Chapter 14
Wendy lay sleepless in bed, her mind revved up like it knew something that the rest of her didn’t. She’d long ago learned not to ignore her sometimes odd sense of unease, as it meant something was off or wrong.
But she didn’t know what. Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme—hmm, probably not—were all present and accounted for and having a grand old time inside her. Her pulse was normal.
What could be wrong? Hayden had gotten a call from work about a systems crash and had gone in. He probably wouldn’t be back for a while. And Anna... huh. It was midnight, and Wendy realized her sister hadn’t called or texted her today.
Her sister radar was humming.
Rolling out of her cocoon, she reached for her phone and texted Anna, You okay? When she didn’t get an immediate response—weird in its own right because one thing she could always count on Anna for was to always be there—she texted a question mark. She distracted herself by wondering if her toenail polish was chipped, but when she still didn’t hear back from Anna, she called.
And got her voicemail.
She then checked the Find My app and was relieved to see Anna’s dot at home, probably asleep.
Except... she still had a feeling of impending doom. This meant sleep would be all but impossible. Food would probably help. So she climbed out of bed and hit up the kitchen for a quick snack, then migrated back to the bedroom. It took a lot of nest building and pillow twisting, but after a few minutes, she was cradled like a boat docked on dry land and finally ready to sleep.
Almost.
Ugh. Stupid bladder.
After a trip to the bathroom and a second rebuilding of the nest, she finally managed to drift off and didn’t wake up until she felt the telltale change in air pressure that meant she wasn’t alone.
Hayden hardly made a sound crossing the room. He pulled back the blankets to kiss her belly in greeting. “Did you kiddos wear Mommy out again?”
The babies nudged and squirmed in answer. “Victoria, Ginger, and Mel missed you,” she murmured.
“We’re not naming our babies after the Spice Girls.”
She gasped in surprise. “You know the Spice Girls’ names? Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?”
He grimaced. “You’re going to tell Anna, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am. In fact, I’m going to call her right now—” She stopped short because one, she still hadn’t gotten a response from Anna, and two, she also suddenly remembered something.
Last night, when Anna had left at the same time that Hayden had come home, she’d been distracted. Hayden had come inside, and they’d been talking when she’d heard something from her phone lying on her bed. Three short beeps, the kind you heard when a call had just been disconnected. At the time, she’d been too addled by exhaustion to think anything of it.
But now her brain was racing. Because Anna had called her briefly as she drove away, letting her know Hayden was pulling in. Anna had disconnected the call. But... what if she hadn’t? What if she’d accidentally put her on hold again? Wendy tried to remember what she’d been talking to Hayden about...
Oh shit.
She’d been talking to Hayden about Anna.
Oh, God. She’d said how worried she was and how she’d set this whole nightmare in motion by trying to keep Anna busy so she wouldn’t spiral again.
What if Anna had heard her? Calm down, because really, what were the chances? But given the way her heart was racing, she had to think the chances were high. “Uh-oh.”
Hayden went brows up. “That’s your I’ve-done-something-bad ‘uh-oh.’ What did you do?”
“Me?” She made a grand gesture to her belly. “Do I look like I’m capable of doing anything? It’s a misunderstanding!” A misunderstanding of the highest magnitude that was all her own fault, but no need to admit guilt. Yet. “Gimme your phone for a sec.”
He handed it over, then watched curiously as Wendy hit her sister’s number and waited. And sure enough, Anna answered, voice low and husky, like maybe she’d woken her up. “When you’re alive,” she snapped, “you answer your phone!”
Disconnect.
Wendy pulled Hayden’s phone from her ear and stared at it. “Wow.”
“What?”
“She hung up on me!”
Hayden’s phone began to ring. He wriggled his fingers in a hand-it-over gesture, so Wendy did. “Hey,” he said, obviously to Anna. He listened for a beat. “Uh-huh,” he said, his eyes tracking to Wendy.
Ruh-roh.
“Uh-huh,” he said again.
Yep, this was bad. Very, very bad.
Hayden sighed. “These days people frown on men attempting to control their wives, but if you could give me more details, I’ll see what I can do.” He listened some more. His mouth was grim. “Understood.” He disconnected and looked at Wendy.
“Well?” she asked.
“Do you want to revise your earlier statement, the one where you said you didn’t do anything?”
“What did she tell you?”
“She wouldn’t give me any details. All she’d say was that she wasn’t ready to talk to you unless it was about the babies, your health, or the babies’ health. Those are the only reasons you’re to call or text her until otherwise notified. She needs a little space.” He pulled her into him. “Why does she need space, Wen?”
Wendy sniffed. “She overheard our conversation last night.”
He was quiet a moment, clearly running said conversation through his head. He grimaced. “So... you’re going to give her the space, right?”
“How much space does she need, do you think?”
“Wendy.”
“Just kidding. I’ll give her space.” Probably. Maybe. Hopefully... “Obviously, I wish she hadn’t heard us saying all that about her—”
“Us?”
She sucked in a breath and felt her eyes fill again. Because, dammit, he was right. It’d been all her.
“And how could she have heard?” Hayden asked. “She was already gone. Did she come back inside for something?”
“No, she called me as she was leaving to let me know you were pulling up. My phone had slipped off my pillow and I couldn’t easily reach it, so I let her disconnect the call. Only I’m guessing she didn’t actually disconnect, that she accidentally hit hold by mistake, which she’s done before. I assume when she realized her mistake, she took the call off hold and I was, you know, saying stuff about her.”
“I mean, you’ve done worse.” He brushed a kiss to her temple. “But I’m sure an apology would help.”
“Do you remember exactly what I said?”
“You mentioned sending her on a goose chase about the coin and how you hope she doesn’t spiral again.”
She deflated. “Did I really say ‘spiral’?”
“Yes.”
Okay, this was bad. Really bad.
“Wen, just own up to it. Talk it through with her, tell her you worry, but you would never hurt her on purpose.”
She sighed. “I hate when you use sound logic and reasoning or whatever, when I’m really just looking for someone to be as overdramatic about this situation as I am.”
“Babe.” He leaned over her and brushed his mouth to hers. “Listen, there’s nothing you can do about this right now. Think about something else. What did you do today?”
“I don’t know. Breathed a lot. Sighed a lot. Peed a lot. The list goes on.”
He smiled sympathetically. “I brought you something you’re going to like.” He vanished for a moment and came back with a pound cake that had a mountain of strawberries glued to the top with whipped cream.
“I’ve never loved you more,” she whispered reverently.
“I hope you’ll still feel that way when I tell you it’s sugar-free.”
“Fork.”
He pulled a plastic fork from his back pocket, and she found a laugh. “You know me well.”
“I do.” He stripped out of his shirt, and she paused, fork halfway up to her mouth, to enjoy the sight as he headed into the bathroom for a shower.
“Oh and hey,” she yelled at his retreating and very sexy back. “What have I done that’s worse?”
He poked his head back out. “Is that one of those rhetorical questions?”
“No, I really want to know.”
“Okay, how about that time you signed her up on what you thought was a dating site but was really a hookup site.”
“That was an accident!”
He nodded. “And setting her up with a guy you knew would be bad for her? Michael?”
“I didn’t know he’d be bad for her, I thought he’d be fun. And I feel like shit for how it went down. Anything else?”
“That time you yelled at her for taking your phone charger, but then a week later you found it in the bottom of your purse and you never told her.”
Gah. Note to self: don’t ask for any more examples of her being a bad sister.
Wendy woke up to wiggling babies and a gurgling stomach. She reached for her husband, but he wasn’t there. The sheets were warm though, and she realized she could hear the shower going. This meant he’d gone running without waking her up—a first. The man was hot, but he couldn’t be quiet to save his own life.
His being up and getting ready for the day meant that he hopefully had plans to feed her pronto. While she was fantasizing about pancakes and sausage, he came out of the bathroom, steam swirling all around him. Naked, he strolled toward his dresser, completely natural, as comfortable out of clothes as he was in them. And why shouldn’t he be? He played basketball with his buddies several times a week, was also on a hockey team, and on the days he hadn’t done anything active, he ran.
By choice.
Boggling. But it sure gave her something nice to look at, and even nicer to touch whenever she wanted.
He looked at her and laughed. “You’re thinking about sex or food.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you’re drooling.” He grinned when she swiped her chin just in case he was being serious. “Which is it? Sex or food?”
“Guess.”
“Don’t worry. I know where I stack up against pancakes and sausage.”
“Does that upset you?” she asked, suddenly worried.
He gave a soft laugh. “Babe, I’ll be second fiddle to food any day, as long as I’m your number one man.”
Her heart melted. “Always.”
“Good thing then that I ordered takeout from the diner. Pancakes and sausage.” He leaned over the bed and kissed her belly, then her mouth. “You hear from Anna?”
“No, and I’m working my way up to groveling. Still planning the speech.”
“She doesn’t want a speech. Go with your first instinct and grovel.” He kissed the top of her head. “Later.”
When he’d left the bedroom, she flopped back and muttered to herself, “No ‘I love you, Wendy.’ No ‘Be safe, Wendy.’” Maturely, she stuck her tongue out at her bedroom door. “I know you find me entertaining, but a little romance wouldn’t kill you.” She knew this was completely and totally unfair. He was romantic. He was just more a man of action than words. But sometimes, a girl needed the words...
The bedroom door opened, and she was pulled into a set of warm, strong arms. Hayden kissed her until her knees buckled. “I love you, be safe,” he said in a low voice. Then he flashed a grin, tugged playfully on her ponytail, and strode out again.
She grinned and reached for her phone to call Anna, but hesitated instead of dialing. Sagging back, she stared up at the ceiling. For most of their growing-up years, Wendy had been the babysitter, mom, dad, teacher, parole officer, and authority on all things involving Anna. And somehow, when she hadn’t been looking, Anna had grown up to be 100 percent independent from everyone.
Including Wendy.
She wanted to talk to Anna about that, and so many other things, wanted to hug her tight and make promises and apologies and clear the air, but Anna, who never asked for anything, had asked for some space.
And Wendy, if she wanted any shot at getting her sister back, was going to have to oblige.