoulder before rising to his feet. "What did you do?"

"I didn't punch her, if that's what you think. She fainted."

Kel backed away to allow Reed next to Megan, annoyed at his reluctance to do so. He watched as Reed checked her pulse and put the back of his hand against her cheek. Kel had to curl his fingers into his palms against the urge to jerk the other man away from her.

**I suppose you had nothing to do with it?" Reed asked with heavy sarcasm. He straightened and faced Kel, his pale green eyes full of dislike. "What did you say to her?"

"I told her I'd take the boy off h^ hands," Kel said, curious to see Reed's reaction.

"You really are a prize bastard," Reed said after a moment, his drawl thickening a little. "I told her she was making a big mistake in contacting you. But she

was SO damned scared that something would happen to Michael that she wouldn't listen."

**What do you mean? What could happen to Michael?"

Reed hesitated a moment, looking at Megan as if debating whether to answer the question. When he spoke, it was to ask a question.

"Did Megan tell you she'd been ill?"

"She said she'd had pneumonia," Kel admitted.

"She almost died," Reed said, confirming Kel's suspicions. "When she recovered, she started thinking about what would happen to Michael if something had happened to her. About him being left alone. She decided it would be better for him if you knew."

Kel winced a little when he thought of his assumption that Megan was tired of motherhood, but knowing her motivation didn't change his determination to be a part of his son's hfe.

Before he could respond to what Reed had told him, Megan stirred. She opened her eyes and stared at the two of them. With a soft exclamation, she immediately tried to sit up. Ignoring Reed's move forward, Kel bent over her and slid his arm under her shoulders to ease her into a sitting position. He was struck again by how incredibly fragile she seemed.

"How are you?" he asked quietly.

"I'm fine." She pushed her hair from her face and gave him an uncertain look. "I'm sorry."

*'You don't need to apologize," Reed said with a pointed glance in Kel's direction.

"Reed,** Megan said repressively. She turned worried eyes in Kel's direction. "We need to talk."

"You should rest,*' Reed protested.

"I can come back tomorrow,** Kel said slowly. Much as he hated to find himself in agreement with Reed Hall, Megan didn't look up to the kind of discussion they needed to have.

"Fm fine.*' She moved as if to stand up and then apparently thought better of it and settled back onto the sofa. "I'm fine," she insisted, as if to convince herself as much as anyone.

"You should rest," Kel told her. "We can talk later."

"No. Please, Kd. I'm reaUy fine." Reed snorted his opinion of that claim and she threw him a quick glance before looking at Kel. "Maybe if you could get me a glass of water?" she asked.

Kel didn't have to be a mind reader to know that she was worried about his implication that he'd take her to court over Michael. He hesitated, but he could hardly offer her reassurance when he was still reeling from the impact of finding out that he had a son.

"The kitchen's through there," Megan prompted, pointing.

She could have asked Reed to play water boy but she probably wanted a moment alone with him. The thought eliminated Kel's urge to insist that they postpone their discussion until M^an was feeling stronger. He turned and went in the direction she'd indicated.

The kitchen was as small as the rest of the house, but sunshine poured in through the window over the sink, brightening the room and making it look bigger

than it was. Moving on automatic, Kel opened cupboard doors until he found the glasses. He moved to the sink and turned on the tap. But glancing out the softly curtained window, he found himself looking at a miniature playground, constructed of brightly colored plastic modules. There was a tiny slide and arches to crawl through and places for just sitting and contemplating the joys of being a child.

He didn't question the instinct that told him the child-size play area had been furnished courtesy of Reed Hall. The thought hurt more than it had any business doing. So what if another man had bought Michael a fancy jungle gym? And acted as a father to him?

Forgotten, the water continued to run while Kel stared out the window and contemplated the idea that another man had been a surrogate father to his son. His son. No matter how many times he thought the words, they didn't seem real. Yet nothing could be more real than the gut-level sense of recognition he'd felt when he saw the boy. It almost seemed as though, if he'd seen Michael under other circumstances, he'd still have known the boy was his son. It was something deeper than the obvious physical resemblance between them.

The sound of the front door closing snapped Kel out of his thoughts. He became aware of the water still running in the sink and the empty glass in his hand. He filled it and shut the tap off but stayed where he was a moment longer. He had no idea what he was going to say to Megan. What she'd done was unforgivable. She'd cost him the first two years of Michael's life,

time he could never regain. It had seemed best, she'd said. How could it be best for anyone to keep him apart from his son? Obviously, he wasn't going to find any answers standing here, he thought.

Megan was sitting in the same place, and Kel was relieved to see that there seined to be a little more color in her cheeks. She took the glass from him and swallowed thirstily.

"Thank you."

*'Where's your friend?" he asked, glancing around as if expecting to find Reed concealed behind the curtains.

**Reed went back to his house." Megan set the glass down on the end table.

"I'm surprised he was willing to leave you at my mercy."

**He wasn't crazy about the idea," Megan admitted with a small smile. "But I convinced him you wouldn't do me any bodily harm."

He questioned her confidence with an arched brow but didn't say anjrthing.

"Would you mind sitting down?" She indicated the wing chair. "I'm getting a crick in my neck looking up at you."

He sat down. And the silence suddenly stretched between them like a living thing. There was so much to be said, so many questions to be asked, answers to be given.

"I'm sorry, Kel. I know that seems pretty inadequate right now but it's the best I can offer."

"What's done is done," he said, abruptly weary. "You can't give me back the two years I've lost."

"No." Megan looked at her hands where they lay clasped in her lap. "You didn't mean it, did you? About taking me to court over Michael?" There was a small tremor in her voice that betrayed her attempt at calm.

Kel was silent so long that Megan thought he was going to ignore her question. "I don't know," he said finally.

"I'd fight you, and Michael would end up caught in the middle." She lifted her eyes to his face, willing to beg, if necessary. Where her son was concerned, pride was irrelevant. "He's not much more than a baby, Kel. He needs his mother."

"What about his father?'* Kel asked, his voice tight and hard. "Doesn't he need his father? Or am I supposed to let Uncle Reed take care of that?"

"Reed has been a father figure of sorts, I guess." She looked away from the pain and anger in his green eyes, focusing on the toes of his cowboy boots instead. Reed's involvement in Michael's life was obviously a sore point with Kel. She was ashamed of the small part of her that wondered if Kel was jealous of the other man's involvement in her life. That wished he was?

"Reed's been very good to me," she said carefully. "And not in the way you keep implying," she added with a spurt of anger when she saw the look on his face. "Not that it's any of your business, but Reed has been a friend to me. Nothing more."

"Not by his choice, I'U bet."

Megan flushed but didn't deny it. The truth was. Reed was willing to be a great deal more than just a