Chapter 19 #2
Following his guiding gestures, she rolled the Volvo onto the flatbed and turned off her engine. Hers was the only vehicle on board.
“You’re exactly who I’ve been looking for,” Maddie said with a smile. On the way, she’d decided to visit Francine. After all, the young woman had given birth to Reggie while living on the Vineyard, so no doubt she had an ob-gyn.
Kevin’s smile was broad and genuine. “I’m filling in for Joel, who had to make a quick run to the Cape. I’m on duty ’til noon, after which I’ll be up yonder at the bookshop. You need something important?”
Only some advice on what to do about my baby, my lover, my father—and, oh yes, the state of my life, she wanted to say. Maybe she’d have the courage to spill all of that to Francine.
“Actually,” she said, “I was hoping you could help me choose the right shade of blue.”
Kevin blinked. “For the baby’s room?”
Maddie might have laughed if she hadn’t been so startled.
“What?” she asked, as blood raced to her cheeks.
He swept his palm over his face. “Oh, man. You’re talking about the paint chips, aren’t you?”
She dropped her forehead onto the steering wheel, then forced a short laugh. He was joking, of course. There was no way Kevin could know …
“Oh, God,” he said. “My wife will divorce me if she finds out I told you.”
Maddie raised her head, her eyes shooting toward him with horror. “Taylor knows?” she blurted out. “But … but how …?”
He blinked again. Then he cleared his throat and said, “Friday night. At the restaurant. She … well, she said she could tell by looking at you.”
Maddie dropped her gaze to the small mound of her belly.
“Taylor’s an EMT,” he continued. “She spots all kinds of things.”
Oh, God, Maddie thought. How many others had noticed? She wanted to gulp, but her throat had constricted.
“I haven’t told anyone.” He spoke fast. “Honest. I promised Taylor I wouldn’t. And she won’t tell anyone, either.”
Kevin was such a good man. But right then he sounded like a ten-year-old caught stealing a cookie from Chilmark General Store.
“It’s okay, Kevin. I only just found out myself.”
“So … Rex doesn’t know yet? He’s the father, right?” His cheeks flamed with embarrassment, as if wishing he could snatch back each word as fast as he’d said it.
Maddie decided to save him further humiliation. “Yes, Rex is the father.” It felt good to admit it, but also strange that Kevin was the first person she actually told. “And I sure can’t tell him right now.”
He lowered his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Maddie. Hopefully, he’ll be home soon. And I bet he’ll be wicked excited.”
At least Kevin hadn’t hinted that his sister, Annie-the-screenwriter-in-California, might get in the way of that.
“Meanwhile,” he added with a slightly mortified grin, “you have big doings on Chappy today? Other than trying to find me?”
She decided not to share further details of her currently confusing life. “I thought I’d stop by the Inn to see if Francine has recuperated from the weekend.”
“Sorry. She brought the kids to the library, then she was going to go shopping.”
Maddie laughed. “You know everyone’s comings and goings off Chappy?”
He shrugged. “Only when I’m driving the ferry. If you want, you can back up. I won’t have to charge you if we don’t cross.”
So Maddie put her car in reverse and headed back to Menemsha.
Though she was almost home, Maddie decided to ask Francine the name of her ob-gyn right then, before she forgot.
Because her car was old and she hadn’t updated the Bluetooth connection, communications weren’t always reliable, so she pulled into a lot adjacent to the Chilmark Town Hall, fished her phone from her purse, and scrolled to Francine’s number, hoping it would be one less thing to have to think about.
But the call went straight to voicemail.
“Francine,” Maddie said, “I keep meaning to ask the name of your ob-gyn. I’m overdue for a mammogram, and I need a good women’s doc.
Please call or text. Thanks!” She tried to sound cheerful, which was not always easy when she was trying to lie.
She supposed it wasn’t an honest-to-goodness, full-blown lie, as sooner or later she would need a mammogram.
As she pulled out onto the road, she dropped her phone back in her purse …
and instantly heard the ear-splitting blast of a horn …
followed by a sharp jolt, a crunch of metal-on-metal, and a loud crack of glass.
A white pillow-like thing blew up in front of her, her face brushing its middle.
A caustic odor of what smelled like jet fuel filled her nostrils and maybe her lungs.
Then … silence.
She might have blacked out for a minute.
The next thing Maddie heard was someone knocking on her side window.
“Lady? Lady? Are you okay, okay?” The words rushed at her like water from a burst pipe.
She shook her head to try and clear the blur, then turned her face away from the pillow. Her neck swiveled toward the sound. She was greeted by a pair of dark, frightened eyes.
“I called an ambulance.”
It was a young man, not much older than Rafe. Maddie was glad she’d figured that out. Maybe it meant her brain was still intact.
Pushing the air bag out of the way, she managed to yank the handle and jerk the door open.
“I’m okay,” she said. “I think.”
He stepped back while she hoisted herself off the seat and stood on the packed dirt of the lot … which was when she saw that the front of her car was jammed into the passenger side of a dusty, rusted-out pickup truck.
She wailed, “I did that to you?”
“Yeah. I guess you didn’t see me.” No harsh accusation, no litany of cuss words.
“I … I was putting my phone away … I’m so sorry … I must not have been looking.” Her gaze traveled from the side of his vehicle to the long crack in her windshield.
“Yeah. Stuff happens. As long as you’re okay.”
She figured she was the same age as his mother. Or older. “I’m okay.” She winced, as a small pain gripped her back. “And you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Good.” She rubbed the base of her spine. “Thank you for being so kind.”
He shrugged. Something Rafe would have done.
Then an afterthought hit her with an impact as strong as the one when her car hit the truck. She put her hand on her stomach and started to tremble. Will I lose the baby?
The shriek of sirens interrupted.
EMTs. Police. A fire engine. They all arrived simultaneously.
She wobbled to the other side of her car, plucked her purse from the front seat, and extracted her license. She couldn’t, however, get her registration out of the glove box, as it was wedged shut.
The EMTs—one, a middle-aged man with a ginger-haired buzz cut and beard, the other, a young woman who did not look old enough to drink in Massachusetts—cautiously helped Maddie into the back of the ambulance.
The young woman left; seconds later she was in the driver’s seat of the ambulance.
The man started checking Maddie’s vitals.
She was embarrassed that she was shaking.
Then a young, sandy-brown-haired police officer asked how she was feeling.
She said her head hurt and she was cold, but she thought she was more shocked than hurt.
He nodded, then said a tow truck was on the way; he asked if she had a preference of auto body shops, as if this happened to her often.
She mentioned Deke’s, the place Joe had brought Orson to be spruced up for Rafe.
She told the officer to say the car belonged to Nancy Clieg’s granddaughter, the mother of the boy for whom he’d done such a nice job restoring Orson-the-red-pickup.
“Everything seems normal,” ginger-beard EMT said once the officer was gone. “But it’s usually a good idea to go to the hospital and get fully checked out.”
The fact that Maddie still trembled might have prompted his recommendation.
Then, without warning, she said, “I’m pregnant.”
He unpeeled the blood pressure cuff from her upper arm, smiled, and said, “Then that’s a good reason to go, right?”