The Homecoming Baby by Kathleen O`Brien Page B

special. Little electrical sparks had been flashing all over the place, hinting at the big explosion to come.
    It had been difficult to accept the interruptiongracefully. She only hoped Patrick was as eager as she was to give it another try.
    â€œOh, Celia, by the way,” Nolan said, following after her as she headed through the center’s back door. “Is there any chance you’re stopping by The Birth Place on your way home? I have some papers for Kim—and I thought you might be willing to drop them off.”
    She snapped her towel at him. “I knew you had your own agenda for sending me away. I knew you weren’t just worried about my love life.”
    He looked sheepish. “Okay, you caught me. But…can you do it?”
    God, he was shameless. But he wasn’t the only one brought low by love. She’d seen it a hundred times, beginning with her own mother, who was always walking in her father’s shadow, acting grateful for the chance to shelter there.
    Celia looked at Nolan’s handsome face, with that goofy, dreamy look on it. And she thought about the transformation she’d seen in Kim Sherman. Wow. When you thought about it, true love was so powerful it was actually kind of scary.
    Maybe Trish was right. Maybe Celia did pick men she was in absolutely no danger of falling in love with. Maybe this total surrender thing plain terrified her. Maybe she felt more comfortable when she was in control.
    But that wasn’t a very attractive quality, was it? She frowned. Surely that couldn’t be completely true…
    â€œFine, I’ll stop by The Birth Place.” She held out her hand. “But it had better be some pretty darn important papers.”
    Nolan’s sheepish look deepened, and he dug in the pocket of the bomber jacket he had hung by the back door on his way out to play ball. He retrieved two sheets of wide-ruled elementary school paper.
    Celia stared at them, disbelieving. They were letters to Kim from Sammy, probably written at school today and decorated with large red crayon hearts.
    She looked up. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
    He twisted his mouth. “Darn it, you were going by there anyhow. And Sammy wanted her to see them right away.”
    She shook her head, laughing, and took the papers. “Love,” she said. “It’s made mush-meat of you, Mr. McKinnon.”
    Nolan kissed her cheek. “Yeah,” he said. “Ain’t it great?”
    Â 
    A S SHE PULLED INTO THE NEARLY empty parking lot of The Birth Place at about six-thirty, Celia had an idea.
    Trish’s car was already gone. This might be the perfect time to talk to Lydia privately about Patrick.
    It was a little awkward. When she’d met Patrick, Lydia had obviously found his looks surprising, but she hadn’t ever mentioned it to Celia. In fact, after the first odd expression of shock, Lydia had acted quite normal—if perhaps a little cool—toward him.
    But now, after Trish’s reaction, Celia felt that itwas important to find out more. After leaving them in the courtyard, Trish had sequestered herself in her apartment and hadn’t answered either the door or the phone. Clearly if she had any thoughts about Patrick and Tee Ellis, she didn’t feel like discussing them with Celia.
    Celia could respect that. To Trish, Tee Ellis represented her sister’s shame at the least—and at the worst he might even somehow be responsible for her sister’s disappearance. If Patrick resembled Tee just out of coincidence, it was amazing but ultimately unimportant.
    But if Patrick resembled Tee because he really was Angelina’s abandoned son…
    Well, obviously the emotional ramifications of that were enormous.
    So perhaps the better place to start asking questions was Lydia, whose connection was far less complicated.
    Lydia had been responsible for The Homecoming Baby until the police investigation could be completed, and a