Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Adam
“Ani, you in there?” I asked as I peeked into the screen door of her house on Monday after work.
I’d tried the McClellans first, then I’d jogged around the corner and down the street, dog leash in hand, to find all the windows open and figured she might be home.
It was a beautiful spring evening, birds singing a riot, buds bursting out everywhere.
Ani’s house was a sweet little Cape Cod, with gray stone and white trim, but the yard was overgrown, and the brick walkway was too.
I told myself not to look around. After all, I was only here to give the dog a good run like I usually did in the evenings.
I was here to do my duty. To Arnold. That was it, and I was sticking to that story. There was no answer, but the wood part of the door was wide open, so I tried again. “Ani! You in there? I thought maybe Arnie would like to come with me on my evening jog. Is he in there with you?”
“Um, yes. Yes, he is,” she said, appearing briefly at the door. “Arnold!” she called. There was a pause. “I’ll be right back.”
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” I called through the screen as she went from room to room in search of the dog. I said it jokingly, but honestly, she was acting a little strange.
She ran back to the door, dog in tow. “We can come out to you,” she said in an overly cheery voice. “Let me grab his leash.”
She left again before I told her I already had one. So I stepped up and opened the door and let myself in.
The smell of fresh paint hit me immediately.
I followed it through the empty living room into the kitchen.
The old cabinets had been painted a fresh white.
Blue and white Delft tiles were scattered amid white ones above the stovetop and in the tile backsplash around a big farm sink.
I’d seen the same antique tiles lining the surround of a cozy little fireplace in the living room.
The appliances were old but white, so they looked okay.
“Cute place,” I said, genuinely appreciating the wood floors, the detailed ceiling moldings.
As Ani clipped the leash to Arnie’s collar, I glanced at her phone, which was sitting on the little peninsula. I couldn’t help but notice it was open to the Pottery Barn website.
I cleared my throat. “Are you…ordering furniture?”
She started to hand me the leash until she saw the one in my hand.
I set mine on the counter. “Well, I did order furniture—two months ago. But unfortunately, the delivery got delayed two weeks.” She paused.
Outwardly, she was calm, but I detected a slight twitch around her eyes.
She was biting down on her lower lip. And she had a sense of nervous energy about her. “Have a nice jog.”
“Okey dokey,” I said in the cheeriest manner possible.
As I took her leash, our fingers brushed the slightest bit.
I noticed that hers were cold despite the pleasant evening.
On the counter sat a lone granola bar wrapper.
I was already wondering if she’d had dinner, yet I knew in my gut that she hadn’t.
I forced myself to turn away.
This—whatever our relationship was—was not a carefree, no-strings-attached kind.
It was loaded with more hidden grenades than a battlefield.
Now more than ever, she needed calm, strength, and certainty.
She needed anti-me. So I’d made a conscious decision to back away while she prepared for the baby.
“I’ll be back in half an hour,” I said, letting myself out the door.
“Okay, see ya.” She turned immediately back to her phone.
When I got about twenty feet away, I slowed my steps, much to Arnie’s chagrin. I thought I heard something.
It sounded like…a sob. I kept listening, but I didn’t hear it again.
Arnold tugged. At first politely, then he yanked the chain hard. And shot me a look. You promised.
“Okay, buddy, okay.” But my feet were already backtracking.
My head told me the logical truth. That there was a lot going on here.
What was it about this woman that made me defy logic?
I peeked in the window. Which I know was unfair, but there was Ani, sitting at the peninsula in the empty kitchen, rubbing her temples.
“Can’t I pay more for an expedited delivery?
” she said into the phone. “I really need the furniture this week.” She hung up the phone and lay her head down on the counter.
And this time I confirmed that her sob was real.
I ran back to the screen door and called in, “Hey, Ani, I think Arnold needs a drink of water.”
I let the dog into the house and dropped his leash, and I swear he shot me a pissed-off look. I ignored him and took a seat on a stool next to her. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing for you to worry about, okay? Go. Shoo.” She waved her hand at me.
I touched her arm and made her face me. “I know something’s wrong.”
“It’s all good.”
I nudged her elbow. “Come on. Out with it.”
“You definitely do not want to be involved with this one.”
My brain knew that. But my feet kept coming back for more. “I’m a great problem solver. Tell me.”
“My first interview with Children’s Services is tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I looked around at the empty house. I saw the problem.
“They’re coming to check out my house, to make sure it’s safe and ready. Only all my furniture has been delayed.” She glanced at her phone. “I think if I leave now, I can make it to Bob’s Furniture Emporium by eight. She started scrolling. “Let me see when they close.”
“Have you tried moving the interview?”
She shook her head solemnly. “They want to get the baby out of the hospital ASAP. I literally can’t say, ‘I want this baby, but I’m unprepared, and I have nothing in my house.
’ No furniture. No baby things. Nothing.
” She wrung her hands. “My friends are coming this weekend to help me shop. And I think Children’s Services might be okay with me saying it’ll take a few days to collect the baby stuff.
But how am I going to get furniture in here tomorrow by four?
” She paused. “Maybe I could buy a few things from Facebook Marketplace and use your truck to pick them up?” She put her head in her hands.
“What was I thinking? This is all too much.”
“One more question. What about my mom’s house?”
“We agreed that the baby would stay here. It’s not fair to ask her to rearrange her entire house now.”
“I get it.” It was funny, but all my most dire warnings to not get involved dissolved into thin air when I saw her so upset. I was one second away from taking her into my arms, holding her, and telling her we’d somehow figure this out when we heard a tap on the door.
“Yoo hoo, anyone home?” came a sing-song voice.
Ani went pale. “Oh, not now,” she whispered.
I turned to see a sharply dressed woman at the screen door.
As soon as she let herself in, I immediately recognized the resemblance to Ani—blond hair, but straight and smartly styled, not curly like Ani’s; the same pale blue eyes except she looked like she’d stepped out of a fashion catalog for wealthy older women; tidy, wrinkle-free ankle jeans with a crease; red flats, red nails, elegant makeup.
“Oh good, you’re home from work,” she said to Ani, her tone clipped. “I had a hospital board meeting, and everyone was talking about Dr. Green. Apparently, I’m the last person in town to know that my single daughter is about to adopt a baby.”
Uh oh. This was trouble. Because this woman hadn’t even acknowledged me yet.
I kept thinking of what my mom had said. Parents were big donors. Embarrassed by the wedding fiasco. And of course, they’d put a weeping wreck of an almost-bride on that plane. I had to admit, I wasn’t pre-programmed to like Ani’s mom.
“There’s been a lot going on, Mom,” Ani said. “Come in and I’ll catch you up. And meet my friend, Adam.”
There was that friend word again, which tended to never sit right with me.
Ani’s mom gave me a quick perusal. “Oh, hi, Dr. Lowenstein. I recognize you from your photo in the hospital newsletter a few weeks ago. Welcome to Oak Bluff.” She extended her hand.
“I’m Julia Green. I just got the auxiliary to sign off on new otoscopes for your ER. ”
I stood up and greeted her. “You’re the president of the board, aren’t you?
Thank you very much for that. We really needed the update in technology.
” I smiled and reached out to shake her hand.
She had a firm handshake. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t a blonde version of Maleficent after all. But I still wasn’t completely sold.
“Adam’s here to give Arnold a good workout,” Ani said. I think to give me an escape route.
“Please, don’t let us stop you,” Ani’s mom said to me. Then she turned back to her daughter. “This is an enormous decision. And you’ve made it all by yourself?”
Ani stiffened. “Well, Mom, the last time I checked, I was a full adult.”
“One who just might be prone to making impulsive decisions.”
Okay, I’d been officially sidelined, but I was never good at taking the hint anyway. I cleared my throat and smiled at Ani, trying to send her support vibes across the few feet between us. “Ani and I were working together in the ER when a teenager arrived in active labor. Ani delivered the baby.”
Julia lifted a perfect brow. “I heard that.”
“She did a great job, too. But then the mother legally surrendered the baby. I think it’s pretty incredible that Ani wants to foster her.
” I wasn’t just blowing smoke. I did feel that way.
Ani was incredible, although sometimes I felt that she didn’t believe it herself. And maybe her mom didn’t either.
Positioned as she was slightly behind her mom, Ani rolled her eyes to signal that I was really laying it on thick. I shrugged.