by Sharon Sala
* * *
Marilee stood back, admiring the baby furniture that had just been delivered, and then opened a window to let in some fresh air. Justin had painted the walls of the nursery over the weekend and the scent of new paint was a little overwhelming. Satisfied when the air began to circulate, she reached for the hammer she’d laid on the dresser and took a nail from her pocket. The Winnie the Pooh theme that she’d chosen for the room was perfect. Now all she needed was to hang two small pictures of Pooh Bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Woods and the room would be finished. With a few sharp thumps of the hammer, the first nail went in. She had the picture hung and was eyeballing the second location when Justin came through the door.
“Darlin’, you shouldn’t be doing that. Why didn’t you ask for help? You know what Doc Blankenship said last week. You’re supposed to be taking it easy. According to him, you’re underweight and pale, and he glared at me, not you, when he said it.”
Marilee grinned. The obstetrician she’d been seeing in Lubbock was in his late sixties and looked more like a veterinarian than a medical doctor, with his gray handlebar mustache and his scuffed cowboy boots, but she’d trusted him on sight.
Justin took the hammer out of her hands and then kissed her on the cheek. “I need a nail, please.”
She smiled and handed him the nail.
“Where do you want it?” he asked.
“Right next to the other one, like a grouping.”
“You got it,” he said.
Moments later the pictures were in place.
“What do you think?” Marilee asked.
Justin grinned. “That you’re cute as all getout.”
“I was talking about the room. Besides, I look like I swallowed a watermelon whole. How can I be cute?”
“Beats me, but you are,” Justin said, and then swung her off her feet.
“Justin, I’m too heavy,” Marilee cried, and then laughed when he began to dance her around the floor. “You’re crazy—you know that?”
“Yep. Crazy for you,” Justin said, and started humming the theme song from Winnie the Pooh. They made two turns around the room before Justin finally stopped. “You know what? I’m a lucky man.”
“You think?”
He nodded, then suddenly serious, he cupped her face with both hands. “Oh, yes...but, darlin’, I’m so sorry your parents didn’t live to share this with you.”
The smile froze on Marilee’s face. Her parents! She nodded, while debating with herself about telling him the truth. Her parents, had they still been alive, would have been too busy hating each other’s guts to enjoy anything. Then she shrugged off the thought.
“I’ve been on my own so long, I often forget that I ever had parents,” she said, and then grabbed the hammer. “I’d better return this. I promised Maria I would put it back when I was through.”
Marilee had changed the subject on purpose, because the last thing Maria would do was fuss about a hammer.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently. “I didn’t mean to upset you by talking about your parents.”
“Of course I’m all right, and you certainly didn’t upset me.” She flashed him a very big smile and suspected he could tell it was as fake as it felt. “Want some lemonade?”
Justin hesitated and then sighed. Marilee almost never talked about her past, but he was confident that one day she would feel comfortable enough to tell him anything.
“Yeah, sure, lemonade sounds great, especially if Maria has any of those oatmeal cookies left to go with it.”
They headed for the kitchen, unaware that Judith had been eavesdropping on their conversation, or that she was smiling with glee as they walked away. As soon as they were gone, she bolted for the library to make a call. A few minutes later she hung up the phone, satisfied that the private investigator she’d called would dig up some condemning evidence about Marilee’s past. Then she would be rid of her once and for all.
* * *
That night at dinner, Marilee noticed Judith picking at her food and mentally braced herself for a family argument. Justin thought it was funny that Marilee had picked up on so many of his mother’s eccentricities, but in Marilee’s case, it was a matter of self-defense. When Judith smiled without showing her teeth, it really meant disdain. When she was angry, a small tic appeared at the corner of her left eye, and when she was trying to find the perfect opportunity to introduce a subject into the conversation that she knew Gavin would dislike, she picked at her food.
To Marilee’s dismay, when Judith finally laid down her fork and looked up, she was looking directly at her. And when she smiled without showing her teeth, Marilee braced herself for the worst.
“Marilee...darling...I have the most marvelous news. Some of my friends want to give you a baby shower. Of course, I told them that I would check with you first before they sent out invitations so that you could furnish them with addresses of your family and friends, too.”
It was the last thing she had expected Judith to say. She glanced at Justin, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“Well...that’s really sweet of them,” Marilee said. “Especially since I’ve only met a few.”
Judith’s smile was simmering close to a sneer, although she didn’t know it.
“I know. I was a bit surprised, myself,” Judith said. “So...if you’ll make out a list of names and addresses, I’ll see that they get it.” Her gaze slid from Marilee’s face to her belly. “It will have to be soon. God only knows when the baby will be born.”
Justin’s smile died and his eyes narrowed sharply as he gave his mother a look.
“Oh, my...I’m sure I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” she said. “I was just referring to how uncertain the arrival of a first baby could be.”
Marilee refused to be led into one of Judith’s famous bickering matches and laid her hand on Justin’s arm, giving it a gentle squeeze as she spoke.
“As you know, my parents are deceased, and I have no other living relatives, so please tell your friends that I won’t have any people to invite. I haven’t lived here long enough to make those kinds of friends, and Amarillo is too far away for any of my friends to drive just to come to a baby shower. Besides, two of them don’t even own cars.”
Judith arched an eyebrow. “That figures,” she muttered, although it didn’t surprise her that Justin’s wife would have friends in that sort of financial stratum.
“Mother...”
The warning tone in Justin’s voice made Judith want to scream. Until this nothing came into their lives, she could do no wrong in her son’s eyes. Now it seemed as if she couldn’t do anything right.
“For pity’s sake, Justin Wade. Stop treating me as if I was an unruly child! I’m your mother, not one of the hired help, and I will not be talked to like that.”
“If you all will excuse me, I feel the need for some air,” Marilee said, and got up without waiting for anyone’s permission.
Both Gavin and Justin were glaring at Judith so harshly that she felt obliged to call out, “I hope you’re not leaving on my account. If I’ve offended you, I’m sorry.”
Marilee stopped, then turned, unaware of how regal she appeared in the blue, floor-length caftan with bronze-and-gold braid that Justin had given her last week.
“That’s a lie, Judith, and you and I know it, but you’re excused anyway. You spend your days searching for the most minute ways to offend me, but I wish you would stop, because it’s not going to work. My happiness does not depend on your approval, and the sooner you get that through your head, the better off we’ll all be.”
Then she walked away, leaving them momentarily speechless. Justin was the first to react as he shoved his chair back and stood.
“Damn you, Mother. You never stop. You’re like a little kid with a sore, just picking and picking and never letting it heal.”
Judith’s eyes flashed angrily. “That’s not true!”
“Hush, Judith,” Gavin said sharply. “You’ve a
lready said enough for one night.”
She shoved her chair back with a jerk and stood abruptly. “Well, I never! If that’s the kind of treatment I’m going to get, then I’m going to my room. All I did was give that woman some good news, and it gets dashed in my face. I’ve a good mind to tell my friends to cancel the shower, after all.”
“You do what you want,” Justin said. “You always do. Now, if you both will excuse me, I’m going to check on my wife.”
“But Maria hasn’t served dessert!” Judith called out.
Gavin glared at his wife and then got up and left without bothering to comment, leaving her alone in the dining room.
Furious beyond words, she picked up her water glass and flung it at the wall, where it shattered into pieces. Then realizing that she’d broken a glass from her good crystal, she promptly dissolved into tears.
Justin found Marilee outside on the patio. She was sitting in a lounge chair holding Maria’s fat tomcat in her lap. She looked up with a smile as Justin emerged from the house.
“I’m running out of lap to hold Gomez,” she said as she scratched the big yellow cat behind the ears.
“Gomez doesn’t seem to mind,” Justin said, and then pulled a chair up beside her and gave the cat an absent pat.
“I’m sorry,” Marilee said. “I shouldn’t have let her get to me. If I’d just kept on walking, it would have been better.”
“You do not hide in your own house,” Justin said, and then moved his hand from the cat to Marilee’s arm. “I thought this animosity would even itself out, but I was wrong and it’s not fair for you to have to put up with this. I’ll speak to Dad in the morning.”
Marilee’s shock was evident. Even though she wished them gone, she knew Justin enjoyed their presence, especially his father’s. If they left because of her, she was afraid that somewhere down the line Justin would resent her for it.
“Just let it go,” she said. “It doesn’t bother me...really.”
“You lie,” Justin said, then leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips. “But it’s a very sweet lie.”
She smiled, her heart in her eyes.
“Women have always done foolish things for the men they love,” she said softly.
Justin looked at her, all but lost in the blue-black shadows of dusk with that cat on her lap and the love in her eyes.
“You know what I’m wishing for right now?”
“What?” she asked.
“A blizzard.”
“A blizzard? And me only weeks away from delivery? Bite your tongue,” Marilee gasped.
Justin grinned. “Well, it’s not going to snow in Lubbock in August, so we’re safe there, but I think you know what I mean.”
Marilee sighed. “Yes, I think so.” She dumped the cat from her lap and stood, then moved to sit on Justin’s lap instead. “That was probably the best time we’ve ever had together.”
“Well...not the best, but certainly the most carefree.”
“After the baby comes, carefree will be a thing of the past,” Marilee warned.
Justin smiled. “I’ve had carefree and it was lonely more than not. I’ll take you and a houseful of kids, rather than be alone again.”
“Really?”
He grinned. “Yes, really.”
“Hey, you two. Can anyone join the conversation, or is it too hot for my ears?”
Marilee waved at Gavin. “Come join us. You can have my chair. I’ve found a better one.”
Gavin patted Marilee’s head as he passed them to take a seat. He smiled at them as he sat, trying to remember a time when Judith would have sat in his lap and couldn’t. It didn’t say much for their thirty-five years of marriage.
“I’m sorry about Judith’s rudeness,” he said softly.
“It’s her burden to bear, not mine,” Marilee said.
Gavin nodded, then sighed. “You’re a good woman, Marilee, and I will forever regret letting Judith influence me into that insulting welcome on your first day here.”
Marilee surprised both men by laughing aloud. “I’m glad you didn’t make that second offer, because right now I’m in no shape to kick your butt.”
Justin grinned when Gavin laughed. “She’s hell on wheels,” Justin said. “You should have seen her take the hide off me at the Roadrunner Truck Stop.”
It was the first time Justin had mentioned anything about his prior relationship with Marilee, and Gavin was pleased that he finally trusted him enough to let go.
“He had it coming,” Marilee said.
“That I can believe,” Gavin said.
“Hey, you two, no fair ganging up on me. Besides, I redeemed myself quite nicely, I believe.”
Marilee leaned back in his arms, relishing the strength and caring of the man who held her.
“Yes, you did,” she said, and then winced as the baby suddenly rolled. “Oh, Lord! Justin! Did you feel that?”
But Justin was already scooting her out of his lap and heading for the kitchen.
“What’s wrong with him?” Gavin asked.
“Poor Justin,” Marilee said. “He’s suffering sympathy pains. Everything I get, he gets twofold.”
“You’re kidding!” Gavin exclaimed.
She shook her head. “Afraid not.”
Gavin looked at her anew. “He really loves you, doesn’t he?”
She looked intently at her father-in-law in the encroaching darkness, but could only see the vague outline of his face. She didn’t have to see him to know he was surprised by the revelation.
“At first I didn’t think so, even though he kept telling me so. But I believe it now.”
There was a quiet hesitation, and then Gavin asked the obvious.
“Do you love him...? I mean...really love him?”
Marilee sighed. “Sometimes it seems like I’ve loved him forever.”
Gavin was silent for quite a while. Finally he stood and reached for her, his fingers closing around her wrist in the dark.
“Marilee...I’ve always considered my son to be an intelligent man, but I believe the smartest thing he ever did was marry you and bring you home.”
Before she could answer, she heard a door slam and knew Justin was on his way out.
“Darlin’, I don’t want you sitting out here in the dark. Come on inside with Dad and me. We’ll watch a movie and pop some corn.”
“Can I pick the movie?” she asked.
Both men groaned loudly as she was led inside. The last time Justin had let her pick, she’d cried all the way through the show.
“I won’t pick a sad one, I promise,” she said.
“As long as you don’t cry, we’re in business,” Justin said. “I can’t stand to see you cry.”
CHAPTER 6
Several days came and went, with no further mention being made of the baby shower, which led Marilee to believe that an offer had never been made at all. She suspected it was something Judith had dreamed up just to foster a fight and had dismissed it completely. Heavy with child and complacent within the love with which Justin surrounded her, she let down her guard. It was just what Judith had been waiting for.
* * *
Judith strode through the rooms in search of Marilee with purpose in every step. The brown, manila envelope she was carrying held the key to her deliverance. She was convinced that once she confronted Justin’s wife with this evidence, Marilee would slink away without a fight.
“Maria! Have you seen Justin’s wife?” she demanded as she entered the kitchen.
Maria was well aware of the animosity between the two women and was thoroughly on Marilee’s side, but could find no reason to withhold this information.
“She is outside by the pool.”
Judith spun around without thanks and headed for the patio doors and the terrace overlooking the pool. As she exited the house, she spied Marilee sitting in a lounge chair beneath the shade of an old mimosa tree. On approach, she realized that Marilee was reading one of Gavin’s first editions.
“How dare you even handle one of my husband’s books?” she gasped.
Marilee frowned. She wasn’t feeling well, and butting heads with this woman right now was the last thing she wanted to do.
“I’m not handling it, I’m reading it,” she said. “Gavin has given me permission to read anything I want from his library, anytime I want.” She held up the volume. “It’s O. Henry. You should try him sometime.”
For Judith, it was the ultimate betrayal. Gavin had allowed this upstart a privilege even she didn’t share. The fact that she’d never asked didn’t matter. It was the principle of the thing.
“Well! If you’re wanting to read so badly, then read this!” she exclaimed, and dropped the manila envelope into Marilee’s lap.
“What’s this?” Marilee asked.
“Read it and see for yourself,” Judith snapped.
Marilee laid the borrowed book aside and then opened the envelope. Several pages were inside, but it was the heading on the cover letter that first caught her eye: Colbert Investigations.
She looked up at Judith with disbelief. “You had me investigated?”
Judith crossed her arms over her breasts and smiled without showing her teeth.
“Yes! And I want you out of this house within the hour.” To emphasize her determination, she tossed a plane ticket onto the envelope.
Marilee pushed it aside as she glanced through the papers, her anger growing with each passing moment.
“Get out!” Judith said. “You can read them on the way to the airport. And when that brat you’re carrying is born, I demand a DNA test. I’ll prove once and for all that you can’t possibly be carrying my son’s child!”
Still clutching the papers, Marilee pulled herself from the chair. Her lower back was aching and there was a sick feeling in the pit of her belly that wouldn’t go away. The look of hatred on the older woman’s face was unwavering, and in that moment Marilee’s patience snapped. Bringing a baby into this kind of bitterness was obscene, and she wasn’t going to do it. Judith didn’t know it yet, but she’d pushed Marilee one step too far.
