May

“You two are so lucky to have found each other,” Chandler said longingly, watching Evan and Mariah holding hand and smiling at each other.

“Chandler, you’ll find someone,” Mariah told him. “You’re a handsome man, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a woman to love.”

Chandler looked over at his brother, but Evan didn’t say a word, instead he just simply shook his head. Even though his brother hadn’t said anything, he knew what he meant, he hadn’t told his wife anything concerning Chandler’s problem.

He went to Mariah and took hold of her hands. “Mariah, thank you for your kind words, but I have a slight problem that most women don’t tend to overlook.”

Assuming he meant he had a small penis, Mariah eyes traveled down to his crotch, then jerked back up to his face as a reddish glow covered her face. “I didn’t know. I just assumed you would be the same size as your brother.”

When Chandler saw her glance to his groin and then her blushing face, he laughed loudly, giving her hand a tight squeeze. “No, that isn’t my problem,” he said, thinking back to his teenage years and the many times he and his brothers had compared their sexual organs. Out of the four of them, he had always been the biggest. “Mariah, when I was fifteen I had the mumps.”

Mariah’s hands flew to her mouth as tears quickly formed in her eyes, for she knew that when older boys had mumps, they could become sterile because of their high fevers. “Chandler,” she started, but the words she wanted to say to him wouldn’t come. “Weren’t you vaccinated against it?” she asked softly.

“I was, but I still got it.” He pulled her into his arms. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m still a healthy man with a good sex drive.” He laughed at her teasing groan. “I’ll find the right woman someday.” He let go of her and stepped back. “I could always find a woman who already has children.”

She nodded. “I’m sure you’ll find her.”

“Or there’s always adoption,” he said, giving her hand another squeeze.

“Yes, you’re right,” she replied, thinking of Casey and his desire to adopt their nephew. “You’ll make a great father.”

* * *

Whitney stared at the pregnancy test in her hand and frowned, as now she knew for sure she and the man from the hotel, had had unprotected sex that night. She knew she couldn’t keep the baby as she was barely keeping her head financially above water now. With a baby in her life, she would definitely sink to the bottom.

Thank God, she thought of getting the man’s business card before leaving his room, as she needed to contact him to tell him about the baby. Maybe he would want the infant, then she shook her head, as he wouldn’t want to raise a baby on his own since his wife was gone. She wasn’t sure what she should do regarding the baby, but she knew he still had the right to know he was going to be a father.

She wanted to call him, but figured this was something she had to do in person. She got the man’s business card out of her jewelry box, sat down at her computer to look up how to get to his home in Independence on the Internet.

She typed in his address and found it wouldn’t take her more than ten minutes to get to his house from her apartment. She figured there wasn’t any time like the present, so she grabbed her purse, pulled out her car keys, and started towards his home. When she arrived at his house, she knocked on the man’s door, then forced herself to swallow as she nervously waited for him to answer it. Even though she could hear footsteps coming to the door, she still jumped when the door opened.

“Yes?” Evan asked when he opened the door. The sun was shining into his eyes, so he couldn’t make out the woman’s face, and so he didn’t recognize her as the woman from the bar.

“Evan, it’s me, Whitney O’Rourke.” Whitney just stared at the man when he acted as if he’d never seen her before. Didn’t he recognize her? Had he forgotten about their night together? Had he been too drunk that night to remember taking her to bed?

“Lady if you’re selling something, I’m not interested,” he said unfriendly. Chandler was over and the two of them were watching an exciting movie he’d rented. All he wanted to do was to shut the door and return to his chair to watch the movie.

“Mr. Clemmens, maybe you don’t remember me, but we met while you were in Chicago two months ago. We had sex and I’m here to tell you I’m pregnant with your baby.”

Anger filled Evan’s face. “Look here. I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, but I’ve never seen you before, so you’re definitely aren’t getting any money out of me.”

“Fine, don’t believe me,” she shouted at him. “It doesn’t much matter to me what you believe, but when this baby is born, I’ll be back to have your DNA checked and then I’ll prove to you this child is yours.”

“What’s going on here?” Chandler asked, joining his brother at the front door when he heard their loud angry voices. When he looked outside, he was surprised to see a woman who reminded him of Mariah, only younger.

Whitney looked at the man who had joined them at the door, and by the looks of him, she figured he was probably Evan’s younger brother. “A few months ago, Evan and I met at a bar in Chicago. We had too much to drink and when I woke the next morning, we were in bed together. Now I’m expecting his baby.”

“Chandler, she’s lying. I never saw this woman before,” Evan insisted, hoping his brother would believe him.

Chandler put out his hand. “I’m Chandler Clemmens, Evan’s younger brother. Why don’t you come into the house so we can talk about this?”

“She’s knows I have money and is just here to blackmail me with her lies. I don’t know why she’s saying she having my baby. I told you, I’ve never seen her before today,” he shouted at his brother, praying that she was lying because otherwise that meant that he’d been unfaithful to Mariah.

“How do you explain how I got this?” Whitney pulled Evan’s business card out of her purse and showed it to him.

Evan looked down at the card in her hand. Was it the card that had come up missing during his last business trip? He took it from her and turned it over. Sure enough, it was his missing card, but that didn’t prove they had sex. She shifted, causing the sunlight to be blocked by her head and he got his first good look at her. He quickly realized that she did look familiar to him, then his mouth dropped open, as he was astonish of how much she looked like Mariah. He looked at his brother and then back to her. “I believe I remember you now, but I don’t remember sleeping with you.”

“Evan, why don't we go into the living room so that we can discuss this rationally. Your neighbors don’t need to know all your dirty laundry.”

Evan stepped back to let the woman enter the house and the three of them went to the living room. Evan sat down on loveseat, but Whitney stood there looking nervous at him.

“Please sit down,” Chandler said to Whitney. He waited until she sat down on the couch, then he sat down next to Evan before he spoke. “Now start at the beginning.”

While looking between Evan and Chandler, Whitney slowly explained everything she could remember from that night to the two men, and the longer she talked, the more she realized Evan really didn’t remember their night together. She couldn’t blame him since she didn’t much of it either.

“I’m a married man. I love my wife, I wouldn’t have had sex with you,” he insistent franticly, tears threatening to fall.

“The way you talked about her that night, I got the impression that she was dead. You kept saying you’d lost her.”

“We had a big fight, I thought our marriage was over, so I was drinking away my sorrows. Now my marriage really will be over when Mariah finds out I’ve been unfaithful. The worst part is I don’t even remember going to bed with you,” he moaned, putting his head into his hands.

Whitney could feel his pain. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt your marriage. I just wanted you to know I was expecting your baby.”

“Are you positive it’s mine?” he asked looking at her, hoping she would say she wasn’t.

“Yes, I’m positive. I need to know whether you want to keep the baby or not. If you don’t want it, I’m going to put the baby up for adoption after its born.”

“No!” Evan yelled at her, jumping off the loveseat and walking to where she was sitting. “You will not put our baby up for adoption,” he stated angrily. “Mariah and her sisters were separated from each other when she was a child and it about killed her. I won’t do that to a child of mine.” He studied her for a few seconds. “You look to be the motherly type, why don’t you want the baby?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want the child, but I’m barely making ends meet as it is. I can’t afford to raise the baby on my own.”

“We’ll find a way to work through this,” Evan told her as he said down next to her and clasped her hand in his. He had to find a way to solve this problem, but his troubled mind couldn’t think of a single solution to this dilemma.

“Evan, we’ll think of something.” Chandler told his brother.

“There has to be something we can do,” he muttered, even though he thought the situation looked hopeless.

“If you could afford to pay child support, then maybe I could keep the baby. If you wanted to see the child, we could work out some sort of visiting arrangement.”

Evan nodded. “Yes, that could work. We should obtain a lawyer and make everything legal.”

Chandler moved over to the couch, sat down on the other side of Whitney, took hold of her hand, and smiled. “Or you could marry me,” he quickly inserted into the conversation. When Whitney turned to stare at Evan’s brother, he simply smiled at her.

“What?” She was shocked by his comment. “You can’t be serious.”

“Of course I can. Will you marry me?” he asked, praying that she would say yes, then he would be a father to his brother’s child.

The man did look sincere, but she couldn’t understand why he’d asked her to marry him. “Why would you want to marry me? You don’t even know me.” She was puzzled to why this good-looking man would want to marry her especially knowing she was pregnant by his brother.

“I don’t want my brother’s child to be taken away from us. I would make your child my heir.”

“Why would you want to do that?” Whitney couldn’t believe this man, a complete stranger, would propose to her. As she sat there staring dumbfounded at the attractive man, she thought he was even better looking than his brother was. The thought of accepting his proposal caused her throat to tense up and she had forced herself to swallow.

Before Chandler could respond to her question, Evan spoke up. “Yes, that’s would solve all our problems. If you married Chandler, we wouldn’t have to say any to Mariah concerning any of this,” Evan said excitedly.

Chandler quickly gave his brother a dirty look. “I can’t believe you just said that. You want to lie to your wife? How do you think she would feel when she finds out that you’ve lied to her?”

“She doesn’t ever have to find out,” he said excitedly.

“I’m not going to lie to your wife,” Whitney told Evan.

“Lie to me about what?” Mariah inquired, as she stepped into the room, surprising all three of them.

Three guilty looking people jumped out of their seats, turning to stare at her.

When Whitney looked at the woman who must be Evan’s wife, she was astonished to see how much she was an older version of herself. No wonder Evan kept calling her by his wife’s name.

When Mariah’s eyes glimpse the young woman’s face, she thought she’d seen a ghost. “Whitney is that you?” she asked, tears filling her eyes.

Whitney was shocked this stranger knew her name. “Yes?” she replied nervously. “How do you know my name? Do I know you?” This situation was getting worse by the minute, wondering if she was some distance relative of hers, as they looked enough alike that they could be sisters.

“I’m your sister, Mariah,” she muttered tearfully as she rushed to her side, taking hold of her hand.

“What?” This couldn’t be true, this woman couldn’t be her sister. “You can’t be my sister,” she cried, a single tear dropped down her cheek. “All my sisters are dead. My adoptive mother told me so herself.”

Mariah hurried to her, then wiped Whitney’s tear away with her hand before pulling her into her arms, giving her a tight squeeze. “No, we aren’t dead. Someone lied to you.” She moved slightly away from Whitney and took hold of her hand. “Lindsay and I have just recently been reunited. Surprisingly, she has been living here in Kansas City.”

“How wonderful! How does she look?” she asked, fighting to prevent herself from becoming hysterical at the realization that she was pregnant with her brother-in-law’s baby. How much worst could this situation get?

“She looks great. Of course, she grown a bit since the last time I saw her.”

Whitney forced a laugh at Mariah’s joke. “What is she doing?”

“She’s a published author and right now, she’s helping Evan’s brother Casey with their nephew who has lost both of his parents in March.”

“How’s sad. What about Lesley? Where is she?” she asked, clasping tightly to Mariah’s hand. Being seven when she was taken from her sisters, she still remembered her childhood with her sisters.

“We don’t know,” she replied sadly. “We haven’t been able to find her. Evan and Casey met Lindsay by accident on an airplane two months ago.”

“Now all we need to do is to find Lesley, then we can be a family again. I still can’t believe we’ve finally found each other.”

“Me too. Now tell me, how come you’re here if you didn’t know about me?” Mariah asked, bringing the conversation back to why Whitney was here in the first place.

Whitney looked at the two men and then back at her sister. She was in trouble, deep trouble. Not only had she slept with and gotten pregnant by a married man, but that man was married to her sister. She looked back at Chandler, hoping that he would help her.

Chandler saw the panic in the young woman’s eyes as she glanced at him a second time. He knew the situation just took a step from being an awful dilemma to a disaster. Chandler moved to Mariah and took hold of her hand. “Mariah, Whitney is here because . . .” he started.

Evan took hold of his brother’s arm and pulled him away. “Let me. It’s my responsibility to tell her.”

“What is? What is going on here?” she yelled at them. “Will someone please tell me what is going on here?” She looked at Evan, then Chandler, then back to her husband.

“Mariah, I don’t know how to tell you this, but . . .” his voice cracked. “First, let me say that I love you very much and I wouldn’t ever purposely do anything to hurt you.”

“I know that,” she replied slowly, her eyes watching him closely.

“Please let me finish before you say anything. When we had that big fight a couple of months ago, I thought our marriage was over.”

“Quit stalling and just tell me,” she screamed at him.

“I’m trying to find the right words to explain what I’ve done,” he choked out, as tears were causing his voice to quiver. Mariah looked petrified as she stared at him. “I was in the hotel bar the night before I was to come home, getting drunk, trying to forget you when Whitney joined me.”

Whitney started crying as Evan started his confession, and Chandler pulled her into his arms trying to comfort her.

“At first, I thought Whitney was you. I don’t remember anything about it, but apparently we went to bed together.” He looked down at the floor, then back up at her. “Whitney’s pregnant with my child.” He held his breath as he waited for her to cuss him out, to hit him, to kick him out of their home, and out of her life.

Mariah turned away from him to look at her long lost sister. She could understand how Evan in his drunken state had gone to bed with her, but what was Whitney’s excuse. “Why did you go to bed with my husband?” she asked her sister, a hurt expression covered her face.

Whitney stared into Mariah’s forlorn eyes. “I don’t even remember going to his room. I don’t have a good excuse for going to bed with him other than I thought he was a widower. He talked about how he’d lost you, I just assumed there had been death. One minute we were in the bar talking and the next minute I woke up in his bed.” She couldn’t stand to hurt her long lost sister another second more.

“I’m so sorry. I just came to tell Evan about the baby and now that I have, I should be leaving.” She moved out of Chandler’s embrace, reached down to picked up her purse, then stood to leave the room, but Mariah stepped in front of her. “Please let me go. I think I’ve done enough damage here today.”

“No. I lost you once, I’m not about to lose you again. I know how much our argument upset Evan. Add alcohol to the situation, it was bound to end bad. As much as we look alike, I can understand Evan going to bed with you. Evan is a handsome man, so I can identify with you having sex with him, especially if you thought he was unattached. We’re all adults here; we’ll find a way to work through all this. Does anyone have anything else to say regarding this matter?”

Chandler went to his sister-in-law and gave her a quick hug. “I have to say that I’m very proud of you for staying with your husband and forgiving your sister. I’m especially proud how well you’re handling this tricky situation. I think you’re a very smart and brave woman.”

“I don’t know about that since I feel I’m being selfish.” The other three people in the room stared at her, confused by her words, but when no one said anything, she continued. “I don’t want to lose my sister, who I haven’t seen for twenty years, nor do I want to lose my husband who I love.” Her eyes scanned the room, looking at Whitney, then Chandler, and lastly at her husband. “Particularly now that I’ve found out I’m pregnant.”

“Hurrah,” Evan hollered, seizing hold of his wife, giving her a tight hug, then he kissed her.

“I think it’s time for me to leave. I’ll give you my phone number and we can get together another time.”

“Whitney, I wish you would stay. We have so much to talk about,” Mariah said longingly.

“Yes we do, but I think you and your husband need to talk alone first.”

“She’s right. I’ll show her out and then I’ll leave too,” Chandler told them.

“Okay, but I don’t want this to come between us,” Mariah told her sister.

“If you can accept this situation, I guess I can too,” she replied slowly.

“We’ll find a solution to this problem that will satisfy us all.”

“I hope so.” Whitney looked sadly at her sister. “If you decide you don’t ever want to see me again, I will understand.”

Chandler looked over at Mariah and Evan. “You three need to discuss whether or not you want to tell the rest of the family about who’s the father of Whitney’s baby.”

“I’ll go along with whatever you two what to do,” Whitney told them. “We could just keep it between the four of us or tell everyone. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Let Mariah and me talk about this alone first. Then the four of us can sit down and make a rational decision,” Evan told her.

Whitney simply nodded, then wrote down her phone number, and handed it Mariah. “Call me when you’re ready to talk.”

Mariah gave Whitney a quick hug. “I will.”

Whitney left the room with Chandler, and when they reached the front door, she turned to him. “Thank you for you lovely marriage proposal. I can’t accept it, but your kind offer did warm my heart.”

“You’re not getting off that easy. We’re family now.”

“That sounds nice,” she said, smiling at him. “I’ve been alone too long.”

“Tell me about your job.”

“There isn’t much to tell,” she replied.

“What do you do at your job?” he asked, curious about this woman.

“I’m a data entry clerk,” she said, but didn’t elaborate on her position.

“Do you like it?” he asked, thinking that maybe they could hire her at Clemmens’ Manufacturing, as it might help her financial structure.

“I guess it’s all right. I like my co-workers, but I don’t make much money. I had planned to go to college, but now I don’t know what I’m going to do. What about you?”

“I work with my brothers at our family-owned manufacturing company.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It is, but my dream is to someday own some land and raise horses.”

“Do you own a place now where you can raise them?”

“No, but maybe someday I will. Whitney, I know we just met each other, but I want you to know that I can’t ever father a child.”

“No,” she cried, looking down at his crotch, then her eyes flew to his face as a blush covered her face.

Chandler forced to keep his grin from showing at her embarrassment. “It still works if that’s what you were wondering,” he teased, giving her a wink.

She shook her head. “That isn’t any of my business,” she muttered, horrified that he’d seen her looking at his manhood that lay behind the material of his pants.

“It would if we were to get married.”

“Chandler, why do you want to marry me?” She still couldn’t believe he’d proposed.

“Your baby will be half Clemmens. I want to be the child’s father because this child is the closest possibility of me ever having a child of my own blood. Please, at least think about my proposal.”

She gave him a reassuring smile. “We have over six months before the baby’s born. Let’s use that time getting to know one another to see if marriage is a possibility in our future.”

Chandler seized her into a hug before she could turn away, and then quickly brought his lips to hers and kissed her. If he hadn’t been holding her, the fireworks caused by his kiss would have caused Whitney to collapse to the floor.

When he finally did let go of her and stepped away, it took her several seconds before her muddled brain began working again. “That was nice,” she said breathlessly.

“Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it,” he replied with a childish grin, as he knew she felt the same elation as he had.

She shook her head as if the movement would clear her mind. “I need to be going.”

“Can I have your phone number too?”

“Chandler, this is a serious matter. Evan and Mariah may choose not to have anything to do with me once they have a chance to talk.”

“You don’t know your sister like I do. She’s not about to let you out of her life no matter what you’ve done with her husband,” he said, without thinking of how his words would sound to her. He felt bad when she broke out in tears.

“Whitney, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound the way it did.” He put his hand out and grabbed hold of hers, but Whitney pulled her hand away, sat down on the front porch, and started sobbing. “Is there a chance it be someone else’s baby?” he asked as he sat down next to her, putting his arm around her shoulder.

She shook her head. “I woke up in his bed and he’s the only man in my life for over a year. The worst part of it is that I don’t have any memory of having sex with him.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” he said softly, watching her expression at his statement.

“I don’t see how,” she cried, too embarrass to look at him.

“If neither of you remember being in bed together, then neither of you will have memories of that night to haunt you.”

Whitney looked over at him as she thought about what he’d just said. “I guess you’re right, but still I’m having my brother-in-law’s baby. That sounds so horrible. How will I ever explain my child’s conception to them?”

“As honest as possible, but I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that today, do you?” He gave her a wink.

She gave him a weak smile. “No, not today.” She stood, and then looked down at him. “I need to be going.”

“You will think over my proposal,” he asked as he stood and moved next to her.

“Yes, I’ll think about it,” she told him, taking another step away.

Chandler grabbed hold of her hand before she could move away any farther. “I still need that phone number.”

Whitney grabbed some paper out of her purse, wrote down her phone number, and handed it to him. “Bye, Chandler.”

He wanted to offer her a job, but was afraid she would interpret it wrong. Maybe once they got to know each other better, he could offer her a position with the company. Of course, if they got married, then she wouldn’t have to work. “Bye, Whitney.”