Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Okay,” Marty called into the house at large. “I’m heading out.”
Instantly she was mobbed with cats, Peaches at the head of the pack. They twined around her legs, meowing and batting gently, seeking pets and love. Laughing, Marty picked them up one by one and pressed lots of kisses to their sweet little heads. When she was done, the chorus of meows had been replaced by a low, harmonious rumble of purrs.
She looked up to see Wyatt lounging in the doorway, a hangdog expression on his face.
“What about me?” he complained teasingly. “No kisses for your poor husband?”
“Oh, come here, you,” she said, placing both hands on his cheeks so she could pull him down for a loving kiss. Then she smacked another one on his head for good measure.
“There,” she said with satisfaction. “Now you got the head kisses like them and a mouth kiss. No complaints.”
“Nothing to complain about,” he said. “I got what I wanted.” Then he looked down at the line of cats, who were watching this exchange with interest. “See?” he asked them. “She loves me too.”
“Meow?” asked Trouble inquisitively, causing both adults to laugh.
“Tell Darla and Rick I said hi,” Wyatt said, bringing Marty’s attention back to her task. She gave him a slightly worried look.
“Yeah, I hope I’m wrong and it’s nothing, but…”
“Sisterly intuition?” he suggested.
She nodded. “Yeah, she’s just seemed a bit off, so I want to check in.”
It had crept up on Marty, this feeling that there was something upsetting her sister. She’d almost convinced herself that she was making things up, that maybe her first trimester exhaustion was just getting to her, until Charity had mentioned something too.
Marty had been ordering a chai latte, because coffee was still too tough on her sensitive stomach, when Charity had asked, “By the way, how’s Darla?”
Marty’s ‘sister senses’ had pinged. “I think she’s okay. Why?”
Charity gave a vague shrug. “It might be nothing, but she just seemed kind of upset about something in an abstract way when we were talking the other day. I figured you’d be on top of it, since you two are so close.”
Maybe Charity, like Marty, could convince herself that there was nothing going on with Darla, but in Marty’s opinion, two suspicions added up to something definitely being afoot.
So she’d baked a batch of Darla’s favorite lemon poppyseed scones, figuring that even if everything was totally fine, nobody was sad to see their favorite pastry. She’d freed up a whole Saturday morning for some sister time.
When she pulled into Darla and Rick’s driveway, grabbing the covered plate of scones from the passenger seat, she looked up and saw Rick exiting the house, Scout’s leash clasped lightly in his hand. The puppy bounced happily at her owner’s feet, clearly thrilled to be going out for a walk.
“Hey, Rick,” she called, raising a hand in greeting.
He looked up. “Oh, Marty, hi!”
“Hi, Scout,” she said, when the puppy strained on her leash toward Marty. Marty dropped to one knee and Rick loosened his grip on the dog, who immediately came for hugs and kisses from her beloved aunt. Rick rescued the covered plate out of Marty’s hands before Scout could topple it, which left Marty with both hands free for pets and snuggles.
“Oh, man, are these the lemon scones?” Rick asked, peering through the plastic wrap. “Scout, should we skip the walk and eat some of these, instead?”
Scout paused her exuberant greeting to look at her dad as if to say, Are you crazy? Skip the walk?
The humans laughed at the way pets make their communication so clear, then exchanged what they were holding, Marty returning the leash to Rick while he handed back her pastries.
“I’d say we’ll save you one or two,” Marty teased, “but when it comes to me, Darla, and these scones? All bets are off.”
“Scout and I better get going, then,” Rick said good-naturedly. “Maximize our chances of getting back in time. Come on, girl!” He tugged gently on Scout’s leash. The puppy caught on quickly and, within moments, she was the one tugging against Rick’s end of the leash.
“Door’s open,” he called over his shoulder as the puppy strained to get ahead. Scout was still working on her ‘going on a walk’ manners. “Go right in, Mar!”
She waved a farewell, then headed up to the house.
“Dar?” she called from the front hallway. For all that Rick had told her to go in, she didn’t want to startle her poor sister by suddenly popping into view when Darla thought she was alone. “It’s me!”
“In the living room!” Darla called back.
Marty followed the sound of her sister’s voice to find her curled up on the couch in comfy clothes, a battered paperback in her lap and a cup of tea in her hand.
“Hey, sweetie,” she greeted happily.
“Oh, man, sorry I’m interrupting your cozy morning,” Marty said with a faint grimace.
Darla waved off her concern. “Don’t worry about it at all… especially not if those are lemon poppy scones in your hand.”
Marty pretended to be surprised at the sight of the plate. “Oh, these? Yeah, they are… but they’re all for me.”
“Oh, right, right.” Darla pretended to go back to her book and then, in a flash, lunged out and swiped the plate from her sister. Marty was amazed that she managed this without spilling a drop of her tea.
“Phew,” Marty said, settling in on the end of the couch as Darla placed the plate on the coffee table and unwrapped it excitedly. “Either I’m getting slower or you’re getting faster.”
“My big sister powers are undiminished even though we’re grown up,” Darla returned.
For a minute or so, there was only the sound of chewing and happy little hums as the sisters each demolished a scone.
“It’s good that I always forget how good these are,” Marty said, helping herself to a second one. “Otherwise, I’d never eat anything else.”
Darla frowned thoughtfully. “You mean flour, butter, lemon, and sugar aren’t a complete nutritional profile?”
“Weird, right?”
Marty was just gathering the courage to ask her sister about her strange mood recently when Darla chimed in again.
“Oh, by the way, have you heard the latest about Mom and Hudson?”
Marty grinned, pleased for the happier topic. “Um, yes . They went out! I think a few times now?”
Darla nodded, grinning. “They’re fully dating, I think. Claire told me that her dad came over to dinner all mopey, sad that he couldn’t figure out how to get the girl he liked to like him back.”
Marty pressed a hand to her cheek. “That is so cute to imagine.”
“Right? And every time I talk to Mom recently, she’s completely on cloud nine. It’s honestly adorable.” Darla laughed and shook her head. “Remember how different she was when I first came back to Whale Harbor after we lost Grandma Abby? I guess we were all pretty different back then, but really! Did you ever think Mom was going to get all giggly and cheerful like this?”
“I can’t say I pictured it quite this way, but I’m so happy for her,” Marty said. Then, with a teasing lilt, she added, “And for us. All those times we joked about setting her up with Hudson? We were totally right.”
She jokingly dusted off her shoulders like to say no big deal, I’m just that good.
“And we’ll get to see more of Claire,” Darla added. “I feel like we’ve done a good job of getting her to feel really at home in the friend group, but I think this will help. She’ll basically be one of the sister crew.”
Marty bit back a smile. Darla tended to get a little ahead of herself when imagining happy things. “Don’t start hearing wedding bells just yet, there, big sis. But yes, I think it’s going to be pretty awesome, all things told. And even if it’s not forever, it’s really nice to see Mom this happy. After we lost Dad, I think part of her forgot that she deserves that kind of happiness.”
Darla’s smile grew bittersweet. “Yeah, I think so too. But I’m glad she found that joy again.” They trailed off briefly into contemplative silence, each nibbling at their second round of pastries.
Marty picked at her scone as she looked at her sister. Darla looked normal, but there was a hint of tiredness around her, like something was weighing on her.
“Hey, sweetheart,” she said gently. “I wanted to ask you something. You’ve seemed a little… off lately. And you’re allowed to have a bad day, or week or even month, of course you are. But I just wanted to check in to see what’s going on, to see if there’s anything I can do to support you.”
Darla smiled brightly, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m fine! Of course, I’m fine. What a silly question.”
Marty narrowed her eyes. Apparently, the soft launch wasn’t going to work. She was going to have to go for some tough sisterly love. She propped a hand on her hip.
“Nice try, Dar. I’m your sister. I know something is up. So unless you want my mind to jump to the worst possible place, you’ll tell me what’s really been going on with you.”
Darla looked at the fierce determination in her sister’s face. This was the problem with having a sister who knew you so well, she decided. Mostly she loved how much closer she and Marty had become since Darla had returned to Whale Harbor, but this was clearly the flip side of that coin. Marty wouldn’t let her get away with anything sneaky.
Which meant she had to gather the courage to tell her the truth.
Taking in a deep breath of air, she looked to the side for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. Unloading her concerns might actually help… but the last thing she wanted was to make Marty feel at all bad about her own pregnancy or think that she had to diminish her joy about it.
When she turned back to her sister, Marty’s face was patient but concerned.
“Well, first off, nobody is sick or dying or anything,” she said, eager to make sure Marty wasn’t already jumping to the worst possible place. “I just… haven’t been entirely honest with you about something.”
Marty nodded carefully. “Okay,” she said, voice entirely free of judgment.
“So, you remember back at the beginning of the summer, when I told you and the girls that Rick and I were trying for a baby?”
“Of course,” Marty said.
Darla gave her sister a mild grimace. “Well, that was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth.” She took a deep breath. “I made it sound like this was a new development, but it wasn’t. Rick and I have actually been trying for a while. Practically since we got married. And at first we were doing sort of a… casual way about it, like, ‘Let’s just see what happens,’ but we pretty quickly moved into actually doing all the stuff you do when you’re really working for it. Tracking cycles, keeping calendars, that kind of stuff.”
Marty just nodded again, but she could see her sister was starting to put the pieces together.
Darla had to swallow hard against the lump in her throat. “And it still hasn’t happened.” She blinked furiously, fighting tears. “I’m starting to get really worried that it won’t ever happen.”
Marty’s face crumpled into loving sympathy. “Oh, sweetheart,” she said, reaching out to wrap her sister in her arms. For a minute, Darla just let Marty hold her, not even minding if a few tears slipped out. She pulled back and wiped her eyes only to find her sister looking at her with guilt in her expression.
“Gosh, Dar, I wish I’d known you were going through this. I’ve been so chatty and excited about my own pregnancy, and I should have been more careful of your feelings—”
“No,” Darla interrupted with a firm shake of her head. “No way. That’s not what I want you to feel at all . That’s actually the main reason I didn’t say anything before now. I wasn’t trying to keep secrets or anything, I just didn’t want you or Monica to feel anything less than one hundred percent excited just because I’m having a hard time.”
Hints of Marty’s worry were still there, but she was nodding along with Darla’s reassurances.
“Okay,” she said. Then, more firmly, “Okay. I still feel like maybe I was a little insensitive, but I get where you’re coming from.”
“You weren’t insensitive. You couldn’t have known this was something I’m sensitive about. And even though I’m stressed for my own sake and my own future as a parent, I’m still so, so excited to be the greatest auntie in the world to your little kiddo.”
Marty dashed away the tears that were welling in her eyes, and even as Darla lamented making her sister cry, she felt the warm support practically rolling off her sister.
“I love you so much, Darla. You know that, right? I’m so lucky to have you as a sister.”
“Same,” Darla said, leaning forward to wrap her arms around Marty. For a long, emotional moment, they held each other tight, letting their embrace speak far louder than words about the close bond between them.
When she pulled back, Darla felt more composed. She supposed she had to admit, she thought to herself ruefully, that sharing her concerns was always better than keeping them a secret.
Marty gave her a thoughtful look. “I don’t know if you’re there yet, like emotionally speaking, so tell me to shut up if I’m off base here—”
“I’m not going to tell you to shut up ,” Darla interjected with a laugh.
“—but there are other ways to have a baby. Surrogacy, IVF, adoption… You don’t have to be ready to give up on getting pregnant the old-fashioned way, obviously, but just mentioning that there are other ways. You will get to be a mom, Dar. It’s just a question of when and how. And no matter how you get there, I’m behind you one hundred percent.”
Darla squeezed her sister’s hand. “Me too. And I’m here for you too. I don’t ever want you to hide your light just because you’re worried about how I feel.”
Marty smiled. “I won’t,” she promised. “In fact, I’ll start right now, by saying that ‘hide your light’ makes you sound like a poster a guidance counselor would hang.”
Darla rolled her eyes at her sister’s teasing. “Watch it,” she warned. “We might be grown, but I’m still your big sister and I can still kick your butt if needed.”
“No, you can’t,” Marty retorted, a teasing gleam in her eye. “I’m pregnant.”
“You won’t be pregnant forever,” Darla said, shaking her finger. “And then I’ll have to show that kiddo of yours how the oldest sibling or cousin keeps the young whippersnappers like you in line.”
They had both been trying to keep up their pretend offense, but lost composure at “whippersnappers,” instead melting into helpless laughter, slumping against one another. It was a cathartic kind of laughter, and Darla felt a lot of the weight she’d been laboring under melt away. She was still worried about her fertility, of course, but that worry didn’t feel quite as impossible as it had before.
“I love you, Mar,” she said, nudging her sister’s shoulder with her own.
“I love you too. Now, let’s eat all these scones before Rick gets back so we don’t have to share.”