by Alie Garnett
Tearing a muffin apart and putting it on the highchair for Poppy, Agatha let the conversation flow around her. Her daughter was trying to grab the chunks from her as fast as she could put them down, stopping only when her cheeks were packed full. Agatha put the muffin down and proceeded to pull muffin chunks from her mouth. Her kid had a lot of her daddy in her.
“I’ve got you down for Saturday night, Agatha. We need you,” Lucy said from the table.
“I can’t; I have a kid.” Agatha pointed out. Maybe they would even be home by then. Chrisless, but at least home. His house had to be done soon.
“Buzz will watch her. She needs the practice and she is useless to us. You, on the other hand, we need.” Lucy tried to ignore her own son crying in the living room with his father but was failing.
“Do you realize how many times I worked for you two when I was pregnant? Not once did I complain. Not once,” Agatha argued.
“Bull! You were constantly complaining. You complained at every event, pregnant or not. Actually, you probably complained less when you were pregnant. I’m putting you on the schedule,” Harper said.
“I don’t want to.”
“Too bad, you’re needed. Wear something pretty.” Harper smirked as they didn’t have a dress code for their employees.
“I will not. And I want to be the first to leave,” Agatha demanded, knowing there was no way out of this.
“I will put you down for clean-up,” Lucy said with a grin until her baby cried again, which tore her attention away from the kitchen.
“Where’s the event at?”
“The J,” Harper answered for the distracted Lucy.
“Swanky,” Agatha said, getting enough out of Poppy’s cheeks for her baby to start filling them again. One of Harper’s goals had been to become the in-house caterer at The J, but they had found it was too much work when they had finally gotten the contract. Now she and Lucy could work there anytime they wanted to. It was a high-end establishment.
“Oh, it is,” Lucy agreed as she went to check on her baby.
“So, are husbands now invited if you have a baby, forcing us who don’t have a baby to find one so we can bring our husbands?” Mabel asked.
Sera patted her hand. “Yes, honey. Baby first, and then you can bring Cliff.”
“Totally unfair,” Mabel grumbled.
“I agree with. Maby. It is unfair,” Harper stated. Her man wouldn’t be there if they weren’t eating at her house.
“Pop out a spawn, and you too can bring your husband,” Buzz said, patting her huge belly.
“Not ready yet. Cliff is enough of a kid.” Mabel laughed.
“I’m just not ready yet, period. I like sex and sleep too much,” Harper stated nonchalantly, then looked at her mom and blushed.
Agatha loved that every once in a while, it snuck up on her sister that she was married to Sera’s twin brother.
“Sex is how you get kids, Harper, so you better watch out,” Sera replied, not noticing Harper’s reaction to the words.
Lucy brought in the sad baby boy, and Agatha watched her sit back down. As she arranged the baby on her lap, Lucy nodded in agreement. He was still in a gray pajama set and looked very upset with the crowd. Agatha couldn’t tell Lucy’s twins apart yet. In time she would, but until then, she was just calling them both baby. Not Luke and Owen.
“Not if you are careful.” Maby took her nephew’s hand in hers and shook it.
“I think there are a few ‘carefuls’ that went awry in this room,” Sera answered with a grin.
“Harsh, Mom,” Agatha said, once again pulling muffin from Poppy’s mouth.
“I was thinking more about me.” Sera shrugged and ran a hand over Violet’s hair.
“I think that means me too,” Emma suddenly said from the corner of the room where she had been hiding since getting there. Standing up in anger, she left for the safety of the living room.
“My first mistakes are always my best mistakes,” Sera called after her oldest.
Harper leaned back in her chair and asked, “Violet, do you have an invisible friend?”
The little girl looked up at her oldest sister and said, “Not anymore.”
“Did Mom chase him away?” Lucy asked once she had started to nurse the baby under a cover.
Violet looked from Harper to Lucy and then to her mom. “Yes.”
Two sets of eyes turned on Agatha, who in turn, glared back at them. Neither said anything, but both wanted to. Ignoring them, she let herself be consumed by taking care of her baby, letting herself enjoy the task she had never thought she would get to do, but one she found herself enjoying more every day.
“Why haven’t you ever said anything about her?” Mabel asked in interest.
“Because they are my friend!” Violet stated and crossed her arms in anger at her sister.
“Sorry for asking.” Mabel let it drop.
Agatha wondered what all the talk about invisible friends was about. It wasn’t like Violet had ever told her about one, but she wasn’t quizzing the kid about it. With Violet, you had let her tell you when she wanted to tell. It wasn’t like she didn’t talk about almost everything all the time.
Within an hour, Sera and Harrison had taken their now three kids home, and Lucy had bundled up her two. Mabel and Buzz had left quickly because they still could with no kids in the world yet.
Harper was cleaning the kitchen as Agatha wiped down the highchair that Harper had purchased for Poppy and all the other babies who would need it in the family. Finding the broom, she started sweeping up the crumbs from the floor. Kaine had taken Poppy to show her the toy selection in the living room.
“You don’t have to sweep, Ag. Kaine can do that later.” Harper giggled, Kaine paid people to do his sweeping. And Harper was in charge of them as mistress of the house, which was what she called herself.
“Poppy made the mess, so I can clean it for you,” Agatha argued.
“Go ahead then, clean it all.” Harper dropped her dishrag and went and sat at the still messy table.
“I will since you’re now a lazy socialite,” Agatha teased.
“Can I ask you a serious question and not have you just answer with ‘fuck off’?” Harper asked as she crossed her arms.
“I really like to say fuck off.” Agatha grinned, stopping her sweeping.
“You do. But seriously, can I?” Harper never talked like this. Agatha figured she must want to talk about Chris. She knew her sisters had spoken to him.
Leaning the broom against the counter, Agatha sat down near her sister. “Go ahead.”
From out of nowhere, Harper asked, “Did you miscarry a baby the day Violet was born?”
She knew her face went pale. She could hear the blood rushing away from her body. Swallowing, she had no answer for the question—none that she wanted her sister to know about. It had been nine years and had never come up. There was no reason for Harper to bring it up now. How would Harper even have found out about it?
She tried to dodge. “Why do you ask?”
“I heard something about it.”
“From who?” Agatha asked.
“Violet,” Harper admitted.
Agatha let out her breath. Violet didn’t know what had happened. Violet was just a kid, barely born as it had unfolded.
“She’s just a kid making stuff up,” Agatha assured her sister.
“She said her invisible friend is your lost baby,” Harper pressed, eyes glued to her face.
If there had been any blood left in her body, it was gone now, replaced by ice and cold. It took everything in her to not shake at the chill.
“Kids,” she said lamely.
“She said he was born the same day she was and that his name is Jet,” Harper said very slowly, letting each word sink in.
The shaking was uncontrollable. Her sister had to see it, but she didn’t comment. She just took Agatha’s hand in hers and held it tight. Agatha knew that Harper knew the answer was yes, but Agatha couldn’t
say the words.
“I am not going to ask why you didn’t tell anyone, because you keep a lot inside. But I want you to let someone in there. You can’t do it all by yourself. I think we know now that if you hadn’t gotten pregnant with Poppy, you might have died by now. You needed to have her, and that changed everything for you. When she was gone, you didn’t go back to being out-of-control Agatha. You just stayed the Agatha we love. Maybe you and Chris were meant to be apart for a while. He had to do the football thing, fail, and then find out he was more than a football player. And you needed to find yourself with your art.”
Harper didn’t let go of her hand, but Agatha couldn’t bring herself to look up. Her words were settling in Agatha’s mind. Was she right that they were different people than they were eighteen months before or even in high school? Was it unfair of her to judge him on his actions from back then and not by who he had been when they were together now?
“And then when Poppy was conceived, neither of you were ready for that. But now you are. You two are so ready to do this together, but the past is getting in the way. He is lost without you, and you are lost without him.” Harper let their hands go and pushed her chair back, leaving her little sister alone to think.
Was her sister right? That they hadn’t been ready to be together, that they didn’t know what they wanted, much less who they wanted to be? Each of them had a road to walk down before they could meet up again and make it work.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The rest of the week had gone by without a single sighting of Agatha. But the few times her sisters came to her house, they did willingly talk to him. They also started using his name and not just calling him whatever they wanted to. Those names usually weren’t very nice, but it seemed now that they were treating him differently.
On Wednesday, he had talked to his brother and admitted that he had failed in flipping the house. He had no idea what he was doing and didn’t want to do remodeling anymore. He also told his brother that he was going to do what he should have months before: he would start working in the family business. Even though Chris had never shown any interest in the business, Carter had willingly let him into the fold. He had even given him an office and was letting him choose what he wanted to do with his days, as long as it was insurance-related, that is.
In the meeting, he had told his brother about Agatha. Carter had just grinned at him and asked if she was the little dark-haired girl who he had teased all the time at school. It seemed he might be the kid from kindergarten after all. Or it might have been just a coincidence. That was until his sister confirmed that he had gotten in trouble that entire year for being mean to a little dark-haired girl with a lisp.
Chris had invited both of his siblings and their spouses to the party he was planning on Saturday night. He also invited his mom, who declined right away, which wasn’t a surprise. Agatha wasn’t part of the right social circle, after all, which was perfect for Chris. He just hoped Agatha would be a part of his circle soon.
The rest of the week was spent calling, texting, and emailing four hundred people who had the privilege of graduating on the same day as him. Though only a dozen were his friends back then, he made special effort to get everyone there. Many didn’t remember him, and some even said they weren’t coming because it was him, but he was doing whatever it took to win Agatha back.
There had only been a few people he’d contact that remembered Agatha at all. One had been her close friend who had lost contact with Agatha when high school was over. Another had been one of his closest friends, who had admitted that he was surprised Chris would even fall for someone like her. Which made him want to disinvite the man, except this was exactly who he needed to invite. People who he had spent his youth trying to impress. People who he didn’t want to even associate with anymore.
The house was quiet, dark, and was starting to echo his own sad look with Agatha gone. But hopefully, she would be back soon. He was so lost in thought as he analyzed her house that he missed the woman walking up his front sidewalk.
“So, Cliff is buying this place for Maby?” Sera Dean asked, not even snarling at him. It was the first time she hadn’t done it since he’d met her.
“Yes, it’s a secret, though. I don’t think he’s told her yet,” he informed Sera, in case she was planning on telling Maby. Cliff had sworn him to secrecy about the purchase when they had agreed upon a price.
“Oh, he told her. He really can’t keep a secret from his lady love,” Sera said, using was the same words Cliff had used to call his wife, his lady love. Sera stopped in front of Chris, looking at him closely.
Finally, Sera came right out and asked. “The girls say you’re in love with Agatha. Are you?”
“I am. I want to marry her. Should I be asking you for permission?” he asked, standing up straight. After all this time, he needed to start getting on this woman’s good side.
“No, you should ask her. I let my kids do what they want to do,” she said with a smile as she turned to look at Agatha’s house across the street, the house she had raised her kids in. At least her older kids.
His eyebrow shot up in question. That was not the impression he had ever got from her. To him, she was a mama bear, and he had gotten too close to her cub. She had taken more swipes at him than he cared to think about.
“When you’re not involved, that is,” she relented and turned back to him. “But you were.… You didn’t see her after everything that happened with you back then. I did. I never wanted to see her that way again. I still don’t. So, if you aren’t in it forever, I would like you to leave now.”
Sera stood her ground and crossed her arms, daring him to say he was just playing with Agatha’s emotions.
But Chris wasn’t scared. He was so in love with Agatha he couldn’t breathe when she wasn’t around.
“I want her forever, and everything that entails. I want to help her raise Poppy and have more kids of our own. I want to be there every day. I just want to tell her face-to-face, but I can’t find her,” he promised, wishing he could make the same promises to her daughter. He knew he would, and soon. But soon wasn’t coming quick enough for him.
“Good, because I will break your other knee if you ever hurt Agatha again,” Sera said. He wondered if she actually knew which knee he had broken, but he didn’t want to find out. Her eyes looked like she knew.
Chris smirked at her bravado. “I’ll remember that.” He loved that despite what she said, he knew she would always be a mama bear for Agatha. The woman he loved needed everyone she could get in her corner.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
It had been weeks since Agatha had worn the starched white shirt and not-so-flattering black pants that Harper insisted all the waitstaff wear. Tonight, it was Agatha and sisters, Frankie and Louisa, that were working the event. Harper had given her pep talk and then handed out trays of hors d’oeuvres to the group to pass around.
“Why do you hate me?” Agatha asked her older sister.
“I love you the best. You can’t lick them if they’re slimy shrimp.” Harper shoved the platter into her hands. The cocktail sauce glittered in the fluorescent lights in their tiny bowls.
“I quit,” Agatha stated loudly.
“You can’t,” Lucy reminded her. Agatha tried to quit every time she worked.
“One day, you won’t see me again,” said Agatha. She hoped it sounded like a curse.
“One day, you will be happy to work for me,” Harper replied, touching her hair. “Just like these two.” She motioned to her newest recruits, or as Agatha called them, suckers. Neither had ever worked for Harper before, and neither seemed overly excited about it. Okay, Louisa was excited, but Frankie seemed as pissed about it as Agatha.
It seemed when short on waitstaff, Harper would rather pay for plane tickets for the two sisters to fly in from another state than to pay strangers. Agatha wondered how much money Harper and Lucy were throwing away tonight. Then again, they were both married to billionaires and w
orked for fun, so money wasn’t a real worry for them anymore.
“This is so exciting!” Louisa said beside her in a whisper.
“Give it like a minute, and it’ll be awful,” Agatha told her with a grin.
“I don’t even need a minute,” Frankie said, checking to make sure her blue hair was tucked neatly in the bun on her head.
The sisters couldn’t be more different. Then again, they were actually Lovelys, so being different was a given. Louisa was a goody two-shoes, and Frankie, the blue-haired sister, was as wild as any Lovely had been at twenty-two.
Agatha hoped that they would visit them more often because she didn’t know them well and thought that they would get along. Maybe once she moved back home, she would invite them to move in with her. It would be nice to have a house full of Lovelys again, except she wasn’t ready to return yet. Maybe in time.
Her heart still ached when she thought about Chris, and she thought about him constantly. For days she has wanted to go back to him, to forgive him and hope that he would forgive her. But suddenly, her sisters were no longer talking about him or telling her about him hanging around. Was it because he was over her? Had she gotten her wish, and he realized she wasn’t worth it? She was afraid to find out.
“Okay, smile everyone and look happy,” Lucy said to the three sisters.
Following Frankie into the room, Agatha started her usual mindless circling. It had been years since she cared what the function she was working was all about. She didn’t see a bride and groom, so it probably wasn’t a wedding, which was a plus. Weddings always lasted forever.
After a full circle, she recognized three of the attendees. They had graduated from high school with her. One had been the homecoming queen, and another was Dayle, who had been her best friend those last few months of school. Both had acknowledged her with a nod or a wave. The homecoming queen looked exactly the same, but Dayle didn’t. Dayle had gone from total goth to total sophistication in nine years. Her dress was form-fitting like it had been sewn just for her and in a perfect shade to complement her dark blond hair. Dayle’s hair had been as dark as Agatha’s in high school.