The Marrying Kind

by Judy Christenberry

  Diane dredged up a smile, but said little, sidestepping all their questions.

  When she went back to her apartment, though, the smile faded. She was going to miss this place on Yellow Rose Lane. The fourplex had been her home since college, and for the most part she’d been happy here.

  But now it was time to go.

  She began packing her clothes, systemically going through her closet. After filling three suitcases, she took a quick shower, trying not to think about the shower she’d shared with John.

  She pressed her palms to her stomach, though there was no sign of the baby yet. But all she’d done today was for her child. She was running away for the sake of this unborn infant. She’d known she’d have to live without John in her life. He’d been pulling away all week.

  It had come too soon, in Diane’s opinion. Yet, ironically, at the perfect time. She could disappear without having to reveal her secret. He need never know he’d fathered a child.

  She wouldn’t feel guilty about concealing his baby from him. He had told her over and over that he never wanted children or even to get married.

  She was only doing what he wanted.

  As if her thoughts conjured him, he called her on the phone.

  “Hi, John,” she said, struggling to keep any emotion from her voice. “Are you still in Denver?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be home tomorrow night.”

  “Oh, good.”

  “Is everything all right?”

  “As far as I know. I haven’t actually talked to Gladys or Mildred, but I’m sure they’re fine.”

  “I just spoke to them,” he told her.

  Ah. She was second. No matter, she told herself.

  Silence fell between them. Diane didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t speak of the baby growing inside her, or her plans to protect that child. She couldn’t ask him to come see her when he got back to town. She wouldn’t be here.

  “Well, I just thought I’d check on you. Gladys was afraid you’d forget to eat.”

  “No, I won’t forget to eat.”

  “Then I’ll see you when I get back.”

  “Have a safe trip.”

  She hadn’t even had to lie to him. Such a mild, bland conversation with the man she loved.

  She sank down on the sofa. What had she just admitted? She couldn’t love him! But she did. And always would, as the father of her child. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She’d known their breakup would hurt. But she had been concentrating so deeply on the baby that the pain hadn’t hit her until now.

  It hurt much more than she’d thought.

  She wrapped herself in a blanket from her bed and curled up in a ball on the sofa, tears streaming down her face. For the first time ever, she’d given herself completely to a man she’d fallen in love with. And now he was out of her life.

  Rocking back and forth, she mentally reviewed their relationship, lingering over the feelings she’d discovered within herself because John had touched her, physically and emotionally.

  But gradually she calmed down. She had to be strong now, for her baby. It was her job to protect and love this child more than anything. She wanted to do what her parents hadn’t done.

  Would she have a boy? she suddenly wondered. Angi had said the Davis men had sons. Diane thought she’d fare better with a girl, because she knew more about them. But if her child was a boy, she’d still love him. Totally and completely.

  She slowly got up from the sofa and put the frozen dinner in the microwave. She’d have to learn to cook better balanced meals again. She used to cook more, but somehow, as her responsibilities at work grew, she’d spent less time in the kitchen.

  After eating her dinner, she took the pill that might allow her to keep down her food, and then she went to bed.

  Diane was so tired, she never heard the phone ring half an hour later.

  Chapter Fourteen

  John paced the floor in his hotel room, trying to understand what was going on inside him. Diane was fine. He’d just talked to her. So why was he fighting the urge to call her again?

  Because they hadn’t said anything that mattered. She hadn’t demanded anything of him. Neither had he asked anything of her. He felt a need to hear her say she cared for him. Surely she could at least tell him that. He picked up the phone and dialed her number.

  It rang about six times but she never answered. John hung up the phone and paced again in frustration. Maybe she’d run to the store for something. He’d try again later.

  He’d just walked away from the phone when it rang. He raced to grab it, certain it was she.

  “Diane?”

  “Sorry to disappoint you. It’s Mark.”

  “Hi, Mark. How are you?”

  “Confused and a little angry.”

  “What about?”

  “About Diane leaving. I know you don’t stay too long with any one woman, but Diane is special, and I don’t think you did the right thing, dumping her like this.”

  John froze. Finally, he said, “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about Diane leaving the bank. I helped her carry out a box a little before noon. It obviously had her belongings from her desk.”

  “What? Did she get fired? Who can I call? I’ll take care of it. Just tell me who to phone.”

  “The one you need to call is Diane. I talked to Wendy, her assistant. Well, I wasn’t exactly honest with her. I told her Diane had told me about her leaving. She filled me in on what happened. I know Diane had a doctor’s appointment this morning. But when she got back, she went to the president’s office and asked him to transfer her to Atlanta. By the way, I’m not supposed to tell you that. Anyway, he tried to get her to stay, even offered her a raise. She said she was leaving for Atlanta tomorrow, with or without a job. He scrambled to keep her in the company, and found her a position there. She starts next Monday.”

  John felt as if his brain had been scrambled. “This doesn’t make sense. I talked to her tonight. Everything was fine.”

  “Did you ask her if she was staying put?” Mark asked.

  “No, but she didn’t say she was leaving. Surely she’d tell me if she was.”

  “Do you have some kind of an agreement?”

  “Of course not! I’d never give a woman the power to hold me.”

  “So you have no hold over her? You’re okay with her going?”

  “No!” John retorted. “She’s supposed to be there. Or at least let me know if she’s leaving!”

  “What’s good for one is good for the other,” his friend said softly. “Surely you learned that from your father. One-sided affairs never work.”

  “Damn it, it wasn’t one-sided! We both—” John broke off, unsure what to say. Unsure what he felt.

  “I’ve got to think,” he muttered, said as much to himself as to Mark. “Has Elizabeth talked to her?”

  “No. I thought about having her call, but I didn’t know what to do, either. You could’ve been happy that she wasn’t hanging on.”

  “No, I’m not happy. I thought… What does her trip to the doctor have to do with what happened today?” he suddenly asked.

  “I don’t know. She didn’t look ill. Well, a little pale, but not sick.”

  “She’s been losing weight. Gladys has mentioned it several times.”

  “I don’t know anything about women’s illnesses.”

  “Let me talk to Elizabeth for a minute.”

  “Okay, I’ll get her.”

  John sat there, frustration building. He would have to be out of town when something like this happened. He wanted to grab Diane and shake her until she confessed what she was doing.

  “Hello?”

  “Elizabeth, this is John. Mark and I were talking, but we really don’t know about female things. Diane went to the doctor, came back to the bank and quit her job, apparently. What could the doctor have said that would make her leave?”

  “Has she been sick lately?”

  “She’s lost some weight,
kind of been off her feed, you know?”

  “How long has she been losing weight?”

  “Just the last week or two.”

  “Hmm, has she been nauseous?”

  “I don’t think so. Not that I’ve noticed. I haven’t been… I mean, you know, I was mostly busy with my dad’s things.”

  “Yes, of course. I saw her the day of the funeral and she seemed a little subdued. Did you two have a falling out?”

  “No. I mean, I may have been a little thoughtless, but I would’ve made it up to her.”

  “Well, the only thing I can think of that fits what you’ve told me is when I got pregnant.”

  John’s heart stood still. Then he asked, “You lose weight when you get pregnant?”

  “Some women do. I did, but then I was throwing up every morning for a while. If Diane hasn’t been sick, I’m not sure what could be wrong.”

  “Well, she couldn’t be pregnant. She’s on birth control pills. So it must be something else.”

  “I couldn’t tell you, then, John.”

  “Would you do me a favor?”

  “I’ll try. What do you want?”

  “I want you to go over in the morning and talk to her. See what you can find out, and delay her as long as you can. I’ll be taking the first flight out and I’ll get there as soon as I can. I don’t want to lose her.”

  “Okay. I’ll go. I wanted to see her before she leaves, anyway.”

  “Thanks, Elizabeth,” John said.

  After he hung up the phone, he called the airline to change his reservation. The earliest flight out was seven o’clock the next morning. It would take a little over two hours to reach Dallas.

  Could he remain calm for the two-hour flight? Maybe they’d let him pace up and down the aisles. He didn’t know how else he’d manage to pass the time.

  What if she left before he could get there?

  No, he wasn’t going to think about that. He’d arrive in time and he’d talk her out of leaving. John thought about calling Gladys and Mildred and sending them over to Diane’s, too. But that might be too much. When they reconciled, he’d want to take her upstairs and make love to her. Gladys in particular wouldn’t want them to do that. She’d think he should marry Diane first.

  First? Had he changed his mind about marriage? He would admit that he could consider marriage if that was the only way she’d stay.

  But she’d never asked him to marry her. Why would that be important now?

  He kept coming back to her visit to the doctor. Something had happened there that he didn’t know about. But he’d find out.

  He would.

  DIANE DIDN’T TRY eating breakfast the next morning. The moving company was coming at nine, so she set her alarm for eight. When it went off, she had to fight with herself to get out of bed. Why was she so tired? She’d gone to sleep early last night.

  Maybe it had something to do with the pregnancy. She picked up the brochures the doctor had given her, and almost at once found an article explaining a new mother would experience exhaustion for at least the first three months.

  “Aha! I guess that’s the reason.”

  Though she wasn’t leaving until around noon, she had planned on driving at least eight hours today. She wasn’t sure she could do so that long. If she had to take an extra day to make the trip, she would.

  A glance at her watch had her scrambling to get dressed. She had just combed her hair when there was a knock on her door. She hurried to open it.

  “Miss Black?” the man asked.

  “Yes?”

  “I’m Gene Cowers from the moving company. Can I come in?”

  “Of course.” She led the way into her living room. “Do you want the tour first?”

  “Uh, yes, ma’am. You want us to pack everything?”

  “Please. I’ve packed my clothes, but I didn’t know until yesterday that I was moving. I start my new job next Monday, so I need to get there as soon as possible and find a place to live.”

  “They didn’t give you much time,” the man said with a frown.

  Diane just smiled.

  After they walked through the apartment, they sat down at the breakfast table and went over the details, which took longer than Diane had thought. When they finished, it was already ten-thirty.

  “Shall we start packing now?”

  “Yes, please. Oh, and could I get someone to carry down my three bags?”

  He gave her a strange look, but agreed at once to do so.

  Just as they reached the ground level, a car pulled into the parking lot and Elizabeth Golan got out.

  “Elizabeth! What—”

  “I wanted to say goodbye, Diane, and make you promise to send me your new address once you get settled.” She paused and looked at the man. “I’m sorry if I’m interrupting something.”

  “No, this gentleman is from the moving company. He and his crew are going to pack up my things. I asked him to carry down my bags for me.”

  “How nice of you,” Elizabeth said to him. Then she turned to Diane. “Have you eaten breakfast?”

  “No, I haven’t, but—”

  “Then come have breakfast with me. There’s a little pancake house just a couple of blocks away. It won’t take long.”

  Diane couldn’t resist Elizabeth’s request. She was really going to miss her. “Okay, just for a few minutes.”

  Elizabeth turned to the man. “If anyone comes for her, just tell them she’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Diane gave her a strange look. “No one’s going to come, Elizabeth. You and Mark and my assistant are the only ones who know. I don’t think Mr. Harvey went around telling people.”

  Her friend laughed. “Probably not. I just felt a little guilty taking you away. But I’m so glad you’ve agreed. Come on, I’ll drive.”

  Diane got in Elizabeth’s car, wondering if she should’ve refused the invitation. But Elizabeth had become such a good friend. And taking half an hour out of her day couldn’t hurt anything.

  When they were seated in a corner booth in the pancake house, Elizabeth said, “I’m going to forget my diet this morning and order pancakes. How about you?”

  Diane looked at the menu. Maybe plain pancakes would be okay. “I’ll join you.”

  “Good. Then Gladys can’t complain about you losing weight. I think it’s wonderful the way you get along with her and Mildred.”

  “They’re both very sweet women. I think if Doug had married Mildred after John’s mother died, he might have been happy.”

  “Did she love him? I wondered about that.”

  “She never said so, at least not in that context. But she certainly cared about him. I think she’s a wonderful lady. She’s living at John’s right now while they sell the house.”

  “Is she going to stay there for a long time?”

  “I don’t know. John said something about giving her the value of Doug’s house for her retirement fund.”

  “That would be a nice fund!”

  “I think she earned it. I wouldn’t have wanted to work for Angi or any of the others.”

  “No, but she got to take care of the children, I guess.”

  “Yes,” Diane agreed with a small smile. She could still picture the three little boys’ faces, much like their older half brother.

  When the waitress came to take their orders, Diane asked for a cup of hot tea. Elizabeth teased her about not having coffee, but Diane told her she was already awake, and didn’t need coffee. The drinks arrived almost at once. Diane opened her purse and took out her vitamin.

  “What’s that?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Vitamins. I went to my doctor and he suggested I take these,” she said, carefully shielding the label from Elizabeth’s gaze.

  “Oh, that’s good. Especially with the move.”

  The waitress returned with their pancakes.

  Unlike Elizabeth, Diane added no syrup to her stack of pancakes. She cut off a small bite and ate it slowly.

  “What
kind of place are you going to look for in Atlanta?” her friend asked.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never really looked around Atlanta. I attended a conference there once for two days. The people were very friendly.”

  “And you decided on the spur of the moment to move there? Because we aren’t friendly here?”

  “No, of course not! But if I had to leave, I thought—I mean, a change of place can be very invigorating.”

  “So how many times have you moved before?”

  Diane felt her cheeks heat up. “None.”

  “None? You lived in the fourplex all your life?”

  “No. I moved there after college.”

  “Where did you go to college?”

  “Dallas, at SMU.”

  “Maybe it is time you moved,” Elizabeth said with a gentle smile, “But I wish you hadn’t decided to do it now.”

  Diane saw the tears Elizabeth was blinking away, and her own eyes filled. She reached out a hand to her friend. “I wish that, too. But I’ll call you and give you my address, once I know it. I promise, Elizabeth. But you can’t give it to anyone. Not even Mark.”

  “Why?” her friend asked.

  “I—I don’t want anyone to know.”

  “But, Diane, we could come visit you, or I could come by myself. But I’d have to leave your number with Mark. I can’t abandon him with the kids and not give him a number to call if he gets in trouble.”

  “No, I guess you couldn’t,” Diane agreed. But she knew now that she couldn’t confide in Elizabeth. And she guessed it wasn’t fair to even ask her to keep something from her husband.

  “When will you reach Atlanta?”

  “I think I may take three days. That will still give me the weekend to find an apartment to rent.”

  Elizabeth didn’t seem to have any more questions. Diane guessed she didn’t have any more answers, either. They both sat silently, eating their pancakes.

  Until Diane’s stomach revolted.

  She left the table and ran for the restroom.

  Elizabeth stared after her, a smile finding its way to her lips.

  She looked suitably worried when Diane arrived back at the table. “Are you all right? I would’ve come after you, but both our purses were here, and I didn’t know what to do.”