Tripped Up Love

by Farley, Julie

  “No, I told you I needed space. That’s it. I’ll talk to him in a bit I’m sure. Thanks for coming over on such short notice.” When Heather was done talking, she was really done. Diane had her things ready to go and made her way to the door.

  “I’m here if you need anything, you know.”

  “I know, thanks.”

  Heather made her way upstairs and started the water for the shower. She called Jenny while it warmed up.

  “Hey, that was some disappearing act.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Heather recounted the whole situation to Jenny. “I just needed to escape. I know he loves me. But whatever he can’t do is part of my life, and that is a huge problem.’

  “You’re right. He’s been pretty crazy. Did you like the flowers?”

  “They’re beautiful, but all the flowers in the world don’t change the fact I have known him for four weeks, am pregnant with his child and he doesn’t think he can live my life.”

  “Half the time you don’t think you can live your life. So I’m sure you can understand where he’s coming from.”

  “Right, but I have three kids - soon to be four - and I have to and want to live this life for them.”

  “You have to hear him out. Practically speaking, you are not in a position to shut him out. Remember, Miss Hot and Sexy in the 2-3-1-1-3, you liked all that sex. You knew the risks.”

  “The risks were pretty low, but yes, technically, they were in the back of my mind.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be in touch with one of us pretty soon.”

  “Well, I’m getting in the shower. If you talk to him try and hold him off for a little bit.”

  “K. I’ll talk to you later.”

  Heather took her shower and kept thinking about what Jenny had said. Practically speaking, she was not in a position to ignore Peter. Jenny was right. She also thought back to her journal entry and the fact that she was worrying about what people thought of her having Peter’s baby. None of these things had anything to do with love. And she loved Peter. Maybe she had to remember the numerology and their compatibility report. They were welded together, and Heather loved life when she was welded together with Peter. Can’t love work everything out? Heather sure hoped it could.

  Chapter 31

  Aiden had been furious. She had seen enough faxes, emails and phone calls to know what was going on. She had overheard Peter tell Janie Heather was pregnant. She had also seen Richard’s agreement to represent Heather come through the fax machine and she knew he had interest from publishers already. How in four measly weeks did Heather have everything Aiden had thought could be hers at some point? She had always thought she would hook up with Peter. Even though he had never made any advances, she had hoped he would in New York. Heather put an end to that. In the last six months, he had never read any of her writing. Four weeks with Heather, and he had gotten her a book deal. Aiden was convinced it was all out of pity for the little widow with three kids. She had watched Peter date and knew Heather was not the type he had usually gone for. With all the wisdom of a 22-year-old and a fake twitter account, Aiden, a.k.a. Rosie Greer, tweeted 140 characters she hoped would rock their world.

  Knocked up your girlfriend so quickly? #Padamson #wtf #welcometosuburbia

  Aiden knew Peter had 300,000 followers on Twitter. She was sure one of them would spread the news quickly.

  Chapter 32

  Peter spent all of the previous night and some of the morning looking at properties in Heather’s zip code. He fell in love with the last one he saw, and he couldn’t wait to show her. It was an old mill house only about a mile or two from where she lived now. It was right on the river. It had a huge studio office space in the yard, and it was an architectural masterpiece. The house had six bedrooms, a loft with a family room and a family room downstairs as well. He guessed you could see the river from the kitchen when the trees were bare. There was room to put in a pool, and it already had an incredible outdoor patio and fireplace. Heather would love it. The kids would love it too he thought. They couldn’t walk to their friends’ houses, but they could still be in the same school. The best thing for Peter was no one could monitor his comings and goings. Not that he was going to do anything secretive, but he didn’t want people knowing how many bags of groceries he had purchased at Kroger. Peter had a lot of talking and convincing to do with Heather before he could even show it to her. He had to convince her he wanted a life with her.

  He texted Jenny around 10:00, and she told him Heather was home but needed some space. As far as Peter was concerned, he would give her space until 11:00, and then he was going over. He really couldn’t wait any longer.

  When Peter arrived at Heather’s, he walked right in through the unlocked garage door and found her standing at the sink freshly showered and without any makeup on. She looked gorgeous. When Heather looked up and saw Peter standing there in her favorite hot writer outfit, she gasped. She gasped partially because he had scared her but also because he was standing there in person looking so hot. She knew she was going to lose all of her resolve and forgive him without a fight. Heather held onto the sink in hopes it would give her some extra strength.

  “Hey,” said Peter with his hands in his pockets, as he moved uncomfortably close to Heather hoping she would kiss him.

  “Hey, guess you weren’t going to wait for an invitation to come over?”

  “Didn’t plan on it. I gave you all the space I could give. I needed to see you and make you understand how I feel.”

  Heather started crying. “Stupid pregnancy hormones.”

  Peter took that as a cue and hugged Heather and held her at the sink. Heather held her body rigid for as long as she could. She didn’t want to give into his hug. But hugs were the thing she had missed the most with Hank’s death, and Peter knew that. He wanted to remind her how they felt, and he was successful. Peter picked Heather up and sat her on the counter top so they could look eye-to-eye.

  “I’m sorry you heard me talking to Janie before I talked to you. But I need you to understand what I was saying to Janie. Will you listen?”

  “Yes,” said a still tearing up Heather.

  “I love you. I love your kids. I love who you are with them. I love that you even had a goofy smile after you fell in the road and broke your ankle. I love that you spilled wine all over me and burped at dinner. You are the most authentic person I have ever met, and I want to live our life without having people peaking in through the mini blinds. I want us to have some space to create our world together…all six of us.”

  “You know there’s no way to avoid it, right?”

  “Yes, but there are ways to minimize it. There are ways for me to still feel like we have our own space. And, Heather, this is something I was thinking about before Monday and your doctor’s appointment. I know we’ve only known each other for a little more than a month, but I’ve been figuring out how we were going to weld our lives together for awhile.”

  He had her at weld. Heather figured it was a sign. How often do people use that word? It was in her compatibility report, and she hadn’t been able to shake it since. Now Peter used it to describe them. She was his. She just planned on keeping it a secret for a little while longer.

  “There are some serious practical issues we need to tackle before we go ‘welding’ anything. Like the fact I don’t think my insurance will cover my pregnancy. Since I am a widow with three kids, I don’t have a lot of extra cash to afford this baby.”

  “Babe, you have no money worries.”

  “I’m not going to rely on you to pay for everything. I need to be independent.”

  “Well, I want to pay for everything, but you also have a career ahead of you. Richard wants to represent you and sent me an agreement. He already has publishers interested in your book.”

  Heather had forgotten the reason she had gone over to Peter’s apartment to begin with. They had planned on skyping with Richard.

  “Hmmm. So, maybe the insurance is not the biggest deal. But
the things you aren’t sure you want are part of my life. So you don’t want Jenny to pop in? You don’t want the kids to have friends around?”

  “NO! Jenny is awesome. She has helped me so much in the last few days. And the kids need to have friends around. Unless I isolate us in the middle of Alaska, there will be people around. People will start to take extra notice though because I tend to get a lot of attention. I want to ward off any extra negative attention for the kids and for our baby.”

  As the words negative attention were thrown out into the universe, Heather got a text from Elizabeth.

  11:25 Elizabeth: YOU ARE PREGNANT???!?!?

  “Holy fuck! Who did you tell?” Heather asked Peter.

  “Tell? No one except Janie. Janie would never tell because she’s freaking embarrassed her forty-year-old brother got someone pregnant. Ask her how she knows!”

  11:26 Heather: What? Where did you hear that?

  11:26 Elizabeth: It came through my Peter Adamson notifications on Google.

  “This is so messed up for so many reasons,” said Heather and showed the text to Peter.

  Peter hopped on Heather’s computer, determined to figure out how the information was out there.

  Chapter 33

  Peter googled himself and found the twitter comment within a few minutes. He didn’t know the person who tweeted the comment - Rosie Greer. This was Rosie Greer’s first tweet. She didn’t have any followers yet, and she only followed Peter. She was obviously someone bent on getting this info out quickly. He called Janie. She emphatically denied having anything to do with it. Peter believed her because this would put a little black cloud on her world, and she never did anything that would bring attention to any of them. Peter hadn’t discussed it with anyone else. Heather was sure Jenny and Lauren didn’t have anything to do with it. They would never hurt Heather.

  The private investigator mission was put on hold. There were people Heather and Peter needed to talk to or text before it was leaked any more.

  Peter called his parents. They were beyond excited because they thought they were done having grandkids. They were anxious to meet Heather and her kids, and wanted to plan a visit. Peter said he would call them in a few days to work out the details.

  12:00 Heather: someone tweeted that I was pregnant. Go online. See what u can figure out.

  12:02 Jenny: Shit. I’m on it.

  Heather called her mom and explained the whole situation. She didn’t mention the fight or what she had overheard Peter say because Heather was afraid her mom wouldn’t be able to think about anything else. Heather told her mom she had gone to Lauren’s to sort out the whole pregnancy thing. Diane was nervous for her daughter and afraid she didn’t know Peter well enough. She ended the conversation by saying, “I guess that really doesn’t matter anyway. What’s done is done.”

  Heather wanted to yell at her mom and question her lack of excitement about another grandchild but knew it wouldn’t do any good. She told her somehow people had found out about it and she wanted her to hear about it from Heather instead of the Internet. She hung up as quickly as she could and called Donna and Phil. She started by telling them she had spent the night at Lauren’s and they’d had some great bonding time. She thought it might be important for them to know their relationship was intact. She went on to tell them she had gone to see Lauren because she was pregnant. Donna and Phil were shocked. Heather could hear tears in Donna’s voice.

  “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this.”

  “Don’t be sorry. We can’t wait to be involved in the life of another little baby. It’s just a surprise and a reminder Hank isn’t here anymore,” said Phil.

  “I am happy for you, sweetie. I will do anything I can to help you. Four kids…that’s a lot. I want to be part of the excitement.”

  Heather started crying. Donna and Phil were some of the sweetest people she knew and had suffered an unimaginable loss themselves. The way they were constantly able to rise above it was amazing. Heather thanked them and hung up. The next step was telling the kids. She wanted them to hear it from her and not from a friend or an electronic source. They decided they should pick them up from school instead of letting them take the bus. Middle school kids got on their phones as soon as they got on the bus. There was no telling who would tell Hayes. Peter and Heather started racking their brains to figure out what they could do that would be special and would help to break the news gently.

  “Janie has a place at Wintergreen. Maybe we could go up there for the night?”

  “Ummm. That could work. I’d have to see if Jenny could watch Coco. I’m sure she won’t mind though.”

  Peter spoke with Janie, and Heather called Jenny. The trip was all set. Peter went home to pack, and Heather got all of their stuff together. Packing for a night for four of them was easier now that they were older. Heather would be back to carrying all the baby stuff wherever they went in less than a year. Back to diapers, cribs, bottles and binkies. It was hard to imagine. She hoped the kids would take it well.

  Peter was back quickly. He wanted some time alone with Heather before they picked up the kids. He walked in wearing a turtleneck sweater, jeans and his Doc Marten’s. Heather almost melted into him. He looked so delicious. Turtlenecks, she loved turtlenecks. They had made Hank itch, so he had never worn them. She quickly ran her hand across her mouth just in case there was any drool dripping.

  “This hasn’t been a good writing week for you. Suppose you’ll have a lot more of those coming up.”

  “For a very good reason though. I have Richard’s papers with me. Do you want to take a look and sign them?”

  “I’m not good at legalese. I’m going to have to go out on a limb and trust it’s ok.”

  Peter explained the terms. They were pretty standard, and he had known Richard for more than a decade. He was confident there was nothing surprising in it.

  “What happens next?”

  “He sends it to publishers, and if they like it, they bid on it. It’ll take a few weeks.”

  “Ok. Until I have a deal, we need to discuss health insurance.”

  “I’m on it. My people are taking care of it.”

  Peter grabbed Heather and kissed her. They had an hour before they had to pick up Hayes. Peter was obsessed with Heather’s stomach. He rubbed it and tickled it gently. He was fascinated with the fact that there was a baby growing inside of her. Heather was trying to remember it was all new for Peter even though it was old hat for her. Heather couldn’t wait for him to go to the ultrasound. He moved his fingers from her stomach, and they moved across every inch of her body just like he was discovering Heather for the first time. Peter’s fingers were delicate and forceful all at once. They intrigued and comforted Heather. Heather noticed her breasts were tender already, her first symptom she was pregnant. It had been the first with her other three kids as well. Heather wasn’t sure how she was going to spend the night with Peter without having sex with him, so she was determined to enjoy this and make it last. Make up, pregnant sex turned out to be the best yet. But with Peter, each time kept topping the previous.

  The text from Elizabeth and discovering the tweet had stopped their discussion about their future, and they were all of a sudden a team, a couple again. Jenny hadn’t been able to find anything out, and Peter was pretty quiet about it. They both seemed determined to move forward with their lives, but Heather was not about to give up on figuring out who wrote the tweet. As soon as she took care of telling her kids, that would be the next project.

  Chapter 34

  Heather and Peter picked Hayes up first. He was surprised to see them and figured something was wrong.

  “What are we doing?”

  “Surprise road trip to Wintergreen!” explained Heather.

  “Wintergreen? It’s not time for skiing.”

  “No, but there’s an indoor pool, and you can go tubing on the mountains and other stuff,” said Peter.

  “It’s just for the night,” said Heather. “It’s an
adventure.”

  “It’s weird you picked me up from school.”

  “We thought it would be fun. You can complain tomorrow if it’s awful,” said Heather. Hayes wasn’t a kid who liked surprises. He probably had his whole afternoon mapped out with a football game and manhunt in the dark. Taking him to Wintergreen would completely upset his plan.

  Peter drove, and Hayes begrudgingly got in the backseat. Picking up Henry and Gracie was filled with fewer questions. Henry was excited for an adventure, and Gracie would leave school happily anytime. They were easily convinced an adventure was about to take place. The drive was less than two hours, and the scenery was beautiful. Heather felt so relaxed with Peter driving and the mountains surrounding them. The leaves had all changed colors and were starting to fall. Heather’s mind was bubbling over. She couldn’t decide if it was best to tell the kids at the beginning and then have a fun night or if it would be better to have a little fun first and then give them the news. Heather hadn’t even discussed it with Peter. She hoped he wouldn’t take control of the news and spill the beans.

  Janie’s condo was right next to the lodge. Peter and the boys unpacked the car. He showed everyone to their respective sleeping places. The boys had one room, and Gracie and Heather were going to sleep in the master bedroom. Peter was going to sleep on the sofa bed. Everyone got settled, and they walked down to the restaurant, The Edge, to get some dinner. Peter planned on taking the kids night tubing afterwards. Heather couldn’t go with her boot on, but he had no intention of letting her do anything like snow tubing anyway. They were seated right away and were the only people in the whole restaurant.