Chapter 10
“You need to spend less time at that computer and more time with Clint if you expect him to marry you,” Kimmy warned Theodora.
Theodora looked up from the logo she was designing for an accounting firm in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Christopher, the certified public accountant who owned the company, had been very understanding about the delay in his project once she’d explained that her husband had been killed in combat.
She had five other graphics jobs right behind his, which she’d put off for nearly a week.
Reality had hit her in the middle of the night. Javier’s final paycheck from the Riggs Corporation would hit their joint account within six days. After that, the only money that would be coming in for her to live on would be whatever she made.
That realization scared the pee right out of her.
Or it might have just been the baby punching her bladder.
Either way, she was up once again in the middle of the night using the bathroom.
About a week ago, she’d decided that visits to the bathroom in the dark were something she was going to have to endure until the baby came.
She considered it God’s way of preparing her for those feedings every two hours, no matter what time of day…
or night. She might need to burn the midnight oil in order to survive.
Then she remembered that Clint said she’d get a lump sum from Javier’s life insurance. That made her feel better enough to fall back asleep.
Clint. What had her mother said about him? When she remembered, her jaw dropped. “What makes you think Clint wants to marry me?”
“You saw that beautiful, expensive necklace he bought for his wife.” Her mother stuck her head in the refrigerator, probably looking for a snack.
She seemed to eat almost constantly, probably out of boredom.
“You said that Clint doesn’t have a wife.
He wasn’t very subtle about asking you what you thought about that necklace.
He snatched it away quickly when I wanted to take a better look.
It certainly wasn’t my style, but it would look very pretty on you.
” She paused for a few seconds, her mouth twisted as though she was deep in thought.
“Do people here give necklaces rather than diamond rings? It did have a rather large emerald. Besides, he said he was going to take care of you and the baby. That usually means he’s going to be a husband and a father, so he’s going to ask you to marry him.
How else is he supposed to take care of the two of you? ”
In some weird way, although Theodora didn’t know exactly how, her mother made sense.
She’d always thought Clint was hot, but she’d been married to Javier and wouldn’t lust after another man.
He had been everything she ever wanted in a husband, thoughtful, kind, generous to a fault, and an excellent lover.
But Clint had gone with her to the obstetrician’s office without too much of a fuss.
And he’d held her hand through the ultrasound.
Was he interested in her? Did he intend to marry her to replace Javier in her and the baby’s life?
That would certainly solve her financial problems, and she could take whatever projects she enjoyed rather than the ones that paid the best money.
There was a knock at the door.
Theodora’s heart jumped. Maybe that was Clint coming to pay her a visit. Before she could jump out of the chair, her mother had already moved to the door.
“Hello, is there something I can do for you?” her mother asked through a small crack in the door.
“Please open door. I cook.”
Oh, wonderful. Theodora hadn’t realized how much she’d missed the meals cooked by the Riggs’s staff. She also hadn’t realized how much her mother ate. Even though she’d ordered groceries again that had been delivered two days ago, they were almost gone. She slid out of her chair to greet the cook.
“Selam, thank you for fitting me into your schedule.” Theodora spoke slowly. In their early days together in Ethiopia, Mrs. Riggs had explained that most of their staff didn’t speak or understand English very well. She was taught to enunciate every word.
“You are very welcome, ma’am.” The woman bowed in front of her. When she rose, she said, “So sorry. Feel bad you husband.” She held her fist over her heart.
After living on the Riggs compound for so long, Theodora understood the broken English. She dropped her head as she spoke. “Thank you, Selam, I appreciate your kind thoughts.”
The cook pointed toward the kitchen. “I go cook now.”
Theodora smiled and nodded. “Yes, please.” She would certainly appreciate somebody else’s cooking.
She returned to her computer but was interrupted a few minutes later by her mother in the kitchen yelling slowly, in her deepest Texas drawl, “Can. I. Help. You?”
Theodore wanted to roll her eyes. She jumped up from her chair, as quickly as a nearly six-month pregnant woman could, and dashed to the kitchen as fast as possible. She grabbed her mother’s arm and tugged her into the dining room.
“Mama, let Selam cook. She doesn’t like people in the kitchen with her.
” Theodora didn’t know whether that was true, but she knew very well from experience that her mother could offend Jesus Christ himself without intending to.
Her mother considered herself quite the chef because she’d once helped the cook at the country club, where she’d been a server.
“Mama, take my phone and sharpen your skills at blackjack.” She opened the free online game that she sometimes played while resting.
Theodora made sure there was no way her mother could play with real money before handing her the phone.
“That sounds like fun.” Kimmy took the phone and curled up under a blanket on the couch.
After finishing the logo, Theodora decided it was time to stretch, and she had to pee again.
She glanced at the couch where her mother had fallen asleep.
Good. After scurrying through her bedroom to the bathroom, she wandered into the kitchen to see if there was something she should order later in the week.
“How is it going?” Theodora spoke slowly and succinctly.
“All is good.” The cook gave her a thumbs-up.
She hadn’t seen Clint in days, so she ventured to ask, “Are the men gone?” Missions were frequent. Javier had often been gone, sometimes with just a few hours’ notice, other times he had warned her days ahead.
The cook nodded. “Many go with Miss Xena. Brothers go help. Special mission.” She held her index finger to her lips as she stirred ingredients in the bowl with her other hand. “No, tell.”
Theodora grinned and lifted her hands, palms up. “Who would I tell? The gardener? He probably knows more than me.”
Sema laughed and nodded. “He does.”
Theodora filled her tumbler with chilled wushwush tea, grown about a hundred and fifty miles east of Eden.
The local leaves were very low in caffeine and high in antioxidants.
Perfect for a pregnant woman. When she set it down on the dining table, a.k.a.
her office, it made a familiar metallic sound.
Her initial glance at the insulated stainless-steel cup turned into a stare seconds before tears wet her cheeks.
Javier had given it to her for graduating from college.
He’d brought it home to her in Ethiopia after completing a mission in the USA.
He’d explained they were all the rage because they could hold ice and cold drinks for up to twelve hours.
She could attest that it would hold her iced tea even longer than that.
She loved the big purple tumbler. Her husband had known the perfect gift for her.
A husband who she would never see again. One who would never again sleep, cuddled beside her. He’d never bring her another gift that touched her heart.
But he had left her with a part of him. She rubbed her growing belly and was secretly glad their baby was a boy. She hoped he’d have nearly black hair that curled softly when it got too long and deep brown eyes like his father’s.
Her mother rustled under the covers on the couch, and Theodora quickly wiped tears from her cheeks. She clicked the mouse to open a new folder and sat up straight. No matter what her mother thought, no man would ever replace Javier in her heart.
Theodora worked for several hours every day, then slipped into her bedroom to rest. Yes, part of it was because her body needed it.
The other part was that her brain required her to get away from her mother.
After just a few days, she longed for the peace and quiet that she had enjoyed while Javier had been on missions.
Sure, she missed him deeply, especially when the missions had been over a month long.
But she had filled her time, first with studying for her college classes, then building her freelance graphics business.
She was almost glad when Clint had called her and announced, “We have a mission, and we’re leaving for the United States in the morning.
We’ll be taking Javier’s body to Texas. We expect you and your mother to be on the plane by seven thirty tomorrow morning.
Do you need me to send a car to pick you up? ”
Oh, crap. This was happening. Now. Theodora glanced around the house, where she and Javier had lived for the past several years. They’d been happy in that home and collected more than a few things. She’d need to pack whatever she was taking back to Texas with her and get it to the plane.