Her Two Dads

Praise for

Ariel Tachna

Summer Place

...a touching romance that is genuine and timeless. The supporting players are rich and brought even more warmth and appeal to the story.

Chamomile at Whipped Cream Reviews

Out of the Fire

The deeper into the story I got, the more emotional and physical it became, and I gained a deeper
understanding of the dynamics
of three men enmeshed in a relationship. A
Two Lips Recommended Read.

Sin at Two Lips Reviews

Hot Cargo

…definitely not your normal space adventure… it will appeal to those that like a good commanding story with some added repartee between our leading men.

Lainey at Coffee Time Romance and more

Partnership in Blood Series

This series is definitely for anyone looking for a new twist on Vampires, and who likes a bit of angst and a bit of adventure mixed into their romance.

Jaime at Dark Divas Reviews

The world building in all the books is par excellence, but in this last one, the author truly outdid herself, giving the reader a wonderful look into vampire culture. The suspense, as always, kept me on the edge of my seat and reading long into the night to find out what was going to happen.

Regina at Coffee Time Romance and more

Books by

Ariel Tachna

Partnership in Blood Series

Alliance in Blood

Covenant in Blood

Conflict in Blood

Reparation in Blood

A Summer Place

Out of the Fire

Seducing C.C.

with Madeleine Urban

Sutcliffe Cove

with Nicki Bennett

Hot Cargo

Checkmate

All for One

All available from

Dreamspinner Press

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Published by

Dreamspinner Press

4760 Preston Road

Suite 244-149

Frisco, TX 75034

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Her Two Dads

Copyright © 2010 by Ariel Tachna

Cover Design by Mara McKennen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 4760 Preston Road, Suite 244-149, Frisco, TX 75034.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/

ISBN: 978-1-61581-412-1

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition

June, 2010

eBook edition available

eBook ISBN: 978-1-61581-413-8

To my daughter,

who taught me the meaning

of love at first sight.

“
May
I speak with Srikkanth Bhattacharya, please?”

“This is he,” Srikkanth replied, not recognizing the voice.

“Mr. Bhattacharya, my name is Victoria Holmes. I’m one of the social workers at Good Samaritan Hospital. You’re listed as the emergency contact for Jill Peters, and you’re also listed as the father of her baby,” the woman’s voice continued.

“Yes, that’s right,” Srikkanth agreed, thinking of the arrangement he’d struck with his friend that allowed her to have a baby without having to find a man to share her life. “Is everything all right?”

“Unfortunately not,” Ms. Holmes continued. “The baby was delivered this morning in perfect health, but Ms. Peters developed eclampsia, and despite the attempts to stabilize her, she didn’t survive the delivery.”

Srikkanth didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t been in love with Jill, but he
had
loved her, in that best friend sort of way. His heart clenched in his chest at the thought of her laughter, her bubbliness, her sheer enthusiasm for life and living gone. “No,” he said immediately, “there must be some mistake.”

The social worker knew the stages of grief as well as she knew her own name. “I’m sorry, Mr. Bhattacharya. I wish I could tell you this was a mistake, but Ms. Peters is no longer with us. We have to think about the baby now.”

“The baby’s okay?” Srikkanth verified, though he knew the social worker had mentioned it already. He could feel his brain shutting down already as it struggled to accept this sudden change in his reality.

“She’s doing fine,” she assured him, “a healthy seven pounds, eight ounces, but there are some decisions that need to be made. As the baby’s father, you’ll need to come in to the hospital so we can release her to you.”

“No, that’s not right,” Srikkanth stumbled, too numb from the announcement of Jill’s death to think clearly about anything else, like the bargain they’d made not to tell anyone of his paternity. “She’s Jill’s baby. I was only the sperm donor.”

“Excuse me?” the social worker asked.

“Jill and I aren’t—weren’t—a couple,” Srikkanth explained slowly, still feeling incredibly shell-shocked by the entire conversation. “She was a close friend, and when she wanted to have a baby but didn’t have a partner, I offered to go with her to the fertility clinic and donate the sperm. She was going to raise the baby by herself.”

“I see,” Ms. Holmes said slowly. “Does she have family who might be interested in parenting the baby?”

“She was an only child,” Srikkanth replied automatically. “Her parents died a few years ago. If she had extended family, she never mentioned them.”

“Then perhaps we need to look at other options,” the social worked suggested, her voice carefully neutral. “If you are indeed the baby’s only relative and you have no interest in rearing her yourself, you need to arrange for her to be placed for adoption or else she’ll become a ward of the state and go into the foster care system until a family can be found for her.”

“I see,” Srikkanth replied numbly, though he didn’t see at all. These weren’t supposed to be his decisions. He hadn’t even figured on seeing the baby more than occasionally. He and Jill were friends, but they didn’t see each other every day or even every week. Nobody else knew the baby was his—she’d steadfastly refused to reveal the father’s name to their mutual acquaintances—so even if he had seen them, he wouldn’t have treated her or the baby any differently than he treated any of his other friends and their kids. He didn’t even know why Jill had put his name on the forms at the hospital. He’d thought she intended to be listed as the only parent of the child.

“You can’t sign the termination of parental rights form until forty-eight hours after the baby was born,” the social worker explained, “so you have a day to think about it. If you’d like to make an appointment, we can meet on Thursday morning to discuss your options and hopefully expedite the process so the baby can go home with a family as soon as possible.”

“That’s fine,” Srikkanth replied automatically, not even looking at his calendar to see if he had meetings scheduled at work. This had to come first, if only so he could get it taken care of and get on with his life. “What time?”

“The baby was born at 11:41 this morning, so legally you can’t sign the papers until that time on Thursday, but you could come in at eleven and we could take care of all the preliminary decisions. Since you’d be choosing voluntary adoption, you could have a say in the baby’s final placement, even to the point of selecting a family for her and meeting them if you’d like.”

Selecting a family. Like they were some sort of dish on a menu.

His stomach turned at the thought.

“I’ll come at eleven,” he agreed, “but I don’t really feel qualified to make decisions for her future. I wasn’t supposed to be involved in any of this.”

“You don’t have to be,” Ms. Holmes allowed, “but if you aren’t, the process is much longer for both her and you. At the very least, for a voluntary adoption, you have to select an agency to arrange a placement for her. If you don’t, she’ll become another case number in an overloaded system. We do our best for them, but it won’t be nearly as fast as if you can bring yourself to make some decisions on her behalf.”

“I’ll think about it,” Srikkanth promised, not sure he could commit to doing more than that.

“When you arrive at the hospital, ask for the neonatal nursery,” Ms. Holmes directed. “My office is down the hall. Any of the nurses can direct you there once you get to the floor.”

“Thank you for calling,” Srikkanth said automatically as he disconnected the line and stared blindly at the wall.

A baby.

His baby.

She wasn’t supposed to be his baby. She was Jill’s baby. Except Jill, bright, funny, outgoing Jill, wasn’t going to be around to raise her.

He had a friend who was adopted. Tim had met his birth mother, but all his connection was with his real parents, the people who loved him and raised him. And it wasn’t like Srikkanth would be losing anything by letting her go. He hadn’t planned on being more than a peripheral part of her life. This wouldn’t change anything.

“Hey, Sri, are you coming down for dinner?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute, Jaime,” Srikkanth called back absently.

Jaime and Nathaniel, his two housemates, had already started eating when Srikkanth finally came down the stairs.

As usual, Nathaniel’s nose was buried in a medical textbook as he prepared for the never-ending cycle of classes and exams that made up medical school, but Jaime looked up, surprised by the odd look on Srikkanth’s face and the mechanical way he moved around the kitchen, getting a plate and serving himself without seeming to actually see what he was doing.

“Sri?”

Srikkanth didn’t even look up, making Jaime frown.

“Sri?” he repeated. Still no response. “Srikkanth!”

Srikkanth looked up finally, his expression so lost and confused that Jaime wanted to give his clearly distraught friend a comforting hug. “I heard your phone ring,” Jaime said instead. “Did you get some bad news?”

“I… don’t even know,” Srikkanth said slowly.

Jaime’s frown deepened. “What’s going on?”

“Apparently I’m a father,” Srikkanth revealed, his voice conveying his utter confusion.

“What the hell?” Nathaniel asked, the conversation having penetrated his studying. “I thought you were gay.”

“I am,” Srikkanth replied immediately.

“Then how’d you end up getting some girl pregnant?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Srikkanth insisted. “I went with Jill to a fertility clinic to help her out. That was supposed to be the end of it.”

“Did she change her mind?” Jaime asked warily.

Srikkanth shook his head. “She died.”

“Oh, God, Sri, I’m sorry,” Jaime said immediately. He hadn’t known Jill well—it wasn’t like they socialized all that much. They were housemates, and they each had their own lives—but he couldn’t imagine losing a friend, especially one he’d felt close enough to to act as a sperm donor as Srikkanth had.

“Obstetrical hemorrhage?” Nathaniel asked immediately. “Or I suppose it could’ve been eclampsia. Or maybe amniotic fluid embolism.”

“Nathaniel,” Jaime interrupted sharply, “she was a person, not a case study. It doesn’t matter how she died, but the fact that she did has obviously upset Sri. Just shut up if you don’t have something helpful to add, okay?” He wasn’t usually as impatient with Nathaniel’s unwavering focus on the medical aspect of everything—Nathaniel wasn’t a bad guy, just single-minded in his determination to get through medical school and his residency at the top of his class so he’d be able to get a job and pay off his student loans—but every once in a while, his lack of sensitivity made Jaime wonder how successful he’d be with actual patient care.

Nathaniel fell silent after that, thankfully. “So what happens now?” Jaime asked finally.

“I’m supposed to meet the social worker on Thursday to decide what happens to the baby,” Srikkanth replied slowly. “I wasn’t supposed to be a part of this.”

“You won’t be,” Nathaniel assured him. “You’ll go in, sign a few papers, and never have to worry about it again.”

“Nathaniel!” Jaime scolded. “Don’t be so callous.”

“What?” Nathaniel asked with a shrug that made Jaime want to hit him. “It’s not like Sri was planning on raising it anyway. This doesn’t change anything.”

“Of course it does,” Jaime disagreed. “He might not have planned on being a father, but he knew who the mother would be, and he’d get to see the baby occasionally.”

“I don’t have the slightest idea what to do with a baby,” Srikkanth muttered, mind still reeling. “I can’t possibly keep her. I wasn’t supposed to be a part of this.”

“Exactly,” Nathaniel agreed, shooting Jaime a glare, although he tried to temper his voice to be encouraging for Srikkanth. “Go in on Thursday, sign the papers, and take comfort in the fact that you made the best decision for her and that you made a childless family very, very happy.”