“Oh, love, you know you were beautiful both times,” John said, kissing her cheek. She blushed and batted her hand at him to stop.
“Excuse me,” Harper said, raising her hand. She was just the most precious thing.
“Yes, Harper,” John said.
“When is the baby going to be here?” I looked at Hunter and then at Hope and John. I had the feeling there was going to be a birds and bees conversation in their not-so-distant future.
“Probably in July,” I said, and Harper stuck her bottom lip out.
“That’s forever,” she said. Well, to an eight-year-old it probably was.
“It seems that way,” Hunter said, squeezing my shoulder. “But the baby will be here before you know it.” Harper seemed skeptical and then asked why it took so long. John coughed and changed the subject. They were going to have a fun night after we left.
“I’m so happy for both of you,” Hope said, giving me a huge hug before we left.
“And if you need anything, even if you just have a question about whether something is normal, you call me, okay?” I promised that I would and she handed me a stack of books.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I started to say, but she cut me off.
“These were the books that I read and they’re not too scary. But I would suggest avoiding certain parts.” I saw the little flags sticking out and wondered what they were.
“Oh, good, thanks,” I said.
“Yeah, I made the mistake of looking things up online and I am still regretting it,” Hunter said with a shudder.
My mom also had books for us when we went down to Waterville the next day. Some were the same ones Hope had given me. I didn’t tell my mom that, though, and thanked her for them.
“My little sister, all knocked up,” Tawny said when she walked in and gave me a hug.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, but she was just teasing.
“And you, how dare you,” Tawny said, rounding on Hunter. I thought she was going to slap him, but she just laughed and gave him a hug.
“Congratulations. It couldn’t happen to a nicer asshole.”
“Tawny!” Mom said, admonishing her for the language.
“Oh, whatever,” she said, sitting down on the couch with us.
Most of the talk was about the baby and how the hell we were going to do this. Fortunately, Hunter and I had had a few more days to talk things over and start making a plan. He’d already contacted a builder do an add-on off of our room for a nursery and I’d started re-thinking my graduation schedule. I mean, it sucked, but it wasn’t the most important thing in the world. Going an extra semester wasn’t going to kill me. At least I hoped not. We’d have to see when our spawn made its appearance.
I’d been surprised that Hunter hadn’t brought up getting married. Not that he had any ideas about our baby being born “in sin” but I’d thought he would take the pregnancy as yet another reason to get married sooner. I would love to say that my mind had changed overnight because of the baby, but the whole marriage thing still scared the shit out of me.
No, it didn’t make any sense, but I couldn’t help it. Plus, planning for a wedding and a baby plus going to school would be complete insanity. I’d just as soon go down to the courthouse and do it on a Tuesday afternoon and not tell anyone until later. If I could wrap my head around actually getting married, that is.
“You crazy kids,” Mom said, shaking her head at us, but she had a smile on her face. I could tell she was getting excited about being a grandmother. Tawny wasn’t anywhere close to getting married and having one of her own. Not that you had to be married to have a kid, but Tawny couldn’t seem to find a guy she could stand for more than a few weeks, so I didn’t think babies were really on her mind all that much.
“Yup. They say that life is what happens when you’re making other plans and I guess it’s true,” I said and Hunter smiled at me. I kept catching him watching me as if he was searching for something. Like any minute I was going to start looking really pregnant. He had been my constant shadow, waiting on me hand and foot. I told him he didn’t have to, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I gave up because it was nice to be taken care of.
“That is definitely true,” Mom said. “Have you talked to your dad? I didn’t tell him anything yet, per your request.” I could tell she wasn’t happy about keeping something from him. Their relationship had changed a lot since the hearing and I knew they talked at least once a week. I wouldn’t call them friends exactly, but they were definitely friendly. At least more so than when they split up, that was for sure.
“I will, I will.” He was going to find out anyway.
“You’d better,” Mom said, narrowing her eyes. “If you don’t, then I will.”
“You can’t do that!” I said and she gave me a look.
“I can and I will, so call your father, Taylor.” I sighed. She wasn’t making this easy. Not that anything about this was easy.
“Fiiinnne,” I said, drawing the word out.
“Don’t give me attitude, Kid. You’re gonna be a mom now, so it’s time to grow up.” I didn’t feel any more grown up. Actually, I felt more and more like I had no idea what the hell I was doing and I didn’t think that was going to change in nine months. Thank God for Hunter, because I didn’t know how I would have done this by myself.
“Whatever,” I said, crossing my arms. Everyone laughed and then we talked about other things, for which I was grateful. Seemed like all anyone could do was talk about the baby lately and I was getting a little tired of it.
“You have caused a lot of trouble,” I said to it when I went to the bathroom at my mom’s house. “You’d better be worth it.”
I was deep in the throes of sleep on Monday night when there was a commotion that woke me.
“What’s going on?” I mumbled. Hunter got out of bed, placing himself between me and the door. Protecting me.
Voices yelled below us and footsteps thundered on the stairs before the door flew open and Renee came in.
“Dusty’s apartment is on fire,” she said before rushing out again. Doors slammed and I didn’t know what to do.
“We should probably go down and see what’s going on,” Hunter said, holding his hand out to me and helping me out of bed. I pointed out that he should probably put some clothes on, so he grabbed his boxers from the floor and slid them on before we went downstairs.
It was chaos.
Everyone was half-dressed and running around looking for keys. Dusty had stayed with us, thank God, so he and Jos were the first ones out the door. The rest of us piled into Mase’s truck and Sassy.
Dusty lived a short drive away, but we could hear the sirens long before we got there.
“Oh, shit,” Hunter said when we parked on the street. The road was closed off and I counted at least three firetrucks and so many firemen they must have called in several stations.
The entire building was ablaze, as well as the one next door. All the houses on this street were crammed together, so the danger of all of them going up was high. Hunter had grabbed me a coat to put on over my pajamas, but it was still freezing and our breaths made clouds in the air that combined with the smoke. It wasn’t the clean smell of wood burning. It was dirty and greasy and made me wrinkle my nose as my stomach heaved. Spawn didn’t like that at all.
Hunter took my hand and we walked as close as we could before the firefighters yelled at us to get back. There was a news van on the scene with an anchor doing a report to a man with a camera. Several other people were waiting with looks of horror on their faces. Probably people from the other houses who had been evacuated.
“That’s definitely not good,” Mase said as we all stared up at the inferno. There was no way anything in the apartment could be saved. The building was going to be a total loss.
“Poor Dusty,” I said. It was a miracle that he had been staying with us. He’d also brought his cat over or else Napoleon would have been in there. I shuddered at the thought.
Dusty and Jos walked over to us, both looking grim. Dusty was leaning on Jos and she had one of his hands clutched in both of hers.
“So, uh, yeah. Can I move in?” Dusty said, looking at Renee. His voice choked and tears were streaking down his face.
Renee just broke down and threw herself at him.
“Of course you can,” she said as he leaned down to hug her.
“Thanks,” he said with the saddest smile I’d ever seen.
“Do they know what started it?” Paul asked, taking the still-crying Renee under his arm.
Dusty shook his head.
“They have to investigate, but it doesn’t look like it was intentional. Probably faulty wiring or some shit like that. It doesn’t really matter. Everything is gone.” Jos shook her head and put her hand under his chin to force him to look at her.
“You are alive. You are alive and Napoleon is alive and you are coming home with me. Understand? All of that stuff doesn’t matter. You matter.” She gave him a fierce kiss and he hugged her and they cried together.
We all cried, huddled together until the sun started peaking over the horizon. Dusty had to talk to the fire investigator, so we waited with him. It was all we could do. When he was finally done, we headed back to Yellowfield house and pulled together breakfast and massive amounts of coffee.
“Okay, so let’s make a list of what you need, then we can all go out and get it today. I mean, we can’t get everything, but we can have enough to get you started,” Darah said, tearing out some sheets of notebook paper and laying them out on the dining table.
“You don’t have to do that,” Dusty tried to say, but Darah just glared at him. I didn’t even know she was capable of that kind of look.
“Okay, okay. Jesus.” He put his hands up in surrender and it was the first moment of levity we’d had all night.
It was fortunate that Dusty stayed here so often. He had tons of clothes and most of his other personal items, like his laptop and textbooks, here.
He still needed extra winter clothes and boots and shoes plus supplies for Napoleon. Darah delegated and we all got dressed and headed out. Hunter and I were in charge of the pet supplies so we drove to the Bangor Mall.
“It’s going to be fun to have a cat,” I said. “I mean, a full-time cat. Napoleon was already over a lot anyway. Maybe we could get him a little buddy so he’s not lonely.” Hunter gave me a look as if I’d suggested we buy an elephant and house it in the basement.
“What?”
“I don’t think a kitten is what we need right now, Missy. Seeing as how we’re going to have our own human kitten.” I snorted and grabbed a bag of little cat toys shaped like mice. Napoleon loved to play fetch with things like this. He was going to go nuts when he saw them.
“But that’s a ways off. And we already have one cat. What’s another?” We moved through the food aisle and Hunter added a big bag of dry food to our cart.
Hunter grumbled under his breath but then we turned the corner and they just happened to have a cage full of kittens up for adoption.
“It’s meant to be,” I said, rubbing Hunter’s arm where he had the seven tattooed.
“Renee is going to kill us,” he said as we headed toward the cage of mewling kittens. They were so damn cute I wanted to cry. I actually did cry, but I was going to blame that on Spawn.
“Can I help you?” one of the polo-shirted employees asked as we talked and cooed at the kittens.
“Yeah, we want to adopt one,” I said and the employee, Sarah, got us some paperwork. I let Hunter fill that out as I looked at each of the kittens, trying to figure out which one we should get. I was just staring at two sleeping on top of each other one when a little gray kitten with white socks came over. It put its paws on the cage and meowed right in my face.
“Hello,” I said and the kitten answered. It had a little spot of white on one ear and pretty blue eyes.
“What about this one?” I asked, pointing. Sarah came over and took the kitten out.
“This is a little girl. She hasn’t been fixed yet, but she’s a real sweetheart.” The kitten was plopped in my arms and she immediately licked my hand and started purring.
“Oh, Hunter,” I said, turning. He reached for the kitten.
“Hello, sweet girl,” he said, cradling the kitten to his chest. I started crying again, and tried to wipe my eyes so that no one noticed.
“And it’s a little ironic that she’s the color of smoke,” Hunter said, scratching her under her chin as she closed her eyes happily.
“Yeah, we should call her that. Smoky.” Hunter agreed and before we knew it, I was sitting in the passenger side of my car and holding a snoozing kitten.
“What have we gotten ourselves into?” Hunter asked.
Good question.
The next day we helped Dusty officially move in, which included adding him to the chore chart.
“This is very official,” he said, giving Jos a kiss on the cheek. He was doing really well, considering. By some miracle, he’d brought all the pictures of his brother over here so that Jos could also see them, so he hadn’t lost any. He only had his part-time job at Bull Moose, so the rest of us were chipping in to help him get back on his feet. He tried to refuse, but none of us were having it.
“You’re stuck with us now,” Jos said, smiling up at him. Renee probably still wasn’t thrilled about him moving in, but she couldn’t throw the guy out after his house had burned down.
“Thank you all, really. I don’t…” he got a little choked up and took a breath. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.” He reminded me a lot of myself. Getting taken in by a family that welcomed you with open arms. No questions asked. Dusty was a Yellowfield House resident now and I was happy to have him.
I got a call back from one of the contractors about the new addition and we set up a meeting during the first week of December. I was thrilled to get started on the plans, but it was almost Thanksgiving and we were all cramming for exams and writing papers and doing projects like crazy.
Taylor would also have her first doctor’s appointment soon and I was counting down the days. I just wanted to make sure everything was on track and that we didn’t have anything to worry about. She hadn’t started to show yet, but I’d already looked up some sites that sold maternity clothes (cute ones that she would wear) and bookmarked them for when she’d need them.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how fucking happy I was about the baby. I’d see one on campus, or in a commercial, and it would remind me that in less than a year, I was going to have one of my own. I was going to be a father.
I told my counselor about the baby and she asked me how I felt.
“Well, it’s what I’ve always wanted. I mean, I didn’t know that it was what I wanted, until I met Taylor. She changed everything and I can’t wait.” I smiled and my stomach got all fluttery and shit.
“Are you worried about anything?” Isobel asked me. I shook my head.
“Not really. I mean, other than just the usual concerns. Will the baby be healthy, will I know what to do, will Taylor be okay, those kinds of things. But nothing major.” I was actually a little surprised that I wasn’t more apprehensive, but I was feeling really good about everything.
“And what does Taylor think?” I hesitated before I answered.
“She wasn’t as happy about it at first. I think she was just in shock, really, but she’s totally on board with everything now. She’s excited. I saw her looking at baby stuff at the store the other day. And her mom and sister are excited too.” Isobel nodded and made some notes.
My nightmares still popped up now and then, especially when I was tired. I didn’t think they were gone for good, but thinking about the baby helped bring me back from the darkness.
“I just want to caution you that this baby isn’t going to be the cure for everything.
It’s great that you’re excited, but just be realistic about it, okay?” I nodded. I wasn’t delusional that this baby was going to completely fix everything that had happened before. But this was life and I was going with it. Full speed ahead.
Thanksgiving came and Taylor’s family agreed to come to Bar Harbor so we could all be together. Her mom and Tawny got along really well with Hope and John, so it worked out great.
Seven continued her reign as the sweetest human ever by showing us a card she had made for the baby. That had everyone gushing, and she beamed and did a little twirl in her chair.
After dinner we all moved to the lounge for pie. I’d brought my guitar so Seven, Darah, Mase and I had a jam session while Hope and John talked to Taylor and her mom and sister.
Taylor fell asleep on the way home and I carried her into the empty house. Everyone else was staying the weekend with their respective families so it was just us.
We crashed on the couch and I watched a couple of movies under a blanket, still totally stuffed. Hope had also sent us home with multiple containers of leftovers along with four pies.
When she finally woke up I caught Taylor rubbing her belly absently. I seized my moment.
“Can I ask you something?” I said and she turned her head.
“You don’t need my permission, but go ahead.” She yawned.
“I was thinking about us getting married. You know. Since we’re going to be having a baby. I’m not saying that we have to, but it’s something to think about.” I put my hand on top of hers on her stomach.
Her lips thinned.
“I had the feeling you were going to bring that up. I’m surprised you held off for this long. I’d thought the second I told you about the baby, you’d be marching me straight down the aisle whether I wanted to or not.”
“I don’t want you to feel obligated to marry me, Taylor. Especially now. No one should get married just because of having a baby because that’s not a good enough reason.” Taylor snorted.
Our Favorite Days Page 14
