It was easy Isaac bought a plane ticket and was enroute to New Mexico by early afternoon. He looked out the window as his plane ascended. “Finally, Taryn, I’m going to get some answers,” he said to himself.
enough for Isaac to find out that Millenium Woman was based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He mentally kicked himself for not guessing that Taryn would have relocated near her best friend from college, Cameron, who had moved to New Mexico with his new wife, Lindsey, shortly before Taryn and Isaac’s breakup. Speaking in physical distance, Isaac and Taryn had been living closer to one another for the past year than they had before they broke up.
Taryn Mathews was a frazzled mess.
She was going in ten different directions, and had been in meetings all morning long. She was looking forward to some afternoon down time in her office, when she could just hole up and write.
Taryn flopped down in the large leather chair at her desk. She leaned back and closed her eyes, wishing she could take a nap.
As she was considering locking her door and curling up on the couch in her office, the buzzer on her desk phone sounded.
Taryn pushed the intercom button.
“Yes, Linda?” she asked the news offices secretary.
“There’s someone here to see you, Taryn.”
“Who?”
Linda lowered her voice. “He says he’s a friend of yours,” she said. “But he won’t give his name.”
Taryn was intrigued. “Does he look harmless?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, send him in,” Taryn said.
Moments later, there was a light tap on Taryn’s office door.
“It’s open,” she called.
Taryn looked up as her office door opened. Isaac stepped into the room, and Taryn felt all the blood rush from her brain.
“Oh my god,” she said quietly.
Isaac closed the door softly behind him, but didn’t move any closer to Taryn.
“I’ll bet I’m the last person you expected to see,” he said.
Taryn resisted the urge to fly into Isaac’s arms.
“You found me,” she said.
“Actually, it was easier to find you after I stopped looking so hard,” Isaac said. “No one would tell me anything. And then imagine my surprise to see you on Howard Stern.”
Taryn grimaced. “You saw that?”
Isaac nodded. “Yes I did,” he said. “And there are a few things I’d like to ask you about.”
Taryn bit her lip. “I’ll bet there are,” she said.
Isaac sat in a leather chair across the desk from Taryn.
“I want to know about this baby you have,” he said, deciding not to pull any punches.
Taryn swallowed the huge lump that had formed in her throat. “What about her?”
Isaac narrowed his brown eyes. “Don’t play dumb with me, Taryn,” he said. “You’re not very good at it.”
Taryn lifted her eyes to meet Isaac’s. She could never lie to him, at least not when he was asking her a direct question. He would have seen right through it. “She’s yours,” she said quietly.
Isaac closed his eyes slowly and let out a heavy breath. “I knew it,” he almost whispered. He opened his eyes and stared icily at Taryn. “How could you do this to me?”
Taryn shook her head slowly. “I … was trying to protect you.”
Isaac looked sideways at Taryn. “From what?”
“Isaac, I know what it’s like to be saddled with a baby at 19,” Taryn said, the tone of her voice begging Isaac to understand. "I wanted you to have your life and your career. I didn’t want to be the one who took them away from you.”
Isaac snickered sarcastically. “But you were willing to be the one who took my daughter away from me.”
Taryn sighed heavily. “I thought I was doing you a favor.”
“You thought wrong,” Isaac snapped. “Those were decisions you should have let me make for myself. You had no right to do that for me.”
“That’s what everyone told me,” Taryn said.
“You realize that she has an entire family who doesn’t even know she exists,” Isaac pointed out. “A set of grandparents and six aunts and uncles.”
Taryn nodded. “Yes.”
Isaac swallowed hard. “Do you have any pictures?”
Taryn turned a picture in a brass frame that was facing away from Isaac toward him. The picture was of Iris and the baby, and was not much more than a month old.
Isaac gently lifted the picture and stared at it.
“God, Taryn, she’s beautiful,” he said softly.
The baby had a head full of blonde curls, and Isaac could tell that her eyes were just as brown as her mother’s were. Both children in the picture were wearing wide smiles.
Isaac wiped away a tear and looked back at Taryn. “What’s her name?” he asked.
Taryn cleared her throat to keep from crying herself. “Clara,” she said. “Clara Jane.”
“Clara Jane,” Isaac repeated. The softening in Isaac’s eyes disappeared. “I want to see her,” he said firmly.
Taryn nodded slowly. “All right,” she said. “Just give me a day or two and let me get Iris prepared and …”
Isaac shook his head vehemently. “I want to see her today,” he said. “As soon as possible.”
Taryn sighed. She knew Isaac well enough to know that when he had his mind set on something, talking him out of it was nearly impossible.
“Okay,” she said.
Taryn plucked a business card from the holder on her desk, and scribbled her home address and telephone number on the back of it. “We’ll be there by six,” she said.
Isaac rose. “Good,” he said. “I’ll see you then.”
