Chapter Eight #2
“It is your home, and it’s going to the baby’s home, too.
We’re going to raise him or her together.
That’s what sisters do,” Monica assured her.
“And I would love to have a volunteer here in the library. Just come in whenever you feel like it. There are always jobs to do here. Look at us, Fiona, planning to work together when we could hardly stand to be in the same room together in the past.”
“Being brought down a notch sure humbled me. I wish now I had used my brain to learn something other than posing for pictures. When a model gets washed up, there’s no place to go but down.” Fiona sighed.
Monica crossed the room and hugged her sister. “Hey, girl, don’t say that. There’s always a way to go up.”
“Thanks, boss.” Fiona hugged her back. “I don’t deserve any of your care and kindness, but I sure appreciate it all.” Her voice quivered.
“I’m not your boss,” Monica protested. “It’s ten minutes until time to close. Let’s eat out tonight. What’ll it be? Dairy Queen or Subway?”
“What if we drive over to El Paso and have a steak? My treat,” Fiona suggested.
Monica stood up and headed for the door. “I thought you didn’t eat red meat.”
“I didn’t, but the baby is craving it—not hamburgers, but the real thing, like roast and steak.” She followed Monica and switched off the light. “Remember when Daddy would ask us who we left in a room when we left the light on and we would say nobody.”
“Yep. ‘Nobody can see in the dark, so don’t waste electricity,’” Monica mimicked his deep voice.
“That’s right,” Fiona said. “I feel like I’ve been living in the dark for a long time, but I sure appreciate being in the light now.”
“Didn’t you just switch off the light?”
Fiona hip-bumped Monica. “You know what I’m talking about.”
Monica had trouble believing that her sister wanted to work in the library—for free.
In the past, she had considered that it was only one step up from working in the fast-food industry.
She must really be bored, but then she’d left behind a life of fancy parties, rich friends, and lots of excitement.
Something totally unrelated to lights or Fiona’s past flashed through Monica’s mind—a visual of the calendar she had been looking at earlier. November 20th. Five days until she and her sister went to Hatch for Thanksgiving and one or both of them told their mother about the baby.
Why would this particular Friday stick in her mind, and what did it mean? Was there a sign in there somewhere? She got into her SUV and fastened her seatbelt. “Is today someone’s birthday that I should remember?” she asked.
“Not that I know of,” Fiona answered, and settled into the passenger seat. “It could go down in history as the day I got knocked off my high horse and asked for a job at the library.”
“Maybe so, but it seems like it’s more important than that. Oh well, I’ll remember later.”
“Probably,” Fiona agreed. “Now where can we get a good steak in El Paso? And do we need to go home and change?”
“Longhorn is fine with me. We can go as we are, but if you want the cream of the crop, we can go to 1700 Place,” Monica answered as she drove out of the library parking lot. “I need to make a stop at the drugstore for a prescription, so you’ve got a couple of minutes to decide.”
Fiona shook her head. “Longhorn is fine. I’m hungry, and I do not want to put on makeup or get all fancied up.”
Monica parked in front of the drugstore, left the engine running, and ran inside to get her birth control pills. Georgia, the pharmacist, handed the little bag to her and she was on the way to the counter to pay for it when she stopped in her tracks.
November 20th. She should have started her period the night before, always either on the 19th or 20th of each month.
Her heart almost stopped right there in aisle one of the pharmacy when she realized that she had also missed September and October as well.
She’d been so busy with Fiona that she hadn’t even thought about it.
She had never been late in her life, so there was no doubt that she was pregnant.
She glanced over at the early pregnancy tests on the shelf beside her and then looked around the store.
No one was there, but her conscience wouldn’t let her slip one in her purse.
Georgia, bless her sweet heart, was one of the biggest gossips in the whole town and worked in the only pharmacy in town.
If she knew that Monica had bought a test, the news would be all over the town of Alvera before Sunday dinner.
Monica tossed her purse into the back seat and turned on her playlist. “I’m still a country music fan.”
She needed something, anything to take her mind off the fact that there was only one way that she could miss three periods. How on earth had three—not one or two—gotten past her?
“One of the baby daddies is a cowboy. We did several shoots together for his new album,” Fiona said.
“And the other two?” Monica tried to keep her mind off her own dilemma.
“An Italian businessman and the CEO of an oil company,” she answered.
“Why would you sleep with three different men in one week?”
Why would you spend days with a man, and you don’t even know his last name? the voice in her head asked.
“Because I wanted to,” Fiona answered above the music.
“And honey, we did very little sleeping. Between me and you, I think the baby belongs to the cowboy, but I have no intention of ever telling him. He’s got a career to think about, and he’s five years younger than I am.
I don’t want him to be in my life or my baby’s, either. ”
“Why do you think he’s the one?”
“Because when we had sex, it was my fertile time of the month. I hadn’t thought about the fact I had taken antibiotics for the flu, and besides, the other two used condoms. Only way it could be one of theirs is if …” She shrugged.
“Why did you tell me that it could belong to one of three?” Monica barked.
Fiona raised a shoulder in half a shrug. “I wanted to shock you, and I didn’t want you to know who the father was because you would go digging around and find him on social media.”
“I would if you’d give me his name,” Monica admitted.
“John Doe,” Fiona said. “Can you drive a little faster, please, my favorite sister? I’m ready to chew on my leather purse.”
Monica pressed down on the gas pedal and hoped there would be no highway patrol officers out that evening. “I’m your only sister!”
“Yes, you are, but that does not mean you aren’t my favorite.”