Just Desserts by Barbara Bretton

“Why wait? If we leave now we can get a jump on rush hour and be down in South Jersey before nine.”
    â€œNot going to happen,” Finn said. “Seriously bad idea.”
    â€œCount me out too,” Anton said, pushing away from the table. “I’m going to crash.”
    â€œCome on,” Tommy urged. “We’ll split the driving. We’re all Jersey boys, right? I haven’t had a good diner breakfast in years.”
    â€œLater,” Anton said. “I’m wasted.”
    â€œDon’t look at me,” Finn said after Anton closed the back door behind him. “The only place I’m driving is home.”
    â€œSo I’ll drive,” Tommy said. “You can sleep in the backseat.”
    â€œNot if you’re driving, I won’t. You haven’t driven on a highway since nineteen eighty-seven. Let it go for now, Tom. You have a week. Let’s see what we can find out between now and then.”
    â€œYou saw her. You talked to her. I know you. You think this is the real thing. What more proof do I need that she’s mine?”
    â€œBlood tests, for starters. Corroboration from the mother.”
    â€œThere’s plenty of time for that. I want to see her with my own eyes.”
    â€œNext week.” He stifled another yawn. “And I’m not exactly crazy about that idea either.”
    â€œWhy the hell not?”
    â€œWhere do I start?” Finn shot back. “There are legal precedents for handling this type of thing.”
    â€œIs this the friend or the lawyer talking?”
    â€œBoth. She doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. The woman has a kid, a business to run. You’re going to blow her the hell out of the water when you drop this bomb on her.”
    He was making progress. He could see it in Tommy’s eyes.
    â€œAnd what about Willow? What about your other kids? Their mothers? Hell, your mother down in Boca is going to jump out of her Lilly Pulitzer when she finds out. Think it through, Tom. Hayley’s been out there for thirty-eight years. You can wait another week to meet her.”
    Tommy said nothing but Finn could feel his friend’s resistance softening.
    â€œI’m asking you to think about the repercussions before you do anything. This isn’t just about you, Tom. It’s about that woman and her daughter too, and they deserve better.”
    The silence was long and it wasn’t friendly. Tommy was a genuinely good man but superstardom had conditioned him to expect easy acquiescence whenever he exerted his will.
    Finn stood up. “I’m heading home. We can talk later.”
    Or not.
    It was up to Tommy.
    He drove back to his house in Montauk on autopilot. Great washes of early morning light spilled across the empty roadway. This was the best part of living out on the East End. Not the celebrity sightings or the four-star restaurants with Manhattan menus. The sun-bleached road. Gulls wheeling overhead. The briny, life-giving sea air.
    Nothing else came close.
    â€œDamn.” The word filled the car. He hadn’t handled it right back there. His focus was supposed to be the care and feeding of Tommy Stiles, but the second he laid eyes on Hayley Maitland Goldstein and her daughter, something inside him had shifted. An allegiance he hadn’t realized was his to give away had taken a sharp turn toward two total strangers.
    Maybe he should bail out on the whole thing. How long had it been since he’d scheduled a vacation that didn’t include Tommy and the extended Stiles clan? He had enough frequent flyer miles to take him to Mars and back. Why not spin a globe, pick a spot, and take off for a few weeks?
    Or at least until this mess straightened itself out.
    He shouldn’t have agreed to the whole ridiculous scheme in the first place. He should have tried harder to talk Tommy out of hiring her to supply cakes for the after-party and pushed for proceeding through legal