Chapter 19
Tess
Sunday morning dawned sunny and beautiful. A cool, clear February day in Florida that would warm up in the afternoon; one of those days that entices so many northerners to come visit us this time of year.
Well, not us. We didn’t get a lot of tourists in Dead End.
Jack and I were cooking an enormous breakfast for our guests. We’d already had coffee out by the pool, sitting on a swing (with an outdoor space heater on for me) and talking quietly. Now it was nearly nine, and I figured the scent of ham and bacon would entice Rose and Alejandro to join us.
Sure enough, five minutes later, I heard running water. When they came out to the kitchen, I held up the coffeepot.
“I will love you forever if that’s for me,” Alejandro said fervently. “The babies were kicking all night.”
Rose punched his arm. “You were up all night? Do you remember who’s carrying these little soccer players?”
She sank into a chair. “They stayed awake and active until just an hour ago.”
“I’m so sorry,” I told her. “I have some really nice herbal tea and local honey. Would that help, or are you allowed anything stronger?”
“No coffee, sadly. The tea would be wonderful. Thanks.” Her smile was tired.
Alejandro rubbed his arm. “Ouch. Also, that bed isn’t wide enough for me not to feel the babies kicking me in the back and side all night.”
She laughed. “He fell out of the bed once.”
“They kicked me so hard it woke me up! And then they floated me back up into the bed.”
“They did?” I took Rose her tea. “The babies can really do magic? I thought you were joking about that.”
“My granny says they’re ready to be born and start getting up to mischief.”
“Oh, boy,” Jack said, looking equal parts intrigued and horrified.
“Yeah,” Alejandro agreed, resigned. “Oh, boy, indeed.”
Rose’s phone buzzed so hard it jumped around on the table. We all looked at it.
“I didn’t know phones could do that,” I said. “What brand of phone is it?”
“It’s not the phone. It’s my granny. She’s expressing her … unhappiness that I left and haven’t been answering their many, many, many calls.”
“You told them where you are, though, right?” I was instantly worried. My Aunt Ruby and Uncle Mike would go nuts if I just disappeared to somewhere unknown when I was pregnant.
“Yes! I told them. I said we’d be back this afternoon. I asked them to stop calling me, to give us just a tiny break from advice and hovering, and to be sure our daughter doesn’t make my cat float up to the ceiling again.”
Jack burst out laughing while handing plates of pancakes to everyone. “That would be something to see.”
“She’s just lucky Bob didn’t have to pee while he was up there, or she’d be grounded for life,” Alejandro muttered, spearing a few sausages.
“Juice?” I held up the pitcher.
After breakfast, Jack and Alejandro cleaned up the kitchen—my tiger loved to do dishes, go figure—while Rose and I sat out back and drank tea. My cat jumped up to sit next to Rose and purred when the garden witch petted her.
“She usually doesn’t like strangers,” I admitted.
“Well. Witches and cats.” Rose grinned at my expression. “Relax. She’s not turning into my familiar. Bob isn’t even my familiar. But our garden witch magic resonates with cats, so they like to be around us.”
I was ashamed to realize I felt a little jealous. Lou had been my constant companion for years. I loved her dearly, and now she’d abandoned me for the new person.
“She loves you more than anything in the entire world, you know,” Rose said casually, scratching behind Lou’s ears. “I’m just a temporary fascination.”
As if my cat understood our conversation, she rubbed her head against Rose’s hand, stood and stretched, and then jumped gracefully between the space between us and onto my lap. She promptly curled into an upside-down crescent moon shape and impatiently butted my hand with her head, as if to say, “Get to petting.”
So, I did. Lou promptly purred herself to sleep, her little paws crossed over her chest, in a position of total trust and love. After Lou had first showed up on my porch, bedraggled and emaciated, it had taken weeks before she’d trusted me enough to show me her belly.
“What would you like to do this morning before you go home?” I cast about for things in Dead End that a massively pregnant woman might want to do. Taking an airboat tour of the swamp seemed unlikely to appeal, especially since today Rose was dressed in a cute white stretchy jumpsuit over a rose-pink top.
White clothes and the swamp didn’t mix.
“Honestly, I don’t have anything special in mind. Just being able to spend this time with you, away from my family, has been amazing.” She sipped her tea, staring off into the distance. “I love them madly, but I needed a little space.”
“I’m glad you’ve been able to relax. Well, other than the poisoned popcorn bad-luck charm and the potential bar brawl. And the too-small bed, apparently.” I sighed. “Sorry about that. I admit I never thought of pregnant women when I bought the guest bed.”
She laughed. “Tess. It’s a lovely bed. Alejandro was exaggerating. He’s so worried about me and the babies. He really didn’t want to let me come here. If he’d had his way, he’d have tucked me into a bubble for my entire pregnancy.”
“I’ve had to talk to Jack more than once about being overprotective,” I admitted. “What is that about?”
“It’s the alpha male thing.” Rose rolled her eyes. “He was so arrogant when I first met him, I wanted to float him into a thorn bush. But he was also so sexy I couldn’t resist him.”
I grinned. I understood both reactions.
“What would you normally be doing this morning?”
I glanced at the sky. Growing up as a farmer’s niece had given me a good sense of how to tell time by the sun. “I’d be on my way to church in half an hour.”
Rose’s face lit up. “Oh, can we do that? I love the singing.”
“Me, too,” I said ruefully. “Nobody loves my singing, though.”
Instead of commiserating with me or offering apologies, Rose sent me a long, speculative glance. “You know, Tess, I may have something to help you with that.”
I sat up straighter. “Do you mean … my visions … did you?—”
“Oh! No, I’m sorry. I’ll need to discuss that with my mom and sisters to figure out if we can help you. First, I need to research if anything like that has ever been done.”
“I understand.” I tried not to lose hope. She needed to research and discuss. She hadn’t said no. I could wait. I’d been living with this for a long time. I could wait a while longer.
“But wait. You said you may have something to help me?”
“With your singing! I can whip up a charm that will make you sing like Poppy Cardinal!”
“Who?”
“One of my illustrious ancestors who sang for kings and queens around the world. She and Jenny Lind were great friends.”
Jenny Lind I’d read about. She was a Swedish opera singer in the 1800s who’d been such an amazing singer they’d called her the Swedish Nightingale. If Poppy Cardinal had even a fraction of that talent, and I could sing like that …
“How long does it take to make this charm?”