Читать книгу His Twin Baby Surprise - Patricia Forsythe, Patricia Forsythe - Страница 10

CHAPTER ONE

Twenty years later

LISA THOMAS STARED at the row of pregnancy tests—six of them—lined up on the table in front of her like crestfallen soldiers who had let their leader go down in defeat.

“They’re all positive.” Gemma Whitmire, one of her best friends since childhood, sat beside her. Carly Joslin, her other best friend, sat, too, and scooted her chair in closer.

They were in one of the examination rooms of the Sunshine Birthing Center, which Gemma had founded for the benefit of the women of Reston County. The walls were painted a soothing pale green, but the color did nothing to calm Lisa’s distress.

Her eyes full of tears, and her lips trembling, she asked, “You don’t think they could be lying?”

Gemma gave her a gentle smile, her eyes sympathetic. “What would be their motive? They’re inanimate objects. They would have no reason to lie. I’ve been a midwife for a long time, Lisa, so I can tell you that pregnancy tests, especially six of them done at the same time, are going to be truthful.”

Panic fluttered in Lisa’s throat as she looked around. “But we’re in your birthing center. Don’t you have a...another test I can take?”

“The ones here at the Sunshine Birthing Center aren’t any different than those you bought at the pharmacy.”

In desperation Lisa turned to clutch at Gemma’s hands, holding them with her shaking fingers. She knew her hair was frazzled and messy because she’d been sitting and holding her head in her hands while she’d waited for the test results—which she now had. “But what if I did another—”

“Doing another test won’t change the results,” added Carly.

White-faced, Lisa looked at them. “Pregnant. How? How could this have happened?”

Carly raised a dark eyebrow. “Oh, I think it happened in the usual way.”

“I can give you a clinical description,” Gemma added, “but I think you know how it happened.”

“I...I do know. But I’m thirty-three years old. It’s not like I’m a silly teenager with her first boyfriend...and we...we used protection.”

“No protection is one hundred percent reliable.”

“I know that—however, I didn’t think—”

“Did you suspect you were pregnant? Has anything been different?”

“I’ve been a little light-headed, though not really faint, for a couple of months. I thought I was just working too hard, what with the plans coming together for the resort out on the lake—”

“You always work too hard,” Gemma pointed out. “And I’m not quite sure you have to be the point person on the resort project.”

“Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how many jobs this will bring to Reston County? And besides, I’m not really heading it up. Mayor Morton is.”

Gemma held up her hand. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have become sidetracked. What other symptoms have you had?”

Lisa wrinkled her nose. “Things smell odd. Stronger. I had to take all the scented candles out of my home and office because they were overwhelming, and they’ve never bothered me before.”

“Those are all symptoms of hormonal changes.”

“I’ve felt sick every day for two weeks and I’ve thrown up every day, too. I thought it was some kind of flu bug or—something I ate.”

“Every day for two weeks?” Carly asked. “Denial much?”

“You didn’t say anything about feeling sick,” Gemma put in, sending Carly a quelling look.

“My period’s been off for months, but I thought maybe things change when you’re in your thirties, you know?” She groaned and continued, “And they should. A person is supposed to have sense enough to not get unexpectedly pregnant at the age of thirty-three.”

Gemma said, “Some hormonal changes are normal—”

“But a complete abandonment of common sense?” Lisa asked desperately. “I don’t think so.”

They all fell silent. Lisa knew they were waiting for her to deal with this the way she did most things—head down, moving forward, plans set.

She couldn’t do that, though, because she’d been distracted and daydreamy for the past month. She had difficulty concentrating, and odd, random thoughts and memories had popped up like jack-in-the-boxes when she tried to focus on work. She was sure Gemma was right—it was probably hormonal.

And now shock had paralyzed her brain even more. She could barely form a coherent thought, except for one—that this didn’t seem real. Or possible. “I’m going to have a baby.”

“That’s right,” Gemma said. “In about seven months.”

“So...in September?”

Lisa frowned. “So, nine months from the end of December—”

“Nine months isn’t accurate. Pregnancy is actually supposed to be forty weeks, a little more or less depending on the mother—and the baby. Multiples often come earlier.”

Lisa gulped as her eyes widened. “Multiples?”

“Um, sorry. I gave you too much information right there. Professional hazard.” Gemma cleared her throat. “Back on track. Be forewarned, being pregnant in this Oklahoma heat and humidity won’t be easy.”

“Nothing about this will be easy.” Lisa looked up. “And I feel sick all the time.”

“That should ease up in a few weeks. We need to make an appointment for you to see Nathan. He can prescribe something to help with the morning sickness if you want. In the meantime, there are herbal supplements you can take.”

Lisa nodded, then dropped her head forward. “I can’t believe I’ll be the first one of us to have a baby. At least you two are married.”

Carly waved that away. “That just means you’ll have two ready-made babysitters—until we have kids. Even then, we’ll work something out.”

Gemma got up and took a bottle of water from the small fridge in the examination room where she had brought Lisa to wait for the test results. She twisted off the cap and handed it to her.

Shakily, Lisa took a big drink, then held the cold plastic bottle against her cheek and closed her eyes. She had to get a grip on this, but all she wanted to do was to fold up into a ball and cry.

When Lisa opened her eyes, Gemma had seated herself beside her once again. She and Carly were looking at her curiously.

“What?” she asked.

“We’re wondering...” Gemma said. “When you’re going to tell us...”

“Who the father is,” Carly concluded.

Lisa pressed her lips together.

“Oh, come on, Lisa, we’re your best friends. We’re not going to judge you.” Gemma gave her a fond smile.

Lisa looked from one to the other—Gemma, with her practical, no-nonsense approach to life, and Carly, who was strong and businesslike, but who could see a broken-down wooden chair in a junk heap and imagine it as a fun and useful porch swing.

Taking a deep breath, she released it slowly and said, “It’s Ben McAdams.”

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Carly yelped. “The Reston Rascal? Oklahoma’s answer to Casanova?”

“I thought you weren’t going to judge,” Lisa said drily.

“Um, sorry.”

Astounded, Gemma said, “I didn’t even know that he was back in town, or that you two were dating, or even liked each other.”

“We aren’t and we don’t.” Lisa gazed at them miserably. “We haven’t been friends since we were twelve and his parents banned me from seeing him after I—”

“Masterminded the jailbreak,” Carly interrupted with a grin.

“Yeah. And that hasn’t changed.”

“Lisa, obviously something changed.” Gemma smiled in sympathy. “However you don’t have to tell us and—”

“I want to know what happened,” Carly objected.

“You don’t have to talk about it until you’re ready,” Gemma went on as if Carly hadn’t spoken. She stood and began gathering the test kits for disposal.

Carly settled down and gave an encouraging nod, but Lisa, her eyes full of tears, dropped her face into her hands for a few seconds before she, too, sat back and stared at her friends.

“I feel like my head is floating somewhere off in space.”

“And that will continue for a while,” Gemma said. “But things will settle down. You’ll get used to the idea, and soon you’ll be excited about being a mother.”

“I can’t be a mother,” Lisa said desperately. “I had a terrible mother. I’ve still got a terrible mother. And my grandmother tried, at least when I was little, but she wasn’t much of a model mother, either.”

“You’ll figure it out, Lisa. You’re the smartest and most driven person I know.” Carly gave her a hug.

The warmth of her friend’s arms couldn’t stop the shaking that had suddenly begun.

“I swore I’d never do this,” she said fiercely. “I swore I’d never be careless and get pregnant, and leave my baby—”

“You would never leave your baby,” Gemma objected.

“Lisa, you’re twice as old as Maureen was when she had you and left you with her mom and dad. You’ve got a successful career, a home of your own, a support system. Friends,” Carly said, emphasizing the last word as she gave her another squeeze and stepped back to look at her with an anxious expression.

Lisa took deep breaths and tried to still the quaking that came in waves from her core and moved outward. After a few moments she looked up and tried for a wan smile.

“Right now the question is how are you going to tell Ben?” Carly asked.

“I don’t know, but I’d better do it soon,” Lisa said. “I don’t like putting off unpleasant tasks and this isn’t something that can be hidden indefinitely.”

“No,” Gemma agreed. “And if I know you, you’ll want to have every detail planned well ahead of time.”

Lisa nodded even as she gave her friends a pitiful look. “I can barely form a sentence right now, much less a plan.”

Gemma gripped her hand in sympathy, but Carly looked at her considerately.

“And I had plans,” she went on. She knew she was rambling, but couldn’t seem to stop. “The group of investors from Oklahoma City who are interested in developing a resort on Reston Lake are really making progress on the plans. Can you imagine how many jobs that would bring to this area?”

“So you keep saying.”

“It will be a boost to your business, too, Carly. The resort will need fresh vegetables for their restaurants. If you get the contract, you’ll have to expand your gardens, which means you and Luke will have to hire more employees. As for the rest of the county—between the construction and the running of the resort, it could bring in so much prosperity. I was going to broker the deal if I could convince the current owners to at least consider it.”

Carly frowned. “You can still do all that. You’re having a baby, not giving up your career.”

Lisa barely heard her. “And I didn’t tell you two this, but I’m thinking about running for mayor this year.”

Her friends stared at her. “You’re kidding,” they said in unison.

“It’s true. I would never try to push Harley Morton out of office, but—” she lowered her voice and nodded toward the reception area where Harley’s wife worked “—Brenda wants him to retire and...well, I know I could do the job.”

“Wow,” Gemma said. “Just wow. I had no idea that was even on your mind. Brenda never said a thing to me.”

“We were keeping it quiet.” Lisa put her hands over her belly. “But now...”

“Everything’s changed,” Carly finished for her.

The three of them fell silent for several seconds until Carly cleared her throat. “So you got pregnant two months ago,” she said slowly.

Lisa could see that her friend wasn’t ready to let this go. “Obviously.”

“Ben’s been out of town for months. So how and where? If it was two months ago, it must have been—”

“When I was in Chicago.” Lisa sighed. “At Christmastime. Right after my great-aunt Violet’s funeral.”

“You said you were stuck at the airport during a blizzard,” Gemma added.

“I was, along with a million other people who were trying to get home. By the wildest chance, I ran into Ben. I’d last seen him in September, when he bought Riverbend Ranch and I brokered the deal. He was in Chicago for a Christmas charity event that a bunch of big-name sports figures support. It benefits cancer research. Anyway, he had a room, one of the last ones at a hotel near the airport. He invited me to share the room, and we ended up sharing one of the beds.”

“Oh, honey,” Carly said.

“I never do things like that.” Lisa could feel the tears sliding down her face. “I always think about consequences, about how my actions will affect my future.”

“Whereas Ben McAdams has never needed to. He’s always just taken chances on everything, followed the most fun path to whatever he wanted next,” Gemma said.

“And that night, you were what he wanted,” Carly added.

“It wasn’t really like that,” Lisa told them, resting her head in her palm as exhaustion swamped her. She should have known something was wrong. Besides working too much, she’d thought maybe she’d had a low-grade virus. But it wasn’t. It was a baby. A baby!

Out of the corner of her eye she saw her two best friends exchange a look.

“We wondered why you were so...unlike yourself when you got back from Chicago,” Carly said.

“It seemed to be more than simply your great-aunt’s death,” Gemma added, her face full of compassion. “You didn’t say much about it, but your mother was there, wasn’t she?”

“Yes.” Lisa looked down at her hands, which were now clasping the water bottle. “I tried to talk to her, but she—Maureen—turned away. She seemed very shaken up over Aunt Violet, but I don’t really know how she was feeling. I’ve only seen her half a dozen times in my life, so I don’t know how she would react to anything. She barely talked to me at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s funerals, so—” Her voice choked off and her head dropped forward.

“Oh, that’s rough,” Carly said.

“Maureen didn’t talk much to anyone, except the minister, and then she practically ran from the funeral home. I don’t know where she went. I don’t even know where she lives. What kind of family is this?” she asked fiercely. “I see my own mother only half a dozen times in my life and we don’t have anything to say to each other? How is that even possible?”

“Oh, honey,” Gemma said. “That’s something that started before you were even born and you can’t fix it with one conversation.”

Lisa took another deep breath. Somehow she couldn’t seem to get enough air to blow away the storm of emotions. “You’re right.” She paused, then said, “A little while later, I saw that the weather was closing in, so even though my flight wasn’t until late that night, I said goodbye to my cousins and headed for the airport and got stuck there...or, actually, nearby.”

“With Ben.” Gemma reached for her hand again as Carly gathered her into another hug.

Lisa rested her head on her friend’s arm and glanced up with a rueful look. “You know how he is.”

“Yeah,” Carly said. She and Gemma both sighed wistfully. “Charm in size twelve cowboy boots.”

Lisa nodded miserably. “He was warm, sympathetic and understanding. I was happy to see someone from home, you know? I was so distraught I hardly knew which way to turn, and the thought of spending the night at the airport was more than I could handle. I know I could have called my cousins for help, but the roads were already closed and they had enough to deal with. Then I saw Ben. He took care of everything.”

“Short-term responsibility has always been his strong point.”

“I...I know. I needed someone to lean on right then, but it got way out of hand. I never meant for this to happen,” she said yet again. “And now I’m going to have a baby.”

“Which I’ll be happy to deliver when the time comes, if you want me to,” Gemma assured her. “The good news is that you’re healthy, things look fine, and you’ve got some time to come to terms with this.”

Lisa nodded and leaned into the hug. She had time, but not much.