“Of course I do. And thanks for worrying about me.”
“Somebody’s got to do it.” As Grant started pushing the door closed, another pair of hands on the other side stopped it.
“Hannah, it’s me.” Todd’s voice slipped through the crack.
“Me?” Grant yanked the door back open and came face-to-face with the man a few years younger and a couple of inches taller. “Who are you?”
“Todd McBride.” With that curt answer, Todd pressed past him into the entry. “Who’s asking?”
“Grant Sumner, Hannah’s—”
“Friend,” she finished before Grant had the chance.
Hannah didn’t miss the confusion in Grant’s eyes or the irritation in Todd’s, but she wasn’t about to have a scene here with Rebecca in the next room. “Todd, this really isn’t a good time.”
Grant shot her a perplexed glance but jumped in with his support. “Yeah, sorry, buddy. We were just getting ready to have dinner.”
Todd’s jaw tightened, but he stood where he was. “It’s never going to be a good time to—”
Hannah put her hand up to cut him off before he could say more. “I wish you would have called first.”
“You mean so that you could not answer.” Todd closed the door behind him and stood in front of it with his arms crossed. “Been there, done that. I’m over it. How about you?” His gaze locked with hers and wouldn’t let go.
“What are you two talking about?”
At Grant’s words, Hannah could finally pull her gaze away. Her friend was staring at them both by turns, and then he faced her alone.
“It’s him, isn’t it? He’s the reason—”
Grant managed to stop himself before he said more, but Hannah ached for his hurt feelings. That she’d never led him to believe there could be more than friendship between them didn’t seem to exonerate her for putting him in this awkward situation.
“I’m sorry, Grant,” she found herself saying, though she couldn’t imagine what she would say next.
Rather that looking at her for confirmation of his assumption, Grant turned back to Todd. “Maybe you’d just better leave right now.”
Todd started out by holding his hands wide. “Look, friend, I don’t have a problem with you, but—”
“I’m not your friend.” Grant took a step toward Todd, but instead of holding his hands wide, he had them tight by his sides, fisted. “But I am Hannah’s. And since she doesn’t seem to want you here…”
Immediately, Todd’s posture tightened, and he stepped forward, as well. “Don’t you think that’s her decision?”
“She already said this isn’t a good time.”
Hannah couldn’t believe her eyes as she looked back and forth between them. With all this male posturing, they looked like a pair of gorillas, pounding their chests and announcing their dominance. The two of them standing their ground, just feet apart, would have been comical if the situation hadn’t been so not funny. Her daughter was right in the next room.
Stepping to the side, Hannah peered into the living room. Rebecca was sprawled on the floor in front of the TV with her elbows jutting out and her head cradled between her tiny hands. Maybe “Aunt TV” wasn’t so bad just this once.
When she returned to the front hall, Hannah stepped between the two men. “You know, maybe we should all just call it a night. Can I give you a rain check on dinner, Grant? I didn’t get started the way I’d planned, anyway.”
Grant gave her a distracted glance. “That’s fine, Hannah. I’ll just show him the door first.” He pointed around her at Todd.
“I’m not leaving again until Hannah and I have some things settled, so you can go ahead.”
Sidestepping Hannah, Grant faced Todd again. “Can’t you see she doesn’t want you here?”
“And can’t you see this is between Hannah and me? I’m her friend, too—at least I was, once upon a time.”
“Some kind of friend you were.” Grant spat the words. “Friends don’t take advantage of an innocent girl and leave her alone and pregnant.”
“Stop it, you two!” Hannah looked around when she realized she’d raised her voice, but since Rebecca didn’t scurry into the room, she figured she hadn’t been as loud as she thought. Still, she spoke at just above a whisper. “I mean it.”
Todd looked directly at Grant, not appearing to have heard Hannah at all. “It wasn’t like that. I lo—” He stopped himself, waving his hand as if to wipe away what he’d almost said.
That nearly spoken word stopped Hannah when she should have been shoving both Neanderthals toward the door. After everything, Todd still claimed he’d loved her back then. Maybe he really remembered it that way, though it had probably just been infatuation, just a teenage hormone-induced haze. She knew that feeling well. She’d made the same mistaken assumption in her own heart.
“You don’t know anything about it,” Todd said to Grant.
“I’ve been around for the last few years. That’s more than you can say.”
Todd tilted his chin up. “I’m here now.”
“For how long?”
Grant posed the question, but Hannah was dying to know the answer to it.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I start a job at GM Proving Grounds tomorrow. I’m here in town. To stay.”
“What if she doesn’t want you here? What if no one wants you here?”
Todd raised his hands in surrender. “Resent me all you want. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m Rebecca’s father, and I intend to have some kind of relationship with her no matter what you think.”
Hannah gasped and closed her eyes. Please God. Please God. Tell me she didn’t hear. But when she opened her eyes again, the expressions on both men’s faces told her the bad news before she could even turn toward the living room. In the doorway, Rebecca stared at Todd, her eyes wide with amazement. Finally, she turned back to Hannah.
“Is it true, Mommy? Is Mr. McBride my dad?”
Todd let the phone ring four times, waiting for the answering machine to pick up as it had each time he’d called Monday night and again since he’d been home from work that day. This time the machine didn’t answer, which could only mean that Hannah had returned from work and had shut it off.
Too bad he couldn’t turn off his guilt over last evening’s events as easily as she’d switched off the power. If he continued to be as distracted at work as he’d been on his first day at the Proving Grounds, then he wouldn’t have to worry about having a job for too long.
With the phone continuing to ring, Todd switched the handset from one ear to the other, as he shed his maroon-and-white pin-striped dress shirt. He was already sitting on the edge of the bed in his undershirt and trousers when something clicked on the other end of the line.
“Hello,” a small voice said.
His breath caught, but he forced words anyway. “Hi, Rebecca. This is your— This is Mr. McBride.”
“Hi,” she said automatically. Then she added an uncomfortable “oh.”
He frowned. After Hannah had insisted that both he and Grant leave, she had probably initiated a heart-to-heart talk with their daughter. What a four-year-old would be able to understand from this impossible mess, he hadn’t a clue. He barely understood parts