Worth the Drive (14 page)

“Not so lame. It must have been shortly after that when I got in. I was out the minute my head hit the pillow. All that fresh air and walking the course did me in.”

“So, how was last night? Was I right, did
Darío
have something more in mind than just dinner?” Lizzie nudged her in the universal “hanky-panky” way, while raising her eyebrows.

Katie laughed. No,
Darío
had nothing more than dinner in mind. It was
she
who’d changed his mind. “Nope. All he was after was dinner. Sorry, no scoop here.”

Lizzie leaned back, disappointed. “Man, we’re so old, no good scoop after a two-day whirlwind
of
meeting pro golfers. We needed Alison here to liven things up.”

Katie thought about how lively things had gotten last night, but kept her mouth shut, only nodding in agreement with Lizzie. She wasn’t sure why she didn’t tell Lizzie about sleeping with
Darío
. Lizzie wouldn’t think any less of her. In fact, Lizzie and Alison both had been encouraging her for the last couple of months to get back into the dating scene.

She’d never had a one-night stand before. She supposed she should feel bad about it, but she didn’t. Only one hit and run in her thirty-six years, that wasn’t too bad. She didn’t think they’d be making her wear a scarlet “A” just yet.

It wasn’t like there was any kind of future with
Darío
. She’d left his room without waking him to make sure of not having to talk with him. She had been so uncharacteristically clumsy with him she was afraid what a tender goodbye could have turned into. The way she’d been going, blood could possibly have been drawn.

Funny how clumsy she was with
Darío
. She’d never been that way before, and certainly not when being intimate with Ron. Well, first times with people can be awkward, she told herself. Even as she did, the memory of her first time with Ron came flooding back.

He’d gotten a room at a Bed and Breakfast in Saugatuck,
a couple of hours
from East Lansing. It was a rare Friday night without a hockey game for him. They’d been dating about three weeks and they both knew that going away for the night could only mean one thing.

The room was quaint, filled with antiques and a white eyelet duvet on the brass bed. They were both fueled by their growing feelings for each other
and came together before the B&
B keeper had closed the door behind her after showing them their room.

Candlelight glowed as they took their time undressing each other, paying homage to each other’s bodies. “You’re so beautiful, Katie, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he whispered to her.

She didn’t want to say “you too”, but the fact was Ron was the most beautiful thing
she’d
ever seen. Blond hair, a tad long in the back, short over the ears, like every hockey player she’d ever known wore their hair at the time. Blue eyes, so clear, so penetrating when they looked into hers. His nineteen-year-old physique held testament to a daily skating regimen that went above and beyond team practice. The man was a Greek
g
od come to life.

Come to
her
life.

Their lovemaking was long and sweet and they held each other for hours afterward, whispering words of commitment. It was the first time she’d ever told a man she loved him. He said it was the first for him too. “This is only the beginning for us, Katie, we have our whole lives ahead of us,” Ron told her. “Our whole lives to spend making love like this.”

She
’d
believed him.

Chapter
Nine

Sometimes it seems like a man ain’t the master of his own destiny…

T
he ball takes a funny little bounce here or a putt takes a funny little turn.

-Sam Snead
, professional golfer

“I’m pregnant.”

The three women were at the Commodore. Alison had her head buried in her purse, but she directed her answer to Lizzie seated across from her. “Yes, Lizard, of course you are, you can hardly hide that girth. Besides, why do you think Katie and I brought you along if not to be our designated driver?” She found her lipstick and brought her head up to face Katie and Lizzie on the opposite side of the booth.

She stopped short as she saw the dropped jaw of Lizzie’s face. “Geez, Lizard, I was just kidding, you’re not
that
big. And we’d want you here whether you were the DD or not. It’s just awfully nice for us, eh, Kit Kat?”

Lizzie was shaking her head at Alison “I…I…I didn’t say it.”

Alison looked confused. “Say what?”

“I didn’t say ‘I’m pregnant’,” Lizzie said.

“Well, it’s kind of obvious,” Alison said, motioning to Lizzie’s rounded belly peeking out from behind the table.

Lizzie continued shaking her head, then turned to stare at Katie.

“I said it, Al.
I’m
pregnant,” Katie clarified. She watched as Alison realized her mistake and then both Lizzie and Alison turned on her.

“Start talking,” Alison said. She had quickly gotten her shock under control, but Lizzie, poor Lizzie, was staring at Katie with huge hazel eyes, her hands instinctively cradling her own belly.

The waitress appeared and Alison held her hand up to stop Katie from beginning her saga. “Hang on, Kat, I gotta have some alcohol to hear about this.” She ordered
one of the Commodore’s famed Fishbowl drinks – a Long Island Iced Tea in a huge brandy snifter
. Katie and Lizzie both ordered
waters
. “Jesus, I can see you two are going to be a barrel of laughs for the next few months,” Alison said, indicating their tame orders.

“Okay, spill,” Alison said and she sat back, her arms across her chest, as if she wasn’t going to believe what Katie had to say.

Katie could hardly believe it herself. “I’m pregnant,” she repeated.

“I got that much. A few details, please. When? Where? And most importantly, with whom?” Alison said.

Katie took a small sip of her
water
when it arrived. Alison took a large gulp of her drink, then sat back again, arms crossed once more. Lizzie stared at Alison’s glass with envy, but sipped at her
water
as well. Katie knew how Lizzie felt. She could really use some Dutch courage to tell her friends about her miracle.

“I’m two months along. Really too soon to tell anyone, but…”

“We’re not just anyone,” Lizzie said, laying her hand on Katie’s.

Katie smiled. “Exactly. And the doctor said there was
no reason to think that I ca
n’t carry to full-term without any problems. It was the getting pregnant part that was the problem, not
necessarily the staying pregnant part.”

“Which leads us to the getting pregnant part,” Alison prodded.

Katie flushed remembering her night with
Darío
. She wasn’t quite ready to tell that part first. She’d get to it. There was no way Alison – or Lizzie for that matter – was going to let her out of here without all the details. But first, she’d start with the stuff that she could put into words. “At first I thought I was sick. I mean really sick. Like cancer or something. I was tired, a little nauseous, had missed my period, and you know how regular I am.”

The other women nodded. They had absolutely no secrets from each other since before puberty, and certainly none after.

“Typical signs of pregnancy,” Lizzie said, having recently gone through them all herself.

“Yes. But of course, that thought never occurred to me, for obvious reasons. I thought maybe the infertility had brought on something else. Something…I don’t know… I was thinking ovarian cancer.
”
At the look of fear that crossed Lizzie’s face, Katie quickly added, “I’m fine. Fine. Just… pregnant.”

“Are we talking Immaculate Conception here, or is there a little something you’ve left out?” Alison asked.

Lizzie gasped. “Oh God, it isn’t Ron is it? He didn’t show up one night and you went at it for old time’s sake did he?”

“Jesus, Lizard, she wouldn’t be that stupid,” Alison chided their friend. Her eyes turned to Katie. “Would you?”

“No. Of course not.” Katie said, though her voice lacked the conviction she knew Alison sought. Truth was, if she knew a pregnancy would result, she didn’t know if she’d turn Ron away or not. She was immensely grateful that it had not been an option. “It’s funny though, that was the first thought in my head when the doctor told me. I thought, ‘I can’t wait to tell Ron’. It took me a few seconds to remember he’d left me and that there was no way the baby could possibly be his. Isn’t that pathetic?”

Lizzie and Alison gave sympathetic looks, but said nothing. Probably because they thought it was pathetic, too.

“How does this happen after years of infertility? Were the doctors all wrong?” Lizzie asked.

“Well, the doctors had always said they couldn’t find anything physically wrong with either of us. Ron did have a low sperm count, but not so low that it would keep us from conceiving. That’s why they hesitated to do IVF, why they tried
a
rtificial
i
nsemination first. But I kept saving money for
i
n
v
itro
, figuring we’d have that as a last option.”

“The money for that can be seen driving down the main street of Hancock everyday at three-thirty in the afternoon, the second school’s out,” Alison said. At Katie’s look of hurt over remembering the Hummer and
how it symbolized
the beginning of the end of their marriage, Alison backpedaled. “I’m sorry, Kat, but that whole Hummer thing still pisses me off,” she said.

Katie gave a small smile. “That’s okay, it still ticks me off too. First, that he did it. Second, that I didn’t see the huge red flag it turned out to be.” She shrugged. “Enough about Ron. I’m happy to say, that the doctors were right about one thing. Our problems in conceiving were probably due to his sp
erm and my eggs
not being compatible, which was another thing they mentioned as a possibility.
”

Alison grunted, “If only it were just his sperm that was incompatible. What does that mean exactly?”

“That my body, my eggs, are not compatible with the make-up of Ron’s sperm. That every
time we’d try to conceive, my body would reject his.
”
She looked at Alison, waiting for the crack that was bound to come.

Alison waved the lob Katie had tossed her aside, “Too easy.”

Katie smiled. “Plus, they’d been telling me all along that the stress of trying to conceive was only hurting my chances. ‘Relax,’ they’d say, as if I could. Well, the pressure was off, and the doctor’s sure that that was a huge factor in me getting pregnant.”

Both women nodded their understanding. “So, if not Ron…?” Alison asked

Katie watched Lizzie and Alison trying to call up a mental calendar of two months ago. It didn’t take Lizzie long, she always had her mental calendar up to date and could easily flip through it. She let out a gasp. “
Darío
!”

“Bingo,” Katie said.
“Although, it’s not like there are
any other candidates.”

“Holy Shit,” Alison said. “You got knocked up by
Darío
Luna
? You didn’t say you slept together, you just said you met him and went for dinner.” There was an accusing tone in her voice aimed at Katie for holding back such crucial information.

“And that’s true,” Katie said, ignoring Alison’s profanity, as she always did. She’d given up trying to tame Alison’s mouth
back in
high school. “But, after dinner we went back to his room…” She didn’t quite know how to finish the sentence, so she just let it trail off.

“Obviously,” Lizzie said. “How come you didn’t tell me in the morning? It never occurred to me to ask specifically, but still, you could have said something.”

Katie had struggled with this herself. “I’m not really sure. I felt kind of trampy, I guess. A one night stand and all.”

Alison shrugged, “Happens all the time. You were due.”

“Well it was my first time,” Katie said. “And my last.” She patted her tummy, still flat as a board,
which
would soon be round like Lizzie’s.

She couldn’t wait to get huge. To swell up. To have to remove her rings. To not have her clothes fit. All of it. She wanted outward signs of her impending motherhood. Something more than the nausea. Though it had been mild enough, and was now almost completely past. It was a g
ood thing she missed her period
, because she was experiencing so few other side effects, she might have gone on quite some time before she’d gone to the doctor.

“I can’t regret it. Sleeping with
Darío
. Not for a second.” She had to stop and wait, till her throat opened again and she could speak. Even then, her voice was hoarse with emotion. “You guys, I’m going to have a baby!”