Chapter 14 #3
“Fine,” Brie said, brushing her unruly hair out of her eyes as they waited at a crosswalk.
A gentle breeze blew Ana’s yellow cotton maternity dress, covered in red flowers on the fabric’s print.
Brie had reminded her to wear as much red as possible, but maternity fashion did not allow for unlimited choices.
Her Chuck Taylors were red with white laces.
“Just fine?”
“We stopped and rode the trolley,” Brie confessed reluctantly.
“Hence the chocolate on your breath,” Lucinda said with a chuckle. The light changed and they crossed the street.
In the middle of the road, Ana nearly halted, Brie bumping into her. That same man in the navy t-shirt was emerging from the flower shop, carrying a bouquet of red carnations. Black-framed sunglasses covered his eyes, and he stared straight ahead, unaware of her gaze.
Forcing herself to finish crossing, she reached the sidewalk and looked again.
He was gone.
“I am really stuck in fantasyland,” she muttered to herself as Auntie reached a white wooden bench and stopped, taking a seat.
“DENNIS!” a man shouted, and her neck jerked so fast in the direction of the voice that she pulled something, pain shooting into her jaw.
One of the town police officers reached the man, the two chatting, the flowers transferred over.
“Ana?” Brie asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” She massaged her neck and returned her attention to where it belonged.
“Are you feeling well, my dear?” Lucinda asked.
“I am. Thank you.”
“There is nothing more blessed than a good mother with a healthy baby. I am very happy for you.” Her eyes floated to Ana’s left hand. “Brie told me you were with child, but every time I asked about your husband, she changed the subject. Tell me about him.”
Ana’s eyes widened. She shot a trapped look at Brie, who raised one shoulder in an apologetic shrug.
“Ah, I’m not married.”
Lucinda frowned. “I see. But the father…?”
“He, ah–he–”
“He knocked her up and left her high and dry!” Brie said with rage. “I didn’t want to say anything without Ana here to give permission.”
“Which I technically didn’t,” Ana muttered.
“Scoundrel! That’s not a man. That’s a piece of slime pretending to be human!” Lucinda’s voice went from polite to livid in seconds.
“Whoa,” Brie exclaimed. “That’s savage.”
“He is the savage. I hope your lawyer stepfather has gone after him on your behalf!” Auntie’s mouth went tight with anger.
“He’s tried. But the, ah, the father disappeared on me.”
“WHAT? Who does such a horrible thing?”
The longer her pregnancy went on, the more Ana came to realize her bladder was but a fleeting way station for its contents. Standing, she looked around, giving Auntie an apologetic look.
“Restrooms?”
“Over there,” Lucinda pointed to a small brick building.
“I’ll fill her in on all the details about the–what should we call him?” Brie asked, mouthing the word Sorry to Ana.
“SCOUNDREL!” Lucinda bellowed. She shooed Ana off. “Go! You need to void.”
Struggling to hold back a snicker, Ana made her way to the bathroom, scanning the crowd for signs of the man in the navy t-shirt. Heart pounding, she reached the bathroom and stood in the line, six women ahead of her.
Two women in the front were talking.
“I told him to stop carrying that silly little creature in his shirt pocket, but he insists Magic isn’t healed yet,” the older one said to the younger. Their features were close enough that they might be sisters, more likely mother and daughter.
“Mom.”
Question answered.
“What?”
“He is going to live his life however he wants, and if that includes wearing a rodent like an accessory for the rest of his life, just let him.”
“No grown man does what he’s doing. Plus, it healed a long time ago. I think he’s just wearing it everywhere because it keeps Annabeth Khouri away.”
“Hmmm. Maybe I need my own sugar glider.”
“Colleen!”
“Harriet really wants Magic, you know.”
“I know. Luke’s putting his foot down.”
“What if we use Harriet to soften Dennis up?”
Dennis.
She just said Dennis.
Stop it, Ana, she told herself. Plenty of men were named Dennis. There was no way on earth he was really here, or those women were talking about him.
“How would we ‘use’ Harriet?”
“What if we–”
Just then, the older woman caught Ana’s eye and smiled at her, the toilet flushing in the background. Her eyes dropped to Ana’s belly, and her expression changed.
“Pregnant woman! Let her cut to the front!” the woman called, all eyes suddenly on Ana, the line moving to the right, instantly clearing a path.
“No, no,” Ana protested. “I’m fine.”
“You’re pregnant,” the woman insisted, warm gray eyes making Ana feel instantly at home. She brushed her dark hair off her cheek. “Your bladder is the size of a red foil heart. Go ahead of us.”
All of the women nodded.
“Thank you.” Ana wondered why this kind woman seemed so familiar. Perhaps she was a local she’d seen before on her visits to Luview? “I appreciate it.” As she cut the line, she felt guilty, but her bladder told her that was nonsense.
Finishing her business was a quick thing, and while she was washing her hands, the woman and her daughter walked by, on their way to the stalls.
“How far along are you?” the woman asked.
“Twenty-six weeks.”
“Your first?”
“Yes.”
“I have four. Have fun!”
Laughter filled the two-stall bathroom and Ana joined in, joy filling her as she dried her hands and walked back to Lucinda and Brie, who were now standing next to the small table where they’d paused.s
“That was quick!” Brie said.
“But long enough for Brie to tell me how horribly you’ve been treated, Ana. If I ever see the man who did this to you, I’ll give him a piece of my mind–and my palm!”
Ana and Brie’s mouths dropped.
“Auntie! You’re a pacifist, remember?”
“Not for this. Ana, sweet dear,” she said, pulling her in for a hug, “you have been brutally taken advantage of!”
Across Lucinda’s shoulder, she made a Help me! face.
Brie’s hands went up in a helpless gesture.
“I’ll be fine, Auntie,” she assured the old lady. “I have good friends, a wonderful mother and stepfather, and an excellent medical team.”
“That does not invalidate the horrors that vile man committed against you!”
Geez. Brie was laying it on thick, huh?
“I thank you for your concern,” Ana said, going into therapist mode. “Truly. But I have lots of support. I would prefer to focus on Brie and Martin’s wedding, and enjoy this beautiful Memorial Day weekend with you.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Ana watched the gray-eyed lady and her daughter–Colleen–walk over to the police officer in the red uniform, the same one the big, muscled man had been speaking with earlier.
They smiled at each other and pointed to a cluster of trees near the Love You Chocolate kiosk on the common.
“Hmph,” Lucinda said, straightening to her full height, backbone strong and tall. “Some men deserve to become geldings, that’s all.”
“AUNTIE!”
Lucinda just curled her upper lip in disgust, then linked one arm in Brie’s, one in Ana’s, and proceeded to the Love You Chocolate booth.
An adorable young girl with dark brown curls rushed past them, basically dragged by a gorgeous golden retriever on a leash.
“Harriet!” the police officer shouted, taking off at a jog to head off the duo. “Over here with Grandma and Colleen.” He used his fingers to let out a commanding whistle and shouted, “JESTER!”
The dog instantly changed its course, soon at the cop’s feet.
A blonde woman with a unicorn painted on her cheek, her hair glittering in the sun, walked quickly to the group.
“I want a gummy bear chocolate heart!” the little girl–Harriet, was it?–said to the blonde. She shoved her hand in her front pocket and pulled out a folded pack of cash, peeling several bills off. “I have my own money! I earned it chopping wood and babysitting Magic!”
Magic. Dennis. Colleen. Harriet.
Who were these people? Somehow, they were all connected to the kind woman with gray eyes, eyes that were so familiar.
The cop scanned the area, a sour expression on his face as a man the size of a lumberjack and a very fashionable woman walked toward them.
“Kell? You’ve been paying Harriet to chop wood?”
“What?” The bigger guy looked genuinely baffled. “Not me. Dennis.”
Ana’s entire body went liquid with desire again.
This was ridiculous. She had to stop having this reaction to a man’s name. Sure, it wasn’t super common, but there were plenty of men in the world with that name.
Lucinda guided them to the small line at the kiosk, carefully scrutinizing the counter. A teenager in a red polo shirt, the store’s uniform (other than heart costumes), started to shake visibly.
“Uh, Mrs. Armistead?” His voice cracked right in half. “Can I help you–did we do something wrong–what’s the matter?”
“Dawson, please close your mouth.”
He snapped it shut.
“Nothing is wrong, other than the fact that the samples are all turned in the wrong direction, there is a dirty napkin on the left side of the table, stuck under an empty water bottle, and…”
Brie began selecting chocolates to buy as Lucinda gave the young man some guidance.
“YAY!” little Harriet squealed, their group maybe twenty feet away. Someone else had joined them, an older man who was now holding the hand of the kind gray-eyed woman from the bathroom, and behind him was–
Oh.
Oh.
Oh, my goodness.
“Brie,” she said, her knees going weak, her body starting to tremble like that teen boy’s hands. “It’s–help.”
“Help? What’s wrong? Is it the baby?”
Sharp as a tack, Lucinda left the boy hanging and turned to her.
“Ana? What’s wrong? Do you need to sit? Is something wrong with the baby?”
Time changed.
Each second skipped like a stone on water, like a hummingbird’s wings, like there was all the time in the world yet every bit of it was gone.
She took a step backward. Then another, her belly going heavy, her heart completely confused in her chest, trying to decide whether to jump for joy…
…or flee screaming.
The group of people was moving closer, step by step, each one more final than the last.
Each one clearer than the last.
The big man in the navy t-shirt, wearing sunglasses he was now slowly removing as he looked at her like an assassin peering through a rifle sight was, indeed, Dennis.
Her Dennis.
Dennis from their one night stand.
“ANA!” Brie said loudly. “What’s going on?”
At Brie’s words, Dennis’s sunglasses dropped to the ground, his legs faster than she ever imagined something so thick could be. He ran around his group, startling the lumberjack dude, making the fashionable woman wobble on her high heels.
“Hey!” the guy called out, but Dennis ran, coming to an abrupt halt, his eyes on her belly.
Her big, ripe belly, as round as the sun.
Then he looked at her eyes.
Her belly.
Her eyes.
“Ana?” His face reflected her own yearning, her desperate wish, her desire, her–
“Dennis, I can explain–”
The group was behind him now, Lucinda and Brie on either side of him. His face changed, rage boiling up in him.
The change was frightening.
And wholly deserved.
He pointed to her.
“What are you doing here?”
“Dennis. I can explain,” she started again, repeating herself like an idiot, trying to find the words.
Failing miserably.
“Dennis?” The gray-eyed woman called out to him, giving Ana a nervous, questioning smile. “Do you know her? We met in the bathroom and–”
“Stop talking, Mom. Now.”
“But, Dennis, I–”
“Shut. Up.”
“Dennis!” The man–his father?–stepped forward. “You’ve never spoken to your mother like that before.” Concerned eyes met Ana’s. “Who is this–”
Ignoring everyone, Dennis took one step closer. His chest was rising and falling faster and faster, pain joining the rage in his eyes as he pointed to her belly and blasted her, the force of his words making her take a step back, Brie’s grip on her tightening.
“You're here?” he bellowed, eyes going wild, no longer readable. “You? In my hometown?”
And then his head snapped back and he inhaled raggedly before shouting, “And you’re pregnant with my baby!”