A Little Bit Engaged

by Teresa Hill

  “Yeah, but it still hurts.”

  “It does.” She puzzled over that. “Doing the right thing shouldn’t be so painful. It should be easy, shouldn’t it?”

  He shook his head understandingly. “I never thought about it like that, but yeah, it should be.”

  “I usually don’t have any trouble figuring out the right thing to do.”

  “You want to go fight for the man? See if you can get him back?”

  “No.” The thought never occurred to her. “Not that. I meant…staying with him the way I have, all this time. It seemed right. I thought he was perfect for me.”

  “We all make mistakes, Kate,” he said.

  “Yeah.” He’d said that yesterday, hadn’t he?

  “Sometimes it is painful to do the right thing. But it gets better. I firmly believe that. Keeping on with the wrong thing…that’s what hurts in the long run.”

  “Promise it’s true?” she asked, hating sounding like a little girl looking for reassurance.

  “Yeah, I can promise. I have extensive experience in doing the wrong thing.”

  “Doing it yourself or helping other people who do it?”

  “Both,” he claimed.

  She hoped so, because she was counting on everything to get easier from this point on. Otherwise she didn’t know what she’d do.

  Ben walked into his office the next morning whistling.

  Mrs. Ryan was immediately suspicious.

  “What have you done now?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” he insisted.

  And he hadn’t. He’d been a perfect gentleman, not improper at all with Kate last night, if he did say so himself. Other than the fact that they’d had the conversation late at night with her wearing drunken reindeer pajamas, there was nothing he could think of that would have worried Mrs. Ryan at all.

  “I know you’ve done something,” she said. “And I’ll figure it out.”

  He tried to suppress a grin, but couldn’t.

  She really worried when he looked happy. It was unseemly, she thought. Priests should be a solemn lot.

  “It’s a beautiful day outside,” he claimed. “Did you notice, coming in? The sky was still tinged with pink, and the sun was just coming up. Great day.”

  “Have you been drinking the communion wine? Because we had a priest here thirty-five years ago who did that. He looked just like you do this morning.”

  “No, I have not broken into the communion wine. I’m just happy.” Granted, he wasn’t usually this happy, but it didn’t make him a lush.

  Mrs. Ryan scowled at him, the way a teacher might look at a boy who’d just cut off a girl’s pigtails. “You’re not planning on going anywhere today, are you?”

  “As a matter of fact, I am.” He was going to the doctor with Kate and Shannon, as soon as he talked someone into seeing the girl. “Don’t we know somebody who knows somebody who’s an OB/GYN?”

  “The undertaker, Frank Russell, the one people here hardly ever use because his prices are so high? You remember. He buried old Mrs. Parker not long after you got here, and you had to do the funeral, even though you hardly knew her, and you couldn’t keep her daughters straight.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Not his finest hour. They were triplets, and they all looked alike. The harder he’d tried to keep them straight, the more flustered he’d become.

  “Frank Russell’s son’s a doctor.”

  “Great. Would you get Frank on the phone for me, please?”

  “Frank Russell’s the tightest man in the world. He’s not going to do you a favor, and his son won’t, either.”

  “Sure he will.”

  If it was one thing Ben had confidence in, it was his ability to get people to do things. Guilt was a wonderful thing, and he had no problem using it to help people who really needed help.

  He had Shannon a doctor’s appointment twenty minutes later.

  Kate woke up with a plan.

  She loved it when she had a plan.

  All that business about plans not working and not protecting people from little disasters along the way…she just hadn’t been herself yesterday. There must have been some cosmic disturbance. Solar flares or something. Hadn’t she read those things made everything go wacko? Mostly electronics, but probably little things like people’s sensible plans, too.

  She was over it.

  Back to the plan.

  She had three big items on her list:

  Do something with Shannon. Not sure what, but something.

  Get her sisters to sign the lease on their new apartment ASAP, this morning preferably.

  Convince Joe not to blab about their broken engagement yet, which should be a piece of cake, considering how guilty he felt about falling for someone else.

  She was leaving something out, she knew—how she was going to handle Ben Taylor, and he definitely needed handling… Handling?

  Kate blushed at her choice of words. She wasn’t handling the man. She’d never touched him. She wasn’t going to start now. She was going to make it clear to him that they were both merely interested in helping Shannon, and that was it.

  No handling. No comforting. No freelance counseling sessions. No friendly advice. Nothing between them at all.

  There. Four measly things she needed to accomplish today. She could do four things in her sleep. She often worked with a daily list of a dozen items or more. Come to think of it, she’d stopped making her daily lists months ago. Sometime right after her mother died, and look what had happened? No wonder her life was a mess.

  Kate grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from the kitchen countertop and dutifully made out her list.

  1. Sisters—lease.

  2. Joe—quiet.

  3. Shannon—doctor. That was it. First step, doctor.

  4. Purely professional relationship only with B.T.

  She thought about adding No Crying, but decided she didn’t need to.

  Done.

  Great list.

  She hummed as she picked up the phone to her sister Kim, bracing herself to put on a happy face, so that no one would have any idea of the night she’d had.

  “Kim, hi. Sorry it’s so early, but Kathie told me you found a fabulous apartment! I’m so happy for you. Listen, Kathie had the best idea last night.”

  “Huh?” her sister, the original sleepyhead said. “Have you had like five cups of coffee already?”

  “No, only one.” Kate would never have five cups of anything of a questionable nature healthwise. Granted, she loved coffee, but she got one cup at home before going into the office, one cup when she arrived, and if it was a bad day, one cup right after lunch. Never five, and never altogether in the morning.

  “You just sound unusually perky,” Kim complained.

  “Sorry.” She knew that annoyed people, especially early in the morning, and tried not to do it too often. “I just have a lot on my list today, and I wanted to make sure I got to look over the lease before you sign it. It’s a huge financial obligation, and you should never sign something like that without having someone look it over.”

  “Okay.”

  Kate plowed ahead. Steamrolling her sister was so easy when Kim was sleepy. “I was thinking you and I and Kathie could meet at the apartment to look around and I could check the lease right there. If it’s okay, you can sign it then.”

  “Wait. I don’t have a roommate. I can’t afford it on my own.”

  “Sure you do. Kathie. She’ll explain the whole thing to you when you talk. Set up a time for us all to meet and then give me a call, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Still groggy. That was good. Kate just hoped her sister remembered having this conversation. She’d have her assistant call, just in case. One more thing for her list.

  Kate said goodbye, then cheerfully put a check mark beside that item on her list. The checkmark meant she’d set that item into motion. When it was accomplished, she’d cross it off completely.

  There was nothing like looking at a daily list a
nd seeing everything crossed off.

  Joe was next. She got his answering machine, wondered if he was ducking her calls, the coward. She left a quick message that might have sounded more like an order, but she didn’t care.

  “It’s me. Don’t tell anyone we broke up yet. I need to think about…how I’m going to do it. Give me twenty-four hours, and I’ll get back to you.” It was the least he could do after falling in love with someone else.

  A big line went through that item on her list.

  Ben Taylor called next. “Sorry it’s so early,” he said.

  “It’s not early.”

  “Oh. One of those people, are you?”

  “What kind of people?”

  “Let me guess. You’re feeling better this morning? More like your old self?”

  He said it as if that was a bad thing. “Of course.”

  “Okay. Shannon surfaced yet?”

  “No, and I have to leave for work. I have a busy day.”

  “Time for a visit to the doctor at eleven?”

  Kate mentally reviewed her schedule for the day. “Sure. Have you said anything to Shannon about this doctor’s appointment?”

  “No.”

  “So you don’t know if she’s willing to go?”

  “No.”

  “Okay. I’m going to work,” Kate said. “I’ll leave her a note telling her to help herself to breakfast and that you’re coming over at ten. You can get her there, right?

  “You don’t think I can?”

  “I’m just saying…she’s not the most agreeable person I’ve ever met.”

  “I can get her there,” Ben claimed.

  “Okay. I’ll meet you there.”

  She said goodbye to Kathie, who’d overslept and was getting dressed, and the dogs, whom her brother would be picking up soon, and left.

  Melanie Mann was at her desk right before lunch, when Beth Drayton, who was in her home room every year in high school, called from Dr. Russell’s office. Dr. Russell delivered babies, and Beth was one of his clerks.

  “You won’t believe who I saw sitting in our waiting room together,” Beth said.

  “Who?”

  “Kate Cassidy, and a guy who wasn’t Joe! What did the priest look like yesterday?”

  Melanie gasped. She’d have sworn they’d just met, right there in her office, but you never knew about people. You really never knew.

  “Tall,” Melanie said. “Kind of skinny, dark hair, dark eyes. Kind of cute, in a Clark Kentish sort of way. A little awkward. Kind of…brainy-looking.”

  Beth gasped. “That’s him! I swear, that’s him!”

  “Kate’s pregnant?” Melanie asked.

  “Practically everybody in this office is pregnant.”

  Wow.

  You really never knew about people, Melanie decided.

  Chapter Eight

  Kate was running late.

  Because the doctor had been running late. Obviously a situation stemming from poor planning. And after they’d sat waiting for forty-five minutes, he’d gotten called to the hospital to a delivery and cancelled Shannon’s appointment altogether!

  Which meant the next day they got to do the whole thing again.

  Kate could just see it: She and Ben sitting next to each other, Ben grinning because he just did that, even when he and Kate were snipping at each other, Kate checking her watch and her to-do list, plus taking calls on her cell phone; Shannon across the room in full Ghoul-Girl mode, no doubt giving all the young mothers-to-be nightmares about what would become of their babies.

  She’d sulked and not said a word to Kate or Ben the whole time they were in the office, although Kate might have seen a hint of fear in the girl’s dark eyes. She supposed it would be hard to face indisputable proof of the life growing inside of her.

  But that was a task for the next day. Now, Kate was rushing to the address Kim had given her. The landlord was waiting. The lease was waiting. Joe was waiting, just as she’d asked. If the apartment was even halfway acceptable, her sisters weren’t leaving without signing the lease.

  She arrived out of breath and looking…well, un-Kate-like, she supposed, because her sisters were staring at her, as was a little old lady with stark, white hair.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Kate said. They all kept staring. “What?”

  “You’re late,” Kim said. “And you’re never late.”

  “I know.” Was it like a law? Everybody else got to be late, but not her? She wasn’t a machine, after all.

  “This is Mrs. Warren,” Kim said, still looking oddly at her sister. “Mrs. Warren, this is my oldest sister, Kate.”

  “Hello, dear,” Mrs. Warren said. “You’re the one in real estate?”

  “A mortgage broker,” Kate said, relieved the apartment actually looked nice. She’d have felt guilty if she’d pushed her sisters into a place that wasn’t nice, just to make Kate’s life easier. “Great place. Lots of windows and light, nice big rooms.”

  “Come see the bedrooms,” Kim said, dragging her off down the hallway and into both rooms and bathrooms.

  Her sisters liked it. Kate saw no reason to disapprove. She read the lease twice, satisfied, looked at her sisters and felt a twinge about this time in her life coming to an end. They’d always lived together, if they weren’t off at college. Kate knew it was unusual for a woman of her age to live with her sisters, but they’d all been unusually close since their father died and throughout their mother’s illness.

  But they weren’t going to be together anymore.

  “What’s wrong?” Kim asked. “You looked so sad for a minute.”

  “I just…well, I’m going to miss you two,” she said softly.

  At which they both looked like they might cry, too.

  “We don’t have to go through with this,” Kathie said.

  “Unless the three of us and Joe are all going to live together,” Kim said, laughing. “I don’t think he’d like that.”

  To which Kate said nothing.

  Finally, she pulled out a pen and handed Kim the lease. “It’s a great place. You two have the money for the deposits?”

  “Yes,” they chorused.

  “Not just for the apartment, the utility deposits, too?”

  “Yes,” they said.

  Of course they would. She’d given both of them their financial educations, and they were well equipped young women, ready to take good care of themselves and their money, to make good decisions, and this was one.

  “Then sign it,” she said. “It’s a great place. It’s perfect for the two of you.”

  With great flourish, they both signed, then grinned and hugged each other.

  There. One item to cross off her list.

  Kate was late again, getting back to the office, and Gretchen seemed to be watching her closely, an odd look on her face.

  Just because Kate was a few minutes late?

  Her sisters had kept talking about plans for their apartment, and then she still hadn’t had lunch, so she’d grabbed a sandwich to eat at her desk.

  Kate sat down, reaching for her turkey on wheat. Gretchen hovered in the doorway, looking uncertain.

  “Go ahead,” Kate said. “Let me hear all the messages. You talk. I’ll eat.”

  Gretchen started through the stack of little, yellow message slips one by one, moving unusually slowly. What in the world? She got to a hitch in a loan-closing scheduled. Kate mumbled an answer through a bite of her sandwich.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I’m starving.”

  Which only had Gretchen staring even more oddly.

  Oh, geez.

  What could have happened?

  Had Joe blabbed to someone already?

  Was the news already out?

  Finally, Gretchen got to the last message. “A man named Ben called?”

  “Yes.”

  “He said, ‘Dr. Russell’s office, tomorrow, eight-thirty.’”

  Kate mentally flipped through her schedule for tomorrow, scribbling a note to
herself to put into her Palm Pilot later, when both her hands were free.

  “Okay, that works.”

  Gretchen just stood there. “Dr. Russell delivers babies.”

  “Yes, he does.”

  “Well…I just wondered…I mean, I thought you would have told me, but… Are you and Joe having a baby?”

  Kate choked on a bit of wheat bread, had to cough twice before she got it to go down and could breathe again. “No!”

  “Are you and this other man…Ben?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Because my cousin Ellen, who works at the bank, heard from someone, who heard from Melanie Mann, that you had an appointment at Dr. Russell’s office this morning, and that the man with you wasn’t Joe!”

  Kate squeezed her eyes shut and made a face, probably that awful, I-have-to-scream-but-I’m-trying-to-hold-back face she so hated to make, because it was so unattractive and spoke of a complete lack of control.

  “I am not pregnant!” she said.

  “Are you seeing someone else? Other than Joe?”

  “If I was, I wouldn’t be dating him at the obstetrician’s office!” Didn’t people think these things through at all? It was no place for a date!

  “No, I guess not. But—”

  “And if I was pregnant, and I didn’t want anybody to know, I’d go to a doctor in another town. Maybe another state!” That would probably be what it took to keep the whole thing a secret.

  “This is about that man you met the other day, isn’t it? The priest?”

  “He’s not a priest. He’s a…well, he is, but he’s not. He’s not Catholic. He can get married and have kids and all that stuff without breaking any of his vows. Not that he’s doing anything like that with me,” Kate said.

  “Okay.” Gretchen frowned. “You just don’t seem like yourself. Every since you met him—”

  “Ever since I met him, my life has started falling apart!” Kate practically yelled. And it would feel really good to have someone to blame for that. She picked him. Ben Taylor. Freelance do-gooder and causer of all kinds of havoc. He’d told her the night before he was really good at making the wrong decisions. She was starting to believe him. “And you know what? I think it’s time I told Ben Taylor that, the rat!”