30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Meg
M ay 10 th
“Surprise!”
Standing in Mom’s entrance hall, I clapped my hands over my mouth. “What is this?” I asked, laughing. My mother had invited me and Mike over for a barbeque. At least that’s what I thought was going to happen, but no, all my co-workers from the library were here. So was Ripper. Can you believe it? The man was so nice he helped me move into Mike’s house.
“My daughter needs a baby shower!” Mom took my hand and led me toward her new, antique settee in the drawing room, which had been decorated with streamers and balloons including a pyramid of cookies on the coffee table.
I glanced over my shoulder at Mike. “Did you know about this?”
He held up his palms. “I neither can nor cannot deny culpability.”
“Just sit down and enjoy.” Elaine handed me a plate. “The sugar cookies melt in your mouth.”
Monique picked up a teapot and gestured to an empty cup and saucer. “Herbal tea?”
“Thank you.” I glanced across all the smiling faces. Mike and Ripper were the only males in the room. “Where is Bob?”
Mom turned from the side table with a stack of photos in her hands. “He’s outside manning the grill. I asked you to come over for a barbeque, didn’t I?”
“She just left out the part about the baby shower,” Mike said. Oh, yeah, he was culpable all right.
“Do you guys want to go out there with him?” I asked. “Have a beer or something?”
My fiancé grinned at my mother. “Oh, no. This is going to be way too much fun.”
Ripper, however, sidled toward the butler’s pantry. “Beer sounds awesome.”
Once the big dude left, I shifted my attention to Mike. “What’s going to be fun?”
His gaze homed in on the photos in Mom’s hands. The baby in my stomach must have done a somersault. Either that or he dropped to my toes. “What are those pictures?”
Mom gave me a salacious grin. “We’re going to play a little game called ‘How old was she?’”
I reached for the photos, but Mom twisted away before I could grab them. “No!”
“Yes,” she said to applause.
The first was a picture of me in a ballet tutu. I think I turned green. Heck, I didn’t look good in a tutu at the age of five.
“Seven!” Elaine shouted, followed by shouts of five, six, and nine and a half.
I scowled. “Come on. Nine?”
Everyone guessed the baby picture ages—at least within a couple of months.
“Where did you get that?” I asked when Mom passed around a photo of me on the back of a horse in the parched outback of Australia. I was wearing Dad’s hat which he’d tied on my head with a bandanna.
Mom waved the picture. “I have my ways. If you look closely, Meg’s front teeth are enormous.”
Then there was the freshman prom. I had a pimple in the center of my forehead and braces. My dress was orange. I glared at my mother. “Who picked out that godawful color?”
Mom had the audacity to snort. “You did.”
“I would never pick neon orange. That gown made me look like a flashing sign on the Las Vegas strip.”
“You liked it when you were...um.” Mom turned to the crowd. “How old was she?”
“Fifteen!” shouted one of the newer librarians.
I made a mental note to schedule her for a month of weekends straight.
“But you wear orange.” Elaine wouldn’t let it rest. “Just last week you wore that frilly orange skirt.”
“Yeah, but it’s cute, and not orange, orange . It’s more of an apricot and has pinstripes,” I said. And it was just a skirt. On top I wore a pastel yellow sweater with a sunflower scarf. It had become one of my favorite outfits since my waistline had started increasing.
But the games aside, the baby shower was fun. I’d thought about organizing one, but since I had to drive to Rochester once a week for appointments, I just hadn’t gotten around to it. And Elaine never mentioned anything about a shower, the minx.
I tugged her sleeve. “Was this your idea?”
“It was your mom’s, silly. Though she did wrangle me in to help.”
“I’ll bet she did. Mom is an ace at delegation.”
“Oh, really?” asked my boss. “Do you think she’d like to come work at the library?”
I laughed while Monique pushed a laptop in front of me. “My job was to set up a baby registry for you. Mike texted me a few things, and I’ve added some of the basics. We’re just waiting for you to choose anything else you think you might need.”
I paged through the work Monique had done. “This is really thorough. You’ve even added a car seat and a bassinet.”
Mike leaned over my shoulder and pointed. “There’s a stroller, a crib, and lots of boy clothes and diapers.”
“I love it. Thank you!” I said, deciding to go through it in more detail later.
“How far along are you now?” asked the new girl.
“In two days I’ll be twenty-five weeks.”
“Getting close to third trimester.” Mike rubbed my baby bump. I was so grateful to finally be showing. I didn’t look pudgy anymore, I looked pregnant.
Woo hoo!
Bob came in with a steaming plate piled with hamburgers and bratwurst. “Get it while it’s hot.”
Of course, Ripper followed the food with a beer in his fist.
Mom and Elaine set out salads, chips, buns, and condiments.
I pushed up from my seat and waddled across the floor, patting my best friend’s shoulder. “My mother really did put you to work.”
“Anything for you, Meg.” Elaine tugged me aside and inclined her head toward Mike who was deep in a conversation about barbeque grills with the other two men. “I told you he was a catch.”
“Are you referring to the time when Mike came into the library last summer?”
“Duh! If you hadn’t nabbed him I would have been next in line. ”
I slung my arm across her shoulders. “You’ve had a bit of a dry spell of late, haven’t you?”
Groaning, she dropped her head forward. “Tell me about it.”
“Would you like me to ask Mike if he has any techie friends at the U?”
Elaine’s green eyes nearly popped through the lenses of her Coke-bottle-bottom glasses. “Hell yeah!”
Mom’s cell phone rang and I was a little surprised when she took it to the kitchen to answer. After all, she wasn’t getting calls at all hours anymore. I swear, the only smart thing Leon Worthington ever did was fire her, especially since the jerk got nabbed for fraud.
Mike stepped beside me. “You ready to eat?”
“As usual, the answer is yes. I think this baby is going to come out looking like a linebacker.”
He gave me a plate and then picked up one for himself. “As long as Zachary plays for the Badgers.”
Laughter filled Mom’s house as if it were built for the sole purpose of hosting parties and making people happy.
We went through the assembly line and piled our plates with food. Everyone was talking, laughing, and eating.
My mother returned from the kitchen, her face ashen, her purse draped over her arm, keys in her hand. She whispered something to Bob, whose face immediately fell.
I set my plate on the table and butted into the conversation. “Is everything all right?”
A strangled cry escaped Mom’s throat as she drew her a hand over her mouth. “That was Brookdale—Grandma collapsed and the ambulance is taking her to the hospital.”