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Ellen felt a little bad for her. She was an extrovert, who needed interaction with people in order to charge her batteries, and it must be very hard to have to even spend one day at home alone with two small children. Shanna worked outside the home, she had since before the divorce, and so she got to see people on a regular basis, but Ellen figured that two little kids weren’t exactly her idea of ideal company.
Of course, Ellen had been sitting at the picnic table with her, so obviously Ellen wasn’t Shanna’s idea of ideal company either.
But Ellen tried not to think about that too hard. After all, she wasn’t exactly anyone’s ideal company.
“Roger says it isn’t his,” Travis finally said after they’d sat in silence for a while, him staring down at the baby, as though he were thinking hard.
No wonder he was thinking hard.
“Roger denied it?” Ellen asked, unbelieving.
“He pointed out that he changed. I know he has, but when she said that it was his, it was easy to believe, because of his past reputation.”
“Yeah. I guess he has changed. He... He really isn’t the kind of person to have a baby he didn’t know about anymore. I...feel a little bad that I was so willing to believe the worst of him immediately.” She paused, not wanting to say something insulting. “Did he say that there really wasn’t any possible way?”
How else did she ask if he had sex with anyone before he left the country? It was a little awkward, but that was really what she was trying to get out.
“Yeah. He said it had been years. Probably since he truly started to live for the Lord.”
“Wow. Okay. So... It’s not like we can just give the baby back.”
“No. I’m just sitting here thinking I have no idea how to handle a baby. What to do, how to take care of her, anything.”
“I have a little bit more experience, because of my brother and sister, but it’s a big responsibility. And I know there were multiple times I was happy that it was not me in charge. Particularly when they were sick. But when they were that age, they were up a lot at night.”
“Yeah. I don’t know how I can take care of a baby and continue to work. Although... I really didn’t come back here to continue my business things, I have a few loose ends to wrap up, but I had planned to buy a ranch.”
He’d talked about his plans with her, so that wasn’t a shock, but the baby was going to throw a wrench into everything.
“Do you think she might have gotten Roger and Edgar mixed up?” She hated to ask about Travis’s other brother. The woman had had another man’s baby. Surely she knew the name of that man.
“I didn’t ask. But...it’s not like they look a lot alike, and Edgar, while he’s had his moments, wasn’t like Roger.”
Ellen nodded and didn’t say anything else. Edgar hadn’t been involved with drugs or alcohol, and while he’d had a couple of girlfriends, he wasn’t known as being promiscuous.
“She said she left some instructions in the bag,” Ellen remembered suddenly, reaching under the picnic table where she’d moved the bag so it was out of the way.
“I’d forgotten. Totally forgotten about the bag. I don’t even know what to do, but I know I’ll need a car seat at least. It’s too late to get one tonight, plus, I can hardly drive to the store with no car seat. What would I do, hold her in my lap?”
“I can text Claudia. She’s in charge of the missionary closet at church. I’m sure there’s a car seat in there we can use.”
Ellen had already pulled her phone out and sent a quick text off to Claudia. The missionary closet held all kinds of donations the people from the church had either bought and donated or donated after they were done with them, things their children had outgrown, clothing for the most part, but there were always car seats and high chairs and that type of thing. Often missionaries didn’t take those things, because most people already had a car seat and also a lot of those items were too bulky for them to haul around the country while they were on deputation.
So they had a tendency to languish in the closet. Which was actually a rather large storage room. Not a closet.
“You can tell her I’ll return it soon as I’m able to get one for myself.”
“This is what it’s for. People in need. This baby isn’t yours.”
“It might be best for everyone involved if I say that she is.” He took a breath, then continued, “I feel like she is. She was given to me. That makes her mine. Right?”
Ellen froze, looking up at him. She hadn’t considered that. She didn’t know what she was thinking, but when she heard that the baby wasn’t Roger’s, she assumed that...Travis wouldn’t be keeping her. She had actually thought Travis wouldn’t keep her any longer than it would take to get Roger here and get him to claim ownership of the baby.
It sounded like Travis was thinking about keeping her forever.
She supposed that was the right thing to do.
“Are you afraid that woman was actually in trouble? Is that why you’re saying it’s best for everyone to think that it’s just yours?”
