The Bloom Girls

by Amy Pine

  And when they finally made it to the emergency room entrance, he gingerly lowered her to the ground, still letting her use him as a crutch, his arms shaking with what she guessed was fatigue.

  “I can’t believe you carried me here,” she said, the butterflies in her belly overriding the pain in her ankle.

  “Oh, we’re Ubering home,” he said. “But just remember…For you, Freckles, I would walk five hundred miles.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips. “You are officially the worst. You know I won’t get that song out of my head for days now.” But it was the song that reminded her of their first date, which meant he knew she wasn’t mad. Not truly.

  “You’re welcome,” he said with a grin. And then they hobbled through the doors.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Matt paced back and forth in the curtained-off exam room. Alissa had been gone an hour already. How long did an X-ray take?

  “It’s already bruising,” the doctor had said in her initial greeting. “Which could indicate a fracture rather than just a bad sprain. And the fact that you can’t put any weight on it…”

  Alissa’s eyes had watered just at the possibility of it being broken. It didn’t matter that it had been nearly twenty-five years since he’d first fallen for her. Seeing her like that—scared and vulnerable—made her look sixteen again. Come to think of it, whenever he looked at her, really looked, all he saw was the teenage girl who’d stolen his heart and never truly returned it.

  With every stride back and forth across the small expanse of tiled floor, he thought about all the ways he could have behaved differently that would have had the night ending on a much better note.

  He could have drunk himself into a jealous stupor at home, for one. But he didn’t exactly have his own place yet. He wanted to get settled into the job. And truth be told, he was a forty-year-old man who didn’t want to explain to his parents why he was in said jealous stupor.

  He could have called Alissa before jumping to the conclusion that she was holding auditions for his replacement. He’d just assumed that now that there was a baby, neither of them would be engaging in un-celibate relations with others before they figured their own situation out. But perhaps this was something he should have confirmed because everyone knows what happens when you assume, and Matthew Bloom needed no assistance in painting himself as the perfect ass.

  He could have appreciated everything that had happened before showing up with a six-pack of IPAs on his ex-wife’s front porch, like his daughter calling him for some one-on-one time, like Gabi trusting him enough to admit that she wasn’t sure she’d chosen the right career path, that she wasn’t sure stability—at least at twenty-two years old—was what would make her happy.

  “I’m scared, Dad. Scared to lose Ethan. Scared that I’m—”

  “Like me?” he’d asked, about to sink his teeth into a slice of Sbarro pizza.

  “I know what you said about missing me when you were away, but I don’t have a child to worry about. When I looked through my files today, I realized the best photos captured not only the joy or sorrow or whatever emotions came through the lens but also the essence of the place they were taken. The two are, like, tied together, you know?”

  Oh, he knew the lure of a place just as much as the lure of the work that would bring him there.

  “What would you do?” he’d asked.

  She picked at the crust of her own slice of pizza. “My degree is technically in photojournalism. I guess I didn’t realize I was telling stories until I compared my photos from Europe with what I’ve been doing at the portrait studio. But if I pursued this—this longing to tell more stories—it might mean leaving Chicago.”

  “What does Ethan think?”

  Gabi had shrugged. “You’re the first person I’ve told. If you tell me it’s a mistake, that I’ll lose him like you lost Mom, then that’s the end of the discussion. I’ll go back to establishing myself here. Ethan and I will build a life together, and that will be that.”

  Matthew sighed. “Before I pass on my sage wisdom to you, can you explain why we’re having this heart-to-heart at the mall? Not that I’m opposed to a good food court slice every now and then.”

  They’d finished their pizza, and she’d led him to a storefront only a few doors down from the portrait studio. A bridal shop.

  “I should be doing this with Mom, but…”

  “You called her first, and she was on a date?”

  Gabi winced. “I don’t know if the dress is in there, but I figure that if I try one on and feel what it might be like to walk down that aisle toward Ethan, then I’ll have the answer to my own question.”

  He hadn’t been prepared for the weighty conversation—or for how choked up he’d gotten seeing his little girl in a wedding gown and her teasing him relentlessly for it.

  “You’re beautiful, Gabs. Edward is a lucky guy.”

  “Don’t you mean Esteban?” she’d asked with a tearful laugh.

  “Did you answer your own question?”

  She shook her head and then nodded. “I want both.”

  So had he.

  Maybe it hadn’t been an easy night, but it had been a good night. A great one even. He and Gabi had connected like they hadn’t before. But just as she was scared of being more like him than she’d thought, Matthew was scared that holding a torch for Alissa all these years wasn’t enough to bridge the canyon that had grown between them.

  But because he couldn’t get out of his own head, he chose drinking a six-pack on her porch. Look how well that had worked out.

  The curtain whooshed open, and there was a nurse standing behind a very smiley Alissa in a wheelchair, her right leg propped up to reveal a black walking boot.

  “Matt! Matt! I broke my first bone, and it really hurt,” she said in a singsong voice, a grin still plastered across her face.

  He laughed. “Sounds like someone sipped on the happy juice, huh?”

  The nurse—Stephanie—smiled down at Alissa and then fixed her gaze on Matthew.

  “We happen to have an orthopedic surgeon on staff tonight, so he was able to come down and reduce the fracture—to set the bones back in place. It’s a pretty painful procedure and he only had a short window open, so we gave Alissa a mild anesthetic. We monitored the baby the whole time, and she was only out for a few minutes. But it might take a bit for the effects to wear off.” She leaned over her patient and closer to Matthew, lowering her voice. “She might get a little nauseous as well, just to give you a heads-up.”

  He raised his brows. “Noted.”

  “The doctor will be in shortly to discharge you, but in the meantime you can read through the home care instructions here.” She handed Matthew a stapled stack of papers. “She should keep the foot elevated for the rest of the night. Starting tomorrow she can try bearing weight. If it hurts, she can use the crutches we’ll be sending home. If it doesn’t, it is a walking cast, so the crutches are just to be used as needed. The fracture wasn’t terrible, but she will be in the boot for at least four weeks, which means no driving, and she’ll obviously need some help at home as well. Hope you’re up for the task.”

  She shook Matthew’s hand and closed the curtain behind Alissa’s wheelchair as she left them alone.

  He thumbed through the papers, noting the over-the-counter medications she could take while pregnant, how to manage bathing with the boot on, his heart squeezing in his chest.

  He looked at her, and she smiled so sweetly at him, all doped up like she was.

  “You’re going to need live-in help, Liss,” he said.

  She beamed at him. “Are you volunteering as tribute?” She toed his shin with her unencumbered foot. “Think we’ll be better at playing house this time around?”

  He huffed out a breath. “I’ll stay over tonight. In the morning we can reassess. You may see things differently then.”

  He meant what he’d said, Proclaimers earworm or no. He would walk as many miles for her as he neede
d to show her that no matter how hard she pushed, he wasn’t going anywhere this time around.

  * * *

  Thirty minutes later, their Uber pulled up to Alissa’s house. He left Alissa in the car while he brought the crutches to the door, then went back to maneuver her out of the vehicle and back into his arms. He wasn’t having her try the crutches while still coming out of the anesthesia, and it would probably be pretty painful to try walking so soon after having the bone set.

  “I’m so sleepy,” she said, as they approached the front door, out of which protruded the key she’d likely forgotten about in the wake of the incident.

  He laughed softly and offered a silent thanks that the neighborhood was so safe.

  “I know, Freckles,” he said, turning the key and pushing the door open. “Let’s get you ready for bed.”

  He carried her straight back to her room and deposited her onto her mattress, propping pillows behind her so she could sit comfortably and piling another couple under her booted foot.

  “I need to get this skirt off and brush my teeth,” she said, wincing as she adjusted her position.

  “Is the happy juice wearing off?” he asked.

  She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah. Seems like it is.”

  “How about I get your toothbrush and a bowl for you to spit in, and we’ll do everything right from the bed?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Okay. That sounds good.” Then she tried wriggling out of her skirt, letting out a soft whimper as she accidentally put weight on her heels in an attempt to pull the waistband over her butt.

  “Hey,” Matthew said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Let me help.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, but then her shoulders slumped. “I don’t have it in me to argue with you about seeing me in my underwear when really you’ve seen everything so…Fine. Let’s do this.”

  He did as she asked, behaving like the perfect gentleman, pausing only to kiss her cast as he carefully lifted her leg to slide it through the skirt.

  “I’m so sorry about tonight,” he said, rolling the skirt into a ball and setting it on the foot of the bed. “Not my finest hour.”

  She smiled softly. “It wasn’t,” she agreed. “But I have a tiny confession.”

  His brows raised. “What’s that?”

  “The only reason I let Becca set me up with Chris was because I was—I was hurt when you mentioned living arrangements and custody at the ultrasound. It’s stupid because I know this baby doesn’t mean that we’re suddenly going to fix us after twenty years, and I also know I’m the one who said that we need to take a step back from the physical part of our relationship because it’s blurring the lines, but I guess I wasn’t prepared for you to step so far back that we were suddenly nothing more than co-parents, you know?”

  He perched himself next to her again, tucking a few curls behind her ear.

  “I’m just trying to do this right, Liss. I’m trying to put you first. To put us first. But we need to be partners in this, to stop with the push and the pull.” He sighed. “How about we get those teeth brushed and get you situated? Then I’ll clean up the bottles from outside and grab your crutches and abandoned shoes and then set myself up on the couch. Maybe I can take a quick shower too? I’m feeling a little ripe.” He let out a shaky breath, relief washing over him. The date hadn’t been her idea. He’d let his fear push her into it just like she’d let hers push him away.

  They certainly were a pair.

  She nodded, so he got her set up with the necessary dental hygiene materials and did as he promised. When he was clean—yet back in his old clothes—and done straightening everything up, he popped his head back in her room.

  “Where do you keep the extra blankets?” he asked.

  She took a deep breath and let it out. “Matt?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m scared,” she said. “About the pregnancy and the wedding and now this. How am I going to be there for Gabi like I’m supposed to be? How am I going to keep the bakery going without putting too much on Sadie’s shoulders, and design a wedding cake, and integrate these new people into our lives all while trying to figure out becoming a mother again?” She sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m sorry. That was a lot of word vomit. It’s all just—a lot, you know?”

  “Tell me how to help, Liss. Tell me what I can do to make this easier.” Words he should have said so many years ago but had been too self-absorbed, too naive to realize what really mattered in the long run.

  “Will you stay with me tonight?” she asked. “Not, like, you know. Not stay with me. But…Will you?”

  He crossed the threshold of the bedroom door, the action alone his answer.

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “I can keep my clothes on.”

  She bit her lip. “I’m sure. And sleep however you’re comfortable. It’s not like I’m the picture of modesty right now.”

  “Okay,” he said. “But first…” He produced the small Baby Gap bag from where he’d been hiding it behind his back. “I’ve been wanting to give this to you.”

  He sat down next to her on the side of the bed and handed over the bag.

  “I thought you said you had a gift for me,” she teased. “But I don’t fit into anything at Baby Gap.”

  He laughed. “Just open it.”

  She pulled out the soft green puppy dog lovie and sucked in a sharp breath, a tear dripping quickly down her cheek.

  “I was a dumb kid who didn’t have the words back then to thank you for all you went through keeping yourself and Gabi safe and healthy while you were pregnant—not to mention everything you did after she was born. Let me keep you and the baby safe for a while, okay?”

  He pressed his lips against her forehead as she nodded.

  Then he stood and pulled his shirt over his head and lowered his jeans to the floor, stepping out of them with ease so all that was left were his boxer briefs.

  He crawled in bed beside her, careful not to jostle her elevated foot, but she gasped.

  “Sorry!” he said. “I tried to be careful.” But she was shaking her head.

  “No. It’s not my ankle. I was going to call you when I got home tonight, but then…Well…Anyway. It’s really early, so you probably won’t notice anything, but I felt the baby tonight, Matt. In the car after my—after I was leaving the restaurant.”

  His heart leapt. “Are you serious?”

  She nodded, a grin spreading across her face. Then she wrapped a hand around his wrist and brought it to her belly.

  She gasped again. “Did you feel it?” she asked. “That was it. That was our baby!”

  She was right. He couldn’t detect any sort of motion inside her. But inside his own body, in a particular area of his chest, something shifted. And that he felt.

  “That was our baby,” he said, echoing her words.

  He wasn’t sure how long they lay like that, his hand on her stomach and her hand atop his. But he could have stayed like that for hours if she’d let him.

  Finally, she let go and pushed herself up on her elbows, pressing a soft kiss against his lips.

  “What was that for?” he asked, chest tight.

  “For taking care of me like no one else could have tonight.”

  He winked at her. “I told you, Freckles. Five hundred miles.”

  She groaned. “I truly hate you for that.”

  He laughed. “No you don’t.”

  “No,” she admitted. “I don’t.”

  And then she pulled him to her, kissing him until somehow they both fell asleep.

  Chapter Twenty

  Gabi rolled over to find the pillow next to her empty and a warm imprint in the sheets where Ethan’s body used to be. His blackout shades made it impossible to know whether it was morning yet or middle of the night, but the faint sound of water hitting tile in the bathroom just across the hall hinted at the former.

  She checked her phone on the nightstand and saw that it was, in fact, morning—but 6:00 a.m. was quite the ungodly h
our, especially when she didn’t have anywhere to be until well after sunup.

  Her eyes adjusted, and she groaned, noting the reason she was awake at such an ungodly hour—her phone blowing up with texts.

  Sorry I missed your call the other night. I was at Dylan’s. I still am and yes I know it’s Wednesday but I finally had a minute alone and I MISS YOU.

  Are you up yet? Dylan does this early-morning hot yoga thing and invited me along, but I was like I am SO not getting up for that, but now I’m wide awake and figured I’d check in.

  Are you sleeping or ignoring me?

  Oooh, or ghosting me?

  You realize you can’t ghost a best friend, right? I know where to find you.

  Gabi laughed and began texting back.

  Must. Meet. Dylan. PLEASE?

  Then she remembered her plan for the evening and how much she wanted Miriam to be a part of it.

  Also, YOU must meet us at my mom’s tonight for wedding cake tasting. 7:00. Forks will be provided.

  Three dots appeared immediately.

  You had me at cake.

  As soon as she set the phone back on the nightstand, Ethan’s bedroom door creaked open and a sliver of light illuminated the silhouette of his body, bare all the way to his hips where a towel was tucked snug against his wet skin. His lean, muscled, wet skin.

  She’d fallen asleep before he and T.J. had gotten home Saturday night, and Sunday night when Gabi’s mom had canceled movie night so she could work on the sample cakes, Ethan offered to be a stand-in—as had T.J.

  “We could do a Star Wars marathon,” T.J. had said. “Or Marvel. Or pretty much anything on Disney Plus.”

  And because it was T.J. and Ethan’s place, she’d let the two men make the call. As long as there was popcorn, she didn’t care.

  So, Star Wars it was.

  Then it was back to conflicting schedules—Ethan up and out of the condo before Gabi was awake and Gabi working Monday and Tuesday night so she could have tonight off.

  Which meant she and Ethan hadn’t had the talk. And right now when she saw the best part of her life half naked in the glow of artificial light, she really didn’t want either of them to use their mouths for talking just yet.