say it was something his wife should take care of. And if he married you, it would be perfect because we agree on everything."
Kathryn settled back in her chair. "Not everything. For example, I'm very uneasy about why you're having this baby and why you chose to come here."
It was immediately obvious she'd hit a sensitive spot. Cynthia grabbed her plate and got up to take it to the sink.
"Don't run away," Kathryn said. "If we're going to talk about why I ought to marry your father, then we need to talk about why you decided to have this baby. Did you decide to have it?"
Cynthia didn't run away, but she kept her back to Kathryn.
"No. It was an accident."
"An accident you didn't try very hard to prevent?"
"If you mean I didn't refuse to have sex, then I guess you're right."
"I was thinking more along the lines of agreeing to have unprotected sex more than once."
Cynthia didn't answer.
"Was this your first time?"
"Do you think boys line up to have sex with somebody like me?"
"I think you liked the boy, but I don't believe you liked him enough to want to have a baby with him. That would imply you want to marry him like Lisette wants to marry Kerry."
"He wouldn't marry me even if I wanted him to. He'd probably deny he's the father."
"You said he doesn't know so you can't know how he would react."
Cynthia swung around. "What do you think he'd do? He's seventeen. This would ruin his chances of a football scholarship. And my father would probably kill him."
"Your father will certainly be very angry, but I doubt he'll resort to violence. However, that's not the issue. The issue is this is his baby - "
"It's my baby!"
" - as much as it's yours," Kathryn said, pushing a point Cynthia obviously didn't want to address. "You have to let him make his own decision about what to do."
"I won't tell you his name."
"I don't want you to. I'm just saying the baby doesn't belong to one parent any more than the other."
"Mama said men weren't interested in babies. She said babies belong to their mothers."
"I expect the boy will want to stay as far away as possible, but you've got to give him the chance to decide. Talk to your father about it when he gets back."
"If he gets back."
"If Margaret says you can swear by what he says, then I'm sure he'll be back. If anybody knows a man better than his wife, it's the housekeeper."
"Margaret says he ought to get married again. She says it's not good for a young man to be without a wife. She says he'll meet all kinds of women who'll give him diseases."
"I'm not sure this is something Margaret should talk to you about."
"I know all about STDs. Everybody does. That's another reason I think you ought to marry him. I know you haven't been - "
"This conversation has gotten entirely off base. Leigh is coming by this afternoon. You don't have to see her if you don't want to. But if you keep putting her off until she gives up, you'll always wonder about her friendship, and that will be doing her a disservice. If you're the kind of friend you'd like her to be, then you owe her that opportunity."
Cynthia looked mulish.
"Now you have lessons to do if you're going to keep up with your schooling. And I have bills to pay if I'm going to keep this shelter running."
But an hour later Kathryn gave up and pushed her checkbook aside. She couldn't get Ron out of her mind. Or Cynthia's crazy notion that she should marry him. There wasn't a single reason she could think of to recommend the idea, so she didn't understand why she couldn't get it out of her mind. She didn't have many friends and she barely got along with her family. That wasn't a recommendation for becoming the wife of a man like Ron Egan. He needed someone who could understand his need to be the world's greatest overachiever. And achieve social acceptance which she knew he would ultimately find meaningless.
She couldn't understand why she couldn't stop thinking about him. She had to figure out what it was so she could get over her obsession.
It wasn't really an obsession. Maybe it was just fascination. But when she was with him, differences didn't seem to matter. He was a charismatic man. She guessed that's what made him so successful in the business.
But she