Penelope (9 page)

When they all made it back to the kitchen, Vivian began to pick up the iPad and store it in her bag. “It looks like they’ll start the demo on the house next week.”

“Will you rebuild there?” Penelope asked.

“I don’t know. I never liked it out there anyway. I have a choice now,” she said softly. “I can have what I want. Live where I want. Have a front door that works—if I want.”

Penelope couldn’t believe the same man she’d married was the one who had married Vivian and all but forgot her in the small run down house on the edge of town.

“Would anyone like to see the picture I got today?” Penelope said softly as everyone gathered their things.

“Picture?” Amelia hoisted her bag over her shoulder.

“Of the baby.”

Amelia and Vivian exchanged looks.

Vivian’s shoulders dropped. “We really let you down.”

“It’s okay. Really.” Penelope pulled the picture out of her bag on the table. “Here.”

She handed Vivian the picture and Amelia and Sam looked over her shoulder.

“These never cease to amaze me,” Vivian said softly. “Look at his little nose and fingers.”

“I think it looks like a girl,” Amelia added.

Sam snorted out a laugh. “I can’t tell anything.”

“Penelope, he’s gorgeous. And he’s healthy?” Vivian looked up and asked.

Penelope nodded. “He’s doing great. No concerns.”

Amelia moved to her and gave her a hug. “I’ll be there for the next one, okay?”

Penelope nodded and Sam moved in and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll try not to pull her away.” Penelope smiled and Sam leaned in to her ear. “I bought more of those candies you like too, for the board room.” He kissed her cheek again and left with his arm around Amelia.

Penelope could feel her face flush. He did know she’d been eating all the snacks.

“I guess I should get the girls home.” Vivian handed her back the picture after gazing at it one more time. “You’ll be okay here?”

“This is my home now.”

“I’m a phone call away if you need me.” She hugged Penelope and then gathered the girls and they walked out of the house.

Penelope sat at the table and thought for a moment. What would people really think if they knew why and how these women were thrust into each other’s lives?

She rubbed her stomach and looked down at her ankles that were swelling and could use an ice pack and some elevation.

The thought became crystal clear though. She’d been mildly upset that they weren’t there with her for her ultra sound. After all, they were all she had now. But never, from the moment she’d found out she was pregnant, had she considered Adam’s role in her child’s life. That was odd, wasn’t it? When she’d dream about the baby, she didn’t dream of Adam there at all.

Was that a sign? Did it mean anything really?

Then she thought about Brock.

He’d manned up and been there for her. Had he wanted to be? Even when he could have turned around and left the room, he hadn’t.

The baby responded to his touch—to his voice. She’d responded too, hadn’t she?

She pressed her fingers to her lips. It was more than just circumstance, right? She’d felt something. Had he felt it too?

Penelope turned off the lights in the kitchen and checked all the doors before heading upstairs to her room with her phone and the baby’s picture.

Locking the bedroom door, because it just made her feel safer, she turned on the lights and hit the button on the television which sat on the dresser. An old
Andy Griffith Show
rerun was on. That would be just calm enough for her brain, she thought. A little trip to Mayberry.

As Opie told his dad something, Barney added his wit—then Aunt Bea added her wisdom. All the while Penelope readied herself for bed.

After dressing, she plopped down on her bed, her hands firmly on her stomach. Her cell phone and the picture bounced, grasping her attention.

What would Brock think if she sent him the picture? Would it freak him out and send him running? Would he find it charming and sentimental? A token of their day together?

After a few moments deliberation, she decided to just send it. The worse that would happen would be he’d never return her text or return at all. A few kisses lost would be it—or so she was trying hard to convince herself.

She snapped the picture, scrolled through her contacts, and sent it with the message,
we would like to thank you for being there today. Penelope and Baby.

Promptly, she silenced the phone and set it on the nightstand upside-down. She needed rest. The last thing she needed to do was continually check the phone all night waiting for his reply.

Long talks with his sister had always been one of Brock’s favorite things. She was only four years older, but she’d been wise since infancy.

Sadie had a calm about her, which usually made everyone around her open up. Brock was no different. There was never a secret he could keep or a feeling he could hide from her. He supposed that was what made her such a wonderful mother.

“I think you look really skinny,” she said as she rocked her two-year-old on her lap on the back porch. He’d fallen asleep as it was already past ten o’clock. The other two were inside sleeping on couches and her husband in a recliner.

“I’m fine. Desert heat will do that to you.”

She nodded and clucked her tongue. “Getting shot will do that too. Is your shoulder okay?”

“It’s fine. I’m fine. I’m happy to be home.”

“We’re glad you’re back too. There were a lot of restless nights in many homes you know.”

He nodded. He knew. “I promised Dad I’d get help if I needed it. But I promise you, I’m okay.”

Sadie kissed her son’s hair. His blond curls were growing damp with sweat, but she didn’t seem to mind that pressed against her.

“Are you going to find a place or stay here? We have a room over the garage you know.”

He smiled. They all looked out for him. “Actually, I’m going to head to Oklahoma in a few days. I made a promise to a friend that I’d look after someone and help her out. And then I promised her I’d be back.”

Even on the dark, only moonlit porch, he could see the spark in his sister’s eyes. “She.”

“Yes. Sergeant Monroe’s wife needs some help getting her business going. I offered to help her out.”

Sadie’s foot kept pushing the rocker in a slow steady rhythm that kept him as calm as the boy in her arms.

“What kind of business?”

“A daycare center. They’ve refurbished an old house. All that is left is to put the play yard and the tables and chairs together.”

“That’s a wonderful venture,” she smiled and he could see the glow of her white teeth. “I have six boxes of young reader books in my garage. Do you think she’d like them?”

And that, he thought, was just like his sister. She’d given her teaching career a break to be a mother. And because it was Sadie, she wouldn’t think a thing about giving her collection to someone she didn’t know if it meant someone would benefit.

“I think they would appreciate that.”

“They? Not just she?”

Brock ran his fingers through his hair and sucked in a deep breath. “It seems as though Sergeant Monroe had a few wives.”

“As in he divorced often?”

“As in he just kept marrying women. Only they didn’t know it.”

Sadie’s foot grew still and the night crept in around them. “A bigamist?”

Brock nodded. “Penelope, the wife he sent me to take care of, only found out about the other wives when he died.”

“That’s horrible.”

He rested his hands on his thighs. “That wasn’t the man I knew. Not the man who saved me.”

“Some men can hide secrets.”

“He did quite a job.” Brock let himself relax and began to rock his chair. “They are opening this business together so that the kids can be taken care of. But it’s a funny thing, you’d have thought they were all sisters they way they look out for each other.”

“Trauma can make for some strong allies even if they aren’t ones you thought you’d have.”

Didn’t he know that?

“No matter what, they’ll take care of each other.”

He heard her hum and that meant she was thinking. “You’ve already met this woman?”

“Yes.”

“Before you were discharged?”

And he’d been caught. “No.”

She let out another hum. “You went there first?”

Brock leaned his arms on his legs and moved toward his sister. “Don’t you dare tell her.”

“She’d be hurt that you didn’t come home first.”

And didn’t he know that too? “I needed to fulfill a promise to the man who saved my life.”

The pace of Sadie’s rocking picked up. “Moving in on his wife isn’t fulfilling a promise.”

Fire began to burn in his belly. That wasn’t the way of it and he couldn’t believe his own sister said that. But before he even could comment he thought about how it would look. And that was exactly what he would have thought too, if it were anyone else.

“She met him and married him two weeks later. He was deployed and then he died. She didn’t really know him.”

“And you’re a good replacement?”

Brock grit his teeth, trying to remind himself he didn’t want this conversation to become any louder and he didn’t want to wake the sweet boy in his sister’s arms.

“I carried her picture with me for nearly three months. She saved me as much as her husband did. I needed to go to her. I needed to give her what Sergeant Monroe had given me to give to her. I had to fulfill a promise.”

“And then you fell in love with her.”

Was it some kind of psychic power his sister had? He wouldn’t have said he’d fallen in love with Penelope Monroe, but what did you say about a person who had consumed you for months and then invited you into her life the day you met her? And he’d felt the spark when they kissed. He would be surprised if everyone hadn’t felt the earth move. He sure had.

And then there was the baby. Did he have a connection to the baby? After all, when he touched her the baby moved as if he were reacting to Brock’s touch.

Maybe he did need some help. Yes, he’d look into that. It was impossible to fall in love with someone in one day. Men didn’t do that. Okay, Sadie had done that. And his parents had done that. Ah! Mason had known his wife for eight years before they married. See! It wasn’t always possible.

“I’m not in love with her. I’m interested, but let’s face it. She has a lot on her plate.”

“She’s mourning her husband.”

Was that really true? “There’s more to it than that.”

“What?”

Brock pulled his phone from his pocket and pulled up the text message Penelope had sent him an hour ago. He handed his phone to his sister who skillfully held it with the hand tucked under her son’s head.

“Are you kidding me? She’s pregnant?”

“Six months.”

“Brock,” she scolded.

“I know. I know,” he said taking the phone back and looking at the picture. “I want to be there for her and the baby. I feel it is the right thing to do. She needs a friend.”

“You said she had that.”

“She needs another one,” he argued.

“I guess you don’t need the room over the garage. It looks like you’re moving to Oklahoma.”

He hadn’t thought about it that way, but if it all worked out—yes, he was moving.

“I’ll come by for those books tomorrow.”

Sadie let out a small laugh. “I want to come to the baby shower. And don’t you go marrying her without your family there.”

Brock smiled in the dark and looked down at the picture. That was a thought for the future—far in the future. For now he wanted to show up with boxes of books, ready to build play yards.

He traced his finger over the image of the baby. It wouldn’t be so bad to be there for the baby when he needed him. Even young boys needed a male figure—father or not.

If the baby was a girl, that’d be okay too. Girls needed someone to take them to father/daughter dances and to ward off would be boyfriends.

Brock swallowed hard as his sister rose with her son in her arms. What was he thinking? He didn’t know this woman. He certainly didn’t need a baby right now, so why was he thinking like that?

However, he could certainly use a friend and he knew she could too. Tomorrow he’d set out for Oklahoma with the mindset of friendship. And if he could keep his lips and hands off of her then, he’d consider it a success.

It was nearly three o’clock when Brock arrived in front of
Our Little Ones Daycare.
He didn’t see the Mustang, but it certainly didn’t mean she wasn’t home.

As he stepped out of his truck he could hear laughter from the back yard. He was sure that in time, that would be the only sound he’d hear coming from the house.