by Mary Stone
To Kylie’s surprise, Faith had enlisted Kylie’s mother to help decorate for her upcoming wedding to Jacob. Rhonda was in decorating heaven and was already talking about opening up her own decorating business.
Kylie was happy for her.
“And you’re going to die when you see the centerpieces,” Rhonda went on. “Simply die! They’re marble and glass and probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And the spray of irises? Divine!”
“Sounds nice, Mom,” Kylie said, forcing warmth into her voice. “Can’t wait to see.”
“You’re going to love it. Now…about getting you a bridesmaid dress.”
“Oh, right. Sale at Macy’s.”
Or Mother’s Warehouse.
“Oh, honey, that was weeks ago, and you missed it,” Rhonda said with a tsking tone. “I’m sure there will be another sale, or you can shop online, if you want. I’ve had luck with buying a bunch of sizes and returning everything I don’t like.”
Kylie lifted up her knees and highlighted another name on Jacob’s list. A woman in Knoxville, Tennessee, which wasn’t too far away. She’d put in a couple calls to her before, but they’d gone unanswered. She’d try to contact her again later.
“Oooh. I just found a new ad for Macy’s. Summer clearance this weekend. You need a dress, sweetheart. It is really nice of Faith to let you choose the perfect one.”
“Eh,” Kylie muttered. Right about now, she had to start loading up on maternity clothes. Plus, money was tight, and she was nervous about what she’d find when she did the next round of Coulter Confidential financials. “I have a little black dress I could wear.”
Her mother sounded less than thrilled at that option. “So, you’re going to look like you’re attending a funeral. Is that it?”
“No,” Kylie insisted, even though she did feel a certain amount of dread about the occasion. She loved weddings. Normally, she’d have been so excited about this, but she had to think about the babies. And though the wedding was technically well after her first trimester, and she should be fine by then, she couldn’t guarantee it. She was already missing Faith and Jacob’s engagement party. What if she was kept on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy? “I’m just not really in the mood for shopping.”
“What happened to you? You used to be so excited to shop. But then, getting your wedding dress was like pulling teeth. And now?” She tutted. “Busy with the job, is that it?”
“Yeah. And I’m gaining weight.”
“That’s because that husband of yours is an excellent cook. Those short ribs are divine.”
“Yes, and other things…” she admitted, then stopped herself before she just blurted it out.
The secret was burning a hole in her soul.
“Well, I’m losing weight. I’ve been doing a nutrition shake I saw advertised on the internet. I’ve lost twelve pounds since April. Maybe you should—”
“No. Probably not.”
“Really, honey. You don’t seem as excited about the wedding as I’d hoped. Are you sure you want to be a bridesmaid? I’m sure Faith would understand if you bowed out. After all, she’d only want women who were supportive in that role.”
Kylie felt the slap of the words and promised to do better.
“I’m just tired. Sorry for not sounded overly excited.”
“Then…what is going on? Don’t try to fool your mother. I can tell something’s up. Is it because your wedding’s over? Are you feeling let down? I read in a magazine that that’s a very real condition. It’s called the Post-Wedding Blues. Maybe you need an antidepressant.”
Kylie pressed the heel of her hand into her eye. “No, Mom, that’s not it. I love Linc. I love my job. I love everything. Love is in the freaking air up here. And I most definitely do not feel bad that my wedding’s over.” How could her mother suggest such a thing? And an antidepressant? Well…that actually didn’t sound like such a bad idea.
Kylie shook her head and rubbed her belly.
“All right, then…what is it?” Rhonda prodded, and Kylie felt she was at that hopeless moment of the conversation where her mother would not stop until she got her answer.
She took a deep breath and blurted, “I’m pregnant.”
There was a pause.
Then it was like the eruption of a very large volcano. “What? Oh my gooooodnesssss!”
“Mom…calm down,” Kylie attempted, but her voice was drowned out by hysterical wailing on the other end of the phone.
“When did this happen? How did this happen?! I thought you were going to wait! You told me! OH MY GOD! Are you serious? Oh my GOSH! KYLIE! Oh…I need air.”
Alarmed, Kylie sat up. “Mom? Are you okay?”
“Yes. Fine. Just threw open a window.” Great. Now all of downtown Asheville would know the news. “Are you serious? You two must come over here to celebrate!”
“Yes, but Mom,” she said carefully, flattening the sheet over her stomach. “I’m early still, and I was just in the hospital because I nearly had a miscarriage. That’s why I haven’t been down to see you. I’m on bed rest.”
Another pause. This one longer.
“Are you okay, honey?”
“Yes. I just have to take it easy for a few weeks.”
Kylie could feel the relief in her mother’s voice. “We can bring the party to you. Wait until I tell Jerry. He’ll be thrilled!”
“Mom, I’m not telling anyone. At least not until I’m out of the woods. You’re the only one we’ve told.” She wasn’t going to bring up telling Greg because that would open up a whole can of worms—why she’d told her boss before she told the dear mother “who’d sacrificed everything to bring her into the world.”
“Oh. Oh my goodness.” Another long pause. “I still need air. I’m going to be a grandmother.”
“Breathe, Mom. You sure you’re going to be fine?”
“Kylie…you just made my day! Be sure to rest well. Take your prenatals. Don’t overexert yourself. And for goodness’ sake, don’t take on any dangerous jobs!”
She stifled a moan. The last thing she needed was another Linc on her case. “Mom, I’ve got it covered.”
“Well, I’m still coming over there. Let me bring you lunch. How does that sound?”
“Not today, but tomorrow would be great.”
“All right. It’s a date,” she said excitedly. “Right now, I’m going shopping! To the baby store!”
As much as she loved the enthusiasm, she was uneasy that planning too ahead would jinx things. “Mom, um—”
“What is it? Do you know? A boy or a girl?”
“I don’t know yet. But, Mom…” She took a deep breath. “Are you sitting down?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not sure how you’re going to take this after this last bit of news, and I don’t want you passing out from lack of oxygen.”
“What, there’s more? Is the baby the mailman’s or something?”
Kylie sighed. Was her own mother seriously insinuating that she’d cheat on Linc? “No…but it’s not a baby.”
“Wh-what?” Rhonda sputtered. “What does that even mean? Are you have an…alien?”
Kylie laughed. “No. It’s babies. Plural. Twins.”
This time, when her mother screamed, Kylie knew all of downtown Hatfield had to have heard it. Rhonda Hatfield Phillips, a more effective and less expensive form of announcement than Hallmark.
22
The following Saturday, Linc hesitated in the doorway of the farmhouse, wearing his best polo shirt and shorts. He had the card for his friends with a gift card to their favorite restaurant, a bottle of wine as a gift, and a whole boatload of reservations.
“I don’t have to go,” he said to Kylie as she lay on the couch, deeply engrossed in an episode of Stranger Things.
“Hmm-mmm,” she said, popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth. “Have fun.”
She clearly wasn’t listening.
He pressed his lips together before grabbing the re
mote, pausing the show. “Did you hear what I said?”
“I did. And I also want to see what happens to Steve right now. He’s in a crisis,” she said, waving a hand at the television. “I think the Demogorgon wants his blood.”
Linc didn’t move. “I have no freaking idea what you’re talking about.”
Kylie sighed a sigh of the eternally damned. “Go to the party, and don’t worry. I’m fine. The only danger I’m in is that of killing myself from boredom.”
“Do you have enough to do?”
“I have enough Netflix to watch,” she murmured, patting her laptop. “And I might just do some work if I feel like it.”
“Don’t tire yourself out.”
“I won’t. I have to do last month’s financials. I’ve been putting them off.”
“What about the dogs?”
“They probably can’t help me much. Their paws are too big to get the right buttons on the calculator.”
He tilted his head at her. “Did your pregnancy make you funnier and more sarcastic, or is it just me?”
She grinned. The dogs were usually trouble, but in anticipation of his being away, Linc had taken them on his favorite hike through the mountains, which happened to be nearly sixteen miles of hellishness.
Kylie had attempted it once, in the earlier days of their relationship when she was eager to show him what a “good sport” she could be and…never again. She’d had blisters for a month. Right now, the dogs were feeling it too, because they were lying together, a pile of snoring fur.
“I think I’m good. If they get restless, I’ll just let them run in the yard. I can handle that.”
He knew she could. He was actually more worried for himself than for her, for once.
Parties. He hated these damn things.
Get-togethers of any kind usually gave him hives, and it’d been a hell of a long time since he’d gone to one without Kylie by his side. Kylie was like his suit of armor, the added bit of protection that made him feel safe. She excelled at small talk and didn’t do awkward silences.
Which was directly opposite of Linc’s modus operandi at these things—grabbing a beer and melting into the wallpaper. Counting the moments until the end of the night.
Even though Jacob was his best friend and he knew every person who’d be in attendance, it would still be awkward. Add to that that he and Faith had once, while they were in law school, seriously considered marriage themselves… Well, all he wanted to do was put in his couple of hours and then do his typical Irish Goodbye and beg off for the night.
“All right, then,” he said, handing her the remote and petting the very few dogs who seemed to care that he was leaving. “I guess I’ll be going.”
She hit the play button and mumbled, “Have a great time. Don’t forget the barbecue. Bring me a plate. A big one. And…limes.”
“Limes?”
“I really just want a lime. To suck on.”
He laughed. She had a one-track mind for food that was quickly becoming an obsession. Yesterday, he’d brought home a carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, only to find the whole thing gone by the afternoon. And that night, to his horror, he’d caught her eating Cheetos, but dipping them in strawberry yogurt.
“It’s a good thing you’re pregnant,” he’d said to her as she polished off the entire bag and licked her fingers. “Or else I’d think there was something seriously wrong with you.”
Outside, the sun was still bright, but the late summer days were starting to shorten. Even so, it was balls hot. He’d taken a shower right before, but his back felt sticky with sweat as he slid into his truck and headed out.
He pulled into a packed parking lot of the Rusty Nail and barely found a space. The place wasn’t any classier than when he and Jacob used to hang out there in college. Linc wasn’t sure how Jacob had managed to convince Faith to go for a place like the Rusty Nail, since this definitely wasn’t her style. She must really love him, he decided as he went inside.
“Well, look who’s here,” Jacob greeted him the second he walked in, clapping him on the back and simultaneously shaking his hand. “The best man makes an appearance. Where’s Kylie?”
“Ah. She’s home. She wasn’t feeling well.”
Jacob snapped his fingers. “Dammit. Are you sure everything’s okay with you two? Because I’ve seen her maybe once since the wedding. She isn’t driving you so crazy that you have her tied up in the barn?”
He shook his head, laughing, though if Kylie was here, she’d probably remark that he wasn’t far off.
“Hey, Linc!” a blonde, statuesque woman shouted, parting the crowd. She was dressed to kill, as usual, in an elegant black sheath. Linc had to say that whatever she and Jacob were up to, it agreed with her. She’d looked a little run-down when she’d been working for the FBI up in New York, trying to bring down the mob ring Kylie’s father had been involved in. But now, she looked great.
“Hi, Faith.” She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight, kissing his cheek. She smelled like the Chanel she always used to spritz behind her ears while she got ready. Some women never went anywhere with lipstick, but Faith never went anywhere without scent.
She took his hand and squeezed it, and he felt the size of the engagement ring. Jacob had gone all out. “Can you believe it? Me, getting married?”
He dug his hands into the pockets of his shorts and shrugged. “Crazy.”
It was especially crazy since the times he was away on his first overseas tour, he’d written to her while she was in her second year at law school, saying he wanted to marry her. And how did she respond? The standard Dear John letter.
They could laugh about it now, but it really did prove that things happened for a reason. If she’d have stuck with him, he never would’ve met Kylie.
Kylie, who, as crazy as she could sometimes be, was absolutely the right fit for him. As he listened to Faith going on about how Jacob had proposed, he thought of his wife. His wife, his babies, his family. He smiled contentedly. It didn’t get much better than what he had.
Just then, a tall, thin waif of a woman hooked her arm through Faith’s. Faith gasped in surprise, then threw her arms around the younger woman, immediately bursting into tears.
“You made it! I’m so glad.”
They hugged some more, tears spilling down both women’s faces. Faith turned to Linc. “Let me introduce you to my favorite cousin. Sky Stryker, meet Linc Coulter. Sky lives in upstate New York but has big plans to move to the Big Apple very soon.”
Linc winced. He couldn’t think of anything he’d want to do least.
They shook, and Linc liked Faith’s cousin immediately. She exuded warmth. He knew Kylie would especially love her.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” Sky said with a bright smile. “I hope to meet your wife soon.”
Linc raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
Faith jumped in. “My dear cousin is a writer, and she especially loves to investigate true crime.”
Linc immediately understood. “And you want to interview Kylie for one of your books?”
Sky nodded vigorously. “Yes. For such a young private investigator, she’s handled some pretty hairy cases, and I’d love to get a glimpse inside of her mind, better understand what she was thinking at the time.”
Linc snorted. “Good luck with that. But sure…” He dug into his wallet and gave the girl one of the Coulter Confidential business cards. “Ring her up. But warning, my wife has a gift of gab, so be sure to plan to stay all day.”
Sky beamed at him. “I sure will.”
After that, he made the rounds through the crowded restaurant, shaking hands with acquaintances, doing his best to keep up with small talk, which mostly involved how he was enjoying married life. Then, of course, there were the gentle ribs, when people remembered that he and Faith used to be an item. By the time he made it to the bar, he felt like he’d earned his beer.
Though it was probably Jacob’s duty to circulate, he must
’ve sensed Linc’s unease, because he sat down on a stool beside him and made himself comfortable. “So, how did Kylie react to the news that I’m off the market?”
“Heartbroken,” he deadpanned, drinking from his glass of draft beer. “I think that’s probably why she’s so sick.”
“Yeah. I know. The whole female demographic of Asheville weeps tonight,” he said. “She good with the bridesmaid thing?”
“Oh. Sure. She’s in,” he said. They’d talked about it and agreed that she would do her best to be there. “She’s excited.”
“But I’m telling you…Faith is going a little nuts with this wedding planning. She wants it to be a replica of Meghan and Harry’s royal wedding…right down to the dress. I told her we should do a carnival theme. Like, have a Ferris wheel and shit.”
Linc winced at the idea. “I think you should just let Faith have her way. It’s good practice because you’re going to be letting her have her way until death do you part. Trust me.”
Jacob groaned and banged his head down on the bar slowly, deliberately. “Yeah? Fuck me. That’s what I thought you’d say. My father said the same thing. Is it really that bad? Does marriage steal your entire soul?”
Linc shrugged. “You’ll get used to not having a soul. Life’s a lot less complicated that way, anyhow. Souls are overrated.”
“Shit,” Jacob moaned into his beer. “I’d better have one hell of a bachelor party, that’s all I’m saying.”
“Sure. We’ll have chicks and guns and fire trucks and hookers and drugs and booze…” Linc said, quoting one of their favorite movies, Bachelor Party.
Jacob laughed. “Yeah, all the things that make life worth living.”
Linc patted his best friend on the back. “Just so you know, I’m taking you golfing.”
“Yeah. That’ll be good.” He seemed a little dejected, but then he cleared up. “So how’s the new business venture going?”
“Oh, you know. It’s going.”
“Kylie still working on that Elise Kirby case?”
He nodded.
“Getting anywhere?”
He shook his head.
“Well, that reminds me.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, unfolding it. “This could help her. It’s a new case of a missing baby. It’s not my jurisdiction because it’s from way down south, but it looks like something similar.”
