“Right. See you later.” He watched the door close behind her with a confused heart. If he was so glad to be on his own today, why wasn’t he feeling happy?
Later that day, Karin frowned at herself in the mirror. Pink and frilly was not her style. Or more likely, a wise and kindly good witch was not her. “I think this fits fine,” she told Heather, in a hurry to get the costume off. “I don’t think you need to let it out any more.”
Heather gave her a look and went back to making marks along the side seams at the waist. “You are getting larger, you know, not smaller. If it’s too tight today, it’s not going to fit better for the parade.”
“It’s only a couple of days.”
“And this will only take a couple of minutes.” She made the last mark on the fabric and then stood, unbuttoning the tiny buttons all along the back.
Karin stepped out of the dress with relief. She felt more like herself again. It was silly, she knew. The costume was all make-believe, but she didn’t feel comfortable in it.
“So I hear you had an emergency surgery yesterday,” Heather said as she carried the dress over to the sewing table.
“How’d you hear that?” Karin put her shorts and T-shirt back on, avoiding her reflecdon in the mirror. It was silly, she knew, but she felt more like herself without any visuals. She could pretend that life was as usual and no crises were just around the bend.
“Your mom told Mrs. Fallon and she told Robbie Baker’s mother and Robbie announced it to my kindergarten class this morning.”
Karin sank into a chair. “I forgot how everything’s a big deal in this town. I have emergencies all the time. This was nothing major.”
“I bet it was to the guy whose life you saved,” Heather pointed out. “How’s he doing?”
“Fine. He was alert and feeling good this morning.”
Heather had spread the dress out and had started ripping out a seam but stopped to frown at Karin. “You went in to check on him?”
“Of course.” Karin felt a twinge of guilt. She hadn’t really lied to Jed earlier. She really hadn’t needed to go into Chicago; she had wanted to.
“Did Jed drive you again?” Heather asked.
“No.” Karin sat up. “I do know how to drive.”
“Yeah, but it must be tiring for someone in your condition. I’m surprised Jed let you.”
Karin got to her feet. “Hey, I’m just pregnant, not an invalid, and it’s not up to Jed to ‘let me’ or ‘not let me’ do something.”
“Why am I not convinced Jed would see it that way?” Heather asked with a grin and went back to working on the seam.
Karin went to look at the other costumes hanging in the closet. Heather did such great work; she could do it for a living. Of course, she was a perfect kindergarten teacher, too.
“Jed’s really a nice guy,” Heather said after a few minutes.
Karin looked at her. “Yeah, he is.” Maybe too nice for this pretense.
“It surprised me how nice he is,” Heather went on.
Karin wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean. “Why?”
Heather shrugged. “You told me last month that your baby’s father was out of your life and not coming back,” she said.
Damn, had she? Karin thought back to that day Heather brought her costume into Chicago for a fitting, but couldn’t really remember the details.
“Well, he changed his mind,” Karin said with an uneasy laugh. She’d never been good at lying.
“Funny. Jed doesn’t seem like the sort to turn his back on his child.”
Double damn. Why had she ever started this? “Actually, I was the one who broke it off before,” Karin said. “You know me, afraid of commitment.”
“But you took the leap,” Heather said, and getting to her feet, came over and gave Karin a hug. “I am so happy that you are finally willing to risk love. You two are going to be so happy.” Then she laughed and patted Karin’s belly. “You three. No, you four. Gosh, Karin, when you finally decide to do something, you really do it, don’t you?”
Karin tried to laugh, but she couldn’t do more than smile slightly. She should tell Heather the truth. She’d understand, and she’d probably help Karin pull off the charade. It would be so great to confide in someone—except Heather would probably tell Alex and they would tell Penny and Brad when they came back from their honeymoon and...
No, it was her secret. Hers and Jed’s. “I think I’d better be getting along,” Karin said. “You don’t need me anymore do you?”
“Nope.” Heather put the dress down and walked with Karin to the front door. “Will we see you two at the square dance tonight?”
“The square dance?” Karin remembered that her friends belonged the local square-dance club, but it had never been her style. Not that she did much of any kind of dancing. “I think I’ll pass.”
“What a shame. I thought it would be something Jed would like.”
Karin stopped. “I have no idea if he would or wouldn’t.”
“He’s a cowboy, isn’t he? All cowboys like to square-dance.”
Maybe Heather was right. The cowboys Karin’s mother hooked up with had liked to drink and gamble and spend other people’s money, but Jed wasn’t like them at all. Maybe he would like to go dancing.
The twinge of guilt played at her again. She owed him for all he was doing for her, and a night doing something he would enjoy would be a start.
“Maybe we will come,” Karin said. “Yeah, definitely. Count us in.”
“Great.”
It would be. It would be a great evening. Jed would have fun.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Karin asked Lissa as they all left the apartment. “I’m positive there’ll be kids your age there.”
To be honest, Karin was wishing Lissa would join them. Karin had been getting more and more nervous as the evening approached. She’d only suggested the idea because she thought Jed deserved to have an evening he’d enjoy, but now it was feeling almost like a date. Just the two of them, and her trying to show Jed a good time. If Lissa was along, it would relieve some of that date-like pressure.
But Lissa was shaking her head as she skipped down the steps to the parking lot. “Ginger and Bethany are going to help me with my special shoes this evening. I’m going to be the best Dorothy ever.”
“Maybe they’d want to come too,” Karin suggested. She hoped she didn’t sound too desperate.
Lissa had gotten to the bottom of the steps and turned. “I doubt it. I can’t believe that you’re going. Daddy—”
“—was just saying how it had been ages since he’d been to a square dance,” Jed finished for her. “I hope I’m not too rusty.”
Karin felt the jitters in her stomach double and triple as she walked over to the Jeep. Was that what Lissa had been going to say? Jed hadn’t seemed reluctant when she’d suggested square dancing. Damn. If she just knew how to read men better. But surely he would have said that he didn’t want to go, if he hadn’t. It wasn’t as though she’d forced this on him.
They all three climbed into the car. Maybe she was letting her doubts creep into her voice and it was affecting everyone. She watched as Jed pulled out of the lot and turned down Calumet, going past the scarecrow’s cornfield and past the library and the set of Munchkinland. Down the street, in the churchyard, was the set for Kansas. Where did she belong? In the drab, gray Kansas or colorful, magical Oz? Probably neither.
“Well, I think you’re going to miss out on a lot of fun,” Karin told Lissa, keeping her voice as perky as possible. “When we tell you what a great time we had, you’re going to be sorry.”
Jed laughed. “That’s telling her, darlin’.”
A warm feeling washed over her, taking her by surprise and bringing her nervousness rushing back. “You don’t have to call me that in private.” She felt somehow duty-bound to say it.
“Oh, he calls everybody that,” Lissa said. “Turn up here, Dad.”
Everybody?
Karin’s throat closed up a little. Not that it mattered. She didn’t care one way or another.
“Well, not everybody,” Jed pointed out.
“Okay, all the ladies,” Lissa corrected. “It’s the house on the corner up there.”
All the ladies. She wasn’t exactly part of an elite bunch, was she? Which was fine with her. The very last thing she wanted was for Jed to be developing feelings for her. It was a relief to know he wasn’t.
And just to prove she wasn’t developing feelings for him, she needed to discuss this too.
“Doesn’t calling women darling get confusing?” Karin asked. “How would someone know when you mean it to be special?”
“Oh, you can tell,” Lissa said as Jed slowed the car to a stop in front of the corner house. “It sounds different. Thanks, Dad. Have fun, Karin.”
“Do you need us to pick you up?” Jed asked.
“Nope.” Lissa opened the car door and climbed out. “Bethany’s mom is going to drop me off at Grandma’s.”
“You have a key?”
“Dad.” Karin could hear in the girl’s voice that she was rolling her eyes. “This is Chesterton. Nobody locks their doors.”
She slammed the door and raced up the sidewalk. Two girls were waiting on the porch for her and hurried her inside.
Karin turned to Jed, but found him still watching the door where Lissa had disappeared. His face was open and easy to read for once. Pride, sadness, worry, joy. All in his eyes and the twist of his lips.
“She’s having a good time,” Karin said softly.
He turned to smile at her. “Yeah, it’s working out great.
A twinge of something tugged at her as he pulled the Jeep away from the curb. “Mom’s going to miss her,” Karin said. “I never imagined how attached she’d get to Lissa.”
“Or Lissa to her.”
“At least Lissa knows the truth,” Karin pointed out. “At times I feel awful for starting this whole pretense.”
“Not much we can do now, but play it out to the end,” Jed said.
“I know.” The thought of its being over seemed to hit her harder than she expected.
She directed Jed down a yellow brick painted road to the VFW hall where the square dance was to be held, determined to push her gloominess into the shadows. She was going to play her part to the hilt and make sure he had fun. They got out of the Jeep and walked into the lobby of the hall.
“Quite a crowd here.” She pushed herself a step further. “Darling.”
“Darlin’,” he said.
That warm flush washed over her again though she knew better this time. “What?” she asked.
“You gotta drop the g in darling,” he said. “Soften the word or it doesn’t mean anything.”
She thought it didn’t mean anything anyway. “Soften?”
“Let me show you.” He led her off to the side and put his arms around her waist. “Hello, darlin’,” he said as he bent down and kissed her. So softly. Like the summer breeze that made the daisies dance gently in the sunshine. Like—
Damn. This was so unfair that she wanted to cry. He looked as hard as a rock, yet he was as gentle as could be. It was really rotten, she thought as she put her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
“What do think—9.5?” Dorothy said.
“I don’t know. The form is good but it’s a shade low on passion.”
Oh, Lordy! Karin jumped out of Jed’s arms, her cheeks on fire. There in the lobby stood Alex, Heather, Dorothy and Toto, grinning at her and Jed.
“What are you guys doing here already?” Karin asked.
“What do you mean ‘already,’” Dorothy asked. “The dance is about to start. What are you doing, out in the lobby?”
Practicing, Karin wanted to say, but couldn’t, of course. She hated the smirks on their faces, hated the fact that she wasn’t telling them the truth, hated that there was a “truth” to the whole charade.
“Karin was just buffing off some of my rough edges,” Jed said, putting an arm around her waist.
She felt herself wilt into those rock-hard muscles of his and hated every second of her helplessness. Fortunately, it was a temporary phenomenon. By Sunday night the cowboy would be gone and she would go back to being alone and strong. But tonight—
“We came to dance too,” she announced. “So let’s get in there and start having fun.”
Well, they got in there, but Karin wasn’t sure exactly when she was going to start having fun. It had been years since she had square-danced, and then it had only been a few times. She couldn’t remember dosado from promenade, and swing from allemande.
Jed was patient, but she got worse with each set instead of better. She sashayed in when she should have sashayed out. Her courtesy turn got turned inside out. And her California twirl landed her in south New Jersey.
“Maybe I’ll sit out this next set,” she suggested when an interminable set ended.
“Good idea,” he said. “We can find us a table over—”
“Oh, no. I just meant me. I’m not going to spoil your fun just because I’m rusty.” She looked around and spotted a partnerless woman. “Nancy, Jed needs a partner for the next set. Can you take care of him?”
“Karin, really—”
But Nancy was ready, willing and able. “Dance with a real cowboy? You betcha.”
“Great.” Karin left the two together and joined Dorothy and Toto at a table overlooking the dance floor.
“Decided not to try one of the harder ones?” Dorothy asked.
“Harder ones?” Karin said as she sat down, her eyes on Nancy and Jed. There was a sudden sour feeling in her stomach.
“Yeah. They said the calls would be advanced,” Toto said. “We decided we weren’t ready to risk public humiliation.”
“Ah.” That was something Nancy and Jed sure didn’t have to worry about. They danced well together. As though they’d been doing it for years. Or should have been doing it for years. Or were meant to do it. Karin sighed, annoyed with herself and them.
“Good crowd here tonight,” she said brightly as she looked everywhere but at Jed.
“Wow, Jed sure is good,” Dorothy said.
“Of course, I never come, so maybe this is the regular number of people,” Karin went on, watching another group of couples come in through the main door.
“My feet couldn’t move that fast on a dance floor,” Toto said.
Karin turned back toward Jed, not by choice, but somehow feeling drawn to watch him. She spotted him easily, though his wasn’t the only light-colored cowboy hat in the hall. Her eyes just seemed to know where he was all the time. Scary.
The caller was shouting out something about an Alamo swing-through, and she let herself relax and enjoy watching the dance. Jed was good. He moved so quickly, so easily, so—
Suddenly his knee seemed to give out and he collapsed.
Chapter Seven
“I’m fine,” Jed said and got awkwardly to his feet. Everybody was staring at him—but with horror on their faces not admiration. He hobbled over a few feet to pick up his hat. His knee hurt like hell, but there was no reason to mention that. “This is nothing. I’ve hurt lots worse in my time.”
Karin put his arm over her shoulder. “You aren’t fine,” she pointed out. “You can hardly walk. We need to take you to the doctor.”
“Want us to call an ambulance?” Heather asked, hovering close also.
“Toto’s got his police car here,” Dorothy said. “He can run you over to the emergency room faster.”
An emergency room? What kind of man interrupted a lady’s night out for a trip to an emergency room—because he was injured dancing? Karin had really wanted to go square dancing tonight and he was not going to let her miss a minute of it.
He put his hat back on his head and turned slightly so that she wasn’t supporting him, but was in his embrace. “You’re all the doctor I need, darlin’.”
Heather and Dorothy groaned, but Karin turned a delight
ful shade of pink. Her eyes looked a bit stormier, so he tried hard not to look at them.
“I specialize in cardiac surgery,” she said. “Not orthopedics.” Her voice was stiff with the embarrassment he’d come to expect with each public display of affection.
“And it’s my heart that needs mending,” he assured her, taking her hand and putting it over his racing heart. “I only tripped because you were frowning at me.”
The others laughed, but Karin didn’t seem to know how to react. She pulled away her hand. “I wasn’t frowning at you.”
“Prove it then.” He took her hand back. “Come on, darlin’, they’re starting another set.”
She did frown at him then. “You can’t be thinking of dancing some more,” she cried. “If you won’t let us take you to the emergency room, I’m taking you home.”
He supposed going home was best, but he hated to ruin her evening. “We don’t have to go,” he said. “How about if I sit down and you and your friends can stay and dance?”
Dorothy laughed. “Jed, if I didn’t know Karin better, I’d think she tripped you just to have an excuse to leave. She was ready to go home when you got here.”
He turned to look at Karin. The blush on her cheeks was proof enough that Dorothy’s words were true. So why had they come?
“Okay, darlin’,” he said and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “You can take me home for some TLC.”
The blush deepened and he could feel her wanting to pull away, but she walked with him to the Jeep, their friends close behind. Jed wasn’t sure if they were waiting for the next lip-to-lip show to begin or were afraid he was going to collapse. Either way, he wasn’t going to entertain them. He pulled the car keys from his jeans’ pocket.
“Oh no you don’t.” Karin took the keys from his hand. “I’m driving.”
“I’m fine.”
“Great. I’m still driving.”
With a sigh, he limped over to the passenger side and climbed in. He gritted his teeth a bit, but it was probably too dark for anyone to have noticed.
“I’ll follow along behind, in case you need help getting him up to the apartment,” Toto said.
Pregnant & Practically Married (The Bridal Circle #3) Page 11
