In a Book Club Far Away

by Tif Marcelo

  Since Jasper’s parents were on a cruise, Adelaide had jumped at the opportunity to care for the girls, and Regina followed suit. Despite their short friendship, Adelaide considered Sophie every bit her family.

  But leaving the girls with Adelaide and Regina required paperwork, a medical authorization for care in case of emergency, arranging for both ladies to stay at Sophie’s apartment so the girls could be as comfortable as possible.

  “We’re good to you because you’re good to us, and because I think you, too, forget to activate the SOS. It’s what friends are for.” Adelaide pushed a book against her chest. “And to start, here’s part of your SOS plan.”

  “You and your plans.” She scanned the cover and raised both eyebrows. “His at Night. Historical romance?”

  “Yes. It’s amazing, and perfect for this trip. It’s about faking it till you make it. It’s the third book in the series, and the author, Sherry Thomas? She’s a talent.”

  “The almost kiss on the cover’s telling me that this will be a good distraction.”

  “More than, Soph. There’s love. And well, sometimes it’s all you need. I promise it will make you smile. That’s what happily-ever-afters will do for you.”

  “Is there sex?”

  “More than we’ve all had the last few months, that’s for sure.”

  Sophie threw her head back in a laugh; Adelaide softened at the sound. They’d had such little laughter the last three days. Longer than that, really, from the lingering tension after New York City, mostly coming from herself. Adelaide had had to take a hard look at her expectations of herself and of her body, and at what she’d assumed people expected of her. Thank goodness for the new therapist she started seeing last week—she’d found another outlet where she didn’t feel like she was burdening anyone. Speaking to a stranger had its own comfort; she didn’t feel judged.

  Sophie took a deep breath, her smile tight. “I can do this, right? I’m flying into a mess. I didn’t want the girls to have to face a funeral of a grandfather they didn’t know, but I don’t even know how I’m supposed to deal with this.”

  “You can, and you will, because of who you are. You’re truly one of the strongest women I know.”

  “I don’t feel that way right now.”

  “Oh, c’mon, are you kidding? You’re raising twins. You are calm all the time. You are a leader without having to raise your voice. And you know how to read people, how to help them through tough situations. You will do what you need to do in Nassau. But if you don’t go, then you’ll always wonder.”

  Sophie nodded.

  The squeal of little girls took their attention, and Olivia and Carmela ran up to their mother, each with a chocolate bar in their hands. Trailing behind them was Regina, who dragged a backpack and a tepid smile. The girls’ faces were smeared with chocolate.

  “We got sucked in by the magnets and couldn’t get out without bribery.” Reggie was out of breath, hand on her belly. “Man, having two is a handful.”

  Sophie lowered her voice. “I’m asking too much, aren’t I? I should stay.”

  Adelaide couldn’t let Sophie worry. She touched her on the elbow. “But there are two of us.”

  “Sophie, listen,” Regina said, “if for some reason, the two of us can’t handle a few days, we have a bunch of parents at book club who will help us figure it out. It’s a seven-hour flight to the Bahamas, and you’ll be gone four days. Easy-peasy.”

  Sophie heaved a breath. “You’re both right. Okay, I should go before I lose my nerve. She wrapped Regina in a tight hug. “Reggie, I don’t know what I would have done without you and your dad.”

  “Um… it’s okay. You’ll just owe me one.” She grinned.

  Sophie stepped back and got down on one knee. She scooped up her children into her arms and kissed each one on the cheek. She whispered I love yous into their ears, then finally stood. “All right, ladies. Here I go.”

  “Godspeed.” Adelaide kissed Sophie on the cheek and, after one more round of extended goodbyes, watched Sophie’s back as it disappeared down the long hallway, toward the security area.

  The crying began as soon as Sophie was no longer within sight, starting with a sniffle from Carmela, which turned into a full-blown sob from Olivia. It took both adults to coax the children from the terminal and into the frigid parking lot, then into Adelaide’s car.

  “It’s going to be a long four days,” Regina said to her now, and peeked over her shoulder.

  Adelaide bit her lip. “I know, I’m worried about bedtime. We might have to get creative, maybe make a slumber party out of it?” She stuck the key in the ignition, and her cell phone rang in her purse. “Let me get that. It’s Matt’s day off today, so I don’t want to miss his call.”

  Sure enough, the BlackBerry flashed his name. She answered the call, then turned on the car anyway to get the heat going. “Hi!” She mouthed the word Matt to Regina. Regina turned around and put a finger against her lips.

  “It’s Mr. Matt,” she whispered.

  And like good military children, they took their voices down to a low roar.

  “Hey,” Matt’s voice was rough-edged, and Adelaide pictured him lying in bed, comfy under his fleece blanket. A feeling of yearning shot through her. “What are you doing right now?”

  I wish it was you. Adelaide heated as the thought materialized in her head. Six months was a long time to be celibate. “We just dropped Sophie off at the airport. We’re in the car now.”

  “Who are you with?”

  “Me and Reggie and the twins. What’s up?”

  “I can tell you, but you’ve got to keep it on the DL for now.”

  She looked askance at Regina, who was playing a game on her phone. “Got it.”

  “I’ve got some news. The advance party is coming home in April.”

  The advance party was the first wave of soldiers who redeployed back to post to help set the stage for the entire unit to return.

  She felt a smile push through her lips. “You?”

  “No, not me.”

  “Dang it, I was hoping…” Then, when Regina turned slightly in her direction, she smiled brightly despite her disappointment. She should know by now that she couldn’t rely on hope when it came to Army plans. Nothing was real until they actually got on that bus, or plane.

  “Sorry, babe. Also, you’ll most likely hear some grumblings about someone specifically who’s coming home. There are other things going on—rumors.”

  It was vague, this information, and she would need to find some alone time the next few days to follow up with more questions. The mere fact that Matt didn’t come right out with the rumor told her that it was highly sensitive and important. “All right. Well, I love you and I’ll talk to you soon!”

  “Love you, babe.”

  As she backed away from the space, Regina asked, “Everything good with the guys?”

  “Oh, yeah, everything’s fine. Just fine!”

  But as usual, and now against everything she was learning in therapy, she was faking it, because everything was not fine.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Sophie

  Adelaide had been right; Sophie had been saved by His at Night. As it was Sophie’s first romance novel, she hadn’t been sure how to approach it. She usually lifted her books to eye level when she read, but on her flight to Nassau, she’d kept the suggestive cover out of sight of the other passengers, especially while cramped in the middle seat.

  But when she cracked the spine and read the first chapter, she was thrown right into its historical world despite her skepticism.

  And damn, did that book take her out of her funk. It eased her worry as the miles between her and her daughters increased. She loved that she was able to hold the book with one hand and flip its pages with a thumb while she ate her peanuts.

  She finished the book the first night she arrived in her father’s home, just in time to deal with her cousin and the death of a man she’d been estranged from. She felt entrenche
d in two worlds: Victorian England, where Lord Vere and Ellisande Edgerton of His at Night found their way to each other, and sunny, breezy Nassau, where she had to face strangers who were also family.

  But just as Vere and Edgerton had to fake it to make it, Sophie did, too. For four days, she girded herself against the puzzled looks, the judgment, and the impending grief that would take her years to process, because it wasn’t going to happen in Nassau, where she couldn’t let her guard and emotions down. For four tortured days, only made better by her phone calls back to Millersville and a reread of the book, it became undeniable that family was born not of DNA but of connection and loyal love.

  At her layover stop in Orlando, Sophie hit pay dirt after scouring through three different airport bookstores—she found one that had a shelf of romances. She didn’t read any of the back covers, but simply took a copy of each and stuffed them in every crevice of her carry-on. The tail end of deployment was still up ahead; the maddening wait was like senioritis in high school and college, but magnified to the nth degree. She would need all the love to pad her heart.

  Her first night back, Sophie’s girls tutted and crawled all over her; they even checked in on her while she was in the shower. Travel exhaustion had settled in by the time her girls finally succumbed to slumber. It was glorious then, the silence. She hadn’t had any for at least a week. To sit there and do nothing—hear nothing but the hum of the light bulbs in her kitchen—was a sublime kind of luxury.

  Until she couldn’t stand it anymore.

  Sophie never could just sit.

  So she cleaned her kitchen, though it was already immaculate—Adelaide and Regina had done everything perfectly and correctly. Still, the act of tidying calmed her nerves, so she wiped down her kitchen counters and cleaned out the fridge. She swept the linoleum and spot-cleaned her cabinets. And since it was almost the end of the month, she went to the computer to pull up her Excel spreadsheet of the bills that needed to be paid.

  Her email was already opened, the in-box holding one new message. From Jasper.

  Their emails had continued while she was in Nassau, and there, she’d clutched on to them like a life preserver in rough waters. Jasper understood the whole story; he had seen her attempt to deal with her family, from the guilt of being out of touch with them to the freedom resulting from the separation. And Jasper came through the best way he could. He’d encouraged her, emboldened her, become a true, real-life conscience as she muddled through her trip.

  Sophie’s love for him had grown a hundredfold in four days.

  And yet.

  Her tummy turned with a tinge of sadness. Because now that the waters were still, she wished that the life preserver had been a rescue boat. She wished he had been there for her, physically by her side, throughout the entire ordeal.

  It was no fault of his own—she knew this. Their love had been tested and proven like a diamond out of the rough—she knew this, too.

  And yet.

  Sophie clicked on the email to a three-line note.

  Soph-

  Lots of drama over here. Coming home with the advance party to take care of it. More later.

  Glad you’re home. Love you.

  —J

  She sat up in her chair. Jasper was coming home, and early! Sophie looked left and right, around her living room, the redeployment list materializing in her head. She’d need to hit the grocery store for his favorite food, the Walmart for decorations, and… “Shit. I need a pedicure.”

  But the rest of the email sank in.

  Drama?

  The mere mention of drama meant that there was an overwhelming amount of it.

  And invariably, it had to involve someone they both knew.

  Sophie shot off a quick email back and pushed down all her mixed feelings. There was a new timeline at hand, a new end date, and that took precedence.

  Her baby was coming home.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Regina

  “Who knew that redeployment would be so high-maintenance?” Regina said while on her back on a salon reclining chair at Total Spa Care at the Millersville mall. Above her was Janis Northrop, also a book clubber, though at the moment she was in full work mode as an esthetician.

  “At least you get your man home early.” Janis applied warm wax to the undersides of Regina’s eyebrows. “And you got a quick salon appointment. In a couple of weeks, you wouldn’t have been as lucky to get an appointment anywhere near Fort Fairfax.”

  She hummed an agreement, then closed her eyes for the tedious process of removing most of the unsightly hair from her face. To her left, she heard the sound of Adelaide’s happy squeak; she must have been thrilled with her manicure.

  “How are you feeling these days?” Janis asked.

  Instinctively, Regina’s hand made its way to her belly, and she chose her words carefully despite the temptation to let loose a joyful scream. She was aware that Janis’s husband wouldn’t be part of the advance party, so she was careful not to rub it in. “I feel pretty good! Baby’s doing well, too. I’m grateful Logan’ll be here for the birth—it was a miracle that the request was approved. I know I’m lucky.”

  “Okay, breathe.” Janis had applied paper under one eyebrow. With quick movements, Janis pressed the paper against her skin and tore the hair out. “You okay?”

  Regina patted the sides of her eyes; waxing always made her tear up. “Yes. Man, the stuff we have to do. Wax, dye, have babies. We should get hazard pay, too!”

  “You’re telling me.” Janis handed her a mirror, and Regina inspected her face. Nope, not a strand of dark scraggly hair.

  “Thank you for taking care of me the last couple of hours.” In the mirror, Regina took in her reflection. Her hair was now highlighted with ash brown—her OB had given her approval for the third trimester—and layered for more volume. “I wish I could duplicate this blowout. Can I just have you with me on reunion day?”

  “He’s going to be so happy to see you—no matter what,” Sophie said, from the waiting room area.

  The patrons in the room nodded in solidarity. Still, Regina couldn’t help but be a little worried.

  Her husband had left a woman who was trim and fit. And now here she was almost seven months later, with a belly big enough to take up half their queen-sized bed, quite literally. She was now eating kimchee over rice every day, because cravings. The movies that she’d loved now made her cry—she refused to watch Titanic, her favorite of all time, because she couldn’t think about all that death right now.

  Adelaide stood from the manicurist’s chair and tugged Regina out of hers. “C’mon, we need to celebrate with some ice cream before we all lose touch.”

  Regina gasped at the implication. “Lose touch? We won’t lose touch.”

  “There will be a little bit of losing touch, and that’s okay.” Adelaide smiled pensively. “It’s natural for the attention to shift.”

  Regina and Adelaide paid and met Sophie outside. Sophie’s appointment was scheduled for the next day but she had joined the two and shopped when they were in the salon. She was holding two bags from Dillard’s.

  “Someone was busy! What do you have in there?” Adelaide asked, using a finger to peek inside.

  Sophie widened the opening. “A little somethin’ somethin’.” She winked. “Lingerie.”

  “Getting serious,” Regina teased. “But I only say that because I’m jealous. My lingerie wouldn’t fit over my thighs at this point. I did, however, fill the freezer with Logan’s favorite ice cream. That should count for something.”

  “Don’t worry about that belly,” Sophie said. “Be proud of it. That and the stretch marks after. I have an added bonus of a C-section scar.”

  “I didn’t know you had a C-section!”

  “The girls came early, at around seven and a half months. I had high blood pressure, but we were all well taken care of. They stayed in the NICU to feed and grow. So, see? Imperfect bodies are strong bodies.”

  Next to her,
Adelaide heaved a sigh, heavy and mournful, and the expression on her face was the absolute opposite of her cheerful, glittering nails.

  Guilt overcame Regina, and she flashed Sophie a look. As if understanding, Sophie slinked her arm around hers. “Let’s go have some ice cream.”

  “I change my mind. I don’t want ice cream. I want my husband back,” Adelaide said quietly, shoulders dropping. She stuck out her bottom lip. “I want him back so we can resume our life. I miss him.”

  “C’mon. I have to talk to both of you about something anyway.” Regina tugged Adelaide by the elbow.

  “Fine,” Adelaide relented.

  “Where do you want to go?” Sophie asked.

  “Let’s go back toward home. I think the ice cream shack opened up.”

  Regina had learned that ice cream was sacred in their part of the world. These mom-and-pop ice cream shops were set up like tiny homes along the sides of the highways, each complete with a walk-up counter and a couple of picnic tables. Full fat and full flavor.

  For what Regina wanted to propose, they deserved the best dessert.

  Fifteen minutes later, all three women had ice cream cones and were sitting in Sophie’s minivan, still running with the heat on. Regina, in the second row behind Sophie in the driver’s seat, made good progress on getting her rocky road ice cream down to a manageable size before saying, “So, I’m not sure how to do this, but I was wondering… you two have been everything to me the last seven months. You really took me under your wings, you know? And while my mother is going to kill me because she fully expects me to ask my cousin who I haven’t seen in ten years and who’s, like, sixteen years old… will you be my baby’s godmothers? Being a ninang is a big deal. It’s not just about presents, but being there for them, when I need a stand-in.”

  At first, Regina was met with silence. Then, tears. Both of her friends started bawling over their ice cream.

  And then suddenly she was crying. Damn these pregnancy hormones. She pressed her napkin against her eyes. “Is that a yes?”

  “That you’re stuck with us? That I get to send noisy presents forever and ever? Of course, yes!” Sophie said.