The Baby Dilemma. Rebecca Winters

about Claudine who had lived with them for a month during her American homestay. She was a Didier through and through. Dark good looks, intelligent, high class, charm galore.

      He loved talking fractured French to her, and was hurt because Kellie’s marriage to her brother had broken up. Everyone in her family knew the reason why she was getting a divorce. She loved them for never having said a negative word or interfering.

      But she was aware that they were very fond of Philippe. Kellie’s mom was still grieving over her daughter’s smashed dreams, yet they’d all honored her wishes by keeping silent.

      She hurried to the sink to wash her hands. After leaving the kitchen she raced up the stairs to the next floor where their family lived above the thriving restaurant.

      Her grandfather had bought the property and opened it in the late sixties. He’d named it The Eatery, a play on words because they lived in Eatonville, Washington, gateway to the Cascades and Mount Rainier.

      Growing up it had been Kellie’s dream to turn it into a French restaurant one day. All her university education in French, plus her subsequent training as a French chef in Napa Valley, California, had been chosen with that end in mind.

      Then her grandfather had surprised her by sending her to France on a homestay through the university to improve her French. That was how she’d met Claudine. It was there in the Didier home she’d been introduced to Philippe who just happened to be visiting his family for the day.

      One look at him and she’d fallen so deeply in love, her entire world had changed. Evidently it had for him, too, because when the homestay came to an end, he’d followed her back to Washington. Before the month was out they’d celebrated their wedding.

      After experiencing euphoria in her thirty-day marriage to him, she realized life would never hold that same magic for her again. Not ever.

      She’d been trying so hard to put the past behind her. But she knew the second she heard his sister’s voice, the pain was going to come crashing through.

      Her hand trembled as she picked up the receiver in her grandfather’s study. “Hello, C-Claudine?”

      “Kellie—” her friend let out a mournful cry. “At last.”

      She could hardly swallow, let alone talk. “I—I’m sorry it has taken me so long to face you.”

      “Don’t apologize, chérie. I love Philippe, too, and cry myself to sleep every night for what has happened.”

      “H-how is he?”

      “If you mean physically, he’s recovering. The bone on his elbow was bruised, but he no longer has to wear a sling. His knee required surgery. Otherwise he would have come after you.”

      A quiet gasp escaped Kellie’s throat. His injuries had been worse than he’d made out. Who had been taking care of him?

      “Now he’s on crutches to keep the weight off it until it’s healed.”

      Every word from Claudine’s lips tore her apart a little more.

      “Kellie—you have to know that mentally my brother’s devastated you left him,” she confided in a tremulous voice.

      By now the tears were dripping off her cheeks. “Did he ask you to call me?”

      “No. He isn’t talking to anyone about anything. His pain is too deep. I’ve been praying you might have had time to reconsider your decision.”

      “It’s all I think about.” She half-sobbed. “But no matter how I view it, divorce is the only answer. Cutting ties with me frees him to fulfill his moral obligation. You and I both know what kind of a father he’ll make. You’ve seen him interact with your nieces and nephew. It’s one of the qualities about him that made me want to marry him.”

      “My brother can be a model father without marrying her!”

      “Visitation isn’t the same thing as belonging to one family. He mustn’t deprive Yvette’s baby of its father. I had to live my whole life without mine, and I don’t want his son to know the same deprivation. Not only that, Philippe has wanted to get started on a family. Well, now he has one… Yvette adores him, and their child will be born any day now.”

      “That’s not the point, Kellie. He’s too deeply in love with you to consider marriage to anyone else.”

      “But there was a time when he cared for Yvette. Given a chance, those feelings could turn into love. He’s going to worship his child. If you were in my shoes, would you deny him the chance to raise their infant in his own household with the baby’s birth mother?”

      A brief silence ensued. “I can’t answer that. I don’t know what it’s like to grow up without a father. Obviously it has scarred you much more than I’d realized.”

      “Claudine— I heard Yvette confide in the doctor at the hospital right after they’d brought her in. The pain and the longing in her voice for Philippe killed me. I knew then what I had to do.”

      Again there was a hesitation before Claudine said, “What about your pain and longing for my brother?”

      “It doesn’t matter about me.”

      “That’s what you say now. But there’s going to come a day… I hope you won’t live to regret it.”

      “Please don’t hate me, Claudine,” she begged.

      “I won’t dignify your comment with a response. As for Philippe, I’m sure he wishes he could hate you. It would make things easier all the way around. Have you been to an attorney yet?”

      She sucked in her breath. “Yes. Philippe will be receiving the papers next week.”

      “It’s going to kill him.”

      “Don’t say that.”

      “I have to say it because I know my brother. You think a divorce will force him to marry Yvette, but you’re wrong. He loves you. Our whole family loves you.”

      “I love all of you, too,” her voice trembled. “I love you for caring so much, but Yvette and her baby are the important ones here.”

      There was a pause. “Kellie?”

      She wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand. “Yes?”

      “You’re the only wife he wants.”

      “He’ll change his mind when he’s there for the delivery and lays eyes on his little lookalike for the first time.”

      “I think you’re wrong.”

      “Claudine—”

      “I’m sorry. I promised myself I wouldn’t put pressure on you, and that’s all I’ve done since I rang.”

      “You have no reason to apologize. I’m so awful I haven’t even asked how things are going with Jules.”

      “They’re not.”

      “Why?”

      “Unlike my brother, I think he’s a real playboy who’ll never settle down. He’s too attractive, has too much money. He can put on a convincing act that I’m the only woman for him, but I know deep down that’s not true.

      “One day he’ll get bored and move on. I feel it in my bones. He doesn’t know it yet, but I’ve had my last date with him. I’ve got to keep looking for Mr. Perfect. Unfortunately no one ever measures up to Philippe.”

      It always came down to Philippe.

      No one could compare to him, but Kellie did know one man who had many of her husband’s sterling qualities. It was his good friend, Roger. Ever since she’d met him, she’d thought he and Claudine might hit it off. It was a subject she’d intended to broach with her husband.

      Now there was no more Philippe. At least not in her world.

      “I