by Kim Law
“Are you planning to drive on up to your brother’s today?” He returned to a less combative topic, making the leap that if she couldn’t go home due to fumes and having no bathtub, then she’d have to go somewhere.
“I am. Mace is at work today, though. He’s an EMT. But I have a key to his place.” She finished the soup, and with one fluid movement, her legs were down and she’d pushed out of the seat.
Cord gave a nod, even though she had her back to him now. She’d gone to the pantry, and he watched as she rummaged through the stockpile of food. “Sounds like a plan,” he said. “I’ll get the plow out as soon as I finish lunch and clear the driveway. That way you can be on your way whenever you’re ready.”
She turned back with a box of snack cakes in each hand. “Thank you. Dessert?”
At the shake of his head, she tucked the boxes back into the pantry. “You can have one,” he told her. “Feel free to eat whatever you find.”
“No, thanks.” She rounded both hands over her belly and leaned back against the pantry door. “Believe it or not, I watch what I eat.”
His eyes lowered to her belly again. “I wasn’t implying you didn’t.” He watched as one hand smoothed over a tiny foot—or maybe the baby’s backside—that poked out from the inside of her swollen flesh, and the image of her standing at the stove when he’d returned to the cabin once again flashed through his mind. That was his baby inside of her.
A baby he’d never intended to conceive, true, but one he now found gave his life surprising purpose. Whereas before—yeah, he’d accomplished things. Medical school, buying into a top-notch practice, purchasing a home, contributing to society via donations and volunteer work. However, the way his life had been panning out, he’d intended only to continue exactly as he had been: to be a part of his family’s lives, to treat patients to the best of his ability, and then to grow old and die. No wife, no kids. Nothing lasting.
Now, however, it felt as if a part of him might go on to do something better. Or to be better. And with him not personally being involved in the child’s life, he wouldn’t run the risk of letting his son down.
He forced his eyes up to Maggie’s. “Did you ever think of getting rid of him?”
The question had her chin lifting. She didn’t answer immediately, and from her silence, he could assume an answer.
“I want my baby,” she finally said, and the words rang with raw emotion. “Would you rather I’d gotten rid of it?”
He shook his head. He didn’t even have to think about it. “No.”
Her brows went up. Obviously, she doubted him. “Even knowing that you’ll now have a child out there, whether you want anything to do with him or not?”
“I don’t want anything to do with him.” He didn’t let himself think as he said the words; he simply repeated his decision. There was no need to rethink things. “And yes, even then.”
She studied him, and though she stood several feet away, the fact that she was on her feet and he remained sitting made him want to come up out of the chair. He didn’t like feeling as if he were at a disadvantage.
He didn’t move, though. Instead, he felt frozen in place.
“Do you want to tell me why you’d rather I hadn’t terminated?”
His breath caught at her words. She wasn’t afraid to ask the tough questions; he’d give her that. She had no qualms about pushing him, whether through undesirable topics or when he used his gruffness to try to force her to back off—as he’d done the night before. He respected that. He also suspected that particular trait would play into making her a good mother. She wouldn’t let the kid get away with constantly trying to pull things over on her.
But even having that boldness, she also had a softness. He’d seen both back in April. He’d liked both back in April. He hoped his son grew to appreciate it, as well.
And he hoped she loved their child with every fiber of her being. Every kid deserved that.
“I don’t know why,” he answered honestly, not breaking eye contact. He might be a bad person for not wanting his son to be part of his world, but at least he told the truth. And the truth was that he definitely would not have wanted the baby to be terminated. Just like he wouldn’t have wanted to go through the rest of his life never knowing about the existence of the child.
His phone started ringing, but surprisingly, he had no urge to reach for it. The call allowed for the perfect distraction and came at the exact right moment. It would get him out of the uncomfortable conversation he’d once again inadvertently put himself in. However, he just sat there, unwilling to interrupt the moment.
Maggie interrupted it for him. “Don’t you need to get that?”
When she pulled her gaze from his, looking around the room at anything and everything but him, he realized she’d grown as uncomfortable as him. He brought the phone to his ear.
“Hello?” He answered without paying attention to the caller. Instead, he watched Maggie. She’d moved to the sink and was rinsing out her bowl.
“Hi, I’m calling from Lewis’s Towing and Autobody.”
Maggie looked over her shoulder at him.
“I’m calling about Maggie Crowder’s car,” the voice continued.
“The tow company called you?” she whispered. Heat filled the question, and pink flooded her cheeks.
“Yes.” Cord both answered Maggie and spoke into the phone at the same time. “Is the car ready to be towed?”
Steam rose from the top of Maggie’s head.
“Actually, that’s why I’m calling,” the young man went on. “There’s a slight issue.”
Before anything else could be said, Maggie snatched the phone from Cord’s hand and put it to her ear. The glare she offered almost made him smile. He’d known she wouldn’t like him asking them to call him instead of her.
“This is Maggie Crowder.” Maggie fumed, both at Cord and to the silent voice on the other end of the phone. “What’s the issue with my car?” How dare they call Cord. She was the owner.
“Hi, Ms. Crowder. This is Logan Lewis. You probably don’t remember me . . .”
Recognition dawned as the pubescent voice sounded in her ear, and Maggie closed her eyes as she tried to rein in her temper. She’d had Logan her first year of teaching. He must be helping out at his father’s shop today.
“Of course I remember you, Logan.” There was no need to direct anger at a mere kid. “How are you doing?”
Cord snorted under his breath as her voice changed to polite, making her want to kick him in the shins.
“I’m doing really good, Ms. Crowder. Helping Dad out today.”
“I’m sure it’s a busy day for everyone.”
She turned her back on the man in the same room as her. A smile had landed on his lips after his snort, and it reminded her far too much of the charm he’d oozed the previous time they’d been together. That stuff was potent.
“What’s going on with my car, Logan?”
Logan cleared his throat before speaking again, and along with the squeak at the end of that sound, she heard other noises in the background. People talking and clangs of metal on metal. “Well,” Logan began, “Mr. Wilde asked us to check out the car before we delivered it to you.”
Of course he had. She shot Cord a look, but he wasn’t looking at her anymore. Instead, he’d cleared the rest of the dishes from the table and currently had the refrigerator door open, tucking the leftovers inside.
“And, I’m sorry, Ms. Crowder”—Logan cleared his throat again, his nerves at delivering bad news obvious—“but your driveshaft is bent.”
“My driveshaft?” She quit watching Cord. “It’s bent?”
How could her driveshaft be bent? And what exactly did that mean?
“Yes,” Logan confirmed. “And your muffler and tailpipe got taken out, too. But those are smaller fixes. You apparently scraped over some rock as you slid off the road, and you hit it in just the right way to cause the damage. Or, in just the wrong way,” he corrected, and
she could feel his flush of embarrassment. “My dad has already called about getting the parts, but with it being Saturday and a holiday weekend and all, I’m sorry, Ms. Crowder, but it’ll be at least the middle of the week before we can get the parts in.”
“The middle of the week?” Maggie parroted. “As in Wednesday?”
Cord looked at her again.
“At least Wednesday,” Logan corrected. “And . . . possibly a little longer.” His voice went into a squeak again as he relayed the news. “With the amount of snow we’re getting, Dad says the delivery might be delayed.”
She didn’t have time for delays. Plus, she didn’t exactly have the disposable income to fix what sounded like a potentially pricey problem. She’d hoped to maintain what was left of her savings in order to take extra time off after the baby was born.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Crowder,” Logan added when the silence had gone on too long.
“You’re sure it isn’t drivable, Logan?” The school wasn’t that far from downtown. She could stay at the historic hotel on the square instead of in the less expensive one she’d intended. “I won’t have far to go each day.”
“Well . . . the thing is, there’s a noticeable delay when turning the wheels,” he answered. “It wouldn’t be safe for you to drive at all.”
Which meant, she was stuck. She frowned. “What about a rental?” She eyed the snow still accumulating outside the living room windows. “Does your dad happen to have any rentals on hand?”
“No, ma’am. We…um… don’t do that. I could call around for you, though. If you wanted.”
“Tell him no.” Cord’s words came from behind her, and Maggie turned to glare. She did not need Cord telling her what to do. Or making decisions on her behalf. “No, thank you, Logan.” She did her best to telepathically fire lasers at Cord’s head. “I appreciate the offer, but I wouldn’t ask that of you. Could you go ahead and ask your dad to order the parts, though?”
“Yes, ma’am. Did you want to know the cost first?”
No, she really didn’t want to know the cost first. As irresponsible as that may seem. She had too many other things to deal with right now. Like getting away from there . . . finding a rental car . . . seeing if there was any way to get her bathtub brought back to the house sooner so she wouldn’t have to stay at a hotel for an entire week. “I’ve got to have a car to drive anyway, right, Logan?”
A nervous chuckle sounded in her ear. “I guess you do, Ms. Crowder. Especially with that baby coming soon.”
Her free hand went to her baby, and she mimicked the laugh. “Especially with that.” She closed her eyes again, wondering if the fact that a teenager she hadn’t seen in years knew she was pregnant and due soon was an indication that the entire town had likely been talking about her. Probably. It was a small town, after all. And she was a pregnant single mother. “Have him go ahead and order the parts, Logan. And please keep me updated.”
She reminded the teen of her phone number, then ended the call. And when she once again looked at Cord, she saw the same questions in his eyes that she knew had to be obvious in hers.
What was she supposed to do now? And how much longer would she have to rely on him?
“My car needs some work.” She passed his phone back over.
“So I gathered.”
“I, um . . .” She chewed on the inside corner of her lip. She wasn’t sure what to do next. She couldn’t call Mason to come get her. He was at work. And even if he could somehow get away long enough to help his sister out, she wouldn’t want to then request he bring her right back again tomorrow. Plus, even if that did happen, it wasn’t like she’d have a car to get back and forth to work with, anyway.
She looked down at her swollen ankles. Maybe this was the world’s way of telling her to go ahead and start her maternity leave. It had definitely become harder to be up and down in the classroom every day. She could bunk with Mace for the next few weeks, spend Christmas with him, have the baby in Whitefish, and then come back home after her son was born. Her brother probably wouldn’t mind if she took over his second bedroom for a while.
But she wasn’t ready to quit working. She needed to be able to take as much time off after the delivery as possible. Plus, she now had to pay for a car repair.
Her phone rang before she could come up with a plan that might actually be viable, and both she and Cord looked toward it. Was Logan already calling back?
Maybe they’d figured out that she could still drive her car.
Cord picked the phone up from the kitchen table before she could get to it, bringing it the rest of the way over to her, and she saw that instead of the Lewis autobody shop, it was Erica.
“Mags!” Erica practically yelled into the phone as soon as Maggie answered.
“What?” she yelled back. She had no idea what had her friend so worked up.
“You stayed at the cabin with Cord last night? What’s going on out there?”
Cord sat back down at the kitchen table, and as she stood in the middle of the room trying to figure out how to explain to her best friend—who knew she’d had a thing for Cord since her high school days—that her staying there truly had been a fluke, Cord pushed a chair away from the table with his foot.
“Sit,” he mouthed, and when she didn’t immediately follow his directive, he pointed to her ankles. He then lined up a second chair in front of the first one so she could not only sit but also put her feet back up.
“Fine,” she silently mouthed. And as she sat, she immediately smiled before replying to Erica. She didn’t want her friend picking up on anything being wrong. “Nothing is going on, E. It’s no biggie. I ran off the road on my way to Mace’s, and Cord came upon me right after it happened. There was already a foot of snow on the ground, and my car couldn’t be pulled out last night, so it was too late to do much of anything else. So I came to the cabin with him. How did you know I was here, anyway?”
“Cord told us.”
She immediately looked at Cord.
“Well,” Erica went on, “Cord called Nate, and then Megan called me. But the question is why didn’t you call us? You know I said you could stay here. And I meant it. For as long as you need.”
She didn’t take her eyes off Cord as she covered the microphone and whispered, “You called Nate to tell him that I was here?” Had he already been trying to line up a backup plan for getting rid of her?
“I called Nate because I’d gone over to see Dad. I mentioned that you were here.”
“Is everything okay there, Mags?” Erica’s tone softened into concern. “Should I send Gabe over to get you? You can just stay here, and there won’t even be a need to go to your brother’s. We can help you get your car towed.”
She bit down on her lip. Why did everyone think she couldn’t handle her issues on her own? “Thank you, but I’ve already arranged to have my car towed. And I’m not going to stay with you and Gabe. You know that.”
Erica sighed in her ear. “But that’s just silly. We have plenty of room, and I’m not due for another three weeks.”
“And that’s the last three weeks you’ll have with you husband and stepdaughter before all your lives are overtaken with a new baby.” She shook her head as if her friend could see her. “So no, I’m not going to do that to you. I’m not taking that time away from any of you.”
“Fine. Be stubborn.”
Cord snorted.
“But, Mags, will you at least call me when you get to Mason’s tonight? Are you still going? It’s still snowing like crazy, and you know I’ll be super worried about you now. When should you get your car back, do you know?”
She pressed her lips together. She’d really hoped Erica wouldn’t go there.
Swallowing, she mumbled, “Next week sometime.”
“Next week?” Something thumped on the other end of the line, and Maggie imagined Erica sitting with her feet up, similar to her, before shooting up straight in surprise. “What’s wrong with it?” she asked.
; “I apparently bent my driveshaft. But all is okay,” she continued before Erica could say anything more. “I’m going to be out of here as soon as I find a rental. I’ll go on up to Mace’s today and be back in town tomorrow. You know they won’t close school.”
“I know. But that’s a lot of driving, in a lot of snow. In a car you aren’t familiar with. Are you sure that’s smart?”
Maggie pulled the phone away and stared at it. Why did everyone suddenly think she was incapable? “I am not a bad driver.”
“Yet you found yourself stuck in a ditch last night.”
Point taken. And from the look on Cord’s face, he’d had the same thought. Darn these phones that were so easy to eavesdrop on. She shot a glare at Cord. Why couldn’t he be polite and leave the room while she was on the phone?
“And if you do have a problem again . . . well, you’re so pregnant, Mags. Please, just let me send Gabe for you. Stay here for one night and then go to a hotel.”
Maggie wanted to be irritated with her friend. Yes, she was so pregnant. She looked twice as pregnant as Erica did. But still, she wasn’t incompetent.
“Tell her you’re going to stay here tonight.”
“What?” She and Erica both spoke at the same time.
“Mags,” Erica went on, “you can’t stay there. It’s Cord.”
Cord’s brows lifted.
“Of course I can stay here. He’s one of the Wildes. You know they’re good people. Heck, you married one of them.” And why was she arguing to stay there another night? She didn’t even want to stay there. Nor did she have a clue why Cord would suggest it.
Unless Cord was rethinking being in the baby’s life . . .
If that were the case, it might be better to stick around a little longer.