Way to Her Heart

chapter 15

Lucas leaned back in his desk chair and rubbed his face with both hands. He wasn’t tired from a long day of work; he was energized, the way he usually was. He had the stamina of a young stallion and it took a lot to make him weary. He felt a weight on his shoulders, however, but it wasn’t his. His concern was all for Sherri and Sydney. She’d finally told him about her confrontation with Trevor, and he was proud of the fact that his head hadn’t exploded when she did. She had told him Sunday evening after Sydney had been tucked into bed. They had gone downstairs and snuggled up on the sofa. He remembered every word of her confession, if that was what it was.

“I didn’t say anything before because I just didn’t want to deal with it. I wanted to get Sydney and have a great weekend and just not deal with the crap. I wasn’t scared or anything. I was just angry. The nerve of him, just showing up out of the blue with this crazy idea that we should suddenly be a family after all this time. I couldn’t believe the nerve of him. And there are a bunch of holes in his story, Lucas. Like why he’s decided all of a sudden that I’m the answer to his prayers or something.”

Lucas had listened quietly as she vented her rage over Trevor’s sudden appearance in Columbia, but he had a few questions for her.

“So what’s your mother’s role in this scenario? Was she really close to him or something?”

Sherri’s face had darkened, and she frowned. “My parents always loved Trevor. He had finished law school and he’d just started working for a firm here. They just thought he was the best thing that ever happened to me, probably because he came from a wealthy family. They live in L.A. and they’re big society people, whatever that means. My parents have always been image-conscious, really concerned about appearance before substance. Father was always worried about what ‘people might think’—that was his mantra when we were growing up. And Mother was even more so,” she said with a slight roll of her eyes.

“I know he worked hard to make his business successful and I respect him for that, but it always seemed to me that he was more concerned about his public image than anything else. So was Mother. The way the house looked, the way we were dressed, the way we behaved, all of those things were more important than anything else,” she had said sadly.

“Do you know why they were like that? Was it something in their past that made them so status-conscious?”

“I have no idea because strange as it may seem, I don’t know that much about how they grew up. Neither one of them will talk about their families much at all. Mother is an only child, and Father has two brothers but they don’t live here. They’re originally from Virginia, both Mother and Father, and as far as I know neither one of them has been back there since they moved here.

“I have so many questions I don’t even know where to begin getting answers. I’m calling my mother tomorrow to find out why she and Father have decided to be on Trevor’s side, and I hope she has a good answer because I truly have no clue. You’d think they’d be on my side seeing as how he’s the one who ditched me and took off like a jackrabbit when I found out I was pregnant. But they blamed me and my loose behavior for the whole thing. Can you believe it?”

“No, I really can’t. I can’t imagine my parents acting like that toward my sisters. In fact, I can guarantee you they would have had the opposite reaction.”

“Yes, well my parents have always been the way they are—very cool and lacking in emotion. Tomorrow I’m going to pin Mother down for some answers and we’ll see how unemotional she is then,” Sherri had said grimly. “But as curious as I am about her role in this, I have bigger things to deal with. Like why has Trevor decided that he wants to be a part of Sydney’s life? I don’t even know if I should introduce him to her, but he made it seem like he’d go through legal channels if I don’t.”

Lucas had had to work hard to contain himself once he’d heard that. “Don’t do it, Sherri. I don’t know much about the law, but after the way he’s behaved I doubt that he has a leg to stand on as far as any kind of custody is concerned. Have you thought about talking to an attorney?”

“Of course I have. I have an appointment tomorrow with an excellent guy who specializes in family law and custody issues. Sydney’s well-being is my first and foremost concern. I have to protect her above all else,” she had said fiercely. “I don’t want her to be hurt by whatever craziness Trevor has cooked up in his head.” She then had sighed deeply and put her head on his shoulder. “What a mess.”

Lucas had just held her for a few minutes, but he had to make a point. “Sherri, sweetheart, I wish you’d talked to me sooner,” he had said gently. “That’s what I’m here for—to listen to you and to give you support and whatever else you need.”

“I didn’t want to bother you with my problems, Lucas. I’m used to handling things on my own.”

“I’m not trying to say that you can’t handle your business. You’re one of the most capable people I’ve ever met in my life. You put yourself through med school, and you raised an astounding child while you were doing it. Now you have a successful practice and the greatest little girl in the world, so nobody can say you’re not capable. But what’s the point of having a man if you can’t confide in him and lean on him once in a while?”

Sherri had gone so silent that Lucas was afraid he’d said something terribly wrong, but then she’d looked up at him with a sweet smile.

“So you’re my man?”

“Of course I am, and you’re my woman. I think we’re too old to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but I was under the distinct impression that I mean something to you. You mean everything to me, you and Miss Sydney.”

“You mean a lot to us, too, Lucas. Sydney’s crazy about you and so am I,” she had confessed. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone else.”

“That’s good to know because I was hoping that I wasn’t the only one who’d fallen in love. You know I love you, right?”

She’d given him a mischievous smile and said, “I thought you might like me a whole lot, but I didn’t want to assume anything.”

He had kissed her hard and long to shut off her merry laughter and when the kiss had ended, he’d told her, “Just assume this—as long as I’m breathing I’m not going to let anything happen to you or Sydney and that includes anything that jackass Barnes has up his sleeve. So just put him out of your mind, okay?”

“If only it were that easy,” she had said with a sigh. Then she’d kissed him, and they didn’t talk about anything else for a while.

As Lucas recalled that conversation, he was very happy with parts of it, but he was still troubled by Trevor Barnes. He needed to know what the sleazebag was up to and fast. He glanced at the clock on his desk, calculating that Sherri was having her showdown with her mother right about now, which gave him time to check in with a man who was the most reliable source of information about any and everyone in the world. If he couldn’t get to the bottom of the Trevor Barnes mystery, no one could.

* * *

Sherri turned off her engine and glanced at the back door of Stratton’s Funeral Home. She wasn’t impressed by the appearance of the building at all, even though it was, like all of the locations, in superb condition. It was basic brick, painted white with gray trim, very plain and austere but with the dignity that was appropriate to an establishment of its kind. The lawn was perfectly green, the shrubs were meticulously trimmed and the sidewalks were cleaner than some people’s floors. Even the parking lot was devoid of so much as a leaf or scrap of paper. With a brief sigh she got out of the SUV and walked to the door. She knew her mother was there because her schedule was maintained so rigidly that nothing would have kept her from being at her desk.

After entering the building with her key, Sherri blinked to accustom her eyes to the dim lighting after being in the bright sunlight. She walked down the familiar hallway to her mother’s office, knocking politely on the door. Even though the door was open, she knew better than to invade her mother’s privacy without permission.

Sybil looked up from her paperwork with mild surprise on her face. “What are you doing here, Sherrilyn? I don’t remember making an appointment with you today.”

An appointment to see her own child—how sad. Sherri ignored that and took one of the chairs in front of the desk.

“No, Mother, we don’t have an appointment, but there are some things that need to be discussed and that’s why I’m here. I won’t take up too much of your time—I just want to know what’s going on with you and Trevor. Why did he show up here in Columbia after all this time, and why are you suddenly so close to him that he calls you ‘Mother Stratton’? I think I’m entitled to some answers and I know you’re the one who can provide them.” She crossed her legs at the ankle and waited for a reply, which came immediately.

“Sherrilyn, I don’t appreciate you barging in here interrogating me like I’m a criminal. You’re acting as though something underhanded is going on when you should be grateful that Trevor has realized that he’s still in love with you and wants to be a father to your child. He called us a few weeks ago and told us that he was coming to town to ask for your hand in marriage and we were thrilled to hear it. It’s about time that something was done to legitimize your situation,” she said with a self-righteous sniff.

Sherri’s temper flared. She had to exercise a great deal of control not to let it get the best of her. “Legitimize what situation? Mother, I’m a doctor, for heaven’s sake. I have a child and no husband, and so what? That doesn’t stop me from being a decent member of society and it certainly doesn’t make my baby some kind of social pariah. You act like this is ninety-fifty something instead of 2013. I’m educated, employed and respected by everyone in Columbia except you and my father,” she said hotly.

“You’re so ashamed of me and Sydney that when you get a call from the creep who deserted me almost eight years ago that you start jumping through hoops because he’s suddenly decided that he wants to put a ring on it. I always knew that you and Father cared more about your businesses than your children, but this is too much, even for you.”

Her mother’s face quivered for a second before freezing into its usual unexpressive mask. “It wasn’t always so easy for a woman to have a child out of wedlock,” she said slowly. “It was the end of her and any aspirations she might have had for her future. She was turned out by her family and shunned by any decent people because an illegitimate child was a disgrace.”

Sherri’s faced flamed with anger. “My baby isn’t a disgrace—she’s my joy. If you ever spent any real time with her you’d know what she’s like. Sydney is a beautiful gift—she’s not some burden. If you only knew how much I love being her mother, how fortunate I am, you’d change your tune. You sound like you were born in another century, Mother. It’s been a long time since the unwed mother was run out of town.”

“It wasn’t that long ago,” her mother replied. “I hadn’t been dating your father that long before we found out that I was carrying you. I had to leave college because it was against the rules for someone like me to attend. I lost my scholarship. My parents forced me to marry your father even though we weren’t really in love. We were just wild and stupid and full of sin,” she said, bitterness filling her voice.

“I had planned on being a teacher and traveling the world in the summer when school was out. I had a whole life planned that didn’t involve a husband or children. And what I got was an unpaid job in a funeral home and two children to take care of. When John’s parents found out what we’d done, he was cut off from the family. They own an insurance company with branches all over the world, and he should be getting his share of the profits instead of taking care of dead people. So here we are, living a life neither of us wanted and you have the nerve to tell me that getting pregnant out of wedlock doesn’t carry any consequences. It does, Sherrilyn. It will haunt you to the day you die.”

Her mother’s face was pale and pasty with perspiration trickling down. Sherri had never seen her looking so wrought up. She went to the dispenser in the corner of the room and filled a paper cup with cold water. Her mother brushed it away but Sherri insisted that she take it.

“This is why I was so happy when Trevor called,” her mother went on. “This way you can erase the stain on your child by marrying her father. You don’t want to have one of those marriages where all the children look like strangers. If you marry somebody else and have another child, God knows what it will look like. Now all your children will look alike and nobody can say that your child is a bastard because you and her father will be husband and wife under God. Don’t you see that this is the best answer for everyone?”

Sherri sat down heavily in the chair she’d vacated. “What I see is that you’ve had way too much time to think about this, Mother. You should have gotten counseling instead of letting all this fester inside you for all these years. I always wondered what made you tick, and now I know. You’ve always blamed me for everything that went wrong in your life, haven’t you? And when I got pregnant and didn’t burst into flames, it pissed you off, didn’t it? You were furious because I was able to keep pushing and finish my education and fulfill my ambitions and that’s why you always treated Sydney like a stray puppy that wandered into your yard.” She shook her head slowly as she rose from the chair.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about either of us anymore, Mother Stratton, because I’m done.” She picked up her purse and walked out of the office, never turning back.