She looked at him, and he couldn't say her expression was particularly welcoming. "Hey. What're you doing out of your cave?"
"Finished up for the day. Actually my mother just called. She asked if I'd drive you on home when
I finished."
"Well, I'm not finished," she said testily. "There are at least two more customers wandering around,
and Saturday's my night to close out."
It wasn't the tone she'd used to chat up the customers, he noted. He was beginning to think it was the tone she reserved just for him. "Yeah, but she said she needed you at home for something as soon as
you could, and to have Bill and Larry finish up and close out."
"What does she want? Why didn't she call me?"
"I don't know. I'm just the messenger." And he knew what often happened to the messenger. "I told Larry, and he's helping the last couple of stragglers. So he's on it."
She started to lever herself off the stool, and though his hands itched to help her, he imagined she'd chomp them off at the wrists. "I can walk."
"Come on. Jesus." He jammed his hands in his pockets and gave her scowl for scowl. "Why do you
want to put me on the spot like that? If I let you walk, my mama's going to come down on me like five tons of bricks. And after she's done flattening me, she'll ream you. Let's just go."
"Fine." The truth was, she didn't know why she was feeling so mean and spiteful, and tired and achy.
She was terrified something was wrong with her or with the baby, despite all the doctor's assurances to the contrary.
The baby would be born sick or deformed, because she'd... She didn't know what, but it would be her fault.
She snatched her purse and did her best to sail by Harper and out the door.
"I've got another half hour on the clock," she complained and wrenched open the door of his car.
"I don't know what she could want that couldn't wait a half hour."
"I don't know either."
"She hasn't seen that genealogy guy yet."
He got in, started the car. "Nope. She'll get to it when she gets to it."
"You don't seem all that interested, anyway. How come you don't come around when we have our meetings about the Harper Bride?"
"I guess I will, when I can think of something to say about it."
She smelled vivid, too, especially closed up in the car with him like this. Vivid and sexy, and it made
him edgy. The best that could be said about the situation was the drive was short.
Amazed he wasn't sweating bullets, he swung in and zipped in front of the house.
"You drive a snooty little car like this that fast, you're just begging for a ticket."
"It's not a snooty little car. It's a well-built and reliable sports car. And I wasn't driving that fast. What
the hell is it about me that makes you crawl up my ass?"
"I wasn't crawling up your ass; I was making an observation. At least you didn't go for red." She opened the door, managed to get her legs out. "Most guys go for the red, the flashy. The black's probably why you don't have speeding tickets spilling out of your glove compartment."
"I haven't had a speeding ticket in two years."
She snorted.
"Okay, eighteen months, but—"
"Would you stop arguing for five damn seconds and come over here and help me out of this damn car?
I can't get up."
Like a runner off the starting line, he sprinted around the car. He wasn't sure how to manage it,
especially when she was sitting there, red in the face and flashing in the eyes. He started to take her
hands and tug, but he thought he might... jar something.
So he leaned down, hooked his hands under her armpits, and lifted.
Her belly bumped him, and now sweat did slide down his back.
He felt what was in there move—a couple of hard bumps.
It was ... extraordinary.
Then she was brushing him aside. 'Thanks."
Mortifying, she thought. She just hadn't been able to shift her center of gravity, or dig down enough to
get out of a stupid car. Of course, if he hadn't insisted she get in that boy toy in the first place, she wouldn't have been mortified.
She wanted to eat a pint of vanilla fudge ice cream and sit in a cool bath. For the rest of her natural life.
She shoved open the front door, stomped inside.
The shouts of Surprise! had her heart jumping into her throat, and she nearly lost control of her increasingly tricky bladder.
In the parlor pink and blue crepe paper curled in artful swags from the ceiling, and fat white balloons danced in the corners. Boxes wrapped in pretty paper and streaming with bows formed a colorful mountain on a high table. The room was full of women. Stella and Roz, all the girls who worked at the nursery, even some of the regular customers.
"Don't look stricken, girl." Roz strolled over to wrap an arm around Hayley's shoulders. "You don't
think we'd let you have that baby without throwing you a shower, do you?"
"A baby shower." She could feel the smile blooming on her face, even as tears welled up in her eyes.
"You confe on and sit down. You're allowed one glass of David's magical champagne punch before
you go to the straight stuff."
"This is ..." She saw the chair set in the center of the room, festooned with voile and balloons, like a
party throne. "I don't know what to say."
"Then I'm sitting beside you. I'm Jolene, darling, Stella's stepmama." She patted Hayley's hand, then
her belly. "And I never run out of things to say."
"Here you go." Stella stepped over with a glass of punch.
"Thanks. Thank you so much. This is the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me. In my whole life."
"You have a good little cry." Jolene handed her a lace-edged hankie. "Then we're going to have us a
hell of a time."
They did. Ooohing and awwing over impossibly tiny clothes, soft-as-cloud blankets, hand-knit booties, cooing over rattles and toys and stuffed animals. There were foolish games that only women at a baby shower could enjoy, and plenty of punch and cake to sweeten the evening.
The knot that had been at the center of Hayley's heart for days loosened.
"This was the best time I ever had." Hayley sat, giddy and exhausted, and stared at the piles of gifts
Stella had neatly arranged on the table again. "I know it was all about me. I liked that part, but evervone had fun, don't you think?"
"Are you kidding?" From her seat on the floor, Stella continued to meticulously fold discarded wrapping paper into neat, flat squares. "This party rocked."
"Are you going to save all that paper?" Roz asked her.
"She'll want it one day, and I'm just saving what she didn't rip to shreds."
"I couldn't help it. I was so juiced up. I've got to get thank-you cards, and try to remember who gave what."
"I made a list while you were tearing in."
"Of course she did." Roz helped herself to one more glass of punch, then sat and stretched out her legs. "God. I'm whipped."
"Y'all worked so hard. It was all so awesome." Feeling herself tearing up again, Hayley waved both hands. "Everyone was—I guess I forgot people could be so good, so generous. Man, look at all those wonderful things. Oh, that little yellow gown with the teddy bears on it! The matching hat. And the
baby swing. Stella, I just can't thank you enough for the swing."
"I'd have been lost without mine."
"It was so sweet of you, both of you, to do this for me. I just had no idea. I couldn't've been more surprised, or more grateful."
"You can guess who planned it out," Roz said with a nod at Stella. "David started calling her General Rothchild."
"I have to thank him for all the wonderful food. I can't believe I ate two pieces of cake. I feel like I'm ready to explode."
"Don't explode yet, because we're not quite done. We need to go up, so you can have my gift."
"But the party was—"
"A joint effort," Roz finished. "But there's a gift I hope you'll like upstairs."
"I snapped at Harper," Hayley began as they helped her up and started upstairs.
"He's been snapped at before."
"But I wish I hadn't. He was helping you surprise me, and I gave him a terrible time. He said I was always crawling up his ass, and that's just what I was doing."
"You'll tell him you're sorry." Roz turned them toward the west wing, moved passed Stella's room,
and Hayley's. "Here you are, honey."
She opened the door and led Hayley inside.
"Oh, God. Oh, my God." Hayley pressed both hands to her mouth as she stared at the room.
It was painted a soft, quiet yellow, with lace curtains at the windows.
She knew the crib was antique. Nothing was that beautiful, that rich unless it was old and treasured.
The wood gleamed, deep with red highlights. She recognized the layette as one she'd dreamed over
in a magazine and had known she could never afford.
"The furniture's a loan while you're here. I used it for my children, as my mama did for hers, and hers before her, back more than eighty-five years now. But the linens are yours, and the changing table.
Stella added the rug and the lamp. And David and Harper, bless their hearts, painted the room, and
hauled the furniture down from the attic."
As emotions swamped her, Hayley could only shake her head.
"Once we bring your gifts up here, you'll have yourself a lovely nursery." Stella rubbed Hayley's back.
"It's so beautiful. More than I ever dreamed of. I—I've been missing my father so much. The closer
the baby gets, the more I've been missing him. It's this ache inside. And I've been feeling sad and
scared, and mostly just sorry for myself."
She used her hands to rub the tears from her cheeks. "Now today, all this, it just makes me feel... It's not the things. I love them, I love everything. But it's that you'd do this, both of you would do this for us."
"You're not alone, Hayley." Roz laid a hand on Hayley's belly. "Neither one of you."
"I know that. I think, well, I think, we'd have been okay on our own. I'd've worked hard to make sure
of it. But I never expected to have real family again. I never expected to have people care about me
and the baby like this. I've been stupid."
"No," Stella told her. "Just pregnant."
With a half laugh, Hayley blinked back the rest of the tears. "I guess that accounts for a lot of it. I won't be able to use that excuse too much longer. And I'll never, I'll just never be able to thank you, or tell
you, or repay you. Never."
"Oh, I think naming the baby after us will clear the decks," Roz said casually. "Especially if it's a boy. Rosalind Stella might be a little hard for him to handle in school, but it's only right."
"Hey, I was thinking Stella Rosalind."
Roz arched a brow at Stella. 'This is one of those rare cases when it pays to be the oldest."
* * *
That night, Hayley tiptoed into the nursery. Just to touch, to smell, to sit in the rocking chair with her hands stroking her belly.
"I'm sorry I've been so nasty lately. I'm better now. We're going to be all right now. You've got two
fairy godmothers, baby. The best women I've ever known. I may not be able to pay them back for all they've done for us, not in some ways. But I swear, there's nothing either of them could ask that I wouldn't do. I feel safe here. It was stupid of me to forget that. We're a team, you and me. I
shouldn't've been afraid of you. Or for you."
She closed her eyes and rocked. "I want to hold you in my arms so much they hurt. I want to dress you in one of those cute little outfits and hold you, and smell you, and rock you in this chair. Oh, God, I
hope I know what I'm doing."
The air turned cold, raising gooseflesh on her arms. But it wasn't fear that had her opening her eyes; it was pity. She stared at the woman who stood beside the crib.
Her hair was down tonight, golden blond and wildly tangled. She wore a white nightgown, muddy at the hem. And there was a look of—Hayley would have said madness—in her eyes.
"You didn't have anyone to help you, did you?" Her hands trembled a bit, but she kept stroking her
belly, kept her eyes on the figure, kept talking.
"Maybe you didn't have anyone to be there with you when you were afraid like I've been. I guess I might've gone crazy, too, all on my own. And I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to my baby. Or how I'd stand it, if something happened to take me away from him—her. Even if I were dead I couldn't stand it. So I guess I understand, a little."
At her words, Hayley heard a keening sound, a sound that made her think of a soul, or a mind,
shattering.
Then she was alone.
* * *
On Monday, Hayley sat perched on her stool once more. When her back ached, she ignored it. When
