Bruce reached for the certificate again. ‘The mother’s name is Shelley. Shelley Bates.’
‘I don’t know any Shelleys,’ Jason said miserably. ‘Never have.’
‘It says here that her occupation is a model.’
Laura wasn’t the only one to see how well that fitted.
‘You’ve been out with plenty of models, Jase.’
‘I don’t sleep with them all,’ Jason said defensively. ‘In fact, I haven’t had a good s—’ He stopped abruptly, glanced up at Mrs McKendry who was still standing at the other end of the table, groaned and buried his face in his hands again. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ he muttered.
Laura disagreed. She was very interested to hear that Jason didn’t have sex with every female that gave him the opportunity. She stuck down the tabs to hold the fresh nappy secure. She would also very much like to know how long it had been since he’d had a good…whatever crude noun he’d been tempted to use to describe the experience. It couldn’t have been more than ten months ago, that was for sure.
‘I guess we’re off the hook.’ Bruce yawned. ‘We could go home now, eh, Mrs Mack?’
‘No!’ Jason’s face appeared again. ‘I don’t know anyone called Shelley and I haven’t been in England for six years. This has to be a mistake.’
‘Why would someone make a mistake like that?’
‘Maybe it didn’t happen in England,’ Cliff said thoughtfully. ‘Maybe Shelley whoever she is was in New Zealand on holiday.’
‘A holiday with Halliday.’ Stick chuckled. His smile faded rapidly as he realised his quip was not appreciated.
‘I don’t care where Shelley was. Or who she was with. It wasn’t me.’
‘The bairn’s four weeks old.’ Mrs McKendry had moved to the kitchen bench and was spooning formula into the bottle. ‘That means she was conceived about nine to ten months ago.’
‘December,’ Stick said helpfully. ‘No…more like late January.’
‘Let’s say New Year, give or take a week or two.’
‘Can you remember that far back, Jase?’
‘You were going out with Britney,’ Cliff declared. ‘I remember her. Red hair and legs up to her—’
‘That was March. We broke up at Easter when we had an argument about chocolate bunnies.’
‘OK, what about Melissa? You know, the one with those Pamela Anderson—’
‘She was after Britney,’ Jason interrupted swiftly. ‘I think.’
‘No…I’m sure she was the one that came to that barbecue we had on the beach in February. Yellow bikini?’
Laura hadn’t forgotten that yellow bikini—or the assets it had supported. She glanced up from fastening the snaps on the stretchsuit, intending to direct a ‘you know you deserve everything that’s coming’ glance, but to her astonishment, the tips of Jason’s ears were bright pink. Good grief—the man was embarrassed!
He should be ashamed of himself if he couldn’t even remember the order or names of the string of women in his life. Maybe this was the first occasion he’d ever had to consider the repercussions of such an active social life. Or maybe he was disturbed by the wider picture he was currently having to confront. In any case, Laura liked the fact that he was embarrassed. She picked up the baby again and her lips curved into a smile against the soft wisps of blonde hair.
‘Daddy’s blushing,’ she whispered. ‘How about that?’
‘Daddy’ was still fielding a list of potential conquests that might have had confusing names.
‘What about Charlotte?’
‘Sounds a bit like Shelley.’
Despite the spotlight being so firmly on Jason, even Bruce, who was stifling frequent yawns, was not about to leave his fellow firefighter in the lurch and go home for some well-deserved rest. Stick shook his head sorrowfully.
‘This should be a lesson to us all. Anyone could just scribble in our names on some bloody birth certificate.’
‘Speak for yourself, mate. I’m happily married.’
‘DNA,’ Cliff said with relief. ‘You could get a test, Jase, and prove it’s not yours.’
‘That could take weeks! What the hell am I supposed to do with it in the meantime?’
‘Maybe the mother’s only gone shopping or something. She could be back any minute.’
‘Yeah, right. Like she’s come all the way from England for a spot of shopping and she leaves the baby on a doorstep in the middle of the night so she doesn’t have to bother finding a babysitter.’
Laura sat down at the table and Mrs McKendry silently handed her the bottle of formula. Tentatively, she poked the teat into the baby’s mouth and to her delight it was accepted enthusiastically.
‘Well, that’s a blessing,’ Mrs McKendry said. ‘At least she’s used to a bottle.’
Laura could feel the rhythmic tug of the sucking movements. The baby’s wide-eyed gaze fastened onto hers as though she was receiving the nourishment via some kind of visual connection. Laura found herself smiling.
‘Oh…she’s gorgeous!’
‘Aye.’ Jean McKendry’s expression softened noticeably. Then she pushed her spectacles more firmly onto the bridge of her nose and leaned a little closer to peer at the baby’s face.
‘It was Sharon!’ Jason announced.
‘What was?’
‘The woman who’s set me up. It has to be.’ Jason nodded to confirm his own statement. ‘A girl from England that I met when I had that summer holiday in the Coromandel.’
‘Sure it wasn’t Shelley?’
Jason frowned in concentration. ‘She had a sister and I remember that their names were alike enough to be confusing. It was a bit of a joke and they didn’t mind when I got it wrong.’ Jason nodded again, more slowly this time. ‘That must be where this has come from. Sharon’s sister has had a baby and they’ve decided to name me as the father.’
‘Maybe they want to emigrate or something,’ Cliff suggested.
‘Of course, that’s what it’ll be. It’s pretty hard to get into the country and having a New Zealand father for a child is probably a great start.’
‘Marrying the New Zealand father would have been a much safer plan,’ Laura said dryly. ‘I mean, writing in your name like that doesn’t make you the legal father. Why didn’t she turn up months ago?’
‘Dunno.’ Jason shrugged. ‘Maybe the sisters didn’t get together and come up with the plan until after the baby was born.’
‘How much alike did these sisters look, Jase?’
‘Identical. They were twins. Long blonde hair and cute accents. Young, though. I think they were only about nineteen.’ Jason rubbed the back of his neck as though something was hurting. ‘I suppose it could have been Shelley. Names didn’t actually seem that important at the time.’
The sniff that emanated from Mrs McKendry’s direction was an expression of frank disapproval.
‘It was only one night,’ Jason sighed. ‘There was this big beach party. Hey, I was on holiday. You’re supposed to have a good time on holiday!’
‘Not that good,’ Stick said enviously.
‘And not with twins!’ Tim