BARELY MISTAKEN

by Jennifer Labrecque

  And every day she saw Luke's surreptitious glance at her ring finger and the flicker of relief and frustration her naked finger elicited. Every day they treated each other with polite professionalism, pretending the attraction that still pulsed between them didn't exist. Olivia despised herself that she could still ache for the touch of a man who'd humiliated her, betrayed her. One or two more days and the library expansion would be finished. Luke would be gone. And she'd have her life back. It couldn't come soon enough.

  "I still can't see Luke trying to get your father's land. It doesn't seem like his style," Beth said, skimming through a baby magazine.

  Olivia winced. She'd asked Beth to keep that particularly humiliating detail private, but her newfound pregnancy seemed to affect her memory.

  Beth looked up from a glossy diaper ad. "Oops."

  Tammy looked across the island from Beth to Olivia. Tammy had spent more and more time with Olivia in the last several weeks, their relationship shifting and growing. Had Olivia changed or had Tammy? Or was it a new understanding and acceptance for each other and their flaws that precipitated the change? Olivia wasn't sure, but it was nice to have found her sister.

  "Luke told Pops Adam wanted his land. He told him Adam would offer to buy the land and invest the money for him. Luke said he was just giving him a heads-up. Pops said he'd never sell and that was that."

  Olivia's legs refused to support her. She dropped to the stool. "How … when…"

  "A couple of weeks ago when I was over at Pops's one night. I didn't bother to come out because I was in the middle of giving myself a pedicure and you'd already told me Luke was off-limits. Well, at the time he was."

  Beth rubbed her pooching belly. "I told you Luke wouldn't do something like that."

  "Yeah. I could've told you too, if someone had just asked," Tammy seconded.

  "But why would he let me think…" A wave of nausea rolled over her and she stifled a gag. "All these years, I've resented having to prove myself past the label people gave me. Then I did the same thing to Luke. I ran with Adam's pillar-of-the-community label and Luke's bad-boy reputation." Luke had told her once that everyone wore a mask. Time and again, he'd shown her the real man he was, but she'd been too blinded by her own rigidity and insecurity to believe in him.

  "You don't happen to have any ice cream in your freezer, do you?" Beth nibbled on a cracker. "Adam's a creep. I've been so afraid you were going to change your mind about his proposal."

  Olivia sat immobilized. "I'm not sure."

  Beth scowled. "How many times do I have to tell you he's a creep?"

  "I'm sure about that. It's the ice cream—"

  "I'll check." Tammy opened the freezer and brandished a carton of fudge ripple. "Olivia, you want a bowl too?"

  Maybe a little ice cream would quell her queasiness. "Sure."

  Tammy pulled out three bowls and rooted through the drawer for a scoop.

  "So, Luke tells you he loves you but then he backs off and leaves the door open for Adam." Beth shook her head.

  "Men." Tammy rolled her eyes as she handed Beth a bowl of ice cream. "You can't live with 'em, and you can't shoot 'em."

  "This doesn't make a bit of sense now. Luke isn't a backing off kind of guy. It only made sense if he was using you."

  Tammy plopped down a small mountain of fudge ripple in front of her. Another piece of the puzzle fell into place. "It makes sense if you know Luke." And she did. He'd urged her to listen to her heart. He'd offered her his love and she'd thrown it back in his face with that one phone call to Pops. Adam hadn't offered her love. Adam had offered her the Cleaver ideal promoted by June, Wally and the Beave, and Luke had pushed her toward it.

  Olivia pushed her ice cream to the middle of the island. "I can't eat that. I can barely look at it." She lived in a perpetual state of queasiness these days. She put it down to restless nights haunted by Luke and the general debacle her life had become.

  Beth and Tammy exchanged a look. Tammy shook her head. "I think this is bad timing."

  "There's no good timing," Beth argued. "You're her sister."

  What were they going on about, now?

  "You're her best friend," Tammy countered. "Okay, Chicken Little, I'll ask." Tammy turned to Olivia and shoved her hair behind her ear. "Well, you see … it's this way…" She waved her acrylics in the air. "We've been talking … have you considered…"

  Beth snorted and broke in, "For sweet Pete's sake, I'll ask her." She directed herself to Olivia. "Is there any chance you might be pregnant?"

  "Pregnant?" She pointed to Beth's stomach. "Like that?"

  "Like this." Beth patted herself. "This is the only pregnant I know." She paused. "Just like there's only one way to get pregnant. Did you use anything?"

  "Condoms." That was only once. That time against the door… The phone sex didn't count. It was pretty near impossible to get pregnant over a phone.

  Beth grabbed for her ice-cream bowl. "Do you mind?"

  "Help yourself." Olivia waved the bowl away. One time without protection. She couldn't be pregnant. Could she? Unfortunately, she knew the answer to that question.

  "I had a friend, once, who got pregnant using condoms." Beth gestured with her spoon. "You hear about the rubber breaking and everything but she swore that never happened. Must've just been a pinprick in the tip—no pun intended."

  Olivia's stomach lurched.

  Tammy scowled at Beth. "You must be getting a brain freeze or something from eating that so fast." She turned to Olivia. "Are you late?"

  Dazed, Olivia checked the refrigerator calendar and did some quick calculations. She held on to the counter edge.

  "A week. I'm a week late."

  "Ohmigod. Ohmigod. Nobody panic. It's not good for the baby." Beth placed a protective hand over her stomach. "My baby that is. We don't know yet if you have a baby."

  Tammy snapped her fingers—not an easy task given the length of her nails. "Put a sock in it, Beth, and get those hormones in control." Tammy turned to Olivia. "Queasy stomach?" Olivia nodded. "Tired?" Affirmative. "A week late?" Yes, again. "Sweet mother of pearl. Do you know whose it is?"

  Heat slow-crawled up her face. The moment had come when her sister, who had single-handedly provided a surfeit of gossip, wanted to know if she, Olivia, had a clue as to her potential baby's father. "Of course I do. I haven't slept with Adam."

  "That's a good one." Tammy chortled and then stopped when she realized she was the only one laughing. "But, you dated him."

  "It never came up."

  Beth started to speak, thought better of it and shoved in a spoonful of fudge ripple into her mouth instead.

  "Whew. So, we know for sure it's Luke's baby." Tammy swiped her brow in an exaggerated gesture of relief.

  "We don't know for sure if it's anybody's baby, because we don't know for sure whether I'm pregnant." Shock warred with exasperation. And she was beginning to believe it might be true. There was one opportunity and all the symptoms were there.

  "If you were pregnant with Luke's baby and had married Adam, would the baby call Luke 'daddy' or 'uncle'?"

  Olivia shuddered at Beth's question.

  Tammy rolled her eyes. "Beth, shut up."

  "There's only one way to tell. You're gonna have to pee on the stick." Beth didn't shut up.

  Olivia sat in a daze, not quite getting it. She was still stuck on the daddy versus uncle dilemma. "Pee on a stick?"

  "You know, a home pregnancy test. But you really need to take it in the morning when your urine's concentrated." Apparently her sister was no stranger to home pregnancy testing. "You would be a shoo-in for Jerry. You could have both Luke and Adam on there to tell them. There was an episode just last week—"

  Olivia felt close to fainting.

  Beth interrupted Tammy. "If you do not shut up, I'm going to be forced to choke the life out of you."

  "I never knew pregnant women were so mean…"

  "That's it. Come here." Beth leaned across the island. "Let me get
my hands on you…"

  "Stop it, you two." Olivia buried her face in her hands. "My life has morphed into a soap opera."

  "Yeah, it kind of has, hasn't it?" Tammy agreed good-naturedly.

  "Go ahead and say something." Olivia thought back to all the times she hadn't managed to stem her self-righteous disapproval over Tammy.

  Tammy frowned, puzzled. "Congratulations? Listen, why don't I run up to Snook's Drug Store and pick up one of those pregnancy tests for you. It'll take about two seconds for news like that to travel around town and my reputation's already shot to hell."

  There wasn't any self-righteous condemnation from Tammy. No, woe is me, I'll be so embarrassed by my sister.

  Olivia dammed back an onslaught of tears. "You would do that for me? Open yourself up to that kind of gossip?"

  "Of course I would. What does it matter to me what those people say? If they're my friends they either don't care or don't talk, and as for the rest of them, to hell with them." Tammy caught herself. "But I know that stuff is a big deal to you."

  The final piece of the puzzle, the elusive key she'd been missing all her life, appeared before her without any flash of lightning or clap of thunder to mark the moment. She hadn't spent a lifetime trying to prove to everyone else that she was worthy. All the machinations, all the approval had been sought to prove her worth not to others, but to herself. Living with the passion Luke provoked wouldn't diminish her, it would enrich her life. For the first time in a lifetime, Olivia acknowledged who she was and where she came from without an undercurrent of shame.

  "I don't care what anyone says, you are a nice girl," Beth teased Tammy with a grin.

  "Well, for God's sake, don't tell anyone. What the town gossips don't know won't hurt them." Tammy returned the smirk as she snatched up her purse. "I'll be back from Snook's in no time."

  Olivia stiffened her spine and sucked up her tears. "Sit back down, Tammy. I appreciate the offer, and especially the sentiment, but I got myself in this predicament so I'll buy my own pregnancy test." She sat up taller. "If they're my friends they either don't care or won't talk, right?"

  * * *

  Dawn seeped into the room, bit by bit. It crept on silent feet past the edge of the curtain, across hardwood flooring and smooth white ceiling. Olivia turned her cheek to the sueded silk beneath her head—her personal horsehair shirt. She couldn't bear to get rid of them, but each time she touched them, slept on them, they flayed her with bittersweet memories of Luke.

  She could get up now and go into her bathroom. Both kits were readied beside the sink. Two different brands from two separate manufacturers. Insurance. No second-guessing.

  Either way, her life would never be the same. How absolutely befitting that the girl from the wrong side of the tracks had finally lived down to everyone's expectations. She grinned all over herself. Not just a little drunken episode in the town square that landed her a night in jail. Not a proclivity for a flavor of the year when it came to husbands. No. She'd managed the granddaddy of them all. Unmarried and pregnant, her baby's father a rebel.

  She could already hear the whispers. Feel the stares. The sudden break in conversation when she walked into a room. And it was okay.

  Marching into Snook's and buying those home pregnancy tests had been an act of deliberation and liberation. She, Olivia Cooper, was a real person. Anything short of sainthood didn't make her white trash.

  She wasn't a fool. She might have to fight for her job and her position on the literacy council. But she would fight and she'd win because she'd had a tremendous positive impact on the library and the literacy council. She had skills, maturity and a nice little nest egg on her side.

  She also had Beth and oddly enough she knew she could count on Tammy. And Luke? Where did Luke fit in? She would welcome him into her and their child's life.

  And if there was no baby? If she tested negative? Essentially the same game plan, minus the baby element. She would move heaven and earth to convince Luke she was ready to live her own life according to her own standards and that included him, if he'd still have her.

  Olivia pushed back the cocooning warmth of silk sheets and down comforter. It was cold in the house and trepidation set her heart racing. Nonetheless she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood firmly on her own two feet.

  Beth had once consulted a psychic who'd predicted her future by reading tea leaves. Olivia just had to read two sticks to discern hers.

  * * *

  Luke paused outside the kitchen at River Oaks and checked his boots, an acute sense of déjà vu washing over him. This is how it had all started four weeks ago.

  An overwhelming array of finger foods covered every counter surface and the old-fashioned sideboard. "Big event tonight?"

  Ruth harrumphed. "Did you check your boots?"

  "Yes, ma'am. Clean as a whistle."

  Ruth slipped an oversized spatula beneath a row of fat sausage balls. Sausage, cheese and the sharp bite of cayenne scented the air.

  Ruth plucked one off her spatula and placed it on a saucer in front of him. "Why don't you sample that for me?" She shot him a look from beneath her white brows. "Cocktail party. Your brother keeps dropping hints he's going to announce his engagement."

  "Here's to the happy couple." Luke bit into the warm sausage ball. It tasted like sawdust in his mouth.

  "I still can't quite believe it. Adam and Olivia. At one time I'd thought … never mind."

  "What?"

  "I'd thought that maybe you and Olivia…"

  He ached at the thought. "Why would you think that?"

  "Just a crazy notion, I suppose."

  "Olivia deserves better than someone like me. Someone who can give her the things she needs." His money more than matched Adam's, but he knew that had never been important to Olivia. He'd never have Adam's social standing and acceptance.

  "Adam isn't near the man you are. In my book, he doesn't come close to deserving Olivia." Ruth brandished her spatula like a weapon. "Sit down and you listen up." Ruth's voice brooked no argument. Luke folded himself onto a ladder-back chair. "Don't you ever let me hear you say that again. You are one of the finest men I know. It's true you've always had a streak of the wild in you and you've given your mama more than a few gray hairs, but you're a man of integrity. Don't you ever forget that."

  "But Adam—"

  "Adam!" Ruth whacked the end off a bunch of celery. "Olivia needs someone to show her how to have fun. That gal needs to lighten up."

  "Adam's perfect for Olivia. Respectable. Upstanding. Just what she needs."

  "That's a bunch of hogwash and you know it. She needs what everybody needs—someone to love and respect her for who she is, not who she pretends to be. Now, if you're scared to stand up to the task, let's hope Adam does." Whack. Whack. Whack. More celery neatly stacked on a plate.

  "Scared?" Surely he hadn't heard her correctly.

  "That's what I said. If you're afraid you might let her down, then step aside. No need to worry about being a husband and father when you can sit back and be a brother-in-law and an uncle."

  Luke barely breathed. "Uncle? Did you say uncle?"

  "You know I don't gossip. But seeing as you're practically family … Lois Shrimpton was in Snook's last night. Her husband has a terrible time with the gout and she'd stopped by to pick up his medicine." Luke forced himself not to yell that he didn't give a rat's ass about Ed Shrimpton's gout. "Anyway, she was right behind Olivia in the checkout line. Olivia bought two home pregnancy tests, a quart of vanilla ice cream and a jar of pickles."

  His Olivia? Uh, he meant Adam's Olivia. "Maybe Lois was mistaken. Doesn't she wear glasses?"

  "Yep. She's having cataract surgery next month. But she knows for sure because the checkout girl had to call for a price check."

  Despite the turmoil churning his gut, Luke had to laugh. "I bet Olivia almost went through the floor."

  "Actually she said Olivia seemed chipper, downright excited." Ruth piped cream cheese down
the middle of a celery stalk. "So, how do you feel about being an uncle?"

  If there was a baby, there was only one father. Just last week, Adam had whined that Olivia wouldn't sleep with him. "I don't see how—"

  "Obviously Olivia had relations. Abstinence is the only surefire way to keep from making babies that I know of, so don't tell me you don't know how this happened." He did know how it happened. That one time against the door. Ruth punctuated her words, jabbing in his direction. He wished she'd put that butcher knife down. "Now, like I was saying before, how do you feel about being an uncle?"

  Somehow, in the face of potential fatherhood, his sacrifice didn't seem as noble as it did … well, stupid.

  "I have no idea." He paused, weighing his options. The way he saw it, there was only one. "But I'm real excited about being a daddy."

  * * *

  14

  « ^

  Olivia stood next to her car and absorbed the splendor that was River Oaks. Soaring columns, graceful arched windows, immaculate formal gardens all bespoke generations of privilege.

  She glanced at the ring on her finger as she approached the house via the front walk. It was much more than just a ring. It was a ticket, a passport to a different way of life. It was the key that gained her admission to River Oaks and its world.

  She mounted the front steps. It was time for her to return the key. For weeks, she'd said no, but held on to it. She'd known all along she couldn't marry Adam, but she'd held on to the key. The key and all it represented no longer held any appeal. She was ready to move on with her life.

  She knocked on the front door. Almost immediately Ralphie, decked out in his pseudobutler's uniform, admitted her. Once again, the grandeur of River Oaks took her breath. Beyond the foyer, a dozen people moved in and out of rooms, carrying tables, flowers and all the accoutrements for an elegant party.

  "Olivia! If you aren't the cat's meow. Heard there might be an engagement." He winked at her. "You're moving up in the world, girl."