Barefoot and Pregnant?

by Colleen Faulkner

  “Has Waterfront announced their June sales awards?”

  She pressed her lips together. They’d been announced almost two weeks ago; she just hadn’t wanted to get into it with him. “Yes, they did. Liz won. She’s the one you spoke to on the phone. She made an incredible sale to—”

  “Not working Saturdays. Gone before six in the evening. Elise Anne, I don’t have to tell you what it takes to be successful.”

  She leaned back in her chair and stared at the tile ceiling. No matter how old she got or how far from Dallas she lived, he could reduce her to a chastised child in an instant. Only once, she would have just sat here and taken it. She stiffened, setting her jaw.

  “I am successful,” she insisted. “Just because I didn’t win the sales award for the month doesn’t mean I’m not good at what I do. Winning the sales award five months in a row was a fluke. It’s never happened in the history of the company and will never happen again. Didn’t I tell you that if the land deal for Zane works out, I think I have a good shot at being asked to buy into the company.”

  “Ah, I see.” It was all in his tone of voice. Disapproval one moment, glowing endorsement the next. “So that’s what this business is with this man.” He chuckled. “You stand to gain a lot.”

  She picked up the Husband Finder checklist that she now displayed on her desk right next to several sales award trophies and a stack of plaques she’d never had time to hang on the wall at the office. She knew she should tuck it away in a drawer; she’d be embarrassed for Zane to see it, but she liked looking at it. She liked looking at his name.

  She gently smoothed the wrinkles of the papers; battle wounds from the checklist’s brief time in the garbage can under her desk. She smiled as she traced, with her finger, the words she had scribbled across the front page “good heart.”

  “Exactly,” she said. “I stand to gain a lot.”

  “Well, I’m glad to hear you’re using your head and not depending on any less reliable resources.” He paused. “Monique is making the divorce more difficult than I had anticipated. She refuses to simply sign the documents. There have been tears. Fuss.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. You and Monique seemed well suited for each other. Are you certain you can’t work things out? Sometime marriage counselors can—”

  “Montgomerys do not see counselors,” he interrupted. “And we keep our dirty laundry to ourselves. Monique is making a spectacle of herself, and I guarantee that she’ll regret it when she goes to cash her divorce settlement check.”

  “I just hate to see you alone again,” Elise mused and she truly meant it. No one should have to live their life alone in a big empty house, not even a grumpy old man like her father.

  “Must go,” he declared briskly. “Fax me the details of the partnership, and I’ll have one of my lawyers look it over. One can never be too careful.”

  “Thanks, Father, but I’m still not sure if—”

  “Call coming in on another line. I’ll call the office next Saturday. Have a successful week.”

  “You, too,” she said, but he had already hung up.

  Elise dropped the phone and stared at the folder bulging with information she needed to review before drawing up the documents Mr. Gallagher was waiting for. He expected them Monday morning.

  She chewed on the inside of her lip. She had already told Zane she would go to church with him and his grandfather in the morning, and then they were planning on taking Pops to the beach. Zane wanted to try out one of those big wheelchairs the city offered that was built to roll over the sand. Then there was supper at Meagan’s house. It was really important to him that she and his sister get to know each other, still insisting they would be great friends if both of them weren’t being so stubborn.

  Elise glanced at the phone. Suddenly, the work on her desk seemed to be looming. Frowning, she picked it up and dialed Zane’s cell number.

  “’Lo?”

  “Hi, it’s me.”

  “Hi, beautiful. Great minds think alike. I was just going to call you. You ready to go out on the boat and add to that nice tan you’re working on?”

  She was pleasantly embarrassed. She’d never had a tan in her life and she’d lived at the beach for five years. Since she and Zane had been dating, she’d bought a bottle of suntan lotion and had already used half of it. She’d never spent so much time in her life just…having fun.

  “Actually, that’s why I was calling.” She gave the stack of paperwork a nudge with her finger. “I’m not going to make it today. I’ve got a ton of work here to do.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line.

  She pressed her lips together and went on. “I know I said I could go out this afternoon, but I really need to get to work on this project. I’ve barely started it, and it’s due Monday morning.”

  “Ellie, we talked about this,” he said. She could hear the tension in his voice.

  “I know.”

  “We both agreed that if we were going to give this a try, we were both going to have to respect the others’ baggage.”

  She bristled at the word baggage. He might have emotional baggage but she certainly didn’t! “It’s been a busy week,” she said firmly.

  “I agreed not to say much about that fact that you seem to be doing everything others want you to do—”

  He meant her father, of course. Maybe Liz sometimes. Definitely her boss. The self-help books?

  “And you agreed to try and be respectful of the plans we make and keep them.”

  “I’m sorry, Zane,” she said testily. “But I’ve already lost two deals this month because I was off windsurfing and keeping you company while you fixed your water pump. I have to make a living you know!” She didn’t mean to shout those last words, but they came out that way just the same.

  He was quiet again.

  She felt like she was holding her breath.

  “It’s okay,” he said then.

  She exhaled. This was the first argument they’d had since they started dating again. She should have known it was bound to come sooner or later. In this business, she just couldn’t work a regular nine-to-five, five-day-a-week job. “You sure?” She was hesitant. “I think if I really put my mind to it, I can finish it up by tonight. Then I’ll have all day tomorrow to spend with you,” she said hopefully.

  “Hey, it’s fine.” It wasn’t quite the pleasant, warm voice she was used to, but it was close. “You’re right. I apologize for losing my cool. Things come up.”

  “Yeah, they do. So I’ll see you at church in the morning?” she said hopefully.

  “Pops and I will be there.”

  “Okay…” She felt as if she wanted to say something else. The words “I love you” were right on the tip of her tongue. But they’d never discussed love. She wasn’t even sure that was what she was feeling here and she certainly couldn’t speak for how Zane felt about her.

  “See you then,” she said softly.

  “Bye, Ellie.”

  She hung up and stared at the file she’d brought from work with loathing. She didn’t want to work, she wanted to play. She wanted to play with Zane.

  But as that great philosopher Mick Jagger once said, “You can’t always get what you want.”

  “Well,” she said in her best Edwin Montgomery voice. “It’s not going to jump up and get completed on its own is it, Elise Anne?” She grabbed another file and hunkered down for a long afternoon of boring real estate work.

  Zane walked through his sister’s back door and into her kitchen where he found Meagan stirring a pot on the stove. The room smelled heavenly of tomato sauce and garlic. “Hey, you have room for one more at the dinner table?”

  She looked over her shoulder and smiled. “For you little brother, always.”

  He gave her a peck on the cheek and walked to the refrigerator to see what he could find to drink. It was a hot July day. He’d been in his garden picking sweet corn to take to his neighbors. He’d hoed his cucumbers and tomatoes whi
le he was there, and then fertilized the limas. He was always one to throw himself into good hard physical work when he was pissed. And he was definitely pissed that Elise had canceled on him. Disappointed and pissed. Disappointed because he really wanted to see her, but pissed because he could see how easily this relationship could head down the wrong road, and it wouldn’t be because he hadn’t been warned.

  “I’m glad to see you,” Meagan said, “but you do know you’re a day early for Sunday’s fried chicken and dumpling dinner, right?”

  He grabbed a diet soda from the fridge and plopped down on a stool at her counter. She had a big eat-in country kitchen that she had decorated whimsically with old tin signs advertising eggs for sale, and ceramic chickens she’d been collecting since she was a little girl.

  “We’ll be here tomorrow, Ellie, Pops and I. I just stopped by to say, Hi. I wondered if maybe you and Ted might want to go out, either for dinner or a movie later. I thought I could watch the kids for you. I know you guys haven’t had a minute alone since the baby was born.”

  Meagan turned away from the stove, the wooden spoon in her hand. He noticed that it was four o’clock in the afternoon, and she still hadn’t had her shower. She was wearing a pair of baggy gym shorts that belonged to Ted and an old T-shirt that had seen better days. He loved his sister dearly, but he couldn’t help noticing that since she’d thrown herself so far into the role of being the stay-at-home mom that she seemed to be losing her previous identity.

  Meagan had once been the kind of woman who wouldn’t have left her bedroom without her hair clean and brushed, and wearing makeup. Now, he couldn’t remember when he’d last seen lipstick on her, even in church. Of course she did have the new baby, and four kids were a lot, especially when your husband worked odd hours.

  “Go out?” She laughed. “Ted and I haven’t been out since Justin was born three years ago. I don’t know where we’d go out to!” She shook her head with amusement as she turned back to the spaghetti sauce. “Ted wouldn’t go to a movie anyway. No remote.”

  “You could just go for a walk on the beach. Go out for an ice-cream cone. Talk. It’s going to be a beautiful evening.”

  “Talk? Ted and I?” Again, she laughed. “Besides if you’re talking about anything after 7:00 p.m., you know I’m nearly ready for lights-out. By the time I wrestle these little monsters into bed, I’m too beat for lively conversation.”

  He sipped his soda and shrugged. “I just wanted to offer. You know I always get a kick out of staying with the kids.”

  “Well, they love you, that’s for sure. You’re going to make a great daddy someday, bro.” She smiled as she set down the spoon and went to the fridge to get a head of lettuce and an armful of fresh salad veggies she’d grown in her garden. “But it’s Saturday, isn’t it? I lose track of the days.” She waved a carrot. “You don’t have a hot date on a Saturday night?”

  He set his soda down and came around the counter to help her wash the vegetables. “Ellie has something going on tonight.”

  “Work?” Meagan intoned.

  He glanced at her and grabbed a tomato from her hand to run it under the faucet. “You promised you’d give her a chance, Meagan. I really like her.” He hesitated, rubbing a spot on the tomato, then looked up at her. “I think I might be in love with her.”

  “Oh, Zane,” she groaned, brushing a lock of straggly hair out of her eyes. “Please don’t say that. You’ve barely been dating a month. You can’t possibly—”

  “I’m telling you, I love her, Meg. I loved her the first time I saw her at that benefit dinner. I can’t help it.” He grabbed a knife from the drawer and began to slice the tomato and toss the cut pieces into the wooden salad bowl she’d set on the counter. “She’s so smart, and funny.” He grinned. “Better yet, she thinks I’m funny.”

  “Stand-up comedy does not a marriage make.”

  “She makes me smile,” he said, sifting through his own feelings as he said the words aloud. “Just hearing her voice. Seeing her walk out her door, knowing she’s going to be all mine for the evening. I can’t explain how good that makes me feel. And she’s so persistent. She’s hit roadblock after roadblock trying to buy that land for me and she doesn’t give up.”

  “Please tell me this is not some kind of misplaced sentiment based on Great-Grandpop’s land.”

  “No, it’s not misplaced sentiment!” He slapped the knife on the counter and turned to Meagan. “Aren’t you listening to what I’m saying? I’m in love with Ellie. She’s the woman I think I want to spend the rest of my life with. And I want you to like her. Hell, I want you to love her, too, but I’m not going to let you decide who I will and will not love. Who I’m going to marry.”

  Meagan reached for a dish towel and leaned back against the counter as she dried her hands. “Zane, I’m not trying to give you a hard time here. You’re right. I don’t know Ellie very well, but I did know Judy well, and I liked her all right.”

  “You did not. You thought she was selfish and single-minded.”

  “I did not. But from the beginning, I knew she wasn’t the woman for you because she was never going to give you what you needed. I’m afraid you’ve fallen for another woman just like her, that’s all.”

  He picked up the paring knife again and began to peel the cucumber. “Ellie is nothing like Judy.”

  “Fine.” Meagan raised her hands and walked away.

  “Fine,” he agreed with a nod. “Now go get dressed and go for a walk. Go to the grocery store. Do something, Meg. I’ll stay here with the kids and get dinner on the table.”

  She halted in the doorway. “I love you, little brother, you know that, don’t you.”

  He didn’t turn around, but he smiled. “I know.”

  It was after ten when Elise heard a tap on the door. Actually, it was more like a scratch. She’d just about completed the work on the contract for Mr. Gallagher and needed to reread it, but she’d decided she was starving and had gone to the kitchen to see what she could dig up. So far, she’d found a dill pickle, half an old sesame bagel and something that resembled Chinese food in a cardboard box in the back of the fridge that had turned a putrid shade of blue. Slim pickings.

  Elise dumped the box of unknown identity into the sink, hit the disposal button, dropped the box in the garbage can and walked out into the hall to the front door. “Who is it?”

  “A guy who makes a lousy boyfriend,” Zane said from the other side of the door. “But I come bearing gifts.”

  She unlocked and opened the door, smiling. “Hey.”

  “Hey.” He leaned over and kissed her mouth, lingering.

  “Mmm,” she sighed. “So you come bearing gifts? What kind?”

  He held up a plastic grocery bag. “Homemade spaghetti and fresh garden salad with poppy seed dressing I made myself.”

  “Oh, bless you,” she breathed, grabbing the bag from his hand. “How did you know I was starving? I was just trying to figure out how to make a sandwich out of a pickle and half a bagel.”

  He chuckled as he followed her into the kitchen. “I was going by on my way home from the nursing home and I just thought you might need a little fuel.”

  “How’s Pops?” She pulled the containers out of the bag and popped the one with sauce into the microwave.

  “Oh, he’s good. I laid out his clothes for church tomorrow and he seemed to understand what I was doing. He always liked church.” Zane leaned on the counter and chuckled. “Or at least the big chicken and dumpling dinner afterward.”

  She rested her hips against the white countertop across from Zane in the galley kitchen. “I’m glad you came by. Glad you brought food.” Talk about bonus round on the checklist.

  “So, you get done what you needed to?”

  She nodded thinking how handsome he looked in his khaki shorts, faded polo and suntan. His sun-bleached hair fell over one eye giving him that bad-boy movie-star appearance. “Just about. Another hour, tops, and it will be ready for Gallagher’s desk.”
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  He crossed his arms over his chest, glanced at the microwave, then at Elise. “I wanted to apologize for today.”

  She shook her head and stepped closer. “You don’t have to.”

  He reached out and rested his hands on her hips. “But I do. That was asinine of me to go off on you like that. It’s the first time it’s even happened. I guess I’m just overly sensitive.”

  “Because of Judy,” she offered.

  He nodded.

  “Well, I’m probably oversensitive when it comes to work. I don’t even know that it’s work. It’s just…” She glanced away, unable to meet his gaze.

  “Tell me,” he said softly, coming closer.

  The microwave beeped, but she ignored it. She slowly lifted her gaze to meet his and fiddled with the collar of his shirt. “My father called today.”

  “And made you feel about an inch high.”

  She looked down.

  “Ellie, I don’t understand why you listen to him.”

  “Because he’s my father.”

  “I know.” Zane brushed her cheek with his fingertips. “I understand you want to be accepted. I’m just afraid that whatever you do, he’s never going to be happy, Ellie. Not as long as you’re not in Texas running his business with him. Letting him run your life.”

  Elise closed her eyes. Was what Zane was saying true? In the past few weeks, maybe even months, the same thought had passed through her mind, but she just didn’t want to consider it. “Can we not talk about this right now?”

  “Sure.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Mmm. You smell good.”

  She pressed her cheek to his chest and listened for a moment to his beating heart. Then she lifted her head and met his mouth. She tightened her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his. He smelled so good, like sunshine and spaghetti sauce and a future she had been afraid to want up until a few weeks ago.

  Zane’s tongue teased hers and she groaned with pleasure. He stroked her back and then slid his hand down over her shorts to cup her buttocks. When they came up for air, he dropped his hand, looking a little sheepish.