The Warmth of the Day

Finally handing me my phone back as she turned and headed off to bed. "Visiting hours are from one until three on the maternity ward; I checked earlier. Breakfast is at nine so be up and ready, or Charlie is driving and your breakfast will be between two pieces of bread."

"Yes, Mom."

She smiled, before heading to bed and no doubt waking Charlie to tell him the news. I carried my coffee into the day room, that file on Tony Lawrence's personal history and complaints from my old company still rested on the coffee table. The peace of early morning allowed me to replay the events at the hospital; I was a daddy to two girls now. That thought alone brought another smile to my face.

"How is she?"

Andrea was leaning against the doorframe; the robe was clearly Isabel's since it almost swamped her.

"She's fine, they are both fine, thank you." Then the events that led up to this came rushing back to me, so I added. "I'm sorry the meeting didn't go according to plan."

Andrea sat across from me. "Baby's do tend to choose when they want to see the world, so I wouldn't worry about it. Kerry kept me company and I know I have to apologize for what I said at college."

I tried to wave that away but she wouldn't allow that.

"My father was everything to me; mom wouldn't give me the finer details of why they divorced until my late teens. By then, of course, puberty made that news more volatile. Mom never blamed you, but her reluctance to go to your late wife's funeral made me wonder why."

All I could do was nod my understanding. Even I knew that wasn't going to be enough. I thought through my many memories of my company and the times I worked alongside Tony.

Finally my thoughts yielded their own words, when I said. "You have to understand; when I was single my company meant everything to me. I went to great lengths to make sure I had a happy crew working for me. Your dad somehow looked on that atmosphere as a breeding ground for his own use."

Andrea clearly stiffened, finally relaxed and nodded her head. When I waited for her to look directly at me she seemed to sense there was more coming. I smiled as best I could while also cursing her dad for putting me and my family in this position. Andrea was a sweet young lady, and my old professor said she was damn smart, as well, but the damage caused by her own fathers antics came close to breaking this young lady, and that was the saddest part of all this.

She had a future that was being held back by her own father's attitude towards woman in general, and the lack of respect and indeed work he was willing to put into his own marriage. He conveniently forgot his vows and his own daughter for a piece of ass, Kerry may of held him back when the girls at the office shut him down, but fresh fields opened up when I sold my company on.

I wasn't about to let Andrea blame me, and she had now come to realize that even if I hadn't sold my company, her father wasn't about to change. If anything, it may have slowed him down, but not by much. We both went to our own rooms after a brief hug, we met again at breakfast and I helped her with her bag when she left. She was smart, she had the opportunity if she did well at college to be even smarter. The sad part was that her father would never see this young lady go far in this world.

My own thoughts were few as I watched her back off the drive and turn her car back towards my old college. It was mean of me to think it, but I was glad that Tony Lawrence lived the other side of the country. It took an evening to shine a light on her father's antics and bring the truth to her fantasies of the Father, Andrea was smart and would indeed go far, between my professor and some old contacts I still had in this business we would see to that, as long as her father didn't mess with her mind and fuck up her future.

*******

Between Charlie and me we got all the days chores done early, and once showered and washed we were on the road by mid-day and waiting at the doors to the maternity ward before they even opened. We let Maddie go in first, Clare placed our daughter into her waiting arms and she openly cried. That, of course, set Isabel and Clare off.

We stayed the full two hours and Clare never got to hold her own child once, although Maddie did climb onto her bed for a while to share a hug. She also promised her mom that she would be the best sister ever. That comment alone meant there wasn't a dry eye around her bed that afternoon.

Maddie and I went to pick our new family up two days later and brought them home. Since then our house hasn't ever been more alive.

*******

The warmth of the day was coming to a close; Clare hoped that Lisa would be soon. Grabbing a cold soda from the fridge and then pushing open the back door to step out onto the porch. She looked out at the view. It calmed her thoughts. Clare moved to the loveseat and sat, her baby slept the sleep of the content. The small sleeping bundle of warmth held within her arms meant the world to her. Clare felt the breeze and welcomed it, the small hairs on her neck started to rise and she knew.

Clare had rehearsed her words so many times throughout the day, now she just knew that from this moment on, every word would come from her heart, she owed Lisa that much. "You brought me here, I know you did. I haven't told Alex I can sense you here, which must mean you don't want him to know."

Her heart was beating so fast, Clare took a deep breathe in the hope of calming herself. Another gentle breeze drifted across the fields, gently bending the grass on its journey towards the house. Maddie's hoarse stopped grazing to look at Clare; it somehow gave her the strength she needed to continue.

"You gave us both life again, and I'm so grateful to you for doing that, knowing what that would mean for all three of us. We can't keep you here; that would be cruel. I'm going to look after them all for you, I promise you that. Thank you, Lisa."

Clare's cheek felt what her heart thought was a kiss. When that feeling ended, her own hand touched that same spot and felt it tingle. Her smile matched the tears of joy that Lisa had accepted her there.

The End...