by Lisa Dyson
“Does Nick know that? Or does he think you’re coming around?”
Bree hadn’t thought about it. “I’m sure he knows that this is just sex.” Really, really great sex. She put her cool hands to her warm cheeks. “I have no interest in a relationship with anyone, and I’ve made that quite clear to him.”
“I hope you’re right.” Roxie looked over at Pete and Nick, who were deep in conversation. Then she turned back to Bree. “So what happened today? Did you find your grandparents?”
“I found a lot today.” Bree gestured to Nick. “Looks like he’s going to be a while. Can you give me a ride to his condo to pick up my car? I’ll fill you in on the drive.”
“Sure.”
“Let me tell him, and I’ll meet you out behind the restaurant. I’m assuming that’s where you parked?”
Roxie nodded. “Pete said it was okay.”
Roxie left the building and Bree went to speak to Nick. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said to the two men. “I just wanted to let you know that Roxie’s going to give me a ride to pick up my car.”
“That’s not necessary,” Nick said. “I’m just about done here.” He appeared confused, probably because she’d changed her mind about spending the night with him.
She felt more than a twinge of guilt. “I know. But Roxie doesn’t mind.”
Nick said to Pete, “I’ll be right back.” He turned to Bree again and took her elbow. “I’ll walk you out.”
From his brusqueness, she knew he was pissed off and she knew why, but she asked the question anyway. “Why are you so upset?”
He stopped suddenly, in the middle of the restaurant’s empty kitchen. “Why am I upset?” His eyebrows rose. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because one minute we’re having incredible sex, and now you’re brushing me off like I’m a piece of lint.”
“That’s not true.” Well, maybe it was a little true. Incredible sex, indeed.
“It certainly is true. You use this excuse about not being interested in a relationship, but you have no problem jumping into bed with me. Is that what you do? Sleep with guys and then disappear before any feelings are involved?”
Now he’d succeeded in making her angry. She put her hands on her hips and spoke very distinctly. “I do not sleep with strange men, and I’m appalled to hear you say something like that about me. How dare you!” She took a step toward the exit. There was no way she was going to admit to him that it had been a really long time since she’d had sex before he’d shown up in her life. A hell of a long time. Because that’s the way she rolled.
“Don’t just walk away,” Nick said. “Stop acting like nothing happened between us.” He ran a hand through his hair. “We have a connection that’s not going away. We made a baby. There’s no denying that.”
Her anger was about to push her to tears, which made her even more angry. “Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I blame myself for my own screwup?” She sucked in a breath. “You know, I could have just ended this pregnancy, walked away as you describe my behavior. But I’m not. I’m going through with it.”
“And walking away after that to let me raise it.”
She had nothing to counter. He was right, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “My life, my business.”
“Well, now your life is my business. You’ve made it that way, whether you want to admit it or not.”
“Look, we both know where the other stands,” she said with as much patience as she could muster. “Roxie is waiting for me. I need to go.”
He stood silently, not saying another word. She had turned to leave when she felt an odd sensation in her abdomen. She stopped and put a hand on the spot where she’d felt it.
“Are you okay?” Nick had walked up behind her, concern replacing the anger in his tone.
“Yes,” she whispered, and then felt it again. “I think I just felt it move.”
“Really?”
She nodded. Then she took his flat palm and placed it where she’d felt the flutter. They waited, his breath warm on her neck, until it finally happened again.
Their gazes met, and even though her own eyes began to fill with tears, she could see Nick’s eyes were glassy, too.
* * *
ROXIE WAS ABOUT to go back into the restaurant for Bree when she finally exited through the alley door.
“Hey, what happened to you?” she asked Bree when she opened the passenger-side door and got into Roxie’s car.
“Nick.” As if that answered the question sufficiently.
“I take it you don’t want to talk about it?”
Bree didn’t say anything right away. “He’s not happy that I’m not going back to his place for the night.”
“Are you sure you two aren’t in a relationship?” Roxie said as she pulled out onto the main thoroughfare from the alley.
Bree put her hands to her face. “I don’t know. I’m so confused.” She paused. “We were fighting, and then I felt movement.”
Roxie’s head spun to look at Bree. “You felt the baby move? Already?”
“I’m into my second trimester,” Bree said in a clinical tone. “Everything I read says this is about the time when you can begin to feel it move.”
“Did you tell Nick?” Surely that was a moment that would bring them closer.
“Sure. He was right there when it happened. He felt it, too.” Bree shifted in her seat. “But I could tell when I left that he was still mad that I wasn’t going home with him.”
“Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me what happened in Delaware? Then maybe I can get a feel for where you are now with Nick.”
As Bree began to tell Roxie the tale of meeting her grandparents and aunt, interspersed with directions to Nick’s condo, Roxie was struck by how dispassionately Bree spoke about her deceased mother.
“So most of that money your dad paid your mom actually ended up with your grandparents?”
“That’s right. She must not have had very long after I was born to even enjoy her financial freedom.”
“Do you think she regretted not fighting to keep you?”
Bree didn’t answer right away. “I never thought so before, but maybe if she had told her family, then they would have convinced her to fight for me. They seemed very welcoming today, but I don’t know how they would have reacted back then.”
“You told them about your baby?” Roxie asked.
“Just my aunt. She wondered why I began searching for my mother now and not years ago. I felt I had to tell her the truth about being pregnant and that I felt like it had been up to my mother to find me earlier, if she’d wanted to. As Cal Tucker’s daughter, I’m pretty easy to locate.”
“That’s true. You know, I never even considered what will happen when the tabloids get ahold of this news about your baby.”
“With any luck they’ll be more interested in my father’s newest addition instead of focusing on me.”
“Let’s hope.” Roxie had never gotten used to the occasional picture of Bree in the grocery-store tabloids.
They were nearing Nick’s building and Roxie turned where Bree told her to. “I’m parked over there.” Bree pointed to the right side of the parking lot.
The sun had already set on the early May evening, but the parking lot was well lit, enabling Roxie to pick out Bree’s car without help.
“You’re sure you’re doing the right thing by going home?” Roxie asked.
Bree had opened the car door and was partially out. “Spending the night with Nick isn’t going to change anything. We have no future together. I don’t want him to get the wrong idea.”
“But you’ll always have a child together,” Roxie pointed out.
“A child doesn’t make a relationship. And I don’t want a relationship. You know that. I have enou
gh people and responsibilities in my life without working so hard to have one more.”
Roxie didn’t know how to counter that, and Bree was already out the door.
“Thanks for the ride. See you at work tomorrow,” Bree said before closing the car door and heading to her own vehicle.
Roxie just sat there a minute, wondering how she could help her friend realize what she was doing with her life.
Or what she wasn’t doing.
* * *
SEVERAL WEEKS WENT BY before Bree heard from Nick. She’d been bogged down with work and had tried hard not to think about how they’d left things. He hadn’t even pushed for their usual Monday dinners, and she told herself that she was fine the way things were.
Then one evening she was unlocking her condo after work when she got a text. She reached into her purse and checked her phone. Nick. Funny, since she’d just been thinking about him.
My mom wants us to attend a family reunion in Pennsylvania this Saturday. She’d like you to meet her family.
Bree didn’t know how to respond. After their argument in the restaurant, he’d been acting like he didn’t want to have anything more to do with her.
She let herself into her condo and locked the door behind her. He texted again as she put her purse on the hook in the coat closet.
I’ll understand if you don’t want to go. Just say the word.
That would be the easiest thing to do, but she wasn’t a coward and didn’t like to go back on her word. She’d promised to spend time with him to enable bonding, and she saw no reason not to go with him to this reunion.
What time Saturday? she texted.
Will pick you up by 8. Takes about 2 hours. It’s west of Harrisburg, he responded.
OK, she ended.
She had set down her phone down and begun to change into more comfortable clothes when her phone sounded again. This time Nick was calling instead of texting.
“Hello,” she answered.
“Hey,” he said. “I wanted to thank you for going to this reunion. I know it’s a last-minute invitation. I wasn’t going to ask you, but my mom can be pretty pushy about this stuff.”
“That’s okay. I like your mom, so I don’t mind doing this for her.”
“What about me?” he asked.
“What about you?”
“Do you mind doing it for me?”
She didn’t even have to think about it. “No, of course not.”
“Good.” He was silent a few seconds. “I like you, Bree. A lot. I want us to get along.”
Her heart began to race. She hadn’t expected this conversation, especially after not hearing from him for weeks.
She cleared her throat. “I know you were upset about me going home instead of your—”
“I’m sorry about that. I’ve thought about it a lot and I think I understand completely,” he said before she could finish. “It was a work night, and I know you like to be at the office early in the morning. Your work is your life. It only makes sense that you’d want to sleep at your own place.”
“Thanks for understanding.” She didn’t correct him. That was only part of the reason she’d chosen not to go home with him, but she wouldn’t get into that now. She was anxious for them to get along together, as well.
“I can’t believe we felt the baby move,” he said, catching her off guard.
She put a hand to her abdomen, remembering the moment they’d shared. “I know. I wasn’t expecting it.”
“I was thinking that the baby probably heard us arguing and was trying to get us to stop. What do you think?”
“I think that’s pretty crazy thinking.” She actually smiled at his nonsense. “Fetuses can’t hear this early.” She had obviously done more research than he had about this pregnancy stuff.
“Oh.” He chuckled. “Well, I’m still going to believe what I want.”
She laughed at him. With him, actually, because he was laughing now, too.
“Do you feel it move often?” he asked.
“Sometimes. I notice it more when I’m being still.”
They talked details about the family reunion and then he said, “Sleep well. I’ll talk to you soon.”
As she finished getting ready for bed, she couldn’t help wondering if she’d made a mistake by coming home that evening a few weeks ago instead of spending the night with Nick.
* * *
ROXIE WAS THROWING TOGETHER a salad for dinner Tuesday evening when her phone rang. “You want me to what?” she said to Pete, who’d called out of the blue.
He spoke slowly and distinctly as he repeated his request. “I’d like you to go to a family reunion with me this weekend.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” he countered.
“Because we barely know each other. Why would you take me to a family reunion of all things? That’s just plain odd.”
“Okay, so truthfully it’s Auntie Em’s idea. She talked Nick into bringing Bree to this thing, and she thought it might go better if I brought someone, too.”
“But why me?” Hadn’t she turned down his date requests enough times already?
“Because anyone else I take will assume that I’m getting serious about them. But you’ve made it clear that you’re in a relationship, and you also understand why I’m taking you. That it’s just to make my aunt happy. I think she doesn’t want people to take too seriously the fact that Bree will be with Nick since they’re not planning a future with the baby.”
“Oh. Sure. I actually see your reasoning.” She wasn’t sure how to answer. “So Bree and Nick will be there, too?”
“According to Nick, Bree has agreed to come.”
“I thought they weren’t speaking to each other,” she said.
“I don’t know what’s going on with those two. They’ve got a strange situation.”
“That’s for sure. So give me the details about this weekend.”
He did that and they disconnected shortly afterward. Roxie stared at her phone, wondering how he’d persuaded her to go with him. It hadn’t even taken much convincing to get her to say yes.
She popped a cherry tomato into her mouth and tried to figure out what kind of influence he had over her when he was so obviously a guy who would never settle down. She shook her head—why did she even care?
She was contemplating texting her boyfriend Jim when her phone rang again. “Now what?” She picked up her cell phone to see it was Bree. She finished swallowing the tomato and answered. “Hey, Bree.”
“Help,” Bree said dramatically.
Roxie’s pulse soared. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t zip my jeans anymore!” Bree sounded more upset over her clothes than she had when she’d found out she was pregnant.
“That’s all?” Roxie sighed in relief.
“That’s all! What am I going to wear? It’s like it happened overnight. It’s not even that I’ve got a visible bump. I’m just thicker around the waist. In fact, it’s as if I don’t have a waist anymore. I just go straight from chest to hips.”
“Okay, calm down. We can get you new clothes.”
“But I’m not ready to wear maternity clothes. Once I do that, everyone will know I’m pregnant.”
“It’s going to happen sooner or later,” Roxie reminded her.
“Later is what I’m counting on.”
Roxie could see no way to delay the inevitable, so she made a suggestion. “Why don’t we all go shopping one night this week. Hannah’s really good at picking out flattering clothes. Maybe you just need something a size larger for now, until you actually look pregnant.”
“Okay, that might work. I don’t mind if people think I’m putting on a few pounds. It’s really none of their business anyway.”
Roxie agreed. “I’ll call the girls and we’ll plan on tomorrow night if that works for you.”
“Perfect. Thanks, Roxie. I knew I could count on you. I figure I can make it through work with long tops and the button of my pants undone, but I’ve got a thing to go to this Saturday and I’d rather not be wearing clothes that don’t fit.”
“I understand. And you should know that I’m going to the family reunion, too.”
“You are?”
Obviously, Bree hadn’t heard the news, so Roxie filled her in.
“I’m so glad you’re coming, too,” Bree said, not even questioning the part about how Pete had asked Roxie. She knew Bree and the other girls weren’t huge fans of Jim. “Things have been pretty cool between Nick and me, so having you there should help.”
“Glad I can be of service,” Roxie quipped before they discussed details of their shopping trip and she hung up to call Hannah and Amber.
* * *
“THIS IS SO much fun,” Hannah said as the four women entered the maternity section in the high-end department store the next evening.
“Easy for you to say,” Bree countered. “You’re not the one with the expanding waist.”
“How do you decide on size?” Amber asked. “Don’t you keep getting bigger and bigger?”
“Thanks for the encouragement,” Bree said gloomily. “According to what I read, you buy your prepregnancy size. I guess as long as I don’t put on eighty or a hundred pounds I’ll be okay.”
The girls pulled clothes off the racks and finally decided on a few for Bree to try on.
“Hurry up so we can see,” Roxie said.
“I will say that these jeans are pretty comfortable,” Bree said when she stepped out of the dressing room. “I don’t think I’m ready for big shirts yet, but pants and skirts that expand will get me through for now.”
They all agreed, but talked her into buying two maternity dresses that were actually cute. She could wear them to work when she couldn’t fit into her regular clothes anymore.
Bree paid for her purchases and didn’t mind when the others wanted to wander through the store for clothes for themselves.