Betty peered into Molly’s dish. “Rice pudding?”
“I just felt like it.” Betty was watching her, a curious light in her eyes.
Molly hadn’t planned to tell anyone, not before she told Matt. Suddenly, she just couldn’t help it. “The thing is…the funny thing is…whenever I get pregnant, I crave rice pudding.…”
“Pregnant?” Betty gasped. “You mean…Do you know for sure?”
Molly nodded. “I did a home test last night. Actually, I did about three of them.”
“That’s wonderful!” Betty leaned over and gave Molly a tight, quick hug. “Let’s see, December, January, February…”—Betty counted down the months out loud—“that means the baby will come some time around August?”
“Probably more like July. I think I’ve been in denial about this situation at least a month. Hence, my clothes suddenly not fitting.” Molly tugged on the waistband of her jeans, showing Betty how tight they were.
Betty’s happy expression changed. She rested her hand on Molly’s shoulder. “What’s wrong? You don’t seem happy. Don’t you feel well?”
“Oh, I feel okay, I guess. It’s just that I’ve been working so hard these past few years to build this business, to really do something with my life…and now I’ll have to just put that all on hold.” Molly looked down at the bowl of rice pudding and wiggled the spoon around. “Don’t get me wrong, I loved having Lauren and Jill. But I thought I was done with all that. Changing diapers and watching feeding schedules is not what I was planning. I know new mothers are supposed to be bubbling over with joy but…”
“I hear you. It’s sort of hit you out of the blue and seems like a major detour.”
Betty was a true friend. Molly knew she could be totally honest with her. “Yes, a major detour. It’s like I fell asleep on a train and just woke up at the wrong stop. This is so not where I planned on going.” Molly sighed. “How am I going to run this business with a new baby? I just won’t be able to do it. After all this work, I’ll have to give it up.”
“Of course you can do it!” Betty leaned over and patted her arm. “You can chew gum, change a diaper, and close a deal at the same time. You’re not a man,” Betty reminded her.
Molly had to laugh at that logic. It certainly rang true. Still, she wasn’t convinced.
“I couldn’t do anything while I was raising Lauren and Jill,” she said. “Nothing worthwhile, anyway. Even when they went into school full-time, it was still a struggle to manage working and a child-care schedule.”
“This is different. You’re the boss. You don’t have anyone to answer to if you need to be late or work from home. You can delegate and be less hands-on,” Betty suggested. “That’s the only way to grow your business anyway, Molly. You’re certainly ready for it.”
“How can I delegate when there’s no one here who could manage things for me?”
Molly had always had a vision of her business and how she wanted things to be run. So far, she had been a very hands-on manager. Although she had finally hired more help to cook and run events for her, she still did a good share of both.
“I don’t know,” she continued. “I think I’d be better off just bailing out all together. This place will be chaos if I’m not around to tell everyone what to do.”
“Typical control-freak management style. We have to work on that.” Betty shook her head. “That’s why babies take nine months. So you can figure this stuff out.”
“I guess.” Molly rested her chin on her palm and took another bite of pudding.
It was nice to have a friend like Betty, older and wiser. Someone you could talk to totally honestly, without fear of being judged. Molly did feel a bit better getting it all off her chest.
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Molly? You basically raised Jill and Lauren on your own after Phil walked out. Now you have Matt. Doesn’t that make a difference?”
“Matt doesn’t know yet.”
Betty’s eyes widened again. “What do you mean he doesn’t know? You’ve got to tell him. It’s not fair.”
Molly nodded glumly. “Yes, I know I do. I just found out last night, though, for sure. But I have to tell him.” Even if it’s still hard to say the words out loud, she added to herself.
“Promise me that you’ll tell him tonight.” Betty met her eyes and wouldn’t look away.
Molly hesitated for a moment, though in her heart she knew it was the right thing to do. The only thing to do. “I promise.”
“Don’t worry. It will be better once you tell him.”
“I hope so,” Molly said.
“SO YOU’LL CALL BACK MRS. LARSEN AND GIVE HER THE price for the canapés?” Molly scanned the list she had scribbled. It was 4:48 P.M., and she had promised herself that she would leave the shop by five; she didn’t want to be completely exhausted and harried when she talked to Matt. “And make sure the florist can get those orchids for the Finney party, though why she’s insisting on orchids at this time of year, I’ll never know.”
“She doesn’t like poinsettias,” her assistant, Rita, said as she stirred a béchamel sauce. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered.”
“Oh, and we need to know if the lasagnas for the Gifford office party are vegetarian or meat. Lacey Gifford never said when she left that order.”
“I’ll call her.” Rita glanced up from the pot. “Molly, go home already. I promise that I can handle things for the next sixty minutes.”
“Okay,” Molly said, putting on her coat and hat. “Thanks, Rita. I appreciate you closing up.”
“No problem,” Rita told her.
Still, Molly’s feet dragged as she left the shop. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should ask Rita to start on the pastries for Mrs. Cantwell’s order, then realized she couldn’t. Rita had kids, too; she couldn’t possibly stay late. And I am procrastinating, Molly realized. Trying to put off the inevitable when I need to take charge of the situation.
So on the drive home, she practiced telling Matt that she was pregnant.
“Honey? I have something to tell you. It’s important…”
Nope. Sounded too ominous. Like she banged up the car.
“Honey? I have some great news.”
Not quite. Sounded a little like she won a sweepstakes.
“Matt…you’ll never guess. I’m going to have a baby.”
Molly reached for a cheerful note. She almost made it, too.
It shouldn’t be too hard. She would find a quiet moment when the girls weren’t around talking nonstop and interrupting every minute. And she would tell him.
She tried to think optimistically. Matt would be surprised but happy and seeing him that way would make her feel happy, too. Right?
“HELLO,” MOLLY CALLED AS SHE WALKED INTO THE house. “Anybody home?”
There was no answer but rock music blasted from the family room, the beat from the speakers so strong the entire floor was vibrating.
Molly walked to the back of the house and found Jillian and her friends, leaping about, twisting, twirling, and giggling.
“Hi, Mom.” Jill waved. “We’re practicing a dance routine for the school talent show. Remember?”
Molly didn’t quite but knew she must have given her permission for the gathering at some point. “Oh sure…right. Looks great, girls. I wish I had that energy.”
That comment at least was sincere.
“Where are your sisters?” Molly shouted to Jill over the music. “Are they home?”
“Amanda is upstairs, studying for a test.”
With this racket going on? The poor thing. Amanda had started wearing earplugs so she could concentrate. Molly wondered if she should buy one of those heavy-duty noise-blocking headsets for her as a Christmas gift. The kind the workers on airport runways used.
“How about Lauren? Did she call at least?”
“She has a game, remember?”
Molly nodded, wondering how she could have forgotten the basketball game. She liked to watch Lauren
play whenever possible. She felt awful about missing this one, but she had so much on her plate lately that she simply couldn’t keep track of everything.
She went into the kitchen and started dinner. Herb-grilled chicken from her shop and string beans. She also made garlic mashed potatoes, which didn’t look that great on her hips, but the girls loved them dearly. Besides, she told herself, garlic was filled with antioxidants; that made the dish healthy, if not dietetic.
Just as she started mashing potatoes, she heard someone knocking on the back door. Brilliant timing, she thought.
It was the contractor who had been working on their house. “Hey, Mrs. Harding,” he shouted over the music. “We just stopped by to finish up that installation down in the basement.”
“Now? I was just making dinner.”
“Sorry about that. I called to give you a heads-up. Didn’t your husband tell you?”
“No, he didn’t. He must have forgotten.” Matt could be so absentminded sometimes. He was so busy, worrying about so many people every day, Molly really couldn’t blame him. But it would have been nice if he had told her about this sneak attack from their contractor.
The contractor’s helpers, carrying large bales of cottony material, stepped past her, heading for the basement.
“Do you think you could do this some other time…like on the weekend or something?” Molly was shouting back at him because of all the racket in the next room, but she tried to keep a pleasant tone. “We’re sort of busy here tonight.”
“What? Sorry, didn’t catch that…First door on the left, Jack, just go straight down,” he shouted to the worker. He turned to Molly, cupping his ear with his hand.
“I said, do you think you could please come back on the weekend? Please?”
“Oh, I get ya.” He nodded then shook his head. “Sorry, no can do. I just started a big job down in Hamilton. It’s sort of now or never. I don’t know when I can make it back this way. Meanwhile, your heating bills are going sky high, Mrs. Harding. We’re getting into the dead of the winter, know what I mean?”
“Good point,” Molly conceded. “Go ahead down then. Thanks for remembering us.”
She hoped they didn’t make too much noise. That cottony stuff didn’t look very noisy. It reminded her of a fluffy blanket and how tired she felt. She felt as if she could just close her eyes and fall asleep right now. Anywhere. That part of being pregnant she remembered.
She forced herself to stay alert. With the school dance group in full throttle, it wasn’t all that difficult.
Then the noise from downstairs started, an erratic buzzing sound followed by a boom-boom-boom. Like little gunshots. Molly guessed that must be some kind of electric nail gun. It made her jump a bit, even when she expected it.
She returned to her cooking and pulled out the fixings for a green salad. She was deep in thought about her pregnancy, tearing lettuce leaves to the beat, when Matt snuck up behind her and planted a kiss on the back of her neck.
“Ahh!” Molly jumped with fright.
“Oh…sorry I scared you, honey. You just look so cute, I couldn’t resist.”
She turned in the circle of his arms and gave him a kiss hello. “Sorry, I’m just a little on edge.”
He smiled down at her. “What’s up? Anything happen at the shop?”
She shook her head. “Nothing out of the ordinary. I’m insanely busy, but that’s what you want this time of year, right? I’d be complaining if I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you probably would be.” He stepped away and poured himself a glass of water. “What’s with all the noise around here?”
“Which do you mean? The target practice in the basement? Or the disco divas?”
“Oh, I know about Bud. He’s here for the insulation, right?”
“It was now or never, he said.”
“I meant the music.” Matt pointed to the family room.
“Jill’s in a dance group. They’re auditioning tomorrow for the school talent show.” She glanced at the clock. “Don’t these girls need to go home and have dinner?”
As if on cue, Jill popped her head into the kitchen. “Mom, could me and my friends order some food? Like tacos or something? Sidney and Karen can stay until eight thirty. Their parents said it was okay.”
Eight thirty? They were going to be listening to that noise for…another two hours?
“Great. Why didn’t you ask me? Aren’t I a parent?”
Matt glanced at Molly then turned to Jill. “I know you want to practice longer, but you should have asked your mom first if it was okay.”
“Oh…right. Sorry.” She looked up at Molly with pleading eyes. “Is it okay, Mom?”
“Now she asks me,” Molly mumbled under her breath. Jill was hot, sweaty, and desperate looking. Molly knew she would be disappointed if her group wasn’t chosen. “Yes, it’s okay. It’s fine.” She handed Jill a take-out flyer. “Here’s the menu. Just order what you want.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Jill grabbed the flyer and vanished.
“Molly, is something wrong? You don’t seem like yourself tonight.” Matt was studying her, as if she were a patient he was trying to diagnose.
Molly let out a long sigh. Should I tell him now? she wondered. Who knows when I’ll have another opportunity.
“Hi, everybody. Guess what? We totally whipped Winston. Katrina Newland scored twenty-five points. She was like, so hot. Now we’re in second place.”
Lauren swept into the house from the side door, talking nonstop and simultaneously cruising the room for anything edible. Molly imagined dinosaurs roaming the primeval forests in much the same manner as her voracious teenage daughters. Sweeping by the salad, Lauren picked out a handful of cucumber slices. Then stopped at the fruit bowl and picked up a banana, consuming it in three large bites.
“Second place? That’s great.” Matt was impressed. “How did you do?”
“The coach started me. I scored ten points and had some awesome passes. And a steal…it was great.”
The coach had started her? How many times had Molly sat through one of those games, balancing on a hard wooden bleacher for hours, just to see Lauren on the court for two minutes of play? She must have felt bad with no one there to cheer her moment of glory.
“A steal, wow. Honey, I’m so sorry I missed your game.”
Lauren shrugged. “That’s okay, Mom. The season just started.”
Molly nodded, still feeling she’d screwed up. “Why don’t you run up and take a shower before we eat? You have time.”
Lauren disappeared, and Molly cut some more cucumber slices. Matt slipped up beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay if you miss one game here and there, Molly. Nobody’s perfect.”
“I know, but the coach never starts her. She never had a steal before.” She turned to him, her eyes filling with tears.
“Molly? Are you crying?” Matt’s voice was filled with disbelief. “Because you missed Lauren’s game?”
Molly sniffed and looked up at him. She knew that the extra hormones whizzing around in her body were making her all crazy and emotional. She just couldn’t help it.
“It’s not just the game. It’s…”
Boom-boom-boom. The tack gun fired in a long series and then was followed by the whir and buzzing of a saw. It sounded as if the men were working right under their feet.
Molly looked around, then pulled Matt, by his shirt, over to the pantry—the huge pantry she had always wanted and had designed herself for her new kitchen. “Just come here a second, will you? I just want some privacy.…”
He looked confused but followed her into the closet, where she closed the door. He stared down at her, an amorous light in his eyes. “Hmmm, this is cozy. Very creative.” He slipped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. “Did you read about this in some women’s magazine or something?”
Men…when they get home, they only think of one thing. Well, three things, if you include dinner and the remote.
“Matt
, wait a second.” She pulled back and looked up at him. “I have to tell you something.”
“Go ahead, I’m listening.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her temple.
“I’m going to have a baby.” Molly suddenly lost her voice and the words came out in a whisper. Yelling over the music all night had made her hoarse, she realized.
Matt pulled back. “What did you say?”
“I said, I’m going to have a baby. I’m pregnant.”
She stared up at his shocked expression. He didn’t answer for a long moment, but she felt him squeeze her tight.
“Wow! I can’t believe it!”
“Believe it,” she said quietly.
“Are you sure? I mean, really sure?”
She nodded. “Three home pregnancy tests all turned blue.”
“Blue! Wow…Does that mean it’s going to be a boy?”
He looked so serious for a moment, she didn’t realize he was teasing her.
“Molly, I’m a doctor, remember? Of course I know you can’t tell the gender like that. It’s wonderful enough to hear it’s a baby…” He pulled her close and kissed her deeply. “Oh, honey, this is such great news. I never dreamed we’d have a baby together.”
“Neither did I,” Molly answered honestly. He was so very happy. She had expected that he would be, but seeing it was different. At least one of them was over-the-top thrilled.
“I wonder what the girls will say? I can’t wait to tell them.”
The girls! She had almost forgotten that part. She knew they would be happy, too, but she just didn’t feel up to it tonight. “Can we wait on that a little while? Telling you has been hard enough. I don’t think the five of us will fit in here.”
Matt laughed, and she could tell he didn’t understand her reservations.
“I just want to wait until I see a doctor,” she added.
“Okay, whatever you like. Let’s get out of here. It’s getting stuffy.”
Just as he opened the door and they stepped back into the kitchen, Molly spotted Amanda. She looked up from the newspaper she had been reading at the kitchen table.
“Hello? What were you guys doing in the closet?”
Molly felt her face go red. Matt laughed, looking equally embarrassed.
A Christmas Visitor Page 7
