by K. C. Crowne
Her face fell when she saw me, and for a moment, she seemed to think about turning around and heading into the back. But our eyes met and she sighed, closing the distance between us.
Before she could say anything, I slammed my fists down on the counter and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me you’re thinking of selling the diner?”
“What?” she stammered. “How did you--”
She looked around, and so did I. All eyes were on us. Felicity grabbed ahold of my arm and dragged me toward the back. Once inside the office, she shut the door behind her.
“What in the hell, Abe?”
“You’re pissed at me? You’re the one who’s keeping secrets from me. Why are you selling the diner?”
“I’m not selling the diner. At least, not for sure. I was entertaining an offer, that’s all. Why is it any of your business?”
“Why would you even think of selling after everything we’ve done to get it back and running?”
“Everything we’ve done?” She asked, closing the distance between us and pointing a finger directly into my face. “Oh, I see. Since you paid me, you feel like you’re entitled to part of my business, is that right? This is exactly why I didn’t want to take money from you in the first place. But you didn’t invest in my company, Abe. You paid me to be your surrogate, you don’t get to tell me what I do with my business or the money.”
She was right of course, but I couldn’t even think straight. “Are you seeing someone?”
She took a step back and looked like I’d slapped her. She scrunched up her face, almost in disgust. “No, why would you even ask such a stupid question?”
I thought back to her and Levi at the bar, but I couldn’t bear to say the words, to ask her about that directly. “Are you planning to run away with someone else? Is that it?”
“Abe, you’re acting crazy right now. Are you jealous?”
I didn’t say anything.
“You’re fucking jealous? Unbelievable.” She plopped down in her office chair, shaking her head. “I’m not seeing anyone, but you have no right to be jealous of anyone. You’re the one who doesn’t want to commit to me, not the other way around.”
“I’m not jealous,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “I just--”
I couldn’t answer that. Because truthfully, I was jealous. I was filled with jealousy at the thought of Felicity with another man. It made my blood boil to even think about it, and it had nothing to do with the babies inside of her. I wanted to blame it on that, but I couldn’t.
And she was right. I had no right to be after what I’d told her.
I walked over to her desk and put my hands down on it. “Felicity, I need you to be honest with me. Why are you wanting to sell the diner? I thought everything was going well.”
“Like I said, this is none of your business, Abe.”
Before I could say anything else, Felicity let out a cry and doubled over in her chair. I was by her side, kneeling next to her in an instant.
“What’s wrong?”
“Cramp,” she managed to say, her words coming out breathy as if she struggled to breathe from the pain. “A bad one.”
She let out another cry of pain and looked at me with a terrified expression. Her eyes were wide and filled with tears. “Help me, Abe. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, but we need to get you to the hospital right away.”
I helped her to stand, and she doubled over again, nearly screaming from the pain. “The babies-- they can’t come yet, it’s way too early.”
And she was right. We weren’t even into the second trimester. There was no way she could have these babies now, they weren’t viable. This couldn’t be labor. There were many things it could be though- and I ran down the list in my head as I lifted Felicity into my arms.
“What are you--”
“I’m going to carry you,” I said.
Even with the pregnancy weight, she was nothing in my arms. I carried her with ease. We exited the office and since I didn’t know the way out the back, walked toward the front. We ran into Allison first.
“I have to get her to the hospital,” I told her.
Allison nodded and moved out of the way, running toward the diner’s front door and opening it for us. I carried her through the diner, and again, all eyes were on us.
This would be the talk of the town, surely.
I carried Felicity out to my car and helped her inside. She was no longer crying out in pain, and seemed more relaxed - but still, we had to be careful.
I hopped behind the wheel and drove off, forgetting all about the reasons for being at the diner in the first place. I even forgot about seeing her with Levi. Because in that moment, nothing else mattered but getting Felicity to the hospital and making sure both she and our babies were alright.
Ooo000ooo
“Good news, it appears everything is normal,” Dr. Morris said with a friendly smile. She was not Dr. Lawton, and already I liked her. Her bedside manner was so much better, she actually seemed to care. I felt at ease with her and could tell Felicity did too.
“But what about the cramping? That couldn’t possibly be normal, right?” Felicity asked.
“In fact, it can be,” Dr. Morris said, pulling up images from the sonogram. “The babies are growing, Felicity - and your uterus is trying to make room for them. Women often get them with one baby, but you have three, so it’s putting even more stress on the uterus to grow. We’ve been monitoring you, and the contractions have calmed down. There’s no other signs that you’re in labor, and there’s no sign of fetal distress. Everything looks great as far as that goes. But if you experience any more pain, you can always come right back and we will continue monitoring you.”
Felicity nodded. “Thank you. I mean it, thank you.”
“Of course,” Dr. Morris said, patting Felicity on the hand. “I’m going to prepare your discharge paperwork. But in the meantime, if you have any other questions, I’m happy to help.”
Felicity looked over at me. I felt pretty confident about what she was saying, and I agreed with her diagnosis. It was better to get things checked out, especially with how bad the cramping had been, but Felicity hadn’t had another cramp in hours. There was no bleeding. They’d done a sonogram and the babies were fine, their heartbeats were normal. Felicity was back to her old self again.
“I think we’re good, doctor. Thank you.”
Dr. Morris left and Felicity let out a deep sigh. “I was so scared,” she said after a few moments.
“Me too.”
She reached for my hand, which took me by surprise. I gave hers a firm squeeze, then brought it to my lips. I left a kiss on her knuckles and found her watching me, a small smile on her face.
“I’m so sorry about earlier,” I said, rubbing her hand. “I just-- well, I can’t imagine Liberty without your diner, and I thought we’d found a way to keep it open. I didn’t mean to imply anything by my questions. And yes, I’ll admit, I was a bit jealous. I saw you and Levi together the other night and--”
She sat up straighter. “You think I’m seeing Levi?”
I shrugged and looked away. “It’s none of my business, Felicity.”
I felt her hand on my chin, lifting my face and forcing me to look at her. “Levi and Mallory Montgomery are getting married this coming summer. They’ve been together since high school, only taking a brief break recently - she’s the love of his life, Abe. And even if he was single, he’s never been my type. I can’t put my finger on it, but I can assure you that I’m not interested in him.”
Well now, I felt like a complete and utter fool.
“Then why are you thinking of selling the diner? Are you wanting to leave Liberty?”
I stared deep into her baby blue eyes, and my heart nearly broke. There were tears there now. I had upset her again. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
“Abe, I-- I don’t think you understand how hard this pregnancy has been on me,” she said, wiping at her eyes.
“I’ve grown so attached to these babies inside of me already, I’m not sure if I can let them go. I know I have to, don’t worry, but I was thinking of leaving Liberty because I wasn’t sure I could face life here without being their mother.”
My heart sank into my stomach, and if I had felt bad before - I felt even worse now. We’d never really talked about what would happen once the babies were born. I never really thought about it. In a typical surrogate arrangement, the mother may have limited to no contact with the baby, but this was anything but typical. Felicity may have agreed to be a surrogate, but neither one of us really knew what that would mean.
I couldn’t blame her for having those thoughts. In fact, it only proved to me that she was the right woman to carry my babies. She loved them as much as I did. She knew them in ways I never would since they were part of her.
How could I break that bond?
I couldn’t.
Felicity’s cheeks were covered with tears, and I did my best to wipe them all away. “Felicity, why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I didn’t know how,” she said.
“No, you didn’t trust me,” I whispered. And could I blame her? I tried to keep her at an arm’s length this entire time. Was it any wonder she’d think I’d do the same once the babies were born? “I’m sorry. But I promise you, we can work this out.”
“What do you mean?”
I sighed. “If you stay in Liberty, you can be part of our children’s lives. They can know that you’re their mother and we can co-parent.”
Going into the situation, I never would have imagined coming to these terms. But things were different now.
“Really? Are you sure?” Felicity asked, her face pressed against the palm of my hand.
“Yes, of course. I want our children to know their amazing mother,” I said, kissing the palm of her had. “I want you in their life.”
And I want her in mine, even though I didn’t say it.
I wanted Felicity to stay in Liberty, and not just because I wanted her diner to remain open. I really didn’t want to imagine my life - or my children’s lives - without her in it.
“Thank you,” she whispered softly. The tears kept falling, but this time, she was smiling. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”
“Will you be staying?”
“Yes,” she said.
Relief washed over me.
“One more request,” I asked her.
She tilted her head to the side. “Go on.”
“Stay at my place tonight. Please. Just so I can keep an eye on you. You can go back home tomorrow, but I’d feel much better if you were under my roof.”
I prepared for her to fight it, and I couldn’t blame her if she did. But to my surprise, she nodded. “Yes, I think that’s a good idea. Just to ease both of our minds.”
It was more than just to ease my mind. Yes, I was worried about her and the babies, but I also loved having her in my home. It felt less lonely, and her presence just made it feel more like a home to me.
Not that I was ready to admit that to either of us just yet.
Felicity
One night turned to several. It was just so hard to leave once I started staying there. Things were looking up, and while Abe and I might not ever be together, I was at least going to be part of my babies’ lives.
I slept soundly at night, knowing that Abe was right there, in case I needed anything at all. Koda was good at staying by my side too, and Abe told me he knew how to alert him if anything were to go wrong. How could I go back to staying alone knowing all that?
It hurt sometimes to be that close to Abe, knowing that he wasn’t able to commit, but I put my babies first.
Several weeks into the stay, I was awoken to a phone call in the middle of the night. Nothing good ever comes from a phone call at two am and my heart was racing as I answered.
“Hello?”
“Felicity? This is Teddy,” the sheriff said. He didn’t even have to give a last name - we all knew who he was.
Still, I wasn’t too happy to be hearing from him. A call from the sheriff at two in the morning is especially not good.
“Yes, what’s wrong?”
“There’s been a break-in at the diner,” Teddy said. “The alarm went off, but by the time my deputy arrived, the burglar had already left. I can’t tell if they took anything, but there’s extensive vandalism to the building, inside and out.”
My heart dropped. I closed my eyes and blocked out the tears.
Teddy continued. “I know you’re pregnant and all, but--”
“I’ll be right there,” I said.
I hung up the phone and noticed Koda was whining at the door, scratching at it to get out. I opened the door to let him out and he went straight for Abe’s room. His door was cracked open, so Koda managed to push the door open.
I was getting dressed when Abe knocked on my door.
“What’s going on?”
Dammit. Koda woke him up. Good dog, but I hated to wake him up tohave to deal with my problems.
I slipped on my shoes, even though I could barely bend down to reach my feet.
“There was a break-in at the diner. I just need to see if anything is missing and lock the place back up.”
“You have to do this now?”
“Yes, Teddy is there now. He asked me to come down there. It shouldn’t take too long, I hope.”
Abe sighed. “Fine. I’m driving you.”
“You don’t have to--”
I don’t know why I even tried to argue - at this point, I knew Abe was going to drive me, and there was no way to get around it. Koda came back into the room, tail wagging as he walked up to me.
“You’re trained too damn well, you know that?” I gave Koda a few head scratches. I hated that Abe was up, but I couldn’t stay mad at the dog. And in a way, it might be better if I didn’t go alone. Seeing my diner, which I’d recently put so much work into, vandalized wouldn’t be easy for me. But I also didn’t want to lean on Abe too much, I couldn’t get too used to him being there for me. We might have agreed to co-parent, but that didn’t mean we’d have much of a relationship outside of that.
But for now, I had bigger things to worry about.
Ooo000ooo
I gasped as soon as we pulled up to the diner. When Teddy had mentioned vandalism, I assumed there’d be some graffiti or other damage. Nothing a little paint couldn’t fix.
But no, it was far more than that.
The glass in the front of the restaurant was busted, as was the front door. It was too dark to see much inside at first, but just seeing the front of my beautiful building filled me with dread.
Abe parked right out front, and I hopped out of the car as soon as it was stopped. I wobbled toward Teddy, going as fast as I could in my state. Teddy saw me and ushered me to the side, his brow furrowed. Abe joined us a moment later.
“You have security cameras, correct?”
“Of course, yes,” I said.
“We will need access to the footage,” he said. “We’ll figure out who did this.”
Tears stung my eyes as I nodded. “Can I go inside?”
Abe and Teddy shared a look, and Abe said, “Felicity, I don’t know if it’s a good idea--”
“You don’t get to decide that for me,” I said, glaring at Abe. “As long as it’s safe to enter, I need to go inside. At least to get the tapes.”
I had to see what was destroyed. I’d just bought all new appliances, fixed up the dining room and the back of the house. There’d been so much money thrown into these repairs, I needed to see if any of it was salvageable.
“The building is secure, there’s no danger,” Teddy said.
Abe sighed and ran a hand over his beard. “Fine, but I’m going with you.”
I didn’t argue with him there. It didn’t matter if he was going to be there. If anything, having the support would be nice. Teddy led us over to the back door, where the person broke in. The stupid fire exit I
had to make sure was accessible for the inspection. Of course. It was kicked open, completely busted and would need to be replaced.
That was the first of many things that would need to be replaced.
There was graffiti all over the hallway, but that could be covered up with paint. I held a hand over my mouth and cried out when I stepped into the kitchen, however.
It looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to everything. The new stoves, even though they were stainless steel, were dented and the glass fronts of the ovens busted. Every plate and glass were shattered on the floor, as if a tornado had driven through and knocked everything out of the cabinets. The cabinets had the doors ripped off, and they too were smashed in, as if someone was set on demolishing the kitchen.
My knees went weak, and I nearly crumbled to the floor, but Abe had his hands around me in an instant, holding me up. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispered into my ear.
I wasn’t sure if it would ever be okay again, truthfully. Even if we managed to fix everything up, which would cost more than I originally had spent, the fact that someone did this to my restaurant sickened me.
I’d worked so hard for everything I had, and in a matter of minutes, it was destroyed. Demolished.
We walked out into the dining room. Abe kept ahold of me, and I was thankful for that. I might have collapsed otherwise. The floor was riddled with debris from the destruction. My counter tops were smashed to smithereens, the booths and chairs too. It was rubble, like something you’d see after a major earthquake. The fact that this was man-made was almost hard to believe.
How could someone do this?
Of course, I could think of only one person who would be behind this. Only one person who was hateful enough to do it. Someone who wanted to force my hand to sell.
“Do you think we can get those tapes?” Teddy asked me, his voice breaking the silence and taking me by surprise.
“Of course,” I said. “Follow me to my office.”