A Vineyard Lullaby (The Vineyard Sunset Series Book 7)

by Katie Winters

  He was her partner in all things. The feelings she had for him pushed beyond all logic. When their kiss broke, his eyes held hers for a soft moment, as he whispered, “I hope you know that cake I see over there can’t compare with the one you would have made.”

  Christine giggled. “You know just what to say to butter me up, don’t you?”

  “It’s the truth,” Zach replied. He stepped back and slung an arm over Christine’s shoulder, then assessed the damage. “Audrey. It looks like you really raked in the goods this afternoon.”

  Audrey cast him a mischievous glance. “We’ve got a lot to work with to help this baby girl grow up in the world.”

  “Right. A new Sheridan girl,” Zach teased again. “You’re just so sure of yourself.”

  “You know us Sheridan girls have a good dose of intuition, Zach,” Lola said from the corner, beneath a heap of crumpled-up wrapping paper. “Have we ever been wrong about anything?”

  “I know better than to second-guess any of you,” Zach said. He grabbed a pretzel from a big serving bowl and took a small bite.

  “And now you’re going to help raise another Sheridan girl, so you’d better watch yourself,” Susan told him from her stance near the entrance of the kitchen. “She’ll have your heart the minute you look at her. And there’s no turning back after that. That I can promise.”

  That moment, the back door slammed again. Two unfamiliar, very young-looking girls entered the living area. Initially, their bored-looking eyes grew wider, strange, as they spotted the enormous family before them. But a split-second later, they cried in unison, “Aud!” and burst toward the enormously pregnant woman, who they showered with hugs and kisses.

  “You guys!” Audrey beamed. Her voice broke with emotion. “I had no idea you would really come.”

  “We just didn’t get the right ferry,” one of the girls explained. “We had the time wrong.”

  “And then we had to hang out in godforsaken Falmouth for like, what, hours?” the other said.

  “And we nearly froze to death.”

  “But it was all so we could see you before you pop!”

  “You look great, Audrey. Big, but hot. You know, in a pregnant way.”

  The others at the baby shower turned from the wild teenage conversation to have words of their own — gossip about Oak Bluffs, about people in Edgartown, about one another. Audrey slowly drew to her feet and hobbled toward the kitchen table, where she gestured toward her two beautiful friends and said, “Aunt Christine! I want you to meet my best friends from college. Cassie and Willa. I can’t believe they came all this way.”

  Christine shook their hands. “I think it’s a good chance you made Audrey’s day today, girls.”

  “We just can’t wait to have her back at Penn State,” Willa affirmed. “When she told us she was pregnant, we were like, bye-bye forever, Audrey!”

  “But you’re going to raise the baby while she finishes her degree?” Cassie asked.

  Christine’s heart pumped strangely in her chest. Again, she and Audrey made heavy eye contact. Christine acknowledged her fear surrounding this arrangement. Once the baby girl was born, would Audrey really allow this to happen? Could she really leave the baby Christine already had her dreams set on?

  “Seems like it,” Christine said. She forced her voice to brighten and wore a small smile.

  “Which means you’re the adoptive dad of the year,” Willa said, slightly flirtatiously to Zach.

  Zach chuckled and gripped Christine’s waist a bit harder — proof he was with her till the end. “I don’t know about that. But I’ll be there for all the messy bits. That’s for sure.”

  THE PARTY CARRIED ON for many hours. Audrey’s college friends perked her up a great deal and managed to yank her over to a far corner to fill her head with gossip from the campus and get her all revved up for the following semester, when she would make her “big return.”

  Zach splayed a plate of cake onto Christine’s flat palm and nodded. “You really should try it. I know you’re averse to all other cakes besides your own, but the Frosted Delights is nothing to scoff at.”

  “You know I don’t scoff at their stuff,” Christine said. “Their donuts got me through December.” In truth, she just had very little appetite, what with the baby’s due date fast-approaching. She would be there within the month.

  In the corner, Willa and Cassie got into a little tuff about the birth date of the baby.

  “She should really come now,” Willa said. “Don’t you want a little Pisces baby, Audrey? A little girl who’s so sensitive and sweet?”

  “No. She wants an Aries baby,” Cassie affirmed. “You want a girl who will take life by the horns. Like you, Aud. You’re a classic Aries baby.”

  “Don’t I know she is,” Lola chimed in as she stepped past them, whipping her long hair out behind her. “Audrey never listened to reason as a kid. She was all passion. Classic Aries.”

  “Classic Aries,” both Cassie and Willa echoed back.

  Christine placed the tongs of her fork into the cake and drew back the tiniest bite. As she chewed, she glanced back up at Zach, whose eyes had turned out toward the Vineyard Sound. She had grown accustomed to that look. There was something on his mind, something he needed to hash out. Slowly, she placed her half-eaten cake on the side table, rose up and slipped her fingers through his.

  “Why don’t we take a little walk? I could use some fresh air,” she whispered in his ear.

  They bundled up against the late-February chill and stepped out. Their boots made soft crunches through the snow as they eased around the house and out toward the last light over the Vineyard Sound. It seemed strange that in just a few weeks, spring would unravel this hard winter, melt the snow, and draw up mud from the depths below. Winter seemed to have its grip on everything.

  When they reached the dock, Zach drew his thick arm around her and tugged her close to him. They gazed out across the waters, not saying a word but just enjoying the view. Christine’s mind felt heavy with summer-time memories, times when they’d eased out across the waves in just their swimsuits and felt the glorious browning of their skin beneath the sun.

  “I’ve thought about her so much over the past few weeks,” Zach finally said.

  Christine shifted just the slightest bit. Through all this, she’d guessed that Zach’s first child, the daughter who had died, had consumed a large part of his mind. He’d hardly spoken about her since he’d fessed up the story the previous summer.

  Now, it practically felt as though the girl was right there with them.

  “It must feel so complicated,” Christine whispered, tilting her head to take a look at Zach.

  “I have to say. It makes me really remember how much I loved her—how every morning and every evening and every split second in between, she was on my mind. She still is, in a way, but it’s different now. The worst thing in the world happened to her. So it’s not like I can take care of her anymore,” Zach resigned.

  Christine felt the words like a punch to the stomach. For the first time in a long time, she thought back to when she had first known Zach all the way back in high school. They’d hated each other, despite their lust for one another. But beyond that, they’d been so innocent, hadn’t they? Anna Sheridan had still been alive. Zach hadn’t known the depths of loss yet. They’d been fresh-faced and ready to take on the world, living like they were untouchable in so many ways.

  It made sense that they were a bit guarded now. They were older, courageous, but not stupid. Maybe that could be their motto as parents.

  “I still want all of that with you, Christine,” Zach said softly. “This baby and then more, if we can manage it. I’ve been reading so much on adoption websites lately. These kids, they’ve lost their parents, or their parents never wanted them in the first place. They’re lost children in the world just looking for someone to love them. And I kind of see us as lost, too. In our own special kind of way.”

  Christine dropped her head onto
his chest. She tried to blink back tears, but they ran heavily down her cheeks. She’d never felt such incredible hope.

  “I love you so much, Zach. You’ve already been a wonderful father. I am so glad that you can do it all over again,” Christine breathed. “You deserve it.”

  When they returned to the house, several of the guests had already left the party. Christine caught Cassie opening a bottle of wine, and instead of reprimanding the girl (who was probably only twenty), she just stuck out her wine glass and asked for a pour. In just a half-hour, Christine, Susan, Audrey, Amanda, Cassie, Willa, and Lola sat around the kitchen table as Zach drove on back to their house, and Wes returned to his bedroom for an early night.

  “I think it’s time we had another serving of cake,” Lola announced with a sneaky grin. “Jennifer baked us enough to feed a small country.”

  The cake was portioned out. More wine was poured. Conversation sprung up, lively and noisy, with Lola describing a recent article she’d written for The New York Times, and Susan and Amanda speaking excitedly about a recent case they had decided to take on at their law office.

  Only Audrey seemed serene, soft, quiet — words that didn’t normally describe her. Without the others noticing, Christine reached over and squeezed Audrey’s shoulder until Audrey’s beautiful eyes turned toward hers.

  With their eyes locked, Christine mouthed the words, “We got this. You know that?”

  Audrey nodded back. “We got this.”

  Chapter Three

  Audrey hovered by the back door and watched as Cassie and Willa pushed their feet into their designer boots and drew their winter coats over their small, girlish shoulders. Once upon a time, they’d been the Three Musketeers of their dorm hall, “girls who drank together, who stayed together,” and, beyond one incident, during which Audrey had kissed a boy that Cassie had had a crush on — they’d avoided most typical freshman-year arguments.

  In the wake of her pregnancy, Audrey had had to opt-out of the apartment she had planned to share with the two of them, which had led them to add another girl to their roster. The girl was, apparently, “just fine,” but maybe a bit too into studying. “She doesn’t even go out on Thursdays,” Cassie informed Audrey. “It’s so lame.”

  “Thank you, girls, so much for coming,” Audrey said as she studied their faces. “Are you sure you don’t want to spend the night?”

  “My mom booked us a little hotel room for the night,” Cassie explained. “And then we have to take the first ferry back. I have a huge test Monday.”

  “And I have a date tomorrow!” Willa stated.

  Audrey’s heart swelled with envy. What would she give to just go on a simple date with a handsome college guy? What would she give to just make out with a stranger? Nobody would touch her with a five-foot pole, not looking like a round monster.

  “Good luck,” Audrey said as she gave them each a final hug. “I’ll miss you every single day.”

  Audrey returned to the living room to find Aunt Susan in the first stages of cleaning up. This was her Aunt Susan. The first to leap on the tasks that needed to be done. Behind her, Amanda followed suit. She placed several paper plates into a plastic trash bag and gave Audrey a sleepy smile.

  “Your friends are so cute,” she said.

  Audrey wondered if Amanda said this because she thought Cassie and Willa were a bit “immature” compared to Amanda’s law school friends.

  But she soon shook the thought out of her head. She was pregnant and over-stuffed and uncomfortable and nervous. Her emotions were all over the board and she felt so much more sensitive than she normally did. Amanda had meant no harm. She knew it was just her hormones out of whack.

  “I’m so glad they came,” Audrey said softly. “It had been way too long.”

  “Did they say they already picked out an apartment for next semester?” Lola asked, as she scrubbed the top of the table.

  “They did, actually,” Audrey replied. Why was it her voice still sounded so far away? “They told me the third room is mine if I want it.”

  “Perfect,” Lola said. Her smile seemed hesitant, as though she wanted to say a whole lot more than that.

  But Audrey cut everyone off. She turned toward the staircase, gripped the railing, and said, “I am so exhausted. I feel like I’ve run a marathon.”

  “You should get some rest, pumpkin,” Aunt Susan told her as she furrowed her brow. “I think we had a pretty successful party. Thanks for playing along.”

  The words rang through Audrey’s head as she slipped herself into bed and stared at the darkness above. Her fingers drummed across her chest. When her stomach had first started to grow, she had laughed at the way her blankets had followed outward as well. Now she was a big ball of baby and it didn’t make her laugh any longer.

  Usually, when she lay back like this at night, her thoughts turned to the future, of when she might meet someone else, a guy she might want to do this whole baby-thing with properly. She imagined him, late at night, with his head propped up on her stomach. She imagined him saying, “I can hear her. I know what she said.” The face of this mystery man was blank, but his voice was deep, assured. Audrey felt in love with him, despite the fact that he didn’t even exist.

  She supposed all this love that ballooned in her was due to the baby. The extra love came with the pregnancy like a toy came with a Happy Meal. She wasn’t sure what she would do with all this “extra love” when she returned to Penn State campus in the fall. She hoped her body would be back to “normal” by then, but that seemed wildly improbable.

  Her mother, Lola Sheridan, however, had bounced back almost immediately after giving birth to Audrey. So maybe it wasn’t completely wild to hope.

  SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Audrey’s eyes burst open as she felt her stomach tighten into a painful crap. It radiated from the top and wrapped around her belly, then ran to her back. It was a deep-rooted cramp, one that made her squeeze her toes tightly and stab her palms with her fingernails. The pain was small, and then it grew tremendous like a wave washed over and swallowed her whole. It reminded Audrey of a previous time when she’d been out to dinner with Susan, her mother, Christine and Amanda — and she’d nearly fainted with the pain in the coatroom at the Sunrise Cove Inn.

  That had been false labor pain. Assuredly, this was, too. After it subsided, Audrey took a deep breath and leaned against the headboard. She sat there rubbing her belly for about five minutes before she felt another one start. She concentrated as she shut her eyes tight, willing the pain to go away, but it shot through her spine and then splintered across her belly like fireworks. During the contraction, her belly tightened into a ball.

  What. The. Heck.

  After another few minutes of pain, Audrey placed her feet on the floor at the side of her bed and flicked on the lamp. His phone read 2:43. It was too early for anything.

  Gingerly, she stepped out into the hallway and then walked slowly down the staircase. Once down there, another contraction shot through her all over again, and she nearly fell to the ground but grabbed the counter in time. All the color drained from her cheeks. She’d planned to just sit at the kitchen table, write in her diary, or maybe watch a little bit of TV. It was obvious, with each passing moment, that she had to do something about this.

  But there was no way that baby Sheridan was ready to greet them. It was still about two weeks too early. And two weeks felt like an enormous amount of time to Audrey — enough time to really get her head around her baby’s birth.

  Besides, if she was honest with herself, she wanted an Aries baby—one like herself.

  About fifteen minutes later, Audrey concluded that this pain wasn’t going anywhere. Initially, she texted Amanda for help but knew that her only real option was to knock on Amanda’s door. They were the only ones home, as Susan had run off to Scott’s, Christine was with Zach, and Audrey’s mother was off in her cabin in the woods with Tommy.

  It was just the grandkids and Grandpa Wes and a potential labor that wa
s now brewing full force...fun.

  Amanda’s meek voice came out of the darkness. “Come in,” she murmured as Audrey creaked the door open. Amanda’s eyes squeezed shut as the soft light poured over them. “What’s up, babe?”

  Audrey stood in the doorway as another crashing wave came over her. She placed her hand on her stomach and suddenly, without pause she burst into tears and started panicking. Immediately, Amanda leaped from her bed, turned on the lamp, and blinked big, eyes at Audrey.

  “What’s wrong, honey?” she asked. She gripped Audrey’s hand, closed the door, and led her to the edge of her bed.

  Fat tears rollicked down Audrey’s cheeks. She’d never felt so outside of time. Her thoughts were scattered. She only heard every few of Amanda’s words.

  “It hurts so much,” Audrey finally stuttered. Then she sucked in a breath to try and calm herself. She stirred with anxiety and then slowly fell back onto Amanda’s pillow. She thought maybe she might vomit, but she bit hard on her lower lip.

  “You still have two weeks to go,” Amanda said softly. “Maybe it’s just a false alarm, like last time?”

  “I hope so,” Audrey said. “I ate way too much cake at the party. Maybe it triggered her.”

  Amanda laughed warmly and adjusted herself alongside Audrey. She gripped her hand, which Audrey immediately squeezed as hard as she could due to fear and pain and everything in-between.

  “Ouch,” Amanda whispered, as Audrey let her grip loosen.

  “Sorry,” Audrey said, although she truly didn’t mean it.

  A few times, Amanda tried to start up some kind of conversation with Audrey — about her college friends, about the year ahead, or even about what one of the Kardashians had done recently. But each time, the words buzzed through Audrey’s ears and seemed nonsensical. It was like Amanda and Audrey were deep underwater yet still trying their best to have a conversation.