by R A Wallace
“Yeah, that hall tree sounds really interesting. If it’s a match, we should definitely get it. I can’t believe a piece of furniture that was original to the house could be coming back here after this long.” Dan knew Daryl had a good eye. If he said it matched, it probably did. He stood and pushed his chair in then took his lunch cooler from the fridge. With a quick glance at Megan, he added some of the muffins to his cooler from the plate on the table.
“I already put some cookies in there.”
Dan grinned and took another muffin. “If you have time, stop and see me too. I’ll finish getting ready for work and grab this on my way out.”
Dan kissed the top of Megan’s head as she lifted the journal again.
***
Caitlyn looked at her list and began pulling flowers from a refrigerator unit in her work room. She set the flowers on a large island where she stood to create her arrangements then pulled out a vase from one of the many cupboards that lined the walls. When she heard the bells indicating someone had entered the shop, she stuck her head through the door and found Megan. Caitlyn waved to Megan to come into the back.
“Please tell me there’s sugar in there,” Caitlyn said when Megan walked into the work room carrying a bag.
“Chocolate chip pudding cookies,” Megan said with a nod as she set the bag down on a counter by a coffee pot.
“Oh, I remember those. You haven’t made them in a while.” Caitlyn dusted off her hands and dug in the bag for a cookie before returning to her work.
“Dan has a sweet tooth. I’ve been going through some of my grandmother’s old recipes and making them for him.”
“What brings you into town today?” Caitlyn quickly added flowers to the vase.
Megan explained the call from the retirement community, the note, and the journal she had finished reading after Dan had left for work.
“Wow. That’s different. Is Erica okay with all of this?” Caitlyn held up the finished arrangement and examined it from every angle before setting it aside. She then started pulling out materials to begin another one. When she went over to the cupboards to get another vase, she snagged another cookie.
“She said the case is officially closed. The killer confessed. The journal technically belongs to the retirement community since that’s who Alice left everything to.” Megan shrugged. “She also said I shouldn’t be able to get hurt.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Caitlyn agreed.
“How about you? How are you and Doug doing?” Megan asked.
Caitlyn told Megan about Macey’s attempt to break them up.
“That’s horrible. Why would anyone tell lies like that?” Megan asked.
“I don’t know. I’m just glad it didn’t work.”
“Just stay clear of her.” Megan looked at the time. “I should go. I have a couple more stops to make.”
“Thanks for the cookies,” Caitlyn said.
***
“You really don’t have to do that you know,” Lauren said from her seat as she watched Megan wash the bowls, utensils, and other things she’d used to bake with today.
“You need to take breaks when you can,” Megan pointed out.
“I feel useless.”
“That’s your hormones talking,” Megan said. “We’ve been through this before. Twice. Once the baby comes you’ll forget all about this part.”
“Wait until it’s your turn,” Lauren grumbled. Then she took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m done feeling sorry for myself now.”
“It won’t be much longer,” Megan said soothingly.
“I feel so guilty that I’m complaining. I’m only carrying one. Imagine how Erica feels. It’s her first pregnancy and she’s having twins. She must be so confused about everything right now. I should have been a better friend and spent more time with her.”
“Brad said that you’ve been helping them all along,” Megan pointed out calmly. “You even helped them set up their nursery.”
“It is a nice nursery,” Lauren said absently. “Tell me some more about Alice. She sounds so nice.”
Megan began drying the dishes as she told Lauren more about Alice.
Chapter Fifteen
The training session was only supposed to have lasted one hour but Erica was now ninety minutes in. The problem wasn’t with the self-paced session. It was that she’d had to go to the bathroom about every ten minutes. Doing so entailed having Jerry pull her out of the chair.
Erica looked down at her side. One of the twins was pushing so hard, Erica swore her rib was being moved. In fact, it felt like they had their little toes curled around the rib, and then they were stretching their legs. She hoped it wouldn’t become some sort of contest between the two of them. She wasn’t sure what would happen if they both pushed her ribs out at the same time. She looked up as someone else entered the room. They were carrying a coffee cup. Erica sighed loudly.
Jerry looked up from his computer. “Again?”
“I can’t help it. Someone is drinking coffee,” Erica said as she began struggling to get up from her chair.
“Hang on,” Jerry said as he quickly leapt nimbly to his feet.
Erica scowled at his agility.
Jerry shrugged at her scowl then held out his hands. He braced his feet and carefully hauled her up from the chair. He turned as she did and began walking to the bathroom with her.
Erica swatted at Jerry. “I can make it by myself.”
Jerry spotted Rhys at the doorway and stopped to talk with him as he watched Erica waddle down the hall to the restroom.
“How’s the training going?” Rhys asked as he watched Erica before turning to look inside the training room.
“You’ll find out when it’s your turn,” Jerry said enigmatically. He liked what he knew of Rhys so far, but he figured the guy still needed to learn some things on his own.
“Is she going to make it much longer?” Rhys wondered out loud.
“You’ll find out when it’s your turn.” Jerry grinned. “I hear you’re dating the new business owner of Maid in Teaberry.”
Rhys shot Jerry a look. He knew Jerry was just ribbing him. Just because he’d taken Ava and her daughter, Bella, out to dinner didn’t mean he was expecting a baby any time soon. Rhys looked down the hallway and frowned. “Shouldn’t she be coming back by now?”
Jerry glanced over toward the restroom and frowned also. “Yeah, usually.”
Both men were quiet for a moment as they willed Erica to emerge from the restroom.
Finally, Jerry shook his head and began walking down the hall.
“Are you going to…” Rhys stopped.
“Yep.” Jerry walked down the hall and stopped in front of the restroom. He hadn’t seen anyone else walk in since Erica did. It probably meant there wasn’t anyone else in there. Jerry knocked on the door loudly.
“Erica! You okay in there?” Jerry pounded again. “Erica!”
Jerry turned and looked at Rhys. Then he pushed open the door.
Rhys watched Jerry disappear into the restroom for a fraction of a moment before he quickly popped back out again.
“Get an ambulance here, now!”
***
Jerry paced in the emergency room. He’d ridden to the hospital in the ambulance with Erica. He’d found her collapsed on the floor of the restroom. At the time, she was conscious and complaining of cramping. He wasn’t certain if she was actually having contractions and he hadn’t wanted to take any chances. Taking her to the hospital was the best option, but now he was waiting to hear how she was. Justin came flying into the room a few moments later.
“Is she okay?” Justin asked as soon as he spotted Jerry. He was out of breath from running most of the way there once he’d heard they’d brought a pregnant cop in.
Jerry shook his head. “I don’t know, they haven’t come out to tell me anything yet. Can you get in there?”
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Justin said as he turned and left.
Jerry watched hi
m leave one side of the waiting room as Brad entered the other. Brad looked frantic. Jerry couldn’t blame him. Brad saw where Justin had exited and headed for those doors.
“Whoa, whoa,” Jerry called as he quickly moved to grab onto Brad. He pinned him still holding both of his arms.
“I need to see her.” Brad’s eyes were wider than saucers and focused on the door where he’d last seen Justin.
“I know that, but the doctors are taking care of her right now. You’ll see her soon.” Jerry held on to Brad.
Brad struggled with Jerry for a moment before he finally turned and looked at him. It took another moment for his eyes to focus. “Jerry?”
“Yeah, I’m here. You need to stay here too.”
“What happened?” Brad broke one of his arms free and held his hand up.
Jerry released the other arm but kept an eye on Brad. “I don’t know. She collapsed in the restroom.”
Brad’s anguished eyes locked onto Jerry’s. “Was she in labor? It’s too early.”
“I don’t know. She was complaining about cramping,” Jerry said.
Brad put his hands on his knees and bent over.
“Listen, it might not be labor. We don’t know yet. And, even if it is, they have great doctors here.”
“It’s too early,” Brad repeated.
Jerry saw Justin returning over Brad’s bent form. He took heart in the fact that Justin didn’t look as bad as Brad.
Jerry put a hand on Brad’s back to get his attention. Brad looked up and spotted Justin. He straightened and met Justin half way across the room.
“How is she?”
“She’s okay. They’re all okay. It was Braxton Hicks.” Justin stopped in front of the other two men.
Brad stared at Justin. “I read about that. It’s normal, right?”
Justin nodded once slowly. “It happens, and they can come earlier than usual with twins.”
“Can I see her?” Brad asked as he looked back at the door where Justin had come from.
Jerry moved a little closer to Brad in case he made a run for it.
“The doctor will let you know when you can go back. They’re making her comfortable now. They’ll want to keep her for a while and do a few more tests.” Justin looked over at Jerry.
Jerry nodded and turned to Brad. “Hey, let’s go over here and maybe call her parents or something. Let them know everything is okay.”
Brad looked over at Jerry with unfocused eyes again.
Jerry waved to Justin and took Brad’s arm. Then he led Brad over to some seats and gently pushed him down. Brad dropped his head into his hands.
“She’s going to be okay now,” Jerry said.
Brad lifted his head and looked at Jerry. “You sure?”
“Yeah, but Brad?” Jerry made sure Brad’s eyes were focused and that he was following him. “This is probably it for work. She’s probably going to have to take off until the babies come.”
Brad eyes grew wide as the message sank into his brain. “She’s not going to like that.”
***
Jerry slowly climbed the steps to the front porch and rang the doorbell. He was bone tired. Madison opened the door. Without speaking, she turned and walked down the hall to her kitchen. Jerry closed the door and followed her. He watched her take two wine glasses from the cupboard before turning toward the fridge.
After filling both glasses, she handed him one. “She okay?”
“The tough part comes now. I don’t envy Brad.”
Chapter Sixteen
The crib looked smaller than he remembered. Noah had been a few years younger when they had retired it to the nether regions of the garage, thinking they’d never need it again. Justin stood near the door of the garage, staring forlornly inside. He seriously wasn’t looking forward to this.
The only way he could get the baby things out was to clean out the entire garage. He turned around and looked at Lauren. She was sitting with her feet up just outside the garage on the driveway, looking in. One hand was rubbing her stomach. Her eyes were unfocused, her face looked pensive. He knew that look.
“She’s going to be okay,” Justin said for the tenth time.
Lauren’s eyes met Justin’s and she smiled. “I know. We knew she’d get to this point. That’s one nice thing about Brad working from home. He won’t have to sit in an office somewhere in Pittsburgh all day and stress, wondering how she’s doing at home alone.”
One corner of Justin’s mouth twisted up. “Yeah, he’ll be able to stand in the same room and stress.”
Lauren smiled back, then she looked behind Justin. “Where did we put the crib mattress?”
Justin turned around and looked everywhere. Something that big should be noticeable, even in this mess. Finally, he looked up in the loft of the garage and groaned.
“I forgot all about the space up there. It’s going to have to be cleaned out too.” Justin looked around, trying to figure out where to start. He’d already pulled Lauren’s van out. He decided to begin in the far corner and work his way out.
“At least we’ll be able to get rid of some of this stuff in the community sale.” Lauren watched with eagle eyes as Justin began forming piles.
They heard loud stomping a moment before Noah burst from the house into the garage. His sister, Mia, was a step behind him.
“Dad! Dad!”
Justin opened the flaps of a box and peered inside. “What’s up, buddy?”
“I finished my homework,” Noah announced.
“I finished first,” Mia said as she gave a smug look at her brother.
“Nuh uh!” Noah folded his arms indignantly.
“That’s great you two. Daddy will check it later.” Justin pulled out some baby blankets and crib sheets and held them up for Lauren to see.
Lauren nodded her head, so Justin dragged the box over by the door where Mia and Noah stood. The crib things would need to go into the house.
“What’s that?” Mia asked.
“Those are blankets and sheets for the crib. You both used them when you were babies,” Lauren explained.
Justin went back into the corner and pulled out another box. Peering inside, he found his old bowling shoes. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d worn them. His bowling ball was in its case on the floor. There were also old school yearbooks in the box. Justin pulled one out and scanned through it until he found a picture of Lauren.
“Look, you two. Here’s a picture of Mommy when she was in school.” Justin walked over to the children with the yearbook.
The children giggled when they saw the picture. Lauren watched them and smiled.
“Dad, what’s a pledge?” Noah asked.
“Does it say that in the book?” Justin asked as he glanced through the page again.
“No, I have to make a pledge in school,” Noah said.
“Me too,” Mia added.
Justin looked over at Lauren. She shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, it depends. What did they tell you about the pledge?” Justin asked.
“Bullies are bad!” Noah said quickly, before his sister could answer.
“Oh, yes they are,” Justin agreed as he put the yearbook back into the box. He left his bowling shoes in the box. Maybe after baby number three graduated from college, he’d have time to go bowling again.
“Why are you cleaning out the garage?” Mia asked.
“So we can make more room,” Justin said.
“For what?” Noah asked.
“Another baby,” Justin said absently as he dragged out another box.
Noah’s eyes grew large. “The baby has to stay in the garage?”
Both children turned to their mother.
“No, sweetie. We already talked about this. If it’s a boy, he’ll stay in your room. If it’s a girl, she’ll sleep in Mia’s room,” Lauren said as she watched Justin dig through another box.
A car pulled into the driveway and parked.
“Grandma Bev!” Both children yelle
d before running to greet her.
Vince DeKalb joined Justin in the garage. “Need help?”
Justin looked up, the relief clearly showing on his face until he noticed Vince was carrying a box.
“I’m trying to get rid of stuff, not collect it,” Justin joked.
Vince grinned at him before setting the box down. “There’s more in the car. These are some of my old tools. Sometimes I buy a new one because I like the features, but the old tool still works. I figured you could sell it in the community sale and put the proceeds toward the new baby.”
“That is so sweet,” Lauren said feeling her eyes grow moist. Crazy hormones, she thought for the millionth time as she dug a tissue out of her pocket.
“How is Erica?” Bev asked as she took a seat near Lauren.
“Looks like she’s done working for now. She’ll need to stay home,” Lauren said.
Bev nodded. “Well, we knew it was coming, but it’s for the best and it will be over soon. Still.”
Lauren huffed a laugh. “Yeah. I’m glad it’s Brad and not me.”
“She’s going to be a handful, that’s for sure,” Bev agreed.
Chapter Seventeen
Victor reached down and zipped his jacket a little higher. At this time of the year, the mornings were cool and made walking a little easier though sometimes jackets were needed. Victor and Silas took their normal route around the retirement community, the same one they took most mornings if the weather was cooperating. They sometimes stopped and spoke with others during their walk. One of the nice things about living in a community was having friends and neighbors around you, Victor thought. Today, the main subject was still Alice Durant.
“Do you think Megan has figured anything out yet?” Silas asked as they rounded a bend.
Victor pumped his arms as they walked. “She probably just finished reading the journal. I suspect she’ll be stopping here soon to let us know what she’s learned from that.”
“Think she’ll stop today?” Silas asked.
Victor had no clue really, but as a former superintendent of the Teaberry school system, he was accustomed to people asking him to make comments. The trick was to sound convincing when you answered.
