A Baby for the Boss(49)

“What’s wrong, honey?”

He lifted his gaze to his mother’s and sighed. “A lot. I’ve got some thinking to do. About Jenny. The baby.” He stopped, smiled. “And you guys will have to get used to the idea of being grandparents.”

“Oh, my goodness,” Peggy exclaimed with a laugh. “With all the tumult I almost forgot that Jenny’s pregnant!”

“Grandfather?” Jack asked.

“This is wonderful news!” Peggy jumped to her feet and wagged her finger at her son. “I’m making a fresh pot of coffee and you, mister, are going to tell us everything.”

Jack picked up a cookie and handed it to him. “Congratulations. I hope you do a better job of it than I did.”

Mike shook his head and took a bite of the cookie. He’d already made mistakes and his child wasn’t even born yet. “You didn’t do so badly, Dad. But for me, I swear I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

Jack laughed. “Welcome to parenthood. None of us know what we’re doing, Mike. And even trying our very best, we all make mistakes. The trick is to keep trying to fix them.”



Mike found Sean in his office the next morning. He’d thought about this all night, had worked out just what he wanted to say. But looking into his brother’s unforgiving stare threw him for a second. The two of them had always been close, but now, there was a wedge between them that Mike himself had put there. So it was up to him to tear it out.

“You were right.”

Surprised, Sean waved him to a chair. “Always a good start to a conversation. Continue.”

Mike laughed and sat down. “I’ve been protecting you since we were kids,” he said thoughtfully. He’d had all night to consider this situation from every angle. And no matter how he looked at it, he came off badly. That didn’t sit well with him. “It got to be a habit.”

“Okay,” Sean said, acknowledging that with a nod.

“But it was wrong to lie to you all those years.” Mike sighed, leaned forward and braced his forearms on his thighs. “Whenever you asked me what was wrong between me and Dad, I brushed it off. Covered it up, telling myself you were better off not knowing. So, yeah. I made that call and I shouldn’t have. You’ve been grown-up a long time, Sean, so shutting you out was the wrong call, but you should understand why I did it.”

“You’re really not very good at apologies, are you?”

Grumbling, Mike admitted, “No.”

“Well, points for effort anyway,” Sean said.

“Thanks.” Mike nodded and told him, “I stopped by the house yesterday. Saw Mom and Dad. We talked.”

“And...?”

“And,” Mike said with a rueful smile on his face, “I apparently interrupted an afternoon quickie.”

“Oh, man!” Laughing, Sean covered his eyes with one hand. “I didn’t need to know that.”

“Hey, you’re the one who doesn’t want me lying to him.”

“Discretion, man. There’s a difference between lies and discretion. Look it up.”

Glad things were smoothed out between his brother and him, Mike chuckled. “The point is, we finally straightened everything out. I think things will be all right now, between me and Dad.”

“Good to hear.” Sean sat forward, folded his hands on the desktop.

“They know you know,” Mike said. “I told them that I talked to you about it.”

“Great. When you decide to be honest, you go all out, don’t you?” A half smile curved Sean’s mouth. “Guess I’ll be having a talk with them, too, now. But as long as they’re good together, happy together, I’m fine with it. It’s all their business, Mike. Not mine. Not yours.”

“When did you get so rational?”

“When I grew up,” his brother said. “You missed that, I think.”

“Yeah, looks like.” Mike frowned. “I think I missed a lot.”

“Ah, now we get to the important part of the conversation. Jenny.”

Shooting his brother a hard look, Mike said, “You’ll butt out of what happens to our parents, but I’m fair game?”

“Hell, yes.” Sean grinned. “So, have you talked to her?”

“No.” He still hadn’t called, because talking to her on the phone wouldn’t be enough. He had to look into her eyes, read what she was thinking, feeling.

“Don’t you think you should?” Sean asked. “She’s pregnant with your baby.”

“I don’t need reminding,” Mike said and hopped out of the chair. Walking to the wide window on the far wall, he looked out at the garden and didn’t see a thing. How could he, when his mind was filled with images of Jenny.