They Say Love Is Blind (27 page)

“Tory
,
Shah
.”

“
I am not a dirty woman!”

“I know that honey.” He cradled her in his strong arms while she cried out her shame against his shirt.
“
I don’t think that at all. I just think that you were a scared kid that some dirty bastard took advantage of.
M
y poor baby. You’ve been through so much.” He kissed her tearstained face. “I just want to mak
e you happy. That’s all I want. I want to take care of you and I want to make sure that nothing ever hurts you again.”

The tears ended and she allowed herself to luxuriate in her man’s arms. “There’s one more thing to tell you, okay
?
”

He paused and then stroked her back. “
I think I know what you’re going to say. And it’s okay honey. We can adopt. There are so many options. I love you and nothing you tell me
will
ever
change the way I feel about you.
Do you understand
?”

She took a deep breath. “
Uh…yes. But that’s not what I was going to tell you.
You better sit down for this one.”

His face was turning pale but he moved to the bed and sat down. She took his hands.

“Lee
. We are going to have a baby
.”

His mouth dropped. “W
hat
?”
He suddenly sounded like he was choking as he laughed out loud. But…
I don’t understand. You were
crying and
talking about losing your fallopian tube and I thought you were going to tell me that we couldn’t have a baby!” He jumped up and grabbed her into a tight hug. “But when did you find out?”

She was all smiles when he finally deposited her to her feet.
“Yesterday when they took my urine they
performed a pregnancy test
. They couldn’t give me an X-ray without it, I guess. Well…” She shrugged shyly. “It came back
positive.”

The smile froze on his face
before completing dropping
away.
“You mean you found out yesterday? After I walked out?”

“
Well…yeah
.”

He just shook his head, his expression was
distressed
and she frowned in confusion. “I can’t believe that I walked out on you
like that, Tory
. I walked out while you were sick and while you were getting the news that you were having my baby.” His
voice grew thick with emotion and his eyes became suddenly bright as he stared at her.
“Why in the fuck would you want me, Tory?
I am a mess.”

She sat down
and pulled him down on the edge of the bed next to her
and placed her head on his shoulder. “I can ask you the same thing
,
honey.
Most men that would look at me would just see an overweight, under-employed college drop out...with a pretty face.
”

After a quiet moment h
e nudged her head with his. “Hey, stop talking about the mother of my baby like that. I happen to be very attracted to overweight, under-employed college dropouts with pretty faces.”

They sat that way for a while, quiet, holding hands and thinking about how lucky they were to have
each other
.

“Tory…”

“Hmm?”

“I need to show you something
.
”

She looked at him. He seemed worried. “What baby?”

“I need your computer.”

She led him to the computer. She had the built in voice activation turned on so that he could use it to check his emails. He sat at her desk while she watched him peck away expertly.

“Is everything okay?” She asked.

He looked up at her. “Yes. I found this and when my parents were here I showed it to them. They really loved it and…I do too.”

She watched the screen with a frown on her face. Suddenly it cleared when she saw what it was. A house. On Flores Island.

He waited
tensely
. “What do you think?” He finally asked. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. “I take that as a yes.”

“I’ve listened to you talk about this Island paradise but I didn’t think it would be possible to live there. I mean you have the job-”

“Which I can do anywhere.”

“What about your brothers and sisters?”

“You know…they are kind of the incentive for this move. I kind of want to get away from them.”

“You are joking?!”

“I am
…
but not entirely.” He pulled her down into his lap. “I just want our children to have the freedom that I had. And maybe
I believe in
that saying;
Vou morrer pra minha terra
more than I thought
.”

I will die in my homeland.

She smiled and snuggled against his neck. “How big is this house?”

“Big enough for all ten of our kids.
”

CHAPTER 20

The next weekend d
inner was
held
at Lee’s loft.
Lee had stayed
several days at Tory’s little apartment, making sure she got rest and used the spirometer-
-
not that she needed his prompting. She had learned her lesson.

They decided that they would announce their intent to move and tell the family about the pregnancy during dinner. It wasn’t easy to keep quiet. Every time she saw Macy, Tory would have a goofy smile on her face and was bursting to tell her.

Tory
announced that she didn’t need help cooking and it practically freaked everyone out. Dinner was already prepared by the time the family arrived;
collard greens, smothered cabbage, roasted chicken with wild rice stuffing, macaroni and cheese, potato salad and corn pudding. Desert was a red velvet cake that she baked from scratch using her mother’s recipe.

She found it humorous that the women
just stood there with
looks of
uncertainty
plastered across their faces
because they had no tasks to accomplish--
which was not the case with the men. The
men
gathered around Troy’s computer and found something sports related to watch—chairs pulled from other areas of the loft. Soon they were happy in their own worlds.

Tory gave the kids some board games to choose
from and some coloring books and crayons that she had picked up from the dollar store
and
once they were preoccupied she grinned at the ladies.
Her grin was even broader because she had
not
invited Rosalind and didn’t care if
she
felt snubbed!

“So ladies, sit down. I’m going to get wine for us and then I need your help.” They looked at each other curiously as they sat on the couch, loveseat and some fold out chairs that Lee kept for just these occasions.

She brought out several bottles of wine, including some club soda for herself, and once everyone had glasses full she pulled out wedding catalogues. Now everyone was oohing an ahhing.

“Who needs a wedding planner when I have all of you for sisters?” She chuckled. By the time
she called everyone to dinner they were so engrossed in planning the wedding that no one wanted to stop to eat.
They had already determined the wedding day
—barring some unforeseen event with the church. She had selected
the style of wedding dress that she wanted as well as the style of
bridesmaid dresses and a maid of honor dress for Macey who proudly accepted the role. Senna was going to set up appointments for cake tastings and
Francie was already preparing the menu. Kaye offered to find a reception hall and Fiona and her daughters wanted to do the decorating. The bigger children then begged to help and of course Tory couldn’t imagine not allowing them in on the fun.

When she finally managed to get everyone gathered around the table (two card tables pushed together for the youngsters), the sounds of eating stopped all conversation for a few long moments.

“Mmm.”
Tom, Senna’s husband said
. “
I’ve never tasted cabbage this good before.” Senna gave him a withering look before he looked down at his plate and continued eating quietly.

“So…” Senna asked while taking a second helping of cabbage. “How did you make this smothered cabbage?”

Dinner was a hit. Even the children
ate everything on their plates
. While dessert was being
enjoyed,
Tory and Lee couldn’t stop the sappy smiles that appeared on their faces. They held hands looking like they were
both
cats that had caught the canaries.

Lee cleared his throat. “Everyone, thank you for coming.”

“Let’s thank Tory for making fifty pounds of delicious collard greens!” Raphael announced.

“You’re welcome, Ralph
,” she giggled.

Lee took a deep breath
.
“Tory and I decided that after the wedding we’re going to
move to
Flores.” Someone gasped,
and then everyone began speaking over each other in both Portuguese as well as English.

“English, please.” Lee stated.

“Why?” Francie asked. “Why can’t you wait a few years? We’re just starting to know our new sister and now you want to take her away from us!”

“Uncle Lee, it won’t be the same without you here!”

“You can’t leave now, Lee!”

He held up his hands grimly. “I don’t want to lose you guys, either. But if you think about it, Flores would be a wonderful place to raise that baby that is in Tory’s belly, as well as all of the other ones that we plan to create. So you see-”

Someone screeched in joy and then suddenly everyone had left their seats to hug and kiss the couple.

Ten sets of hands touched Tory’s belly although she didn’t want to say that the roundness there wasn’t due to a baby bump
.
In light of this new information there was a change of heart.

The baby would be Portuguese and that was that. The parents had no say. It would be born on Flores and then they could return to the states at a later date.
It was settled.
Tory and Lee just hugged and grinned. Whatever
--
as long as the arguing had stopped.

Someone turned on music and it was loud and then the dancing began. Lee pulled Tory into the center of the dancing bodies and despite his casts, he spun her, dipped her and then slapped her rear causing her and everyone else to roar with laughter. Then he made her sit down with water and she tapped her feet and clapped her hands and watched her brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews party late into the night.

~***~

The ringing of the telephone pulled the couple from their slumber
early the next morning
. It was Lee’s cell phone that was ringing. He reached over sleepily and felt for it.

“What time is it?” He asked Tory.

She squinted at the bedside clock. “7:
22 am.” She saw a frown cross his face. “Hello?” He sat up suddenly. “What?”