All The Wrong Reasons: A Serendipity Falls Novel

by Erin Bevan

  “Rhonda, keep your voice down,” Alex whispered. “And no. Not even in the slightest.”

  “Oh, don’t get all prude on me. I mean civic benefits. If he becomes the mayor, will you please ask him to fix our downtown roads? They are a bumpy mess. Oh, and the streetlights. Half of them are out.”

  Mayoral benefits. Those weren’t quite the benefits she wanted. “Sure, Rhonda. I’ll see what I can do for you.”

  “Good! And the community center. Don’t even get me started.”

  The community center? “What about it?”

  “You’ll be needing to knit a lot more hats if they tear it down like Reynolds is suggesting.”

  “Tear it down? Why?” Alex sat straighter in her chair. The center provided a place for many of the seniors to warm up and come together.

  “Because it’s falling down, so instead of repairing it they’re going to bulldoze it and make a parking lot.” Rhonda gave Alex an arched look she’d mastered during all her years of teaching. “I tell you, that old song was right. They’re paving paradise to put in a parking lot.”

  Bulldoze it!

  A parking lot? Why didn’t Max tell her? He knew how important the center was to her and not once had he mentioned it.

  “How’s Max going to manage all that anyway?” Rhonda asked. “Being Hot Sauce King and Mayor? Two big jobs.”

  “I don’t know.” Alex’s mind garbled like a bad cellphone reception. Too many important topics at once.

  Stinky, the center, and now Max. She’d wondered herself how he would handle his schedule. All through college, she’d seen Max work himself to death trying to balance school with endless hours perfecting his hot sauce recipes. He started selling them around campus, then around town and now his hot sauce sold all over the country. How he was going to campaign for mayor, much less do the work, was a mystery. None of it really added up to her, especially his womanizing ways. Then again, weren’t most politicians womanizers? Perhaps the job description was fitting.

  “I’ve seen a lot of his signs around town lately. Also heard some radio ads this week. ‘Helping those who can’t help themselves.’ Catchy campaign slogan by the way. He’s really upped his race against Reynolds.” Rhonda shook her head then twisted the top off her diet shake. The chocolate smell was so potent, it drifted all the way across the table.

  “Wow.” Alex waved a hand in front of her face. “That’s a strong one today.”

  “Huh?” Rhonda looked down at her drink then stuck her nose to the rim. “Smells the same to me. Like milk chocolate. Just wish it was the real deal.” Rhonda took a sip.

  “Yeah. I guess.” Alex held a hand to her stomach, suddenly feeling queasy. “My stomach is crazy today. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

  “I hope you aren’t getting the bug. You know once one of us gets it, the whole school gets it. Maybe it’s your period.”

  Period.

  Alex’s blood pressure skyrocketed as the wawhomp-wawhomp-wawhomp of her heart pounded in her ears. What day is it? She shot her gaze to the calendar hanging on the wall. September fifth. She was late by almost two weeks. She was never late! The room around her swirled.

  No! This can’t be!

  “Alex, honey, are you okay? You’re white. You sure you aren’t getting sick?” Rhonda placed her drink on the table then her palms flat as if she was ready to dart up from her seat. “Want me to get the trash can?”

  “What?” Alex focused on the other teacher and shook her head, causing the room to spin more. “No. I’ll be fine.” She placed her fingers to her forehead. “You’re right. Has to be my cycle. It’s rough sometimes. Makes me feel sick.”

  Never.

  Never had her cycle made her feel like this.

  “Lord, I’m sure glad I don’t have those anymore,” Rhonda said, emphasizing what could only be perceived as her good luck. “Another twenty-years and you’ll be out of the woodworks, too, girly.” Her coworker took another sip as the bell rang. “Geez. They don’t give us hardly any time, do they? Have a good rest of your day, hon. Take some aspirin. It’ll help, and make your kids do busy work today. Give yourself a break.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  Busy work. She needed to get busy obtaining a pregnancy test. But she couldn’t go to Stanley’s Mart and buy a pregnancy test. She couldn’t go to any mart in Serendipity Falls. What if someone saw her? The chances were too high. She’d lose her job before she had a chance to drop her drawers and pee on the stick.

  Alex shoved her knitting in her bag and reached for her phone. Edinburgh slipped off her screen, unlike the memory of the one nightstand she desperately wanted to forget as she made a much-needed phone call.

  Later that afternoon, Alex dangled her feet off the side of the exam table as she sat in the doctor’s office waiting for the test results. She’d played the stomach bug card, and jetted from work feeling only slightly guilty as she hightailed it off the school premises.

  A poster of a giant set of pink ovaries with the slogan Grow A Pair stared back at her from the cinderblock wall of the old unemployment office turned doctor’s office. She might have found the poster humorous on any other given day.

  What was she going to do if her pair was growing something inside of them? The guy had used a condom. She’d seen it with her own eyes…unless they’d done it twice, and she didn’t remember the first time? And what if she ended up with something else other than a possible baby? Like an STD? Then what would she do?

  Or what if she was farther along than she thought and it was Chris’s baby?

  She stared down at her dress pants, pulling off tiny specs of fuzz, her fingers trembling in the process, her eyes threatening to cry.

  How could I have been so stupid?

  I have no idea who the dad is.

  And a baby. If it were Stinky’s, how could she get a hold of him? Now she really wished she’d chanced waking him up to get his number from his phone.

  A light tap came from the door, and she darted upright, her heart pounding. It was the moment of truth. She sucked in a deep breath, fighting back her tears.

  “Come in,” she said.

  Dr. Ramirez stuck her head in. “We got the results.”

  The doctor had a file in her hand. Her pleasant smile met her light brown eyes, and Alex couldn’t decide if this was a “Surprise, you’re pregnant smile,” or a “Surprise, you’re not pregnant smile.” This could go so many different ways.

  No, that’s a lie. It can only go one of two ways.

  “We ran all the tests you asked for. Good news is you’re clean. No STD’s or anything like that to worry about.”

  “Oh, thank God.” Alex held her shaky hand to her chest. “And what about…what about the other?”

  “Your blood work shows positive. Congratulations! You’re going to have a baby.”

  “A…a baby?” Her head grew light as she asked the stupid question.

  No Alex, you aren’t having a baby; you’re having a unicorn.

  “Yes. A baby. According to the bloodwork and the timeline of your last period, you’re about six weeks now, so that means the baby was conceived around three to four weeks ago.”

  Three to four weeks.

  Stinky.

  She was having a baby with Stinky.

  At least if it were Chris’s she’d know how to tell him.

  “Before you leave, we will set you up with another appointment. I’ll want to see you once a month until twenty-eight weeks then we’ll bump up your visits closer to time of delivery. At your next appointment we’ll perform an ultrasound to check the baby’s heartbeat.”

  “Heart…beat? A…a baby.” Alex reached beside her and griped her purse strap, fighting the nausea rolling in her stomach. “Pregnant.” The cinderblock walls closed in around her like a concrete prison. She had to get out of there. She had to go. Now. She needed air.

  “I can see that this has come as a shock to you.”

  Doctor Ramirez patted her on the back. The gest
ure was supposed to be soothing, but instead it stirred Alex’s nausea more.

  “It’s going to be okay. You’re a healthy woman. Given your family history, I don’t foresee any problems with your pregnancy. But you do have choices.”

  Pregnancy.

  Choices.

  Baby. Ultrasound. Appointments. It was all too much. Her heart raced in her chest like one of her second graders on the playground, while her palms grew clammy as she held on to her purse strap, and her tongue felt like it was five times larger, making it hard to swallow.

  “I…I need a minute to…to process all of this. Is it okay if I leave now? Can we schedule that appointment some other time?” Her voice sounded jumbled and her body lightened, like she was having an out of body experience. This wasn’t her life right now. This had to be a nightmare. A terrible nightmare.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Dr. Ramirez’s voice softened, “let me get you some juice before you go, okay?” she asked as if she were trying to reason with a toddler.

  Alex looked around to see if the doctor was talking to someone else. Yet, when she stared back at the woman’s warm brown eyes, they stared directly at her. This wasn’t a dream. This was real.

  A real disaster.

  “Is there someone who can come get you? Or can I call someone for you? You shouldn’t be driving right now.”

  Driving. Did she even remember how to drive? The only thing she could think of was how her life as she knew it was ending. Ending on that one word. Pregnant.

  “Alex, dear, can you hear me?” Dr. Ramirez shook her shoulder.

  “Huh? What?” Alex shook her head and glanced at the woman’s hand.

  “I’ve been shaking you for about fifteen seconds. Can you hear me now?”

  How had she not felt it?

  “Yeah. Um…I should call someone. You’re right.” Her mind went to the one person on earth she wanted in a situation like this. Max. She reached for her phone, and stared at her contacts, forgetting how to spell his name.

  “Who are you trying to call?” Dr. Ramirez asked.

  “My Max. Max.” He’d know what to do. How to help.

  “Okay.” The doctor took her phone and pulled up his number. “Here you go.” She handed it back to her. “Just hit his name and it’ll call him.”

  His name. Right.

  “And why am I calling him again?” she asked.

  “To ask him to come get you. You don’t need to be driving because of the shock of your pregnancy.”

  Her pregnancy. Pregnant. Her job. How would she keep this a secret?

  “Dr. Ramirez, please,” she begged. “Please, don’t say anything about this. My job. I have to figure out what to do. I could lose my job. It’s a small town. I know people will find out eventually, but I…I have to figure this out.”

  Dr. Ramirez pushed her glasses back on her nose and gave her a sweet smile. “I could never talk about a patient’s file anyway, dear, but of course your secret is safe with me. It’s all going to work out. I promise.” Dr. Ramirez squeezed her arm. “You make that phone call, and I’ll get you some juice.”

  “Yeah, okay. Thank you.”

  “Of course.” The doctor stepped out of the room.

  Alex thought her call to Max three weeks ago had been the hardest.

  Boy, how wrong she’d been.

  4

  “I have to admit,” Langston Arlis Thurgood III began from across Max’s desk. “I like what you’ve got here. I love your hot sauce. I love your vision for the company, and to start something out of your college dorm room—” The investor tycoon rubbed the lapel of his suit jacket. “That’s mighty impressive.” Thurgood raised his arms in the air, pointing to the pictures on the wall of the factory Max built from the ground up. “But I’m not sure if we can make a deal.”

  Max’s stomach sank. No deal. There were other investors, sure, but he had a timeline. Goals. And Thurgood was vital to making that happen. If this man didn’t agree to invest, Max remained two steps behind his personal timeline, and that wasn’t acceptable. Losing wasn’t acceptable. Ever.

  “Is that so? May I ask why?” Max sat back in his chair and shrugged. “Does it have anything to do with me running for mayor?” He pointed to the political signs that lined his office wall. In the past three weeks, he’d not only upped his personal game by not sleeping with anyone, but he’d upped his professional one as well. He’d had a group of supporters staking signs every day for the past two weeks, along with social media ads, radio ads, and billboards. Losing his mayoral election wasn’t something he planned on doing either.

  “No. I’ve seen the reports.” Mr. Thurgood tapped the folder in his hand. “You have a sound plan.”

  Max had been emailing the man back and forth for months trying to schedule this meeting. If Thurgood invested, Max’s company could go global in the next couple of years. He and Phillip Powell, his Vice President, had been working on the proposal for weeks. They had a five-year plan, all of which included him being mayor of Serendipity Falls while Phillip took over as head of operations.

  “I’ll be honest, son. I prefer to invest with men who have families.”

  Families.

  He wished he had one of those, too.

  “And why is that?”

  “Because family men have more to lose than single men. If I invest with a single man and he sinks, he’s only got to worry about feeding himself. If I invest with a man who has a family…well, he has to worry about feeding several people other than himself.”

  “So, you think because I don’t have a family to feed, I won’t work as hard, or take my own company as seriously as someone who does?” Ludicrous but understandable all at the same time. Max tapped the end of his ballpoint pen on his desk.

  He couldn’t blame Thurgood for not wanting to take a chance on him, but what was he supposed to do? Hire a family? And if he couldn’t convince this man, how was he going to convince the town or Alex, the most important person of all, to take a chance on him?

  “You do understand.”

  “I do, but I have to admit it’s unfortunate because—” he was cut off by his phone. “I’m sorry, I’ll just—” Max glanced down at the caller ID. He’d had every intention of ignoring the call, but it was Alex. At the same time her call came through, her text did as well.

  Please pick up.

  Max stopped breathing for a second and scooted his chair back from his desk. “Forgive me, Mr. Thurgood, but I have to take this. Family emergency.”

  “Sure.” The man waved his hand in the air.

  Max stood and walked to his window overlooking downtown Serendipity Falls. The actual waterfall the town got its name from sat on the edge of town, and his window provided the best view in town. But he couldn’t even enjoy the view, his stomach rolling with concern. Last time Alex had emergency called him…well, he wouldn’t go there again.

  “Alex, you okay?”

  “Max, I…I need you to come get me.” Her voice was shaky. She’d been crying…again.

  “What’s wrong? Where are you?”

  “I’m at Dr. Ramirez’s office. I don’t think I can drive. I need to talk to you.”

  Max’s head swam with possibilities of all the things that could be wrong. Doctor’s office. Crying. None of it boded well.

  “I’ll be right there. Just wait right there. I’m coming.” Max hung up and turned back to his guest. “I’m sorry, Mr. Thurgood, but I have to leave.”

  “Is that a special lady in your life?”

  The most special.

  “Yes, sir. Something’s wrong, and I need to get to her. I would say let’s reschedule, but from the sound of things it’s not necessary.”

  Thurgood stood. “I tell you what.” He tapped the folder he held on the end of Max’s desk. “Let me look over this again. How about I call you in the morning and we discuss more.”

  Why beat a dead horse, but Max would humor the man.

  “Sure.” He held out his hand for Thurgood to shake.
“Thanks for meeting me. My secretary, Brenda, will see you out. Sorry for the sudden end to our meeting.”

  “No worries, son. I can find my own way.” Thurgood waved him off as Max grabbed his keys and headed for his car, and straight to Alex.

  Max sat on the edge of a wingback chair in his living room, his elbows on his knees…waiting. He would lose his mind, waiting on her to tell him what was wrong. He flipped the top button of his dress shirt, loosening the noose around his neck as he stared at Alex sitting on his black leather sofa. She clutched her big, fat, purse in her lap, fumbling with the straps, her knitting needles pocking out of the top. Since he picked her up at the doctor’s office, she’d been silent as tears streamed down her cheeks. He’d never gripped the steering wheel so hard in his life as when he drove her to his place, not having a clue what was wrong. His mind leapt to everything terrible.

  Cancer.

  Cancer that’s already at stage four with two days left to live.

  Heart disease.

  Brain tumor.

  Rheumatoid Arthritis.

  Parkinson’s Disease.

  Multiple Sclerosis.

  He ran a hand down his face. He couldn’t deal. She had to talk to him. Now.

  “Alex, please.” He crossed the room and got down on his knees in front of her, taking her hand in his. “Look at me.” He tipped her chin so he could look into her eyes. In the depths of her bright blue irises, he saw despair—grief. It was killing him. Whatever it was, he would make it better. He would fix it. “What is it? Please. I’m going out of my mind. What’s going on?”

  “When did you get that car?” She fumbled with the tissue in her hand, staring off into space.

  “What?” He shook his head, not understanding her stall tactic. “I got it a couple of weeks ago. I thought I told you.” He’d traded in his sports car for a sporty sedan. He’d read an article that said people trusted men in family cars more than luxury sports cars. The memo he didn’t get was that investors actually wanted a family inside said car.

  “No.” She shook her head, her aching stare moving to his eyes. It was like he could see through her soul, into her heart, and she was frightened. More frightened than he’d ever seen her. He had to make this better.