responsibility. If it turns out I really was the sperm donor,” he added in an undertone, so the children could not hear.
“Frankly, after seeing you face-to-face, I don’t think there’s much doubt. Have you looked closely at Justin? I’ll bet you looked a lot like he does now when you were his age.” She glanced over at her great-nephew, who’d lost interest in the aquarium and was now busy clearing a low table of the magazines neatly arranged on its surface. “For your mother’s sake, I hope you were better behaved. Justin, don’t throw the magazines on the floor! Just turn the pages gently and look at the pictures!”
“Justin,” Graham said sternly.
Surprisingly the little boy raised his head, seeming to focus attention on Graham for the first time. Graham’s heart sank as he gazed into a boyish face that was probably a replica of his own face when he was a youngster of three years and six months.
Once she saw that Justin was engaged in the task of restocking the magazines and was, like his sister, paying the adults in the room no mind, Lena confirmed in a low voice, “See what I mean?” Her tone held sympathy. “I’m really sorry my niece put you in this bind. In her defense, she never intended for you to be any the wiser.”
“What she did was wrong! It was downright immoral.”
“I agree. And I would have informed you against her wishes that you were a father, but Heather convinced me not to. She insisted she wasn’t cheating you by keeping you ignorant. She said she’d made sure in advance that you weren’t one of those men who wanted a family.”
“God…” Graham put both hands up to his head as though he could jump-start his numbed brain to come up with some magic solution. “Before you go, give me your address and phone number. We’ll talk later, maybe tonight. I’ll start sending you monthly checks.”
Her expression had turned pitying again. She glanced at the children, still busily playing, and said, “Graham, I didn’t come here today to get money for child support. I’m quite a well-to-do woman. Also very busy running a large corporation in Jackson. I can’t take on raising Justin and Jennifer. I’m past the age of becoming a mom, and lack the patience. It wouldn’t be fair to them.”
“Who’s going to raise them? Heather’s parents?”
“Obviously Heather never told you much about them or you wouldn’t even suggest the idea. Mildred and Bill—Bill’s my brother—divorced when Heather was three. She shuttled back and forth between them, poor darling. They’re both on their third or fourth marriage now. It’s hard to keep track. I won’t go into the details except to say that Justin and Jennifer would be far better off in a good foster home than with either of their maternal grandparents.”
“A foster home! Isn’t there another relative?”
“Not on Heather’s side. There’s a married cousin, Andy, who’s stable, but he’s currently living in a foreign country.” She raised her eyebrows. “Your parents perhaps?”
Graham immediately rejected that suggestion. “My parents run a hardware store that they own in Picayune, Mississippi. Plus they have their hobbies and interests. No way would I ask them to raise a couple of young kids at their stage in life. My brother is divorced.”
Lena made no reply, but just gazed at him sympathetically. Panic bloomed inside Graham at what she was surely considering as his only option.
“I can’t raise them,” he told her, pointing to himself. “I’m single. And I know nothing about bringing up kids.”
Still she said nothing. The panic strengthened into an emotion more akin to terror.
“I live in a two-bedroom condo and use one of the bedrooms as my home study,” he went on, presenting his case as if it would convince any reasonable person. “There aren’t any children living in the whole complex. It just wouldn’t be a suitable environment. I would be a lousy father.”
“I’m not so sure about that. You might be the best thing that ever happened to Justin and Jennifer and, one would hope, vice versa.”
“Look at Jennifer!” Justin shouted, chortling. Graham had been dimly aware that the little boy had completed his mission of throwing all the copies of Architectural Digest on the floor and had climbed up onto the sofa and was using it like a trampoline, jumping up and down.
“Jennifer, don’t do that!” scolded Lena as she rushed over to Justin’s sister, who’d discovered Angela’s plastic tube of hand cream. The little girl had removed the cap and was holding the tube aloft, upside down, squeezing out a long strand of cream.
The whole scene became surreal for Graham. It was beyond comprehension that he would be expected to deal with these two pint-size vandals. Supporting them financially was one thing, but take them home with him and turn them loose in his condo? “No way,” he murmured in a tone of despair.
Lena wrested the tube from Jennifer’s hands, and Graham braced himself for a howl, but Jennifer seemed satisfied with patting one small patent leather shoe in the blob of pink cream that had fallen to the carpet.
“That was very naughty, Jennifer.”
“I’m not always naughty,” the little girl said. “Mary says I can be a little angel sometimes.”
“Mary was their daytime nanny,” Lena explained to Graham.
“Can we go and have ice cream now?” Justin asked, leaping off the sofa. He ran over to his great-aunt.
“I thought you didn’t want ice cream,” she replied.
“I do! I want strawberry.”
“I want vanilla with chocolate syrup and sprinkles,” said Jennifer.
Graham suppressed a shudder at a vision of the two of them with cups of ice cream at their disposal.
“Have you behaved yourselves well enough to deserve a treat?” Lena asked them.
“Jennifer was badder than me,” Justin pointed out.
“No, I wasn’t!”
Lena took each of them by the hand. “Come over closer to this nice man Aunt Lena has been talking to. He’s someone very important.”
“Who is he?” asked Justin.
“He’s your daddy.”
“Our daddy?” Jennifer questioned skeptically. “We don’t have a daddy. We just have a mommy, but she’s in heaven now.”
Graham had gone as still as a statue. The sense of unreality was more pronounced than ever. Lena, flanked by the two children, approached him.
“Are you really our daddy?” Justin asked when they’d come to a standstill.
Words wouldn’t come out of Graham’s mouth. He had to swallow. “Yes, Justin, I believe I am.”
“We grew in our mommy’s stomach,” Jennifer informed him, obviously still not putting much stock in his paternity claim.
“I was borned first.” Justin stood very straight. “I’m taller than Jennifer.”
“And he has a penis. I don’t.”
“Maybe you children would like to give your daddy a hug or a kiss,” Lena suggested.
“I’m a total stranger to them,” Graham protested.
Jennifer and Justin gazed up into his face. From their expressions they were processing the idea.
“He’s too tall,” the little girl pointed out.
Graham felt like a robot as he lowered himself to a squatting position. Jennifer moved first and Justin followed her lead. They pressed their lips to his cheeks.
“Give them a hug, why don’t you?” Lena prompted, and he complied in a gingerly fashion. “That’s nice.”