Blueberry Hill, #1

by Cynthia Luhrs

  Chapter 11

  Evan pulled into the driveway, sat in the car, engine idling, and looked at the house, proud he’d been able to provide for his wife. Right now she was waiting inside for her olives and chocolate ice cream, a snack before dinner.

  How she could stand to put olives on ice cream baffled him. Pregnancy did strange things to his wife, from cravings to mood swings, to an obsession with how her body was changing.

  He idly ran a hand over the leather seat as he looked at the windows, watching her shadow move past the curtains. Emily always looked beautiful to him, even more so now that she was carrying their child. Women gained weight during pregnancy, so why did they act like it was a surprise?

  If he sat in the car much longer, the ice cream would melt, and she’d have a meltdown.

  He pulled the car into the garage and trudged inside, dropping his keys in the wood bowl on the table next to the door.

  “I’m home.”

  Evan put the ice cream in the freezer and left the olives out on the counter, knowing she’d want them. He loosened his tie on the way upstairs to change clothes.

  Exhausted from the day, he took a long shower, letting the hot water work the kinks out of his shoulders.

  By the time he’d dressed and gone back downstairs, Emily was sitting on the sofa eating her ice cream and olives.

  “I don’t know how you can eat that. The inventor of ice cream is probably turning over in his tomb.”

  Evan leaned down and kissed her.

  “I get olives and cheese, or even olives on pizza, but on ice cream?”

  “It’s delicious.”

  Emily looked pale today.

  “I know it sounds disgusting, but it’s what I had to have. Nothing else sounds good right now.”

  “Pregnancy is bizarre.” Evan shook his head. “I’m saying this out of love, not criticism… you look tired. Why don’t you take a nap and I’ll grill chicken for dinner?”

  She ate the last bite of ice cream, scraping the bowl with the spoon.

  “The thought of chicken makes my stomach hurt. It tastes squishy and rubbery to me.”

  His wife rubbed her hands up and down the fuzzy pants she’d taken to wearing. It was in the low seventies this week, but she’d been chilly ever since she’d gotten pregnant. Evan wouldn’t need a pregnancy test to tell him next time, he’d just pay attention to when she started wearing fleece pants in the summer.

  Evan made a motion in the air. “No chicken. Check.”

  There had to be something she would eat.

  “What are you in the mood for? Say the word and I’ll cook whatever you’re craving.”

  Worn out from the constant speculation at the office as to who would be next to find themselves without a job, Evan needed to cook. Cooking would take his mind off work, even if it was just for a little while.

  She stretched out on the sofa, pulling a blanket up to her chin.

  “How about pizza? With pineapple on top.”

  Evan refrained from gagging.

  “I’ll order it now.”

  He brushed the hair from her forehead and kissed her again.

  “Take a nap. I’ll wake you when your disgusting pizza gets here.”

  He ordered a medium for her, and for him, a sausage and pepperoni pizza. The thought of pineapple on pizza made him want to run screaming into the night.

  While he waited for the pizza, Evan went upstairs to look at the room that would be the nursery. Right now, it was an empty blank canvas.

  After what happened last time, Emily wanted to wait until she’d passed the three-month mark before even thinking about decorating the baby’s room.

  He answered work emails and finished a presentation for his boss that was due in a few days. When the pizza arrived, Evan took a plate to Emily, only to find her up and about, the color back in her cheeks.

  “Thanks for letting me sleep. I’ve been so tired lately.”

  She sniffed the air.

  “I’m so hungry I could eat the entire pizza.”

  She stopped at the island in the kitchen, blinking at him.

  “You set the table.”

  “I knew you were tired.”

  Emily went up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around him. He pulled her close, holding her tight.

  “There’s more ice cream and olives for dessert.”

  “You are a saint.”

  When they’d finished dinner, Evan cleaned up and poured himself a glass of wine. Emily was curled up on the sofa, reading a book. She went to a weekly book club, though Evan thought it was merely an excuse for them to drink and talk about their husbands.

  She closed the book with a snap.

  “How was work? Any word about the next round of layoffs?” Emily sipped the ginger ale he’d brought her, her full attention focused on him.

  At the mention of work, the tension was back in his shoulders.

  “I wasn’t impacted during this round.”

  He paused, worried if he voiced his concerns, they might come true.

  “What is it?” She pulled him down next to her on the sofa.

  “Right now, it’s nothing more than rumor. I heard Stan is up for a promotion. If he gets it, he said I’ll get the promotion to Vice President.”

  “That’s great. You’ve been working so hard, you deserve it.”

  Evan winced.

  “I’m going to be working even longer days.”

  “What? Why? I thought the days would get shorter as you moved up the ladder, not longer?”

  “They will eventually. But right now, upper management needs to see me as a team player. As someone who works hard to benefit the company. I can’t look like I’m slacking off during a reorganization.”

  “You already work long days and then you come home and stay up half the night working.”

  Emily shook her head.

  “Once the restructuring is finished, and you get promoted, will you work less?”

  Not wanting to lie to her, Evan shook his head.

  “I hope so, but I won’t know until I find out where I’m going to land in the organization. Don’t worry, by the time the baby comes in March, this will all be over.”

  She snorted.

  “It better be, I’m not interested in being a single mom.” His wife threw the blanket off.

  “My mom and my stepdad are traveling all the time, so I can’t count on them. Mom said they have four cruises planned, but she’d try to be in town when I have the baby.”

  She arched a brow at him.

  “I want our family to live close to us so our baby will grow up with extended family in the same city.”

  Evan took her hand. “You know that’s a luxury most people don’t have.”

  She narrowed her eyes.

  “I want our baby to grow up with at least one grandparent nearby, and ideally I’d like our child to grow up close to his or her aunt and uncles.”

  A look crossed her face, one that Evan knew meant trouble.

  “I want to move.”

  “What?”

  She couldn’t have shocked him more if she’d told him pigs could fly.

  “Move where? I thought you loved this house, the neighborhood, and our friends?”

  “You listen to me, Evan Singleton. You’re the one who wanted the big statement house, not me.”

  She poked him in the shoulder.

  “I know my mom won’t be around much, but your mom will. She loves kids, and she’ll be a wonderful grandmother.”

  He swallowed.

  “Let me get this straight. You want to move to some hick town in the mountains of North Carolina? All the way across the country?”

  How she managed to look down her nose at him when he was six inches taller than her always amazed him.

  “I do.”

  “There aren’t any job prospects for me there,” he spluttered.

  “Really? How do you know? Have you looked?”

  He took three deep breaths.

>   “I’m going to get promoted to Vice President. It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

  Emily snorted.

  “So what? If we never see you, who cares what your title is or how much money you make?” She frowned at him. “When is it enough?”

  Evan decided right then and there that he didn’t like his wife when she was pregnant. Sure he loved her, but right now he didn’t like her very much.

  “When is what enough?”

  She huffed out a breath. “The money. We have plenty of money, our retirement account is funded. Why do you need more?”

  Evan threw his hands up.

  “If you have to ask me that, you don’t understand me at all. It’s important for me to get ahead, to make a good living, to leave money for our children when we’re gone.”

  “Children need love, a parent who will attend their games and school events, not a dad who works all the time and is too tired to spend time with them on the weekends.”

  He had to leave the room before they got into a shouting match.

  “Children need financial security, as you well know.”

  “I may have grown up at the bottom of the middle class, but at least my parents were around. They never missed a school play or dance recital. Or a birthday.”

  Evan paused at the stairs to the basement where he’d set up a home gym. A few hours on the treadmill and the weights would clear his head. Temper getting the best of him, Evan turned and lobbed a parting shot.

  “Your mom isn’t around much now, is she? She’s always off on another trip with her new husband. I bet we don’t even see her after you have the baby.”

  He rolled his eyes. “If she even shows up for the birth, I’ll be amazed. Just because we have family nearby doesn’t mean we’ll see them. Look at your mom. She’s never around.”

  The book hit the wall beside his head as Emily stomped up the stairs, muttering under her breath.

  Chapter 12

  Why did dating have to be so difficult?

  Christina forced herself to go on several dates after seeing Enrique tagged in posts with various models and B list actresses.

  Even though she’d tried, the entire process was utterly demoralizing. The first guy spent the entire date telling her about some app he was sure would make him a billionaire. The funny thing? He claimed an emergency call when she could see his phone screen was blank, and then stuck her with the check.

  The next guy believed money was evil, that people should live and share everything in a commune type setting, and that no one should have to work. In other words, he was unemployed and flat broke, and wanted the government, or a woman to support him.

  And the third date… it wasn’t awful. The guy was pleasant, but they just didn’t click. Christina tried to picture them dating a year from now and failed miserably.

  Against her better judgement, she’d listened to her friends and signed up for several dating services. How on earth did women deal with all the creeps?

  Anyone who stayed active on a dating site either had a strong desire to marry and weed through the losers, or was so used to the awfulness, that she didn’t realize how toxic the sites had become.

  In the first week, Christina received twenty totally inappropriate indecent proposals, seventy-five unsolicited dick pics… what was with men? Did they actually think women wanted to see their dangly bits? It’s not like the male anatomy was that attractive. She didn’t get it.

  And of course there were the men who only wanted to hook up, and then called her ugly names when she declined. There were the married men who were only looking to have a bit of fun on the side, and there were the men who pestered her to send nude pictures. Yuck. And double yuck.

  Online dating was so not for her. Christina deleted her profiles and decided to go the old-fashioned route. What she really needed was a matchmaker. Maybe her mom’s friend Patty could help?

  “Excuse me, ma’am?”

  Tara pulled out her earbuds and turned to face the kid.

  “Sorry, what?”

  He wiped his forehead with the hem of his tee shirt.

  “The island and the countertops are in, if you want to come see them.”

  She hopped up from the chair on the patio to follow him inside. With all the activity inside the house, the month of July had flown by and vanished into the mist of time.

  Tara and Ally had taken to spending their days outside while the renovations were in full swing. A group of kids from the vocational high school were taking a summer class and working alongside the various tradespeople. They sure had a lot of energy.

  As she walked into the kitchen, Ally turned to her.

  “Look at those counters.”

  Tara couldn’t believe the difference. In place of the old dated kitchen was a beautiful farmhouse kitchen with chrome fixtures, quartz countertops, a large island with a second sink, and robin’s egg blue appliances. They’d found a company who specialized in retro-looking appliances in a plethora of colors.

  “It’s even prettier than I imagined.”

  After going back and forth, Tara had decided to paint the existing cabinets white, and they’d left the wide plank floors as is. It was amazing what they’d accomplished in the past month.

  The new laundry room was finished as well. It was a bright cheery space, overlooking what would soon be a garden. They’d gone with a huge floral wallpaper on one wall, and painted the rest of the walls bright coral.

  There were shelves for detergent, and a laundry line they could stretch across the room as needed. The laundry sink was deep with a window above it. The door was glass with the word Laundry stenciled across it in an old-fashioned script.

  There had been three teams of workers, one for the kitchen, one for the laundry room, and one for the new bathroom. The bathroom was done in black and white with patterned tiles on the floor. Her daughter had picked everything out herself.

  “One more month until we have peace and quiet again.” Ally flopped down into one of the patio chairs.

  “The other bathroom remodel and then the attic space.” Tara tilted her head up to the sun.

  “I’m so glad it will be done by the time Evan and Christina arrive.”

  Ally rubbed her shoulder. “I’m going to sit here for an hour, then I’m going to check on the goats.”

  “That was a clever idea to bring them out to eat all the kudzu.”

  Tara loved having them around. “They’re awfully cute.”

  “They’d be even cuter wearing sweaters in the snow.”

  That was a look Tara recognized. Guess she’d better prepare for Ally to come home with goats one day.

  Christina enjoyed having lunch with Patty. Her mom’s friend was so funny, and she didn’t treat her like a kid, but talked to her as an adult.

  While she didn’t know anyone that Christina might be interested in dating, she’d given her excellent advice. Things her mom had told her, but somehow the words coming from her mom hadn’t had the same impact.

  Patty told her she needed to find someone who loved her as much as he loved himself. That guys who were rude to waitstaff and others wouldn’t make good boyfriends. And to find out their relationship with their parents and siblings. The way a man treated his mom would tell her a great deal about how he would treat her.

  As they were leaving the restaurant, Christina turned to Patty.

  “Could I catch a ride with you? I got a flat tire on the way over and my car won’t be ready to pick up for another hour. They said I needed new tires so I guess it’s good I got a nail in the tire or who knows when I would have figured it out.”

  Patty smiled at her.

  “I’d love to, but I don’t have a car.”

  Christina blinked at her. The bright yellow Hummer was parked in the lot, she could see it from where they stood.

  She pointed. “Isn’t that your car? I remember when you bought it. You came and took mom for a drive. We called it the banana car.”

  Patty looked at the car
and shook her head.

  “It’s really bright. No, that isn’t my car.”

  Patty race walked across the sidewalk, forcing Christina to jog to keep up with her.

  What on earth was going on?

  “I’m going to sit down on that bench. We can call for a ride.”

  As her mom’s best friend sat on the bench made from recycled Tervis tumblers, Christina felt cold all over. She shivered as she walked away from the bench so Patty wouldn’t overhear, and called Ben, one of Patty’s sons.

  “Ben. It’s Christina.”

  She shoved down the worry.

  “I was having lunch with your mom. She, that is, I asked her for a ride to pick up my car, but she said she doesn’t have a car.”

  Christina swallowed.

  “I can see the yellow Hummer in the parking lot. That is her car, right?”

  Ben laughed.

  “It is, she probably forgot.”

  Christina frowned at the phone.

  “Don’t worry about it. There’s been a few incidents like that, but dad said it’s because she’s going through ‘the change’, and is forgetful. It will pass, it’s nothing to worry about.”

  There was a pause, and he said, “give her a few minutes. She’ll remember.”

  As she hung up the phone, Christina looked up to see Patty striding over to her, keys in hand.

  “Let’s go. I’ll drop you at the car place, and then I’m off to get my hair colored.”

  Instead of saying anything about what had just happened, Christina plastered a smile on her face and climbed into the vehicle. Tonight, she’d call her mom to ask her about Patty. She shivered, hoping her mom wasn’t going through the same thing.

  The vacant look in Patty’s eyes when she’d asked her for a ride made Christina want to turn back time to when she was a little kid whose biggest worry was if Santa would bring her what she wanted for Christmas.

  Chapter 13

  The next day Tara dressed in shorts and a tee shirt. She slathered on sunscreen, grabbed her hat and sunglasses, and went outside to wait.