Tripped Up Love

by Farley, Julie

“He wanted to, but I think it will be easier here. So he’s going to cook here. The kids and I are invited to his place on Saturday night. We’ll see how that goes.”

  “I know you’ve got a lot going on in that head of yours. How do you feel?”

  “Crazy. Guilty. Awesome. I feel so guilty that we’re all enjoying Peter. If feels like we’re cheating on Hank.”

  “Hank would want all of you to be happy. He wouldn’t want you to sit in misery for the rest of your days because he wasn’t around.”

  “I know you’re right, but I still feel bad. I also feel terrible saying this part aloud, and I’m only saying it to you. I will never utter these words again. I am enjoying sex with Peter so much more than I can remember with Hank.”

  “Heather, when Hank died you had a three-year-old. All the kids were young. Remember how clingy Henry was? You used to carry him around all day. Sex was the farthest thing from your mind.”

  “But, Hank and I had been having sex long before Henry was born. He was my first, remember.”

  “Exactly. He was your first. Where’d you have sex the first time?”

  “At the river on the rocks.”

  “And you were so young neither one of you knew what to do. You’re older now. Peter has more experience than sixteen-year-old Hank. You and Hank were probably just in a rut like so many other couples our age. I bet it would have been different now. The kids are older. You would have finally had time for yourselves.”

  “I know you’re right. But you know how my guilt works.”

  “Yes, it marches out in front of you like a drum major in a parade. But don’t let it mess up what you and Peter have. He seems like a good guy. Not many would brave Indian Princesses, and so many single men our age come with baggage. His bag is pretty light.”

  “You are so right. There’s got to be something wrong with him though, doesn’t there?”

  “Hopefully you won’t find it.”

  Heather felt better after their talk. Heather knew Jenny was right. She and Hank would have been in a different spot right now. It was time to focus on the future. The only problem was her future included a call to Lauren. It was time to get that over with.

  “Hey,” said Lauren. The advent of caller id changed telephone greetings so much. If you didn’t get a friendly greeting from the person on the other end, clearly something was wrong.

  “Got your email and wanted to give you a call. I miss you.”

  “I miss you too. So, you looked beautiful in that picture. Pretty nice to be jet setting with a famous author.”

  “Yeah, leave it to me to fall in front of someone famous instead of Joe Schmo.”

  “You’ve always had a knack for taking things to another level.”

  “Most of the time you were right there with me though.”

  “I’ve had some time to think. This seems kind of serious.”

  “It’s crazy, Lauren, but yes, it is serious. Peter’s pretty amazing. Gracie didn’t have anyone to take her to the Indian Princess bowling party last night, and he took her. She was thrilled, and you know she doesn’t get that way too frequently.”

  “That’s pretty out of character for her.”

  “I know. He’s cooking dinner for everyone at my house on the Sunday after next. I haven’t talked to him yet this morning, but he’s even asking your parents.”

  “Hmmm…completely replacing Hank.”

  “It’s not like that, Lauren. No matter what we do, Hank isn’t coming back. Peter wants to take the kids to Tech so they can see where Hank went to school. I think that’s pretty awesome.”

  “I guess it is.”

  “Any chance you guys can come down next Sunday for dinner?”

  “Let me check and see what our schedule is and get back to you.”

  “Lauren, I love you. This has been the hardest 18 months of both of our lives.”

  “I know, sweetie. I love you too.”

  Heather was relieved to have that phone call over with. It went as well as she could have expected. She was all talked out by the time Peter called.

  “Hello, lovely. How are you this morning?”

  “Fine. Catching up with everyone.”

  “I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed every moment of this weekend.”

  “I did too. Thank you.”

  “So, I spoke with Donna and Phil. They can come. I think they were a little surprised by the invitation, but it went well.”

  “I invited Lauren and her family. Not sure they can come. She said she would get back to me. That’s a lot of people.”

  “How do you feel about having everyone at your house?”

  “Fine. I’m more worried about the food.”

  “I was just going to do a couple of batches of chili. The Patriots are playing the Ravens, so I thought we could watch the game and eat chili.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “What are you doing today?”

  “Getting caught up.”

  “Will you send me a copy of your manuscript?”

  “Sure. I guess. But it’s not edited well and has a lot of typos, and I have no idea if it’s any good. It’s so raw. So, so raw.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ve seen you pretty raw. Can I stop over today?”

  “I need to accomplish some stuff. My list is huge.”

  “How about tomorrow? I’m portable. I’ll bring my laptop, and we can work together.”

  “I’m sure we’ll get a ton of work done.”

  “I like the way you think, babe.” Peter wasn’t sure he wanted to go all day without seeing Heather, but the truth was he did need to get some things done as well. Another book was being made into a movie, and he had just gotten the script. Although he wasn’t the screenwriter, he had a deal stating he had the final ok on the script. A luxury he earned with impressive box office receipts from his other three movies.

  “Ok. I need to go. I need to shower, make some phone calls, get vegetables for a school project and food for the fam. Blah blah blah.”

  “Have fun. I’ll check in on you in a bit.”

  Chapter 26

  The week flew by. Peter came over on Tuesday, and the amazing sex they had was a welcome diversion for Heather and her week filled with Mommy tasks. Heather ran around doing things for the kids most of the other days. It was one of those weeks that didn’t give her a lot of free time.

  Peter surprised Heather on Friday morning after the bus. He had the local bus schedules down. He came through the garage now since he was comfortable enough not to knock. But he ended up scaring the shit out of Heather, as she wasn’t expecting him. After a hug that slowed her racing heart rate and raised it again at the prospect of a little hanky panky, Peter told her he’d read her book. Heather took a deep breath. She had been so scared to ask him about it all week. Part of her didn’t want to know what he thought, but a bigger part of her knew she needed to.

  “And….”

  “It’s amazing. First of all, I feel like I know you so much better. It was hard for me to read all about your 32-year romance with Hank. I was jealous at some points, which is absurd. But it is so raw and intense. There are very few things I would change. Your voice is strong, and so many people will empathize with what you’ve been through. I actually cried when you described running back and forth to figure out where you were when Hank died. It kills me to think of you doing that.” Heather cringed. “Sorry, wrong choice of words. I have a couple of quick suggestions, I think you can change them now, and we can send it to Richard today.”

  “Today? You can’t be serious. It’s not close to ready.”

  “Yes it is. If you edit it too much, you’re going to take out the intensity that is in there now. I would just change the order of a few chapters in order to hook the reader immediately.”

  Heather and Peter sat down at her desktop and made the changes. Peter compiled the document in Scrivener, made a call to Richard and sent it off. The world was moving at the speed of light ever since Peter had entered it
. Heather sat back, incredulous that her book had just been sent to an agent. That was really fast, but when you are sleeping with a New York Times bestselling author, you have opportunities you never could have imagined.

  “What now?”

  “We go out and celebrate.”

  “Um…look at me. I’m hardly dressed.”

  “Just the way I like you. We’ll go to Cafe Nouveau, grab a lunch to go and head down to the river.”

  “Ahhh…a picnic with a boot. Sounds great.”

  Peter’s brother-in-law was at Cafe Nouveau when they got there. He seemed really nice. Heather was surprised. She wasn’t sure what she had expected but not someone nearly as easy-going as Chris turned out to be. Peter ordered two chicken curry salads and iced tea to go. Of course, Chris didn’t charge them but asked them not to tell Janie.

  “Our secret buddy. We’ll see you next Sunday at Heather’s.”

  “Can’t wait. Great meeting you Heather. Janie is going to be so jealous.”

  Heather laughed, and they turned to leave. As they walked to the car, Heather heard someone calling her name. She turned around and saw Victoria running towards them.

  “So is this THE Peter Adamson, Heather?”

  “Hi, Victoria. Yes, Peter, this is Victoria. Her son plays baseball with Hayes.”

  “Nice to meet you Victoria.” Peter reached out and shook Victoria’s hand.

  “What are you two up to today?”

  “Picking up some lunch,” said Heather.

  “Must be nice not to have to work,” said Victoria.

  “And what do you do?” asked Peter.

  Victoria listed all the things she did for her kids, the committees she was a part of, and of course what she did for Ken’s career.

  “Actually, you should know that Heather finished her book and just sent it to her agent. Her career is about to take off.”

  “I didn’t know you planned on doing anything with that little book you were writing, Heather.”

  “It’s not so little. It’s just over 400 pages. I need to do something to support my family.”

  “Hmmm…well, that’s great. Wish I had more time to talk, but I need to be in three different places in the next 45 minutes. Nice to meet you, Peter.”

  “A pleasure,” said Peter, as he opened Heather’s door.

  “You are brave to put up with all these people all the time. I don’t think I could do it.”

  “That’s why I hole myself up in my house every day. It can be painful.”

  Lunch at the river was perfect and Heather got home just in time for the bus.

  The kids and Heather went to Peter’s on Saturday evening. Henry was impressed with the view. He swore he could see their house from the windows. Hayes was quietly impressed. He wasn’t willing to voice his opinion so vocally. Gracie loved it. She especially liked all the books. She was her mother’s daughter. Peter grilled burgers - veggie and meat - on the grill on his patio. Heather and Peter sat on the patio with a beer while the kids were on their ever-present electronic devices. Peter told her all about his trip to California and the movie that was going to be made. Heather was in complete awe of the fact he wrote books that were made into movies. Peter was so nonchalant about the whole thing, and that made it all the more appealing. Peter talked about wanting to take them all up to his parents’ house in Maine sometime. He wanted Heather to see the place that had shaped so much of his life.

  Part of the plan for the evening was watching the Notre Dame football game. Peter was excited to watch the game with Henry and Hayes. They had both watched games before but didn’t have any connection to the school, so it never meant much to them. Peter intended to impart all of his ND knowledge on them while they watched the game. By the end of the evening, Henry was dancing around like a leprechaun and singing the fight song. The kids had a blast, and it was fun for Heather to see the sporty side of Peter.

  Peter was leaving for California on Sunday night. It would be good-bye for a few days. Heather filled her upcoming week with all kinds of fun and necessary tasks, so she would have more time to spend with Peter when he returned.

  Chapter 27

  Heather dialed Peter’s number as soon as she left the gynecologist’s office on Monday.

  “Hey! I was just going to call you. Been thinking about you, and Richard just called about your book.”

  “Well, I’ve been thinking about you too. I just left the doctor’s office and your super bionic sperm ripped through a condom and impregnated me!”

  Holy shit. That was definitely not what Peter thought Heather was going to say. He realized he better choose his next words wisely.

  “Ok. I’ll be on the next flight home. I love you and everything is going to be fine.”

  Love? thought Heather. There had been no mention of that yet. And now his first “I love you” had come after she’d said she was pregnant. Would he have said it anyway? She would never know.

  “You don’t have to rush home. You just got there. There’s nothing you can do. It’s just not how I expected the day, or my life for that matter, to go. I went in to get birth control pills, for God’s sake, and apparently I was too late!”

  “Ok. We’ll deal with it.”

  “Deal with it? How - like get an abortion?”

  “NO! I didn’t mean that. I mean we can handle this. It’s a surprise, but we’ll be fine.”

  “You’re not pregnant and about to turn 40!”

  “No, but I ‘m 40 and don’t have any kids. I know this won’t be easy on you. But I’m here to help you, and I can’t wait to meet our baby.” Peter was definitely at a point where he couldn’t say much of anything right. “Look, I’ll meet with the studio execs tomorrow and take the red-eye home.”

  “Whatever. Do what you have to do. I’ll be fine.” With that, Heather hung up.

  She hadn’t even left the doctor’s office parking lot yet. She almost passed out when they had told her she was pregnant. The doctor had run a routine urine test just to make sure before they put her on the pill. When they determined that she was pregnant, they took about 7 vials of blood and asked her to come back in two weeks for an ultrasound. Her pregnancy would be classified as high risk since she was almost 40, so she had to see a specialist. More kids? Hank had had a vasectomy about three weeks after Henry was born. Heather was done with diapers. Shit, forget about the diapers. She wasn’t married and didn’t know if she even had health insurance to cover being pregnant. Hank’s company had arranged for them to be covered under his plan. Since Hank was dead and had clearly not impregnated her, Heather had a hard time believing her insurance would cover this baby. And now Peter was stuck with her. People would assume she’d gotten pregnant on purpose to make sure he stuck around. And the kids. What would they say? Hayes would freak out. What an awful horrible mother she was to get pregnant while she was dating the first guy since her husband had died. Heather put her head on the steering wheel and cried.

  About five minutes later, the passenger side door opened. It was Jenny.

  “Peter called me.” Jenny rubbed Heather’s back the same way she had in the emergency room when they had gone to identify Hank’s body and the way she had during the funeral. “Honey, it’s going to be ok. That guy loves you.”

  “Yeah, he just told me. I’m a freaking unwed pregnant mother of three. AND I’m almost 40! I’m sorry I’m not jumping for joy.”

  “Switch seats with me. I’ll drive you home.”

  “I want a Big Mac.”

  “Seriously? Are you sure? I’ll take you there if you really want to go.”

  “I’m positive.”

  Heather and Jenny both used to let their kids have Happy Meals, but McDonald’s had become forbidden fruit in recent years. But it was the only food Heather could associate with comfort. Her mom used to take her to McDonald’s after doctor’s appointments. She went to McDonald’s the day her dog died. It used to be a treat. Now everyone knew how bad it was for you, so no one went. Unless they went i
ncognito.

  “Go to the one in Bon Air. We’re less likely to see anyone we know. And go through the drive thru.”

  “Bossy for a little pregnant lady, aren’t you?”

  “Ugh, Jenny what am I going to do?”

  “You are going to have a baby. It’s that simple. You have nine months to wrap your head around it.”

  “I haven’t even wrapped my head around having sex with someone other than Hank yet.”

  “Well, now we have proof you have. Do you feel ok? Any morning sickness?”

  “Nothing, but it’s so early.”

  They drove through the drive thru. Jenny ordered some fries in solidarity with Heather. Heather had a Big Mac and almost ordered a Coke but remembered she couldn’t have caffeine since she was pregnant. Heather finished the Big Mac before she got home. It hit the spot. Heather felt a little bit better. Jenny helped Heather get into the house. She carried the folder of papers the doctor had given Heather about pregnancy and put them into Heather’s drawer of junk. Heather took her phone out of her purse. Peter had already texted asking if she was ok and telling her he loved her. Hayes would be home in fifteen minutes, so Heather had no choice but to get herself together.

  “Just tell the kids you don’t feel well. Pretend you have the flu. I’ll bring over some dinner. At least you can just veg for awhile then.”

  Heather let Jenny bring dinner. She told the kids she felt kind of sick. Gracie was always happy to take care of her mom - for short periods of time. The night was quiet. Peter called twice. Heather knew he had meetings with studio people and was going to be busy tomorrow. It was a big deal for him to leave early, but Heather guessed his Wednesday meetings must have been superfluous.

  Tuesday passed quickly. Jenny came over to check on Heather. Heather hung out on the couch most of the day. She could feel herself getting dangerously close to the depressed state she had slipped into six months after Hank had died. Part of this was hormonal, Heather realized, but she wanted to stay away from her sad place. She worked so hard to stay off Zoloft, and she had finally found some happiness over the last few weeks. Heather grabbed her laptop and started to jot down some thoughts to try and figure out what was going on.