He nodded. “I suppose but I will hold you to that.”
She smiled then felt that pain in her stomach once again. Damn it, she’d thought it was just hunger. But nope. Great. More to worry about.
“Are you okay?” Marc asked, looking concerned.
“My stomach is a little upset,” she said. “I think I taste tested too much when I made those damned pies.” The pain suddenly went away. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Marc asked.
Harmony nodded, though she wasn’t so sure herself. But she knew she could no longer ignore this. She smiled at him. “Let’s just go eat.”
BIG NEWS
Late the next afternoon, Harmony got home from a shopping trip to find Marc on the couch flipping channels. He looked over at her as she entered the room carrying a small bag from the drug store. She smiled at him.
“Hey, baby,” he said and smiled back.
“Hey,” she said and stopped behind him and stared at the TV. “What are you watching?”
“Nothing,” he said. “There’s nothing on.” He turned to her and pointed at the bag. “Wha’cha got in the poke?”
Harmony cracked up at his choice of words. Poke was a term a lot of old people used back home to describe a bag. She hadn’t heard it in a while but leave it up to Marc to try to reinstate it into their vocabulary. “Unmentionables,” Harmony replied. “Wanna take a look?”
“Why do you do me like that?” he asked.
“How else would I do you?” she quipped back.
He smiled sweetly at her. “You look really pretty today.”
She smiled at him, loving the fact that he was in such a good mood. And he usually was. She was a lucky woman to have a man like that. “Thank you,” she said. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”
He smiled at her again and asked, “Want a pizza for supper?”
“If you order it,” Harmony said and bent down and kissed his cheek, then started to exit the room.
Marc watched her go and called, “Extra pepperoni?”
“Please!” Harmony hollered back and went into the bedroom and then into the en suite bathroom and quietly shut the door.
A little while later, Harmony was leaning against the wall and staring down at the pregnancy test she’d purchased at the drug store. The results read “pregnant.” Now she knew where the pains in her stomach were coming from and probably a lot of the crazy thoughts, too. She wondered if any of it was real or if it was just hormones messing with her. Quite honestly, she felt a little foolish.
She took a deep breath, trying to digest this big news. She didn’t really know what to do, what to say, how to act. This was huge. She always wanted to have a baby, she just didn’t think it would be so soon after they moved into the house. It was a lot of change to contend with all at once.
She tossed the pregnancy stick on the vanity and put her head in her hands, groaning slightly. She could kick herself for not figuring this out earlier! She wished when she’d had that conversation with Darcy about pregnancy earlier that she’d just thought and bought a test.
And now she had to tell Marc. There was no time like the present, so she straightened up, squared her shoulders and went back into the living area. He wasn’t there. He was in the kitchen. She went in there to see him taking a few plates down from a cupboard. He glanced over at her as soon as she entered.
“Pizza will be here soon,” he said. “I got two. One supreme. I thought I should eat some vegetables.”
Harmony laughed a little and leaned against the counter. “Okay, good, thanks. Listen, I—”
Marc interrupted without thinking, “I wanted to—” He stopped and shook his head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. You go first.”
“No, you go,” Harmony said.
He nodded. “Okay, fine, I will. Uh, I was thinking about it, about how you feel about the house and if you want, we can sell it. I have a buyer who’s interested.”
Harmony’s eyes widened at his words.
“Yeah,” he said. “A client I helped with their first place called me out of the blue to congratulate me on the house and I told them we actually might be selling. They want it. And I did tell them everything I knew about the things that happened here.”
“Wow,” Harmony said. “They want to live here?”
“Actually, they want it as an investment,” he said. “They’re thinking about turning it into a location house.”
“What’s that?”
“That’s where you rent out your house to production companies, magazines, whatever and they do shoots there. You can rent it out for a day or for the entire shoot of a movie. It’s very lucrative.” He nodded then pointed at her. “You have to admit, this house would look great in a magazine. Or in some creepy horror movie.”
Harmony laughed. “I guess it would,” she said. “But…” She paused and studied him. “You’d do that for me? You’d give up your dream house for me?”
He nodded. “I would.”
She smiled at him. “So, these people… Didn’t it scare them? All the stuff that went on here?”
Marc shook his head. “Nah. They already knew and said they didn’t believe in that kind of stuff. Supernatural stuff, I mean. They’re just looking at it from an investment standpoint. They’ll probably never even live here.”
“Huh,” Harmony said. “But you’d seriously give up your dream house for me?”
“Well, it won’t be much of a dream house if I’m living in it alone, babe.”
Her entire face lit up at this. “You are the sweetest man in the history of the world.”
He grinned, happy at her nice words. “I am pretty damned good,” he said and took her in his arms and gave her a big, deep hug. He pulled back. “What did you want to tell me?”
Harmony stared up into his eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with the house, Marc. It’s just me.”
“Oh, don’t say that,” he said and leaned against the counter, pulling her with him. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
She allowed him to hold her for a few more seconds, then she pulled away and stood back. “No, not really. There’s nothing technically wrong. It’s just that…” She paused, wondering how she should put this. She eyed him and said, “Do you remember when we talked about having kids and we said we wouldn’t try but then again we wouldn’t not try? Well, apparently, we were trying.”
“We were? What? I don’t get it,” he said, confused, then he became really excited as soon as it occurred to him what she really meant. “We did?”
“Light dawns on Marblehead!” she squealed. “I’m pregnant!” He couldn’t stop smiling. She nodded at him excitedly. “We did it! We did it!”
“Holy shit! We’re going to have a kid?” He walked over to her and bent down, looking at her stomach. He looked up at her. “My baby is in there?”
“Well, it’s like a zygote now, but yeah, it’s in there.”
“But you haven’t been throwing up or… Well, you have been acting crazy.” He nodded at her.
“Oh, shut up!” she exclaimed and slapped his arm.
“Well, they say that pregnant women can be a little nutty,” he said. “You know, this explains a lot, though. I mean, it is kinda like you have a parasite in you. That could make anyone crazy.”
“A parasite? That’s not nice.”
“I didn’t mean it like that and you know it. I’m just so happy about it!”
Harmony sighed. “I guess you’re right. I didn’t know pregnancy hormones could make you think you’re crazy.”
Marc gave her a knowing look.
“Oh, shut up!”
“I didn’t say anything!” he exclaimed.
“You didn’t have to,” she replied and really stared at him. “Are you ready for this?”
“I’ve been ready! Hell, yeah, I’m ready!”
“This is going to be so cool!” she said. “I mean,
like really cool. And now our parents will have to come out here more often, instead of us making our bi-annual pilgrimage back home. That gets old.”
“It does,” he said, nodding. “You know, my brother could have already given them a grandkid. And your sister could have, as well.”
Harmony nodded, thinking about her sister, but she knew that would probably never happen. She told her once she was never getting married and she didn’t want kids. She was too career-focused. But she might change her mind later on.
“Well,” Marc said. “Huh. This blows my mind.” He stared at her. “But, yeah, we can move. We actually already have some equity built in this house. Now we can probably get a neat little beach bungalow or something. Maybe raise a surfer.”
Harmony wasn’t so sure they’d be able to sell the house that easily or that quickly. “We have equity? How much?”
He shrugged. “Some,” he said. “We got this place at a steal.”
Harmony took a breath and said, “Listen, I think if you want to stay here, we can. I can learn to live with it. Besides, when they renovated it they took it down to the studs, I think, so maybe some of that bad mojo got taken to the landfill. You know?”
Marc shook his head. “Nah, we can sell it. It’s got too much baggage. We want a fresh start for Marcus, Jr.”
“What if it’s a girl?”
“Harmony Number Two?” he asked and raised his eyebrows waiting for her approval.
She grimaced. “That sounds weird.”
“It does, but who cares? We’re having a kid! Me and you!” He hugged her middle, picking her up off the floor.
“Oh, be careful. You don’t want to do anything to the zygote.”
“Baby Zygote. We could name it that.”
“I think we can come up with something better,” she told him.
“I think you’re right,” he said and kissed her. “But then again, you always are.”
Harmony rolled her eyes at him but allowed herself to smile at his comment. He was such a salesman.
* * * * *
Later that night, Harmony was lying in bed twisting her wedding band around her finger. She glanced over at the bathroom door, which was ajar, and saw Marc brushing his teeth with the water running.
“Hey, you know, I’ll probably have to take off my wedding ring,” she called. “You know, because of the bloat.”
Marc turned the water off and looked at her through the open door. “What? I didn’t hear you.”
Harmony started to reply when all of a sudden she heard the female voice she’d heard earlier, “Did you take it off when you fucked that chef?”
Harmony started and sat up, looking around for the person who said those words. There was no one there. But she knew she had heard the voice. Unless, of course, it was an auditory hallucination. She shivered with panic. It wasn’t going to ever end, was it? She couldn’t stand that thought, the thought of knowing she was going crazy. These pregnancy hormones were something else but she knew if she didn’t stop hearing voices, she’d have to tell her doctor. She shuddered at the thought, knowing that they might want to put her on some sort of mediation which she wouldn’t allow, as that might harm the baby. Well, she thought, I’m stuck now. What can I do?
“Harmony?” Marc called. “What did you say?”
She stared over at him. He stared back, looking at her with expectation.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she said and sunk down into the bed.
Marc shrugged, wiped his mouth with a towel and turned the light off, then got into bed, pulling the covers over him as he did so. He said, “You know, I know this place has been a pain in the ass, but I am going to miss it. You were so excited when I brought you here.”
Harmony almost groaned. “If you want to stay, just say so.”
“I don’t want to stay,” he said. “Let’s don’t do this back and forth. We can leave. Stick with that or I might want to stay.”
Harmony nodded. Marc bent over and touched her stomach. She watched him, a small smile playing on her lips.
“Goodnight, little guy. Or girl. Can’t wait to see you,” he said and looked up at Harmony. “I read it’s important for the dad to talk to the baby. You know, to let the little one know he’s around.”
Harmony chuckled a little and nodded.
Marc’s mouth dropped as if he’d just had a light bulb go off above his head. “Now we have an excuse to go to Disneyland!”
Harmony laughed. “Oh, shut up!”
“I’ll shut up,” he said. “Goodnight.”
He gave her cheek a quick kiss, then leaned over and turned off the light on the nightstand, then laid back, settling in. Harmony stared over at him and brushed the hair out of his face.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too,” he replied.
Harmony nodded at him and slid down into the bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. She stared at the ceiling. It was going to be a long night.
* * * * *
Days later, Harmony decided to visit Josephine and Edith. She baked them each an apple pie and, after the pies had cooled, wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in her cooler bag. She paused and felt her stomach, which was going crazy at that moment creating life and smiled to herself. Even if she felt as though she was losing her mind, she was doing something good and that was having a baby. She thought she should probably call and tell her mother but decided against it. She knew that it was best not to tell many people for the first three months in case the baby “didn’t take” and she miscarried. The thought made her shudder but she knew it was best to play it safe. She’d be glad to see her doctor and already had an appointment for the day after tomorrow.
Now it was time to deliver the pies. She gathered the cooler bag and set off down the hill.
As she walked, she felt better, more like herself. She knew she hadn’t been acting like herself since they’d moved into the house but it wasn’t really her fault. Stress had gotten to her and then she’d basically been put in a position to tell Marc about her infidelity. She tried to shake that memory out of her mind, but the woman’s voice from last night still rang in her ears: “Did you take it off when you fucked that chef?”
She struggled with the thought and couldn’t get it out of her head. Then she remembered how the chef had been, how nice at first, how he’d encouraged her and told her that her cooking was some of the best he’d ever seen from a new chef. He really knew how to work her and, while he was doing it, she wondered how many other women he’d worked as well. She knew men and she knew how they would act to get what they wanted, which was sex. And she just assumed that’s what he was doing, too. She had been wrong, though.
She hadn’t been completely honest with Marc about the whole situation, either. While she did quit her job and sort of go into seclusion afterwards, Chef Durand hadn’t left her alone. She wasn’t just a one night stand. He had called her repeatedly and even stopped by their apartment a few times, begging her to see him. Thankfully, Marc wasn’t home any of those times. She refused to let him in, which probably only added to his infatuation of her. She knew he had feelings for her and she knew she was afraid to acknowledge them. She didn’t want to jeopardize her marriage.
One day, just before Thanksgiving one year, she was out at a grocery store buying supplies for the upcoming meal. She had invited a few of Marc’s real estate friends over for the meal and she was trying to figure out how many pounds of turkey she would need to feed everybody.
She felt his presence before she heard his seductive French accent, “To what do I owe this pleasure, Harmony?”
She froze and couldn’t turn around to face him. She had tried to just forget him and she had, mostly. He was nothing to her but a bad memory and, quite possibly, something that would send a ripple though her marriage and potentially damage it beyond repair. She just stood there and thought if she ignored him he would go away. Not so.
He placed his hand on her shoulder and pushed her a little so she faced him. She still wouldn’t look him in the face. He didn’t like that. He began to fume a little, to hate her, and it showed. “Why can’t you at least talk to me?” he hissed in her ear. “Why?”
“Leave me alone,” she said. “We’re done!”
“We never got started, Harmony,” he said and glared at her. “Look me in the face.”
She sighed with irritation and stared him dead in the eye. And then she looked away as quickly as she could. She wouldn’t admit it to herself, but she did have feelings for him. How could she not? He was tall, handsome and a renowned chef. And he was French. He was actually from France, Paris even. He was the real deal. He owned four of the top-rated restaurants in Los Angeles along with a little dive bar just because he wanted a place to go and drink after work, a place to “decompress.” He was cool and he was rich and he was the kind of man that would make any woman weak in the knees. And he wanted her. She knew that from the moment they’d met. She also knew she could learn a lot from him and maybe, if she was very lucky, use what she learned to open her own little restaurant, which had been her dream all along. So, in a way, she had used him, too.
“What do you want, Chef?” she said mockingly.
He chuckled. “So, she does speak.”
Harmony didn’t reply. He stared at her and this look of lost love, of simply loss, took over his face. He touched her shoulder, then pulled his hand back in a very pitiful way. She almost burst into tears at his gesture. But she couldn’t even for one second give in. She’d been too humiliated. And she’d cheated on her husband, who loved her more than this asshole could fathom.
“You look good,” he said. “Working from home suits you.”
“It does,” she said and crossed her arms. She allowed herself a good, long look at him, then she met his eyes again. She knew she was in control and if she told him to get on his hands and knees and beg for her in that busy grocery store, he would have. And he wouldn’t have felt one ounce of shame for it because, in the end, he would have gotten what he wanted—her.
The House in the Hills Page 16