Chapter Twenty-Three
EMMA
THE CIRCLE
“You don’t have to go, you know,” Aiden said as we stood at the back of the church.
I chewed nervously on my lip. “The way your mother bolted up from the pew, I’m almost positive she’s already sent them all a text to give them a heads-up.”
He laughed. “In that case, it might be better to go and get it over with, let them get it out of their system.”
I sighed. “Probably.”
Hadley came rushing over to us and stopped in front of Aiden. “Daddy, Jennifer wants to go sledding! Please, can I go? My wrist is much better!”
Dalton made his way over with Jennifer. “The girls are begging me to take them sledding.”
“Then can we roast marshmallows and have hot chocolate!” Jennifer begged while she jumped around with excitement.
“A sleepover!” Hadley cried out.
“Not on a school night, Hadley.”
“But it’s not a school night, Daddy! We don’t have school tomorrow cause of the teacher workday,” Hadley argued.
“You’ll have the house all to yourself,” Dalton said, a smirk on his face as he looked from Aiden to me. I felt my cheeks heat and suddenly found the floor very interesting.
“I thought we were going to go Christmas tree shopping today, Hadley?” Aiden asked, ignoring Dalton’s statement.
“Can we go tomorrow, Daddy? Please!”
Aiden sighed and looked at me. I shrugged and smiled.
“Fine, you can spend the night. Let’s go home first and pack a bag. There’s something I want to talk to you about,” Aiden said, before turning back to me. “I’ll be back to pick you up.”
“I’m sure I can get a ride with Patty. If not, I’ll let you know.”
Hadley ran over to me, hugged my legs and said, “Bye, Emma! I love you!”
Hugging her back, I fought the lump in my throat. “I love you too, sweetheart. Have fun!”
Turning away, she ran off with Jennifer.
I stood there, overwhelmed by her declaration. I glanced at Aiden. I didn’t know what I’d expected to see…but it wasn’t the heat in his eyes.
Relaxing a bit, I started to assure him again that I would never replace Lisa, but he shook his head and took my hand in his. He kissed the back of it, flashing me a smile so sexy, I felt a breath catch in my chest.
“I’ll see you in a bit, Emma.”
All I could do was nod.
He drew me to him, glanced in the direction of his daughter, then quickly kissed me. When he turned to walk toward Hadley, my hand reached out for something to steady myself, and what I found was Tammy.
“My goodness,” she said softly. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that man look at a woman the way he just looked at you. I think he forgot we were in a church.”
I felt my cheeks heat as Tammy laced my arm with hers and pulled me in the direction of our little women’s church group.
“Circle is going to be very interesting today, Lord willing,” Tammy said and pulled me toward the meeting as fast as she could.
* * *
When the doors opened and Tammy and I walked in, all eyes swung our way. I abruptly stopped in my tracks.
“I wasn’t sure you were going to come,” Patty said, all calm and collected.
Tammy nudged me to keep moving, and I made my way to the circle of chairs.
Now all eyes were solely on me and judging by the knowing smiles on each of the ladies’ faces, they all saw Aiden holding my hand.
I’m pretty sure that they couldn’t have seen the kiss since they were already gathered in here.
As if my lips were triggered by that thought, they started to tingle. My hand rose involuntarily, fingers lightly brushing over my lips.
“Something you’d like to share with us, Emma?”
My eyes jerked over to Shannon. Then I jumped when the flash of her camera went off. She instantly started to write in her journal. I could only imagine what she was scribbling in that thing.
“Do I dare even ask if anyone did devotionals?” Patty said.
When no one replied, she sighed. “Okay, well, then we should—”
Before she could go on, Shannon practically fell onto the mat. She stared up at the ceiling and let out a long, dramatic sigh.
No one said a thing as we waited for her to speak. After a couple of minutes, I whispered to Tammy, “Is she okay?”
She nodded. “She’s waiting to get her emotions in check before she talks. She doesn’t want to cry.”
My gaze snapped back Shannon. “Poor thing! What happened?”
Patty leaned toward her. “Do you need a drink, maybe?”
Cara gasped. “Patty, it’s barely noon!”
“I could use one, I’m not going to lie.”
All eyes turned to Erin. She was due any day, so I couldn’t blame her in the least bit.
“Come to think of it, I could use one myself,” Landy stated as she reached into her oversized bag.
“You did not!” Patty exclaimed as she stared wide-eyed at Landy.
Frowning, Landy pulled out her phone and made a show of putting it on silent. “You really think I’d bring booze to our church group?”
Looking embarrassed, Patty sat back and lifted a shoulder.
Shannon sat up. “This morning. I didn’t think it could get worse.”
“Worse than the time Bailey had a blowout in the brand-new car and Belle threw up at the same time?” Rose asked.
Nodding, Shannon said, “Yes.”
“The time Belle cut your hair?” Patty asked.
“Yep,” Shannon nearly sobbed.
I gaped and looked at Tammy, who scrunched her nose. She leaned in and whispered, “Cut Shannon’s ponytail off when she fell asleep on the sofa. She had a pixie cut for months.”
My hand slowly covered my mouth as I whispered back, “Oh my…”
Cara got down on the floor next to Shannon. “Worse than the time Bailey said she saw your dead grandfather sitting at the kitchen table?”
Shannon nodded.
“The time they painted each other?” Rose asked.
Tammy leaned in and whispered, “Their entire bodies…covered in a bright pink paint.”
“Who are these kids?” I asked as I stared at Shannon. I’d met Bailey and Belle once, but only briefly.
Shannon nodded and let out a deep breath. “This morning, Bailey told me she had a tummy ache. Logan said it was most likely from her drinking syrup like she was downing a beer bong.”
Erin gagged, then quickly covered her mouth and looked around. “Sorry.”
“I told her to go potty while I guided Belle into her room for her to get dressed. Meanwhile, Logan was waiting for me in our bathroom.”
“Nice to see the romance is still there between the two of you!” Landy stated. “A quickie before church, nice!”
“Landy!” Patty scowled as the rest of us chuckled.
Shannon smiled. “The romance is for sure still there. When we can find time. Anyway, I headed into the bedroom, and I was only in there for a few minutes when suddenly Bailey started screaming. My heart dropped, and Logan ran past me so fast, I thought he was going to knock me over. Then…then…I heard…”
“You heard what!” we all cried out at the same time.
“Logan started gagging. Then Bailey started throwing up. Then Belle started screaming bloody murder when our lab LouLou chased her through the house.”
“What happened?” I asked, when she paused again.
Shannon swallowed and her voice shook as she said, “Well…Bailey pooped.” She stopped again, covering her mouth with her hand.
“Oh God, I think I should leave,” Erin said, standing up.
“Maybe you should Erin, sweetheart,” Patty replied.
Erin practically ran out the door.
“Go on,” Cara said, as she took Shannon’s hand in hers.
With a nod and another deep breath, Shannon went on.
“She didn’t flush and, well, LouLou came in and started to eat it.
That’s when Bailey started to scream. Later, Logan told me that he walked in and saw the poop half in and half out of the dog’s mouth, so he started to gag.
That’s when Bailey threw up, and Logan gagged some more.
Then LouLou, still munching down on poop, went after Belle.
“By the time I got to the scene, I grabbed LouLou, not sure why she was chasing Belle to begin with, and at that point, I still had no idea why Bailey was getting sick. I just saw that LouLou had something in her mouth…”
“Oh no,” Tammy said.
Shannon gagged. “So, of course, I opened her mouth and reached in to grab whatever it was—and got a handful of poop.”
Cara let go of Shannon’s hand and scrambled away, holding up her own hand. “Who has sanitizer? Now!”
“Oh, I do! I do!” Landy said, dumping out the contents of her purse. “Got it!”
Cara grabbed it and started to douse her hands.
“Thank goodness you made Erin leave,” Rose stated as she fought to hold back laughter. All Patty could do was nod.
Shannon cleared her throat. “When I realized what I was holding in my hand, I ran back to the master bathroom and stuck my hand in the toilet.”
“Um…why?” Tammy asked.
Looking as if she was about to cry, Shannon said, “I don’t know! What else do you do when you realize you have a handful of poop?!”
“Oddly, that makes sense,” I said, as everyone else nodded in agreement.
“Of course, I washed my hands at least a dozen times. I felt bad for making Logan deal with the girls and LouLou, but I had a handful of…”
“Crap,” Landy stated.
Shannon sighed. “Yeah. And that’s when I looked down and saw the test.”
Tammy reached for my hand and squeezed it.
“Test?” Patty asked cautiously.
Nodding, Shannon said, “I’m pregnant.”
We all looked around at one another. Patty leaned over and whispered to me and Tammy, “I don’t know if we should say we’re sorry or congratulations. That was a lot to unpack, ya know.”
I covered my mouth once again.
Rose stood and reached for Shannon to help her to her feet. “Shannon, do we hug you in like a female solidarity kind of thing, or do we start jumping up and down, hugging you in a celebration kind of thing?”
Shannon looked around at all of us, tears in her eyes. I held my breath as we waited for her to reply.
“Logan and I have been trying, so it’s for sure a celebration!”
We all jumped up and started to hug and congratulate Shannon.
At that point, Erin walked back in. “What’s going on?”
When we stepped aside so Shannon could see Erin, she said, “I’m pregnant!”
Erin screamed and quickly made her way to the group. Well, she moved as quickly as her nine-month-pregnant self could manage.