He felt his cells, his blood, the air in the lungs, come to a dead stop. My son. My son. My son. He wanted her to stop saying those words. Alexander was his son.
But he was going to have to accept the truth. Two baby boys had been born early in the morning of November 5. One couldn’t be Shelby’s child. Which meant the other was.
“They do look alike,” he said. “And given the chaos in those moments after they were born, you probably barely got to hold him, let alone study his face in the dark.”
She bit her lip, squeezing her eyes shut.
“We both took home the wrong baby,” he added, his gaze on Shane in his own bouncy seat, biting the little teething ring. When he looked at Shane Ingalls, he saw a beautiful baby boy, someone else’s beautiful baby boy. He felt no connection. What did that mean?
“I want to talk to the nurse who switched them,” Liam said. “I need to hear what happened. Of course I know she can’t be certain, that it’s only what makes sense, given the blood type issue and the delay in putting identification bracelets on the babies, but I need to hear her tell me herself.”
Shelby wiped under her eyes and tilted her head. “Can we talk to her?”
“We can do whatever the hell we want. She’s no longer employed by the clinic. The director said she retired three months ago.”
Shelby nodded. “I’d like to hear it from her about what happened, too.”
“I’ll call Anne Parcells and ask for the contact information. She may be cagey about it. Anne has to be worried about a lawsuit. The nurse, as well.”
“Are you thinking about a lawsuit?” she asked.
“Well, first we need back the DNA tests that conclusively prove we took home the wrong babies. But if the nurse made an honest mistake in the chaos of a blizzard that knocked out power...”
Shelby nodded. “An honest mistake is an honest mistake even if it’s turned our lives around. And who knows what this will mean for Shane and Alexander.”
“Meaning?”
She shrugged. “Well, what’s going to happen now? What’s going to happen when the DNA test says I have your son and you have mine?”
He sucked in a breath.
“I want to hold Alexander but I’m afraid to,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself as if protectively.
He stiffened, everything inside him going numb. “I know. Because if you hold him, knowing what you know, you’re afraid you won’t be able to hand him back over. It’s why I haven’t asked to hold Shane.” He’d have to face the truth, then, that Shane was his, that he’d left him behind, and he wasn’t sure he could handle that.
She stared at Alexander, who was smiling at the mobile and then looking at his little buddy, biting on his teething toy. “He has my eyes and the Ingalls straight and pointy nose. We all have that nose.”
“It’s a good one,” he said. Liam’s nose was more Roman. And Liza’s had been long.
“My head is going to explode,” she said. “I can’t think. I can barely stand up anymore.”
“I know. Same here.”
“I think I need to just go upstairs to my apartment, with Shane, and just let this all sink in.”
He nodded. “I think that’s a good idea. I could use some time alone to try to process this, too.” He headed over to where Alexander sat in the bouncer.
“Liam, I’m very close to my family, particularly my sister. I don’t think I can keep this from them until the DNA tests are in. Especially because I have no doubt anymore that the babies were switched. And to be honest, I don’t want to keep it from them. I need their support.”
He nodded again, letting his head drop back a little. “I can understand that. I’m not all that close to my parents or my brother, but I wish I were. I’m close to my cousin Clara, the one who likes your shop.”
An idea started forming and he dismissed it. Then came back to it. It involved inviting Shelby to the family dinner tonight. Shelby and Shane. He could drop the bombshell and they’d all have a chance to meet the Ingallses. It would be a way to get the conversation over with.
“Maybe getting our families’ takes on the situation is a good idea,” he said. “The Mercers get together every Friday night for dinner, a tradition going back generations. Why don’t you join us? You and Shane. We can tell them together.”
“I thought you said your weren’t close with your family. Weekly family dinners—on a weekend night, no less. That sounds close.”
“I think we all keep doing it because we want something to change but it never does, and the weekly dinners make us feel like we’re doing something to change it. But the evening always ends in arguments or stony silences, mostly because my brother won’t go into the family business, which is nothing new. He’s a cowboy on a cattle ranch.”
“Well, he’ll sure be glad to see me and Shane, then,” she said. “Talk about taking the focus off him.”
Liam laughed, and for a moment he was surprised he had any laughter in him. “I think he’ll be thrilled. He may actually hug me.”
“How do you think your parents will take the news?” she asked.
“Like we did. Who the hell can process this?”
She smiled, lighting up her pretty face. “Right?”
He smiled back. Then felt it fade. “But no matter what, Shelby, we decide what will happen. You and me. No matter how forceful or strong our families come on about this. I decide nothing without you, and you decide nothing without me. Deal?”
She stared at him hard for a moment. “Deal.”
He picked up Alexander from the bouncer seat, darting a glance at Shane. At the baby he had to accept was his flesh and blood. But it didn’t feel real or even possible. His head and heart were not computing, as was often the case.
“Pick you up at six-thirty?” he asked. “Cocktails at six forty-five, dinner at seven.”
“I’d prefer to meet you there,” she said. “I think. Yes, I’ll meet you.”
He nodded. “I’ll drive you over to the clinic so you can get your car,” he said, hoisting up Alexander and heading toward the door.
He felt numb as she scooped up Shane and followed him. They were both quiet on the ride to the clinic. He watched her open up the back door of her car and buckle in Shane. As she went around to the driver’s side, she held up a hand as if saying goodbye. For now, anyway.
He held up a hand too, then started his car. Part of him was relieved to be on his own with his son, his beloved Alexander. We’re safe, he thought the moment he pulled out of the lot.
But left behind, again, was his biological child.
* * *
Someone was ringing both doorbells—to the shop and the upstairs apartment—like a lunatic, pressing it so many times and holding it that Shelby’s poor cat, Luna, darted under her favorite velvet chair.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she called, turning around on the back stairs. She’d been on the way up to her apartment, Shane in one arm and her overstuffed tote in the other. Liam had just left five minutes ago. Could he be back? She hurried down the stairs and peered through the filmy curtain at the window.
Twenty-six-year-old Norah Ingalls, in her uniform of black pants, a white T-shirt and yellow apron with Pie Diner in sparkly blue letters across, looked frantic, her strawberry-blond hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. Shelby let her in.
“You