Mad About You

fear... the fear dwarfed every other sensation. She kept smiling while her skin prickled, and her blood raced.
    Before this moment, only one other person had ever made her feel so completely overwhelmed—Bailey.
    She lifted her eyes to find her ex-husband engrossed in Chad's explanation of why the South Eastern Conference was definitely the best college basketball conference in the country. Bailey nodded thoughtfully, his eyes warm and rapt on his son. Then he offered his own argument for Ohio State's conference, the Big Ten. Bailey sat back in his chair and splayed his hands, then cracked his knuckles with a bend of his wrists. She'd once hated his noisy habit, but now found it oddly familiar and comforting.
    He had removed the gray sport coat and rolled up the sleeves of his starched dress shirt to reveal impressive, darkly tanned forearms. The calluses on his large hands further attested that he often abandoned his position of crew chief and pitched in to help his men, a revelation that didn't surprise Virginia at all. She smiled sadly to herself. Bailey had never been afraid of hard work—it had been the more abstract demands of life he'd found too challenging. Like loving her...
    A rap sounded at the door, then Ms. Andrews's head and shoulders appeared. "Would you like to break for a light meal?" Though not the least bit hungry, Virginia felt immensely grateful for a return to the mundane details of living. The group rose and filed from the room, following the counselor.
    With a pang Virginia noted the identical father-son saunter, originating from the carriage of the same wide shoulders, and the gait of the same long legs. The child was created from the joining of her and Bailey's bodies, but as she watched them move in near perfect synchronization, she realized that little to none of herself had made it past the dominance of Bailey Kallihan's genes.
    Bailey and Chad were formed from the same mold—it was she who didn't belong. Her ex-husband and her son had both voiced their doubts about her ability to be a good mother, and they didn't even know the extent of her own apprehension. From the recesses of her mind, the thought materialized that perhaps they'd be happier together—without her. Premonition shivered through her, but she shook it off.
    A cold meal in the dining room was a quiet affair, with conversation contributed mostly by Ms. Andrews and Mr. Maybry. As dusk approached, Detective Lance reappeared to announce reporters were still camped outside the building.
    "Chad," Virginia said across the table. "This is Detective Lance. He was assigned to our case when... from the very beginning."
    The officer smiled. "Good to finally meet you, young man."
    Chad acknowledged him with a nod, swallowing the last of his sandwich. "So Lois outsmarted you, huh?"
    She thought she detected a hint of pride in Chad's voice, and her anger at the woman who'd taken him flared once again.
    Detective Lance glanced from her to Bailey, who was taking his time wiping his tightened mouth with a paper napkin. She nodded for the officer to speak freely.
    "I guess she did, son."
    "Those other cops wouldn't tell me what really happened."
    After another encouraging nod from Virginia, Detective Lance pulled up a chair beside Chad, then opened a brown accordion folder and removed yellowed newspaper articles. "The suspect," he began to explain in an official-sounding voice, then stopped and removed hishat. When he resumed, he encompassed all of them in his sweeping gaze, and spoke in a softer tone. "Lois Green was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She was an only child, kind of quiet, with no criminal record. She married young and, around eight years ago, became pregnant. Her husband abandoned her when she miscarried.
    "She left Michigan and made her way south, moving from diner to diner as a waitress. She quit a job at a truck stop in Westerville, Ohio, a few days before the kidnapping. We'll probably never know if she planned the kidnapping ahead of time or made a split-second decision in the grocery store." He pushed a newspaper account of the story toward Chad, who picked it up and began reading in earnest.
    She remembered the article. The Columbus Dispatch headline read "Infant Boy Stolen from Grocery," and had created a stir up and down the East Coast. For weeks, volunteers had poured in to search for their missing baby. The article's accompanying picture showed the face of a young, angst-ridden Bailey tramping through the