New Beginnings (16 page)

“Mom, it’s okay.”

“It’s all good news, so far,” James said and meant it. Her color was nearly normal, her liver function good.

“Well, you tell your Dr. Drew that I can’t lollygag around here too long. We have a wedding dress to buy for my daughter—”

“Mom, I’ll get married in jeans and a T-shirt if I have to. All I want is to have you there.”

“No daughter of mine is going to marry wearing jeans. We’ll go to Mitzy’s Wedding Gowns first to see what she has on hand. If nothing seems right, then we’ll—”

With a smile, James said, “I’ll check back with you later.”

Neither woman paid him any attention. Instead they continued to discuss Tammy’s wedding dress. He took that as a good sign. Mrs. Witten’s recovery was moving at warp speed riding on her need to be there for her daughter’s wedding and all that went into planning the event.

Candace and Heath decided to tell the children about the new baby on Saturday morning at breakfast. Because of the many extra hours she’d worked during the storm, Candace was taking some comp time to stay home and rest. Which gave Janet a much-needed break also, and she had gone out to breakfast with a friend.

Brooke hopped up from the breakfast table to carry her cereal bowl to the sink. “Mom, can I go over to Tiffany’s house this morning? She’s going to show me how to use all the apps I’ve got on my new phone.”

Candace had finally relented about Brooke having a cell phone. She wanted her daughter to be able to reach her if she had a problem. Heath had agreed Brooke was old enough and sufficiently responsible to have one.

“Yes, you can go in a bit,” Candace said, “but Heath and I have something to tell you first.”

Howie looked up from scarfing his cereal into his mouth, a target he appeared to miss quite frequently based on the remnants of milk dribbling down his chin. “Are we in trouble?”

“You probably are,” Brooke said. “You’re always up to something.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Howie wailed.

“Easy, kids. No one’s in trouble.” Heath held up his hand asking for quiet. “Your mom and I have great news. Let her talk.”

“We’re going to Hawaii this summer!” Brooke squealed and clapped her hands.

Candace barely contained her laughter. “No, honey, I’m afraid Hawaii isn’t on our schedule this year.”

Brooke’s excited expression melted like candle wax.

Anxiety and the thrill of the moment tangled in Candace’s throat, making it hard to swallow. “We’re going to have a baby. You two are going to have a little brother or sister.” Tears of joy burned in her eyes.

“You’re pregnant!” Brooke screeched. She threw herself in her mother’s arms.

“That means I don’t have to be the baby anymore,” Howie proudly announced.

“That’s true, sport.” Heath held up his hand for a high five.

“When is the baby due?” Brooke asked, curious and so grown up Candace could barely recognize Brooke as the baby she’d given birth to nearly fourteen years ago.

“I haven’t seen the doctor yet,” Candace said, “but I think it’ll be July.”

“Oh, wow! Wow!” Brooke danced around the table and then came to an abrupt halt. Whirling, she gaped at her mother. “You aren’t going to tell anyone else, are you?”

Candace did a mental double take. “Of course we’re going to tell other people. We’ll tell Grammy—”

Brooke’s eyes widened in apparent shock. “You’re going to tell Grammy?”

“Well, of course, honey.” Candace found Brooke’s reaction totally puzzling. One minute she was excited, the next— “Your grandmother will be thrilled to have another grandchild.”

Brooke flopped down heavily on her chair. “What am I supposed to tell my friends?”

Candace glanced at Heath, who rolled his eyes, indicating he didn’t understand Brooke’s reaction any more than she did.

“Why are you worried about telling your friends?” Candace asked.

“Well, you know. You’re old. I mean you’re old for having a baby.” Her eyes focused on the table, Brooke ran a fingertip around the edge of her placemat. “Will the baby be okay?” The last was said in the frightened voice of a young child.

Candace was on her feet at once, wondering what her daughter had read or heard that was making her so anxious about her pregnancy. She hugged Brooke to her midsection. “It’s going to be okay, sweetie. You know I’m a Birthing Unit nurse. I know all about having a healthy baby. I’m going to be extra careful during my pregnancy and take good care of the baby and myself. I promise. And by the way, being thirty-nine isn’t that old.”

Howie had apparently gotten bored with the conversation. He carried his bowl to the sink. “Mom, if you can fix it, I’d rather have a baby brother instead of a baby sister. Girls are just plain weird.”

With those words settling the issue from Howie’s perspective, he walked out of the kitchen and went upstairs, leaving Candace with her mouth hanging open and her heart overflowing with love for her two children.

She covered her tummy with her hand, imagining the child growing inside her and mentally corrected herself.

All
three
of her children.

S
ARGE DANCED AROUND ANABELLE’S FEET AS SHE
came into the kitchen, her arms full of grocery bags.

“Sit, Sarge.”

He did as he was told, looking up at her with his big brown eyes and one floppy ear tipped over as if to say “Don’t you want to play?”

“We’ll go for a w-a-l-k later, Sarge. Not now.” Like so many others in the upper Midwest, she’d had to restock supplies after the big storm and the grocery store had been particularly crowded. Since tonight was New Year’s Eve, lots of people were buying party snacks and treats for the celebration and tomorrow’s daylong football marathon.

Placing the bags on the counter, she began putting away things that belonged in the freezer.

The phone rang. From his office she heard Cam call, “I’ll get it.” A moment later he called out, “It’s Kirstie!”

Leaving the groceries, Anabelle picked up the wall phone with a sense of dread. After the storm passed and the roads were clear, Kirstie had gone to Chicago to look for an apartment. She’d be moving at the end of January.

“Hello, dear,” Anabelle said. “Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s great, Mother. In fact, I think I’ve found the perfect apartment.”

Anabelle grimaced.

“Tell us about it,” Cam said on the other phone.

“It’s near the university and I can get to the aquarium on a bus that stops just half a block away. The building’s three stories tall and…”

Kirstie rattled on about the apartment, but Anabelle couldn’t listen or share in the excitement that danced merrily over the telephone wires from Chicago to Deerford. She was losing her baby. Anabelle knew it wasn’t fair to think of her daughter’s move as losing her. But an ache had begun to bloom in her heart the moment Kirstie had revealed her plans. Every mention of Chicago or the aquarium had fed that ache until it became a giant hole in Anabelle’s chest.

“You sound very excited,” Cam said, breaking into Kirstie’s description of the neighborhood where she’d be living.

“I am, Pop. I’m going to hang out with friends tonight and tomorrow and then drive home on Monday. School starts on Tuesday.”

“Drive carefully, honey. The roads may still be slick.”

“I will. Bye, Mother. Pop. Love you both.”

“Love you…too.” Anabelle’s voice broke, dropping to a whisper, and then Kirstie was gone. Only the sound of empty air remained.

Anabelle was still holding the phone when Cam came into the kitchen.

“Are you all right, luv?”

She leaned her head against his shoulder. “We must be getting old. So much is changing.”

“Most of it for the good, I’d say. A new baby for Ainslee. A family for Evan. You with a new promotion.”

“I don’t know about that.” She cradled the phone. She’d told Cam yesterday about Leila’s retirement. “I haven’t decided if I want to apply or not.”

His bushy gray eyebrows lifted. “But you love your work.”

“I do.” She went back to putting away the groceries. “But the nursing administrator doesn’t do any nursing. It’s all paper pushing or hiring new employees or dealing with unsatisfactory employees. I’m not at all sure I’d be good at that, or if I really want to try.”

He grabbed a can of coffee and placed it on a shelf near the coffeepot. “Then don’t apply for the job. Keep doing what you like to do. Or retire. That sounds even better to me.”

It sounded so easy when Cam said the words. But she was already two years older than Leila, who had just retired. Maybe she should retire too. But what would she do with her time? It seemed unlikely that Ainslee would allow her to babysit Lindsay Belle and the new baby full-time.

Nor, if it came to that, would Anabelle want to.

Which left her in a quandary. Should she apply for the administrative position, stay where she was, or simply retire?

For the moment, she didn’t have an answer.

Saturday evening, Heath made a special dinner for Janet and the whole family.

Sitting at the dining table, Janet took a sip of her after-dinner coffee. “You’re very sweet to cook dinner in my honor, but you really didn’t need to.”

“We wanted to thank you for looking after Brooke and Howie while we were stuck at the hospital so many days,” Candace said.

“And nights,” Heath added with a wry grin.

“You know I’m always happy to be here with the children. You both had important work to do.”

Candace stacked the dessert plates. “There’s another reason Heath wanted this to be a special dinner.”

Curiosity raised Janet’s brows. “Oh?”

Hopping out of his chair, unable to keep the secret a moment longer, Howie shouted, “I’m going to have a baby brother!”

“She might have a girl,” Brooke countered.

“Nuh-uh,” Howie said. “It’s gonna be a boy.”

Candace sputtered a laugh.

“We guys have to stick together.” Standing, Heath reached all the way across the table to give the boy a high five.

Janet’s eyes widened and quickly filled with tears. “Really? Oh my…” She placed her hand on her chest. “I’m so happy for you. For both of you.”

Both Candace and her mother stood at the same time and hugged each other.

“When? What’s your due date?” Janet asked.

“July, we think. I see a doctor in a couple of weeks.”

“Oh, honey, I’ve missed having babies around since your children and Susan’s have gotten so big. I’m excited for you.” She found a tissue in her pocket and wiped a tear from her eyes.

“So am I, Mom. We both are.”

Howie decided he’d had enough of baby talk. “Come on, Heath. Let’s go play that video game you gave me for Christmas.”

“Not now, sport. Us menfolk need to clean up the dishes while the ladies gush over the baby.”

Howie’s shoulders slumped in dejection. “If I’ve gotta help with the dishes all the time, I’m not sure I want a baby brother. Mom? Can you change your mind about having a baby?”

Everyone laughed, and Candace knelt to give her son a special hug. “Whether it’s a boy or girl, I know the baby will love having you for a big brother.”

The day after New Year’s, Anabelle joined Elena for lunch in the hospital cafeteria. It was far too cold and blustery to go out to lunch even if the sky was a crystalline blue and their often-frequented Diner on the Corner only across the street.

Anabelle spooned some clam chowder into her mouth. Hot soup and a half tuna melt sandwich seemed right for a January day.

“Did you do anything special for New Year’s?” Anabelle asked.

“Not really. Rafael’s band played a gig in Tiskilwa. Cesar and I didn’t even manage to stay awake long enough to see that crystal ball fall in Times Square in New York.” With little interest and no effort to eat her lunch, Elena stirred her cup of soup.

“Is something wrong? You’re so quiet.”

Placing her spoon on the saucer, Elena let her shoulders droop and puffed out a sigh. “Rafael is at home packing up his things this afternoon. He’ll leave for the Sheriff’s Academy as soon as I get home to be with Izzy.”

“Why, that’s wonderful. Both you and Cesar must be very proud of him, following in his father’s footsteps.”

“Oh, we are. But—” Her chin quivered. “I’m going to miss him.”

Anabelle reached across the table to pat her hand. “But he’ll be home on weekends, won’t he?”

“Of course he will. He’ll come home to be with Izzy whenever he can. Even so…”

“I know just how you feel.” Anabelle had tried not to think about Kirstie’s move to Chicago, but now the realization tightened her throat so that it was difficult to swallow. “Kirstie comes back from Chicago today. She’s been looking for an apartment. She’s going to move there permanently at the end of the month.”

“She is?” Elena gasped. “You didn’t say anything. When did she decide to move?”

Anabelle slid her gaze away from Elena and looked off into the distance at nothing in particular. “She told us at Christmas. She was offered a full-time job at the Shedd Aquarium where she volunteered last summer.”

“How exciting for her. She must be thrilled.”

“She is.” Anabelle returned her attention to Elena. “I’m ashamed to admit I’m the only one who isn’t excited about the change. It is, after all, what she wants.”

“But you’re afraid you won’t get to see her as much once she’s moved there.”

Nodding, Anabelle conceded that was her fear. “She won’t have a built-in excuse to come home on weekends like Rafael does. Kirstie has already made friends in the city. They all went out New Year’s Eve. I’m sure she had a wonderful time.” And all the while, Anabelle had worried about her daughter, foolishly so. A grown woman, Kirstie was responsible and could take care of herself. But Chicago was such a big city. Here in Deerford people knew each other; it’s like everyone was a neighbor.

James walked up to the table, lunch tray in hand, and stopped abruptly. “You two look like you’re having a serious discussion. Should I find somewhere else to sit?”

Anabelle patted the spot beside her. “You’re more than welcome to sit, James. Assuming you don’t mind two mothers whining over their babies growing up and leaving the nest.”