Mother Load

by KG MacGregor

  “It usually is, but when these bashful babies turn away from us, I like to go in for another look so I can see from the top down.”

  Her reasoning did little to assuage Lily’s concern, since Beth had said a sonogram wasn’t absolutely necessary in the first place. Now all of a sudden it was imperative she have another in only three weeks.

  A knock sounded and Seon-Lee leaned into the room with a sheet of paper. Beth looked it over and grinned wryly. “From the looks of your blood results, I’d say Thanksgiving looks like a good time to share your little secret with the family.” With her characteristic broad smile, she congratulated them one last time and left the examination room.

  Lily stared numbly at the closed door. Even with Beth’s promise they were safe to tell their family and friends, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss.

  Piece by piece, Anna held out her clothes so she could get dressed. There was nothing about her look that suggested concern.

  “Did you get the feeling there was something Beth wasn’t telling us?” Lily asked as she wriggled into her skirt.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like she kept…I don’t know, not finishing her sentences or something. I don’t get the big deal about the baby turning and having to see the top of its head. I think there’s something wrong.”

  “If she was worried about something, would she have said it was okay to tell people?” Anna gripped her shoulders firmly. “Would she be printing off pictures of our baby to send to our friends on a Christmas card? I don’t think so.”

  Lily let out a deep sigh as Anna drew her into a hug. She resisted at first, almost refusing to be mollified. But as she let herself relax, the moment took on the familiar feel of countless others they had shared when sadness and doubt had consumed her—the day her mother died, the night she came to the house to make amends for her problems with alcohol, and all the weeks she ached to bring Andy into their home. Each time Anna had reached out to give her strength.

  And she always made everything okay.

  Anna loved the way her sporty Z8 turned heads, even on the lot at Premier Volkswagen, where her staff had seen it hundreds of times. If it was possible to fall in love with a car—and as far as she was concerned, it was—the Z8 was a machine that could steal your heart. Only a few thousand of the concept cars existed, produced almost a decade ago over a three-year span to celebrate the 507, BMW’s classic roadster. She almost hated taking it out on rainy days like this one, but the detailers back at her BMW lot would clean it up the minute she returned.

  The very idea of giving up her Z8 for a sedan was laughable. Auto collectors had offered her up to three hundred thousand dollars for this vintage vehicle, but she wouldn’t bite. At least they understood its worth. To Lily, it was just a car to go from Point A to B, but to Anna it was the pinnacle of both design and performance in automation. If they had room for a third car in the garage, she would gladly pick up another, something that would hold a car seat for the baby and a booster seat for Andy. Though he no longer required a booster according to California law, he still liked using one whenever he was relegated to the backseat so he could see out the windows without straining. He wasn’t the sort of child who busied himself with toys or games in the car. He wanted to watch the traffic so he could see what others were driving. Anna understood that perfectly because she had been the same way as a child.

  She pulled into her usual space next to her father’s Imperial Blue 760Li sedan and turned off the engine, making no move to climb out into the rain. The events of the morning had taken a toll and she needed a moment to regroup. Beth’s request that Lily return for a second sonogram had scared her half to death, but when she saw how frightened Lily was she had tamped down her own fears and gathered herself. Lily seemed to feed off her reaction to things, and staying calm would go a long way toward keeping her worries at bay. Once they parted in the parking garage Anna dropped the façade and mentally ticked off the things that had set her on edge—Beth’s puzzled demeanor as she fumbled to find their baby’s heartbeat, her apparent surprise at the size and shape of the image they were seeing, and the way she seemed to hesitate when they asked questions. None of it added up to panic, especially since she had given them the go-ahead to share the news of their pregnancy, but something was…what word had she used…hinky.

  The rain let up for several seconds and she made a mad dash to the back door of the showroom, unable to avoid splashing through a large puddle that had gathered directly behind her car. With soggy feet, she carefully crossed the tile floor of the showroom, where Marco Gonzalez, her VW sales manager, had arranged their flashiest lineup—the CC, which was Volkswagen’s largest sedan, the Beetle convertible, the SUV Taureg, and…a minivan?

  “Hey, Anna.” Marco greeted her with a broad smile. With his short dark hair and brown eyes, he cut a handsome figure in his starched white shirt and striped BMW tie. He set the perfect example of professionalism for his sales staff with his appearance, expertise and friendly manner, and Anna often imagined Andy would develop that same look when he got older. Marco was only thirty-four years old, but he had grown quickly into his job soon after Anna acquired the dealership and ushered the rude, lazy Tommy Russell out the door. She had been impressed with Marco’s enthusiasm and passion for cars, and especially by his hunger to learn everything he could about the car business. For the past three years he had matured under her father’s tutelage, and now it was time to move him up.

  “Marco, what’s this?” she asked, gesturing toward a white Routan, Volkswagen’s seven-passenger minivan. “Since when do we park minivans in the showroom?”

  “Since this is the vehicle more people want to see and they don’t want to get wet looking at it.”

  “People are buying these?” She poked her head in through the open side door and looked around. “You could carry a whole soccer team in here.”

  “That’s the idea. Families like them because the kids can spread out. Look.” He pressed a button on the rear console and a screen lowered just behind the front seats. “Just load a favorite movie right here and all the kicking and whining stops. My wife and I are thinking about getting one too.”

  “Why? You only have two kids. You could go anywhere in the CC, or you could get one of the SUVs. You like driving too much to get a minivan. They’re so…pedestrian.” Which was another way of saying she would rather walk.

  “Maybe, but to quote Lourdes, ‘Not everything is about me,’” he said with a laugh. “She likes the idea of giving the kids their own space so they won’t be picking at each other all the time. Plus, she can carpool two more kids, which means she won’t have to drive as often. I’m sold on it. We’re just waiting for a red one with all the features we want.”

  Anna shook her head. Marco was a great salesman, one of her best, but she wasn’t buying his pitch. Who could possibly get a kick out of driving a box over the freeways of Southern California? “I need to talk something over with Dad, and then I’d like for the three of us to go to lunch. Can you do that?”

  “You’re the boss, Anna. I can do whatever you need.”

  She wound through the hallways to her father’s small windowless office in the back, where he sat with his feet up, a phone pinched under his chin. He held up a finger and motioned for her to have a seat. She did, and kicked off her wet shoes. Her father’s help in stabilizing the Volkswagen dealership had been invaluable, especially since she had fired most of the management within days of the acquisition. It was clear he enjoyed getting back to the nuts and bolts of running a business, and that he wasn’t at all cut out for retirement. However, he was getting much more out of his leisure time now that he had grandchildren to occupy his afternoons and weekends away from the office.

  He dropped the receiver in its cradle and scowled at the phone. “No, I don’t want to take advantage of your slash in wholesale prices. I get ten calls a day like that.”

  “Me too. Half the used car dealers in town are liquid
ating their inventories. I’d be happy to cherry-pick two or three a week, but I don’t need their junk.”

  “So what brings you over to the poor side of the tracks?”

  She chuckled at his choice of words, as there was hardly such a thing as poor in Beverly Hills. “I’ve been hearing rumors that my ops manager’s been cutting out early. Thought I’d come check it out.”

  “Bunch of tattletales. I tell you, you can’t trust anyone these days.”

  “So while you run off to play with the other little boys, Marco has to cover for you. I might as well make him the ops manager.”

  “He’s as capable as anyone. Does this mean you’re firing me?”

  “Yeah, I think I am.” Her tone was unmistakably tongue-in-cheek. “Fact is, I need you back on the BMW lot next week to start teaching Holly Ganesh how to run the business. I want to move her up in two or three years and she needs to know all the things you’ve taught Marco.”

  Her father stood and puffed out his chest righteously, as if playing hard-to-get. “And what if my attention is needed elsewhere…say, about three o’clock on weekday afternoons?” Clearly, he didn’t want to give up his newfound pleasure of playing with Jonah and Andy on those days Martine picked them up after school.

  “Hard to say. Sometimes our afternoons get so busy people might not even notice if you slip out.” She plucked a mint from the candy jar on his desk. “Seriously, Dad, we might need a few more hands on deck for a while now that we’re down to a skeleton crew. If you could take over the ad management for the used cars—”

  “I’ll do anything but go to the Chamber of Commerce meetings. They put me on committees and make me work.”

  She tossed her candy wrapper at him but he batted it away. “I can’t believe you won’t go even when your own daughter is president. But that’s all right. I don’t want your sour disposition out there representing us anyway.”

  “Now you’re talking. When do I start?”

  “How about the Monday after we all get back from Tahoe?”

  “So we finally get to have Thanksgiving together in Tahoe again and there’s no snow. How’s that for irony?”

  They hadn’t gone together as a family since the year before she and Lily had become a couple, when Kim and Hal’s friend had briefly derailed their budding romance with an unwelcome kiss that Lily had misunderstood. “We have kids to keep us busy now. Are you and Mom still planning to drive up on Sunday morning?”

  “You know Martine. She wants to be sure the refrigerator is stocked when everyone else arrives. God forbid anyone should go hungry.” He patted his stomach with both hands, and Anna noticed a slight paunch on her usually trim father. That certainly jibed with Andy’s report that he ate cookies and ice cream nearly every day he visited with his grandpa.

  “No one stuffs a turkey like Mom. It’ll be fun having everyone under one roof for a few days.” Now that they had the go-ahead from Beth to share their good news, she was sure it would be a holiday to remember, especially for her father. “I think we should make Tahoe an annual tradition, something the kids can look back on and feel nostalgic about…like when we used to sail to Catalina.”

  Her reference drew a wistful smile across her father’s lined face. She had only vague memories of the three of them as a family, but one vivid recollection was sailing on their cabin cruiser, which her father had sold upon her mother’s death. He hadn’t sailed since, not even with Hal, who had clung to his beloved boat until the month before Jonah was born.

  “I’ve been a very lucky man,” he said softly. “I married out of my league twice, and thanks to both of my wives, I have two of the most wonderful daughters any man could want. They brought me another son and daughter, and three healthy grandchildren to make sure I never get old. I’d love to make Tahoe a Thanksgiving tradition, but I’d be lying if I said I was doing it for the children.”

  “I know what you mean. I’ve been worried sick this past year about the dealerships going down the tubes, but then I’d spend a few hours with Lily and Andy and realize as long as I have them I’ll be all right, no matter what happens at work. Having everyone together in Tahoe will make a nice celebration.”

  He nodded silently as if his head were a million miles away, and then abruptly slapped his desk and rubbed his hands together. “So let’s go tell Marco the good news. The Old Man is finally getting out of his way.” He hooked her hand to his elbow and led her up the hallway to the showroom. “By the way, did you see the new Routan? You should rent one of these when you fly into Reno. It’ll hold seven, you know.”

  Anna almost stopped in her tracks. If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn it was a conspiracy.

  Chapter 5

  Lily locked her cruise control onto seventy and settled back into the sturdy leather seat of her X3. As she switched lanes on Interstate 5, the bump beneath her wheels jostled Kim awake in the passenger seat, and she shook her head as if fighting off the urge to doze.

  “I don’t mind if you want to catch some Zs. Looks like your daughter is,” Lily said, motioning over her shoulder at baby Alice in her car seat.

  The three of them had gotten an early start on the eight-hour drive to Tahoe. Anna, Hal and the boys would arrive ahead of them by plane this afternoon, but Alice was fighting an ear infection and the last thing she needed was a ride in the pressurized cabin.

  Kim slapped her cheeks lightly several times. “No, I need adult conversation more than I need sleep. I hardly get either one these days.”

  “I’m all yours. What would you like to talk about?”

  “I appreciate you making this trip with me, especially since you’re driving. As you can see, I can’t trust myself not to nod off.”

  “I don’t mind. I enjoy driving but I never get to do it with Anna in the car. Can you imagine her letting someone else take the wheel?”

  “Knowing my sister, she’ll probably try to talk the pilot out of his seat this afternoon. By the way, I’ve noticed she’s in a lot better mood these days. Hal, too. Things must have smoothed out at work.”

  “Yeah, they finally got all that downsizing behind them. But if I know Anna, she’ll give herself this weekend off and then start worrying on Monday about her Christmas sales and the year-end inventory.”

  “Pffft!” Kim shook her head. “Can you believe it’s Christmas already? It was just what, last month that we were taking down the tree?”

  The year seemed longer to Lily, probably because they had spent eight months trying to get pregnant. And she was sure the next six months would take their sweet time as she and Anna waited for their baby. “Are you guys having a big Christmas this year?”

  “Call us crazy but we decided to get Jonah a puppy. I have no delusions that a four-year-old can take care of a dog, but we need to keep channeling his energy into physical activity before he gets hooked on those computer games and videos that Hal’s father’s been sending him. Dr. Engle thinks he’ll sleep better if he gets more exercise.”

  “I can vouch for that idea. Chester gives Andy a great workout and vice versa. You should see how they conk out together every night.”

  “I don’t think either of my kids have ever conked out, except maybe in their car seats. I may as well buy two more and throw out their beds.”

  Too bad she and Anna hadn’t already shared their news because this conversation would be much more fun if she could actually compare her upcoming experiences to Kim’s. She could hardly wait until tomorrow, when their plan was to tell everyone just as they were sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. Then they could spend the rest of the weekend celebrating. It was getting harder to hide it, not only because of their excitement, but also because Lily was distinctly starting to show. The elastic waist of her dress slacks was covered by a long sweater, and she was surprised Kim hadn’t already commented on her being overdressed for a day in the car.

  The miles passed quietly and Lily caught her passenger jarring herself awake again. “We’re making good time. Mayb
e you can stretch out and have a nap when we get there.”

  “That’ll be the day.” Kim looked over her shoulder at her still-sleeping daughter. “Eight hours in the car with Alice will pass a lot faster than one hour on a plane with Jonah. We got the best end of this deal.”

  Lily was pretty sure Anna could keep Andy in his seat, though he was as excited about flying as his cousin. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be bouncing off the walls later—it was always like that when the boys played together—and that was trouble if it triggered an asthma attack. “I think it’s great how well Jonah and Andy get along.”

  “It’s been that way since the first day they met. Jonah can’t wait to start school next year so he can be like his idol.”

  “Ha! If you ask me, it’s the other way around. Andy goes on about Jonah this and Jonah that. I think it’s been really good for him because most of the kids he was around in foster care were older and had a tendency to get in trouble.”

  “I hate to tell you this, but my kid’s not exactly a model citizen.” Kim looked at her watch. “In fact, Hal’s probably telling the air marshals right about now that it’s only Silly Putty and not C3 explosives.”

  There was a lot of truth to what Kim was saying. Jonah was hyper, loud and unpredictable at times, but he was also sweet and delightfully entertaining. “But thanks to Jonah, Andy isn’t nearly as shy as we were afraid he’d be. He’s made lots of friends at kindergarten and we never hear of him getting into any trouble. Of course, that’s because he’s terrified of his teacher.”

  “The infamous Mrs. Dooley. I hope Jonah gets her next year. I’m telling you, one of them will come away changed forever but my money’s on the teacher.”

  Lily wasn’t so sure. If anyone could tame Jonah it would be Mrs. Dooley. Even Anna was afraid of her.

  Alice sputtered in the back seat and began to cry.