“Oh my God,” Elsa squealed. “While I should say I’m sorry, I’m not. I’m terribly selfish and so excited.” She looked up and saw Beth standing in the doorway. “Come in, sweetheart. I’m on the phone with Deanna and guess what?” Her mother rose from her seat and danced around the living room. “I’m going to be a grandmother.”
Times two.
Beth tried to put on a smile and act excited, but her body shook more like she was having a seizure than celebrating the news.
She managed to say, “Congratulations,” before she mimicked an off with your head motion to her neck. “Mother, I need to talk to you.”
Elsa sighed, “Deanna, I have to go. Beth needs her mommy,” she said with no lack of sarcasm, “but I’ll talk to you soon.” She giggled. “I can’t wait to start shopping. What do you think of yellow and green for the nursery?”
“Mom.” Beth’s eyes hurt from the strain of the dagger-like glares she sent her mother’s way. “Now.” For extra effect, she thumped her foot against the floor, but it was all for naught because the carpet ate up the sound effect she was after. She looked around the room, which was wall-to-wall bookshelves, just like in the library her mother ran like a drill sergeant. She knew on closer inspection she’d find each book labeled with the same Dewey Decimal System her mother used as a librarian. If her mother was nothing else, she was always in control.
Elsa said goodbye and hung up. “What is wrong with you? Is it that time of the month? Because honestly, Beth, you’ve been off for weeks.”
Her whole body vibrated with rage. She was certain her head was about to spin like the girl in The Exorcist. She’d already been vomiting whatever color of food she ate, so no need for the green pea soup.
“No, Mom. I’m not on my period and do you know why?”
Her mother cocked her head to the side and opened her mouth to speak, but Beth held up her hand.
“Zip it.” She’d never been that bold with her mother. No one ever dared to challenge the great Elsa Buchanan. “It’s because I missed my period. Do you know why that happened?” Her voice pitched close to hysteria. “Because you got me pregnant.”
The look on her mother’s face was similar to someone smelling something foul. “How did I get you pregnant?”
Beth tapped her foot on the carpet and waited for it to click with her mother.
When Elsa’s hand covered her wide-opened mouth, she knew her mother finally understood. There was a minute where her mother’s expression tilted toward concern or maybe shock, but the mask of calm immediately went up, and her mother was back to her normal steadfast self. “I didn’t get you pregnant. You’re the one who slept with whoever the father is.” Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Who is the father?”
“None of your business.” Beth rushed forward. At five-foot-six-inches tall, she stood eye to eye with her mother. “I can’t believe you did that.” She raised her hands in the air. “What mother does that?”
“A mother who wants grandchildren.” She smiled. “It looks like I’m getting a two for one deal.” She tapped her chin. “If Deanna chooses green and yellow, what color do you want?”
“Geez, Mother. Are you listening to yourself? I’m pregnant and single.”
Her mother waved her hand in the air. “I raised two children on my own, certainly you could raise one.”
Beth let out a scream that shook the windows. “You had a choice. I didn’t.” She fisted her hands and pressed them to her sides so she didn’t reach out and choke her mother. “I bet you poked holes in the condoms to have us.”
Elsa rocked her head back and forth. “Only for Merrick.” She smiled smugly. “You were an immaculate conception.”
“Which means you don’t know who my father is. Why don’t I know his name?”
“Because you didn’t need him. You had me, and I was enough.”
Beth raised her hands and gripped the roots of her hair. “But what if you weren’t?”
“Stop being so dramatic. My point is that you’re over thirty, and quite honestly, it’s probably the right time for you to have a child. You can thank me later.”
“Listen to yourself. Your habit of meddling in our lives just created two babies that weren’t planned.”
“I’ll help you.”
Beth shook her head. “Haven’t you done enough? I don’t need a damn nursery in green and yellow. I need you to stay out of my life.”
Her mother stood tall and gave that be-quiet-in-the-library look. “That will be hard with you living in the apartment downstairs.”
Beth placed her hand over her stomach. “I’ll be out by next week.”
“What do you mean?” The same look of fear that happened when Merrick got shot crossed her mother’s face. She knew she was at risk of losing another child, but this time, the choice was Beth’s and not some criminal with a handgun.
“I’m moving to Aspen Cove.” She turned and walked to the door.
“What will you do there? There’s nothing in that little town.”
Beth whipped around to face her mother. “Not true, there’s my brother and the father of my child.”
“You think whoever he is will want to help you raise a baby? Let me tell you, one-night stands aren’t interested in wives or children.”
“You would know, wouldn’t you?”
Her mother stumbled back as if pushed.
“Don’t you think your brother has enough going on that he doesn’t need another pregnant woman to care for?”
Mom was really hitting below the belt, and hurting Beth must have been a last-ditch effort.
“If you ever want to talk to me again, you’ll stop interfering in my life, and that means you don’t say a word to anyone about my baby. I get to decide when to tell and who to tell.” She touched her stomach again. My baby. That was exactly what this situation would turn into, her and a baby. Men like Gray Stratton weren’t relationship material. They worked hard and played hard. Dozens of women lined up each evening to experience a single night with the musicians from Indigo. Who didn’t have “bag a rock star” on their bucket list?
She had to give it to him. He sure made a lasting impression.
“Not a single word, Mother.” She turned and walked away. She’d always told herself she wanted to be strong and independent like her mom. Maybe she should have been clearer when she put that wish into the universe. She was exactly like her mother—single and soon to be raising a child on her own. She knew she needed to tell Gray. It was only fair to let him know that he helped bring a life into this world. The question was, how would she break the news?
Thank you for reading.
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About the Author
International bestselling author of more than thirty novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.
Kelly lives in Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains with her husband of twenty-seven years, their two dogs, and a bird that hates her. She has three amazing children, whom she loves to pieces.
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One Hundred Mistakes: An Aspen Cove Romance Book 16 Page 16