“She waved.”
“She’s moving?”
“See for yourself,” said Gregory as he held the baby high.
Leah saw. Arms and legs batted the air to the tune of a sturdy pair of lungs. Leah started to cry, too. “She’s … alive … beautiful … Garrick … do you … see?”
He had an arm curved around Leah’s head. “I see,” he managed to croak, then pressed his wet cheek to her forehead.
“Show’s over,” came the decree from the pediatric specialist who’d been assisting in the proceedings. He gently took the infant from Gregory. “Sorry, folks. She’s mine for a few minutes.”
It was just as well. Leah’s arms were around Garrick’s neck, and they were burying their faces against each other, muffling soft sobs of gratitude and joy.
“AMANDA BETH. IT’S AS BEAUTIFUL as she is.” Leah was lying flat in bed, per doctor’s orders, but Garrick was sitting by her side, so she didn’t mind the temporary restriction.
Garrick’s face was alight with pride. “The pediatrician can’t find a thing wrong with her. They’ll keep a close watch on her for a few days, but they don’t foresee any problem.”
“Seven pounds, five ounces.”
“Not bad for an early baby.”
“Oh, Garrick, I’m so happy!” She was smiling broadly, as was Garrick, neither of them able—or caring—to stop.
“We did it. You did it. Thank you, Leah. Thank you for giving me a beautiful daughter, and for giving me self-confidence, and for loving me.”
Grabbing his ear, she tugged him down for a kiss. “Thank you. I feel so complete.”
“That’s good,” he said, raising his head a trifle. “Because we’re expecting visitors in a few minutes, and I want you at your best.”
“Victoria?” she asked in excitement.
“Nope. She’ll be here later in the week. Insists on helping you out when we take baby home.”
Her smile grew dreamy. “Take baby home. I never thought we’d be saying those words.” For the first time her smile faltered. Her eyes went wide behind her glasses. “Garrick! Clothes, diapers, a crib—we haven’t got anything!” After two pregnancies when she’d been fully equipped, only to find herself without a baby, she’d been superstitious.
Garrick was unfazed. “No sweat. I’ll pick up a crib—I think maybe a cradle—tomorrow. Victoria’s buying the rest.”
“Victoria? But she can’t—”
He arched a brow. “Victoria?”
“Well, she can, but we can’t let her!”
“I’m afraid we can’t stop her. She was in a rush to get off the phone so that she could get to the stores before they closed.”
Leah was smiling again. “That does sound like Victoria.”
“She feels responsible for the baby,” he said, eyes twinkling.
“Maybe we should let her think she is. We couldn’t very well make her interrupt her shopping to research the facts of life, could we?”
He kissed her nose. “Certainly not.”
“Garrick?”
But it wasn’t Garrick who answered. “Hello, hello” came Susan’s singsong voice from the door. Gregory was wheeling her in, followed closely by a man Leah had never seen before.
“Ah. Our visitors.” Garrick stood up quickly, kissing Susan, shaking hands with Gregory, then with the other man, whom he brought forward. “Leah, say hello to Judge Hopkins. He’s agreed to marry us.”
“Marry us?” Leah cried. “But … but I can’t get married now!”
“Why not?”
“I … because I look a mess! My hair’s tangled and I’m sweaty—”
“But you are wearing white,” Garrick pointed out in a mischievous tone.
“A hospital gown,” Leah returned in dismay. “They won’t even let me sit up to change!”
“No problem,” said Susan as she tugged a box from where it had been stowed between her hip and the chair. She turned to the men as a group. “Out.” Then to her husband. “Be a sweet and send a nurse in here to give us a hand.” Then to the judge. “We’ll only be a minute, Andrew.” Then to Garrick. “Think you can control yourself that long?”
None of them answered, because Gregory was busy pushing them toward the door.
LEAH WAS MARRIED in the gown and matching robe that Susan had somehow known to buy in pale pink. Garrick, wearing the same sweater and cords he’d worn to school that day, stood by her bedside, holding her hand, while the judge conducted the brief ceremony. When, at its conclusion, Gregory produced a bottle of champagne, Leah threw an apprehensive look at Garrick, who leaned low and spoke for her ears alone.
“You can’t have any for another few hours, but then we’ll share a little. Just a sip in token celebration. I don’t need any more of a high than the one I’m on now. I don’t think I ever will.”
Five days later, Garrick and Leah brought Amanda Beth back to the small garage apartment. Leah was healing well, and the baby was as strong and healthy as they’d prayed she would be.
Victoria, who was staying in the Walsh’s main house, was in her element. Declaring that Amanda was more interesting than the Maori any day, she fought Garrick for the honor of bathing, diapering and dressing her.
Since Leah was nursing, the feeding chores were hers alone. She loved those times when Amanda was suckling and the rest of the world became a warm, fuzzy periphery. Even more, though, she loved the times at night when Garrick would stretch out beside her and watch.
“What does it feel like?”
“When she nurses?”
“Mmm. Does it hurt?”
“Oh, no! It’s a delightful kind of gentle tugging.”
“Like when I kiss you there?” He drew a light forefinger across the upper swell of her breast.
“A little. There’s a sense of depth. I feel like there are strings inside me that she’s pulling on. Sometimes I feel contractions. But it’s different, too.”
“How?”
“When she does it, it’s satisfying in and of itself. When you do it, it makes me want more.” She blushed. “Different kinds of sensations.”
Garrick moaned and shifted his legs, making no attempt to hide his problem. The light in the eyes he raised to hers wasn’t one of uncontrollable desire, though, as much as love. “I can’t conceive of life without you, Leah. You … Amanda … when I think of the sterile existence I had before …”
“Don’t look back,” she urged in a whisper as she bent forward and brushed his lips with hers. “We’ve conquered the past. We have a wonderful present. Let’s look forward to the future for a change.”
They did just that. After long discussions with Leah, Garrick decided that he rather liked the idea of working toward the college degree he’d never earned. Baby and all, he managed to study for and do well in his finals, paving the way for his acceptance at Dartmouth, which had an excellent Latin department.
“You’ll love Hanover,” he told Leah. “It’s got charm.”
“I know I’ll love it, but what about you? Don’t you miss the cabin?”
“To tell you the truth, no.” He seemed as surprised as she that the answer came so quickly. “I love it up there, but my life now is so full that I rarely think of it. I’d like to get a house in Hanover and use the cabin as a vacation retreat.”
That was exactly what they did. With Amanda strapped into a carrier against Garrick’s chest, they looked at every possible home in Hanover, finally falling in love with and buying a small Victorian within walking distance of Garrick’s classes. During school vacations, weather permitting, they returned to the cabin. Come June, shortly before they were to retreat there for the summer, Garrick approached Leah with a proposal.
“How about a trip to New York?”
Her eyes lit up. “New York?”
“Yeah. I know you hated it last time you went—”
“I was pregnant and tired and worried, and you weren’t with me.” Her voice lowered. “Will you go this time?”
“I
won’t let you and Amanda go alone, and Victoria has been begging us for months to visit.”
She wrapped an arm around his waist. “I’d love to go, Garrick, but only if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” He winked down at her. “We may even be able to get some time to ourselves.”
Their visit to New York was enlightening in several respects. Garrick found that he was relaxed and at ease. Leah found that though they had a wonderful time, she was ready to leave again when the time came.
Equally as gratifying was Victoria’s news. She’d heard through the grapevine that Richard and his wife had had a second baby—this one stillborn. And while Leah’s heart went out to them, she couldn’t help but close her eyes in relief. It seemed that Richard’s wife, not about to take the tragedy sitting down, had done some research. Richard had been adopted at birth, but she’d managed to work through the courts to determine his biological parents—and had discovered that infant mortality had been documented over two generations on his father’s side.
“All our worrying was for nothing,” Leah breathed, but Garrick was quick to disagree.
“No, love. The worry may have been unnecessary, but it served a purpose. If you hadn’t been worried, you’d never have left me and moved to Concord. And if you hadn’t done that, I would have stayed at the cabin, where I would be to this day. Think of all we’d have missed.”
She knew that he was right. His self-confidence had been fully restored, and his self-respect had taken on new dimensions. He’d survived the auto accident and found a fresh basis for life, but only since Leah had come had he begun to really grow.
Which was what she wanted to do … again. “This means we can have another baby—”
“Without worry.”
“But not just yet.”
“Maybe when Amanda’s two.”
“We’ll go for a boy this time.”
“How’re we gonna arrange that?”
“There are ways. I was reading an article recently that said—”
“Since when do you read articles about planning a baby’s sex?”
“Since the world has opened up to me and I’ve begun to dream again.”
THROUGH THE YEARS TO COME, Leah and Garrick both did their share of dreaming, each time setting out to make those dreams come true. But during that first summer at the cabin with Amanda, they were too content to do much dreaming. The sun was warm, the air fresh, the forest as magnificent and lush as they’d ever seen it. Garrick worked in his garden, often with Amanda babbling in sweet baby talk beside him. Leah was always nearby, often constructing puzzles to send off to her editor. The crossword from which she took the most pleasure, though, was the one that chronicled the life and times of Leah and Garrick. Now there was Amanda to fit into the grid, but doing so was simple.
“Aha,” Garrick teased. “So that’s why you wanted to name her Amanda. Three a’s. You need them.”
“I named her Amanda because I love the name and you love the name and because, obviously, she loves the name.”
“She’d love any name, as long as there’s banana ice cream after we call her.”
“I love banana ice cream.”
“So do I. But I love you and Amanda more. Hey—” he studied her puzzle “—have you got it here?”
“What?”
“Love.”
“Sure. It’s all over the place—in every noun, every adjective, every—”
“Four letters. L-O-V-E.”
“It’s there.”
“I can’t find it.”
“Look closer.”
“I can’t find it.”
“Look higher.”
“I can’t find it.”
“To the right.”
“I can’t—I can. Ahhhh. There it is. Twelve across. L-O-V-E. Very simple and straight to the point. Now that’s my kind of word.”
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GARRICK AND LEAH
Across
1 Ego
5 British Broadcasting Corporation
* 8 Amanda’s first growing place
* 12_______ makes the world go ’round
16 Butter substitute
17 Other end of a hi
18 _______ Lewis and the News
19 Mate of a stag
20 Deceiver
21 Purchase
22 Bened _______ Arnold
23 Rude, ill-mannered person
* 24 Garrick’s cabin, to Leah
29 Saint: Abbr.
30 Young child
* 31 Garrick’s former status
33 Depot: Abbr.
34 Oberon or Haggard
36 Opposite of down
* 37 Part of a layette
40 Here, in Paris
* 42 Protected species prized for furs
43 Northeast region of U.S.: Abbr.
44 Amin
45 Vee-shaped bars on military sleeve
47 Before, to Byron
48 The last _______
* 50 Color to match Garrick’s hair
* 51 Something for Garrick to ace
53 Go away!
* 55 Leah’s ailment after her trek through the woods
56 “Yes___ ___.” An ultimatum
57 Jolson or Smith
58 Goal in football: Abbr.
59 Command 57A to work in garden
60 Long, wedge-shaped inlet
* 61 Leah’s loss
64 Houston or Adams
66 I am, you are, he ______
* 67 What crept up on Leah in the woods
* 69 Alias Greg Reynolds
* 71 Garrick and Leah’s pride and joy
73 Partner of him
74 Loathsome person
75 “Heart of ________ heart…”
76 Before noon
77 Form of town government, for short
78 Alcoholics Anonymous, familiarly
80 Amtrak, for one: Abbr.
81 “Swing ________, sweet chariot…”
* 83 State of Garrick’s mountain retreat
88 Hairdo
91 Deciduous member of 4D
92 ________ Zadora
93 Livid
96 Space
97 Be in debt
98 Muskey and Sullivan
* 99 Garrick’s home
*100 Color of Garrick’s eyes
101 Unusual
102 All right
*103 Greg Reynolds did this
Down
1 Fifth note of musical scale: Var.
2 Kind of typeface
* 3 Heroine
* 4 Environs of Garrick’s cabin
* 5 Amanda Beth
6 Eyes or skies
* 7 Sly source of furs
* 8 Garrick as hobbyist, and others
9 Exclamation of pain
10 Allots
11 By hook or ________ crook
*12 Part of the delivery process
13 Scent
14 Va-va-va-________
15 Ever, poetically
25 Itinerary abbreviation
26 “________ ________’s a jolly good fellow…”
27 Daze
*28 Leah’s musical delight
*32 Matchmaking marvel
33 Yellowish-brown color
34 Talkative tropical bird: Var.
35 Builds
*37 Part of landmark on Victoria’s road
38 Northwestern state
*39 Frequency of Leah’s early doctor’s appointments
*41 Compelling quality, as possessed by Richard
*42 Predator providing furs
46 In reference to
*49 What Leah and Garrick did at last
*52 Victoria
54 Make suitable
61 Large spoon for serving soup
62 Go ________ ________ picnic
63 “Fee, ________, fo, fum…”
*65 Subject of Victoria’s research
67 Promissory note: Abbr.
*68 Garrick’s occupation
*70 Hero
72 Alternative to U.S.
75 Missouri, to postmaster general
*77 One solution to 55A
79 Out of the way
*82 Leah’s injury
83 Brief letter
84 Court
85 Possesses
86 Age
*87 Leah’s insistence
89 FL, once
90 Ms Russell, to her friends
94 American Bar Association: Abbr.
95 ________, tac, toe
* relating to theme
Read on for an excerpt from the latest novel by Barbara Delinsky
SWEET SALT AIR
Available in trade paperback Summer 2014 from St. Martin’s Griffin
Darkness was dense this far from town. There were no cars here, no streetlights, no welcoming homes, and whatever glow had been cast from Nicole’s place was gone. Trees rose on either side, sharing the narrow land flanking the road with strips of field, and beyond the trees was the rocky shore, lost now in the murk.
But there was hope. As she walked, she saw proof of a moon behind clouds, etching their edges in silver and spraying more to the side. Those silver beams would hit the ocean in pale swaths, though she could only imagine it from here. But she did hear the surf rolling in, breaking on the rocks, rushing out.
When the pavement at the edges of the road grew cracked, she moved to the center. This end had always been neglected, a reminder that Cecily didn’t invite islanders for tea. The fact that no repair work had been done said the son was the same.
She passed a string of birches with a ghostly sheen to their bark, but between the sound of the breeze in their leaves and, always, the surf, she was soothed. The gulls were in for the night, hence no screeching, and if there were sounds of boats rocking at moorings, the harbor was too far away to hear.
There was only the rhythmic slap of her sneakers on the cracked asphalt—and then another tapping. Not a woodpecker, given the hour. Likely a night creature searching for food, more frightened of her than she was of it. There were deer on Quinnipeague. And raccoons. And woodchucks, possums, and moles.
The tapping came in bursts of three and four, with pauses between. At one point she stopped, thinking it might be a crick in her sneakers. When it quickly came again, though, she walked on. The closer she got to the Cole house, the louder it was.
The creaking of bones? Skeletons dancing? That was what island kids said, and back then, she and Nicole had believed it, but that didn’t keep them away. Bob and Angie had forbidden their coming here, so it was definitely something to do. Granted, Charlotte was the instigator, but Nicole wouldn’t be left behind.
Crossed Hearts (Matchmaker Trilogy) Page 20