Chapter 18
Blue’s mom had decided she needed to learn to cook baby food. Apparently, this was the first lesson she was going to be taught. Not what was happening to her body, or how to give birth. No, nothing important like that.
“We need to keep as many nutrients as we can in the food, Blue, so we’re not peeling anything.”
Meadow wore lime green today, with a matching band around her head to keep her hair in place. She looked like a stick of celery.
“It won’t be eating straight out of the womb, surely?” Blue protested. “I’m sure there is other stuff I should learn first.”
She really needed to decide on where she was going to live because staying in this household with her mother and brothers would not work.
Blue had lived alone for many years now and enjoyed her privacy but there was none of that here in the McAllister household. Her family were not quiet people. There was always music playing and people yelling over it. They were a family of strong opinions, and their wills clashed often.
Yes, her brothers were leaving soon, but Blue knew she couldn’t live with her parents long-term either. Well-meaning though the lectures were, she knew that by the time the baby arrived, she would be on her last nerve.
She grabbed one of the vegan crackers her mother had made her for nausea and bit into it. The nausea seemed to come in waves and mainly in the morning. Basil and Sage appeared, and she threw them two bits.
“There are, but this is where we are starting. Too many new mothers just go to the store to buy their baby food. You’re not doing that,” Meadow declared, brandishing a wooden spoon with the words Eat beans, not beings etched along the handle.
“Where are the boys?” Blue asked suddenly, realizing how quiet it was in the house.
“I hear voices, so I’m guessing they’re coming in for food.”
“But where have they been?” Blue pressed, her body going cold.
Had they slipped out, and she hadn’t noticed? She’d told them over and over not to talk to Jay, and they’d agreed—but had they agreed too readily?
Finch arrived first and smiled at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Lynx was behind him.
“Hey, we’re hungry, Mom. Got anything we can eat while Blue makes coffee?” Finch asked, dropping into a chair at the table.
Lynx joined him. This brother wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Blue moved to the opposite side of the table and braced her hands on it. “Where have you two been?”
“Out.”
“Out where?”
“We have to tell you what we’re doing if we leave the house now?” Finch asked.
Blue narrowed her eyes as Lynx reached for the plate his mother handed him. She noted the red, swollen knuckles on his right hand.
“Why are your knuckles damaged, Lynx? Did you track down Jay?” Blue demanded.
“We ran into him. No big deal,” Finch said quickly.
“Calm down, Blue. It’s not good for the baby to get all worked up,” Lynx said, adding more fuel to the fire that had started raging inside her.
“Don’t you tell me to calm down, you Neanderthal.”
“Blue—”
“Did you just punch Jay Haddon, Lynx?” she demanded. “Tell me,” she added, bringing her fist down on the table hard.
The action made her brothers flinch.
“He had it coming,” Lynx muttered.
Blue straightened, breathing hard. She then walked across the kitchen and back again, hoping it would cool her down. It didn’t. “We had sex. Sex that I wanted—”
“Stop.” Finch had his hands over his ears now.
“You need to both grow the fuck up and understand that! I don’t go after every woman you f—sleep with,” she snapped. “How do I know you don’t have kids out there?”
Her brothers looked outraged at that.
“You rock stars are a loose bunch,” Blue added.
“That’s insulting to us and Mom and Dad, who raised us right, and don’t swear in front of Mom,” Finch said.
“Swear away,” their mother said. “I sure feel like it. You two had no right to go after Jay. Your sister was involved in conceiving the baby, you idiots.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Blue then walked out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Lynx demanded.
Ignoring him, she grabbed her bag from her room and then headed down the hallway toward the front door.
She had to get out of this house and find a place of her own, wherever she decided to put down roots next.
“Hey, sweetie. How are you?” Her father was walking in the front door as she reached it.
“You need to talk to your sons, Dad. They just picked a fight with Jay Haddon. Can I borrow the van?”
He nodded and handed her the keys without a word. Clearly one look at her face told him she was in no mood for a chat.
She was walking out the front door when she heard Hamish McAllister’s words. “You two are idiots.”
It took a lot to rile her father, but her brothers could usually do it with ease.
Driving into town, she wondered what had happened and if Jay was okay. Both her brothers could throw a punch that would drop someone, but she thought maybe Jay could look after himself too.
Blue had visions of a mass of bodies, Dukes and McAllisters all fighting in the street as she drove into Lyntacky.
If the Keller brothers were there, they’d join.
Instead, she found a normal scene—well, normal for Lyntacky.
Tripp was dressed in an orange square-dancing shirt with black tassels.
On the bottom, he wore running shorts, which thankfully were not as high-cut as Bart’s.
With him were several children, little ones not yet school age was Blue’s guess.
All were holding hands and dancing in a line down the main street.
Only in Lyntacky, Blue thought.
Did anyone else know that she was pregnant yet and that Jay Haddon was the father? No one ever really knew how gossip spread as fast as it did, but inevitably everything got out and reached all corners of the town.
She saw Zoe as she stepped out of her store and pulled into the curb beside her as she raised her hand in a stopping motion. Blue then lowered the window, and hoped this wasn’t going to be about her starting up a boutique in Petticoat’s back room. She really just didn’t have that in her now.
Zoe was strong and determined, and no doubt she had to be with four brothers. She and Blue’d had their arguments over the years because neither she nor Blue was someone who backed down about anything, but they had grown up and were now friends.
“Hey, girl, how you feeling?” Zoe said after bending to look in the window.
“Good. You?”
Zoe, in fact, looked the picture of health in a long fitted navy skirt and loose white shirt. The woman always had style, something the fashion designer in Blue appreciated.
She only just resisted a glance down at her bare legs in cutoffs and a tank top to check for stains.
“I know you’re pregnant, Blue,” Zoe said.
Blue sighed. “I guess it had to get out.”
“My family aren’t a vault when it comes to secrets, so yes, I know. Jay’s the best, and he’ll be a great father, and as you’re not too bad either, this kid is on a winning streak right off when it’s born.”
Blue sniffed loudly and then held out a hand. “Don’t—seriously, Zoe, I cry all the time at the moment, and I’ve been looking forward to the second trimester when it stops, but it hasn’t. But thank you for your w-words.”
“Remember that we’re all here for you and Jay, Blue, and especially if anyone gives you any shit,” Zoe added. “Maybe that boutique could be a good fit now with what’s going on?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Okay, but you may want to get along to the station right now because your man is in a cell.”
“What?”
“Jay refused to dance when the music started, so Dan arrested him.”
“You’re not serious?” Blue couldn’t believe what Zoe was saying.
“Deadly. Now go get him out.”
“He’s not really my man, Zoe,” Blue said, needing her and others to understand that.
“He must have been something to you if you made a baby together. You’re both nice people. Like I said, I think you’ll be amazing parents.”
“Stop!” Blue raised her hand. “You n-need to say s-something nasty to me.” She wiped her eyes.
“Did I ever tell you how much of a weirdo you were in school when you used to that thing that made you look crazy,” Zoe said.
“What thing?” Blue demanded.
“You used to get all your pens and pencils out of their case and line them up on your desk, tallest to shortest—”
“That’s not weird—”
“And then you would take out your ruler and line it up along the bottom, to check if they were all straight,” Zoe continued, undeterred by Blue’s outrage.
“I like neatness, so sue me.”
“It wasn’t neat, it was weird. Now go save your man.”
“Not my man,” Blue gritted out, no longer feeling teary eyed.
“Whatever.” Zoe straightened and slapped the roof.
Blue poked out her tongue, and Zoe laughed.
After doing a U-turn, she drove to the station and parked outside. Heading in, she found Sybil at her desk.
“Hey there, Blue. What can we do for you?”
Now that she was here, Blue wasn’t sure what to say.
“I got this, Sybil. You do some work,” Sheriff Dans said, appearing through the door behind.
“Like I’m not?” his administrator demanded.
He just smiled and waved for Blue to follow him. Where, she wasn’t sure.
“How are you, Blue?”
“Good, Sheriff, thanks.” He would know about the baby if the others did. Zoe was right. Those Dukes couldn’t keep quiet about anything.
“Heard your news and want you to know that, like the rest of my family, I’m here to support you in any way you need.”
“Thank you,” Blue said managing to keep her voice even. “That’s very kind. Is Jay really in a cell, Chief Dans?”
He smiled. “Seems he’s rebelling, Blue. Come on, I’ll take you to him. Before I do, though, I need you to know that two men and a woman are looking for you. Looked like city types, and by their voices, maybe from New York, but upper-class.”
“What did they look like?”
Asher Dans explained in detail, as only a cop could, right down to their eye color.
“That sounds like some of the management for the place I used to work.” They must be desperate if they’ve come all the way to Lyntacky to speak with her, Blue thought. “I hope they were polite.”
Sheriff Dans smiled at her words. “They were as you’d expect big city types who were being ticketed for speeding would be.”
“Assholes, then,” Blue supplied. “Excuse my language.”
“No, you got it right,” he confirmed, opening another door. “And now you can speak to Jay. He’s not himself right now, so maybe you could help him with that.”
“We’re not real close,” Blue said.
“You must have something in common,” Sheriff Dans said, winking at her.
Blue hadn’t blushed since she was a teenager, and even then, it was rare, but she was now.
Damned hormones.