Bloom of love, p.16
Bloom of Love, page 16
She was being held by a statue.
“I’m…I’m pregnant,” she said again, because it’d been horrible enough to say the first time, so why not repeat it? “I’m about three-and-a-half months along, from what I can tell. I’ll be going in to see a doctor to get my first check-up, but…”
“Pregnant,” he breathed.
Good. He was still alive. That was good.
“Yes. With a baby. Christian, we’re going to have a baby…?” She hadn’t meant for it to come out as a question, but it did anyway.
“Oh my God, we’re gonna have a baby.” He sat back down with a thunk on the barstool. “We’re gonna have a baby? Oh my God, we’re gonna have a baby!”
He was back up off the barstool and hugging her, twirling her around, knocking the barstool over and Leo went screeching into the other room but none of it mattered. He was raining kisses on her face, hugging and kissing and whooping with joy.
She finally leaned up against the work counter and said dryly, “So. I take it that you’re happy about this?”
He laughed weakly, leaning against the counter too. Were her knees as wobbly as his?
“I’m pushing 40. I’ve never been married. I’d given up on having kids.” He shrugged. “If you’re the oldest of seven children, either you want kids of your own, or you’d rather have your dick cut off with a rusty blade.”
Carla let out a raucous bark of laughter. Christian sent her a wry smile.
“Sorry. If Carmelita had heard that…no dessert for me. Anyway, I’d always wanted kids. My sisters have ’em in spades, and that’s cool, but nieces and nephews just aren’t the same. I want to teach my kids how to change a tire and how to work hard and how they should prioritize college like their aunt Yesenia so they don’t end up like a farm hand like their old dad. My parents are pretty good parents for the most part, but I’d like to think I could do some things better. Like encourage our girls to work for their own careers.
“Our girls…” he repeated in a breathy whisper and then stared at her, his shadowed brown eyes studying her like she held the key to eternal life.
“Do you want this baby?” he asked. The room, the air, eternity was suspended in that moment.
She nodded, a little wobbly still from the whiplash of emotions. “I…I do. You know that my brother has his kids and I love ’em dearly but you’re right – nieces and nephews just aren’t the same. I…I didn’t think I’d get married, and I didn’t let myself dream that I’d get to have kids of my own. Kids were for people who’d found their own Westley, and I never had…”
She drew in a deep breath.
“Until you.”
He was raining down kisses then, all over her face and neck and chest, and then he pulled back sharply. He felt around until he found the little lamp she kept to provide ambient lighting when she needed it, and flipped it on. She could mostly see his face again, and found that it was criss-crossed with worry and fear.
It was clear the gravity of the situation was beginning to sink in for him. He was starting to worry about where they were going to live, and how they were going to afford this—
“I’m allergic to cats,” he announced.
She began to sink down onto her barstool, almost fell over sideways because of course, the barstool wasn’t there anymore – they’d knocked it over during their celebration – righted it, and then sank down onto it. “You…what?”
“I’m allergic. I didn’t want to tell you because you love cats, and I didn’t want you to feel like you had to choose, so I’m taking allergy pills and the immunologist is starting me on shots, and I don’t want you to give up Leo or Bella, but I can’t breathe when I’m in here. Not very well, anyway,” he added.
She started to laugh then. Laugh and laugh and laugh. Out of all the many – many – things she thought Christian would be worried about, her cats were nowhere on the list.
It wasn’t until she’d wiped the tears off her cheeks and straightened up on the barstool that she saw how perfectly rigid Christian was. “I…I’m sorry!” she said, gulping in air, smothering the desire to let loose with another round of gut-busting laughter. “I’m not laughing at you. I just didn’t expect…out of all the things to bring up in this moment, ‘cats’ was not on my list. Cheese, maybe, but not cats.”
“Cheese?”
“Never mind,” she said, waving her hand in the air dismissively. “For the record, if you were deathly allergic to cats, I’d give Bella and Leo away to close friends who I know would take care of them. I love them, but I’m not Michelle. I’m going to pick you over a cat any day of the week. Second of all, it’s very sweet of you to do shots so you can be around them. I hate needles,” she shivered at the mere thought of them, “so I think that’s very brave of you. More than cats and cheese, though, we need to talk about housing. Where are we going to live?”
The little shop grew silent again as Christian stared at her, worrying his bottom lip.
Chapter 25
Christian
I swear it will be done!
~Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride
He was starting to wonder about Carla’s obsession with cheese – was this a pregnancy thing? Did he need to buy her seventeen different kinds of cheese? – but she was right. They had bigger fish to fry.
“Obviously, upstairs isn’t going to work,” he said slowly.
“The lack of any kind of bathing equipment is a definite downer,” she put in dryly. “Not to mention that when you have a baby, you’re doing nothing but laundry. Lugging it all to my mom’s house and back is a no-go. Plus…where would we even keep the baby?”
It was obvious she’d spent more than a little bit of time thinking about this. He felt blindsided – he hadn’t had days or weeks to wrap his mind around her pregnancy like she had – but he’d do his damndest to catch up.
“The dresser,” he said simply. “Before cribs, parents used to keep their babies in a dresser drawer. That’s…that’s where my mom kept me.” He felt the tips of his ears go red. Carla was a white woman. She wasn’t poor as a church mouse growing up. She wouldn’t understan—
“That’s really sweet,” she said softly, putting her hand on his arm. “But considering we can hardly walk around when we’re both up there, I think it’s not the most practical long-term solution. Someday, the kid is gonna want out of the dresser drawer.”
Christian let out a soft laugh at that, feeling the tension begin to ebb away. Carla was the least judgmental person on the planet. She wasn’t going to break up with him simply because his parents used a dresser drawer instead of a crib for the first eight months of his life.
“My place…” He shook his head, not able to even finish the sentence. The tension was rising in him again, reappearing as quickly as it’d disappeared. “It isn’t fit for a baby and you. I can only just tolerate it for myself. You can’t live there. But I can’t afford to move somewhere else – free rent is a big part of the benefit package of working for Stetson. He can’t exactly set up a 401k retirement plan for me or give me top-notch health insurance, but free rent is a hell of a perk, which is why I haven’t moved before.” He gulped and then continued on. He had to tell her everything – lay it all out on the table, and let the chips fall where they may. They were in this together now.
“You have to know: Yesenia isn’t going to graduate from college until 2024. That’s, like, four years away. I can’t abandon her now.”
“And I still have years of student loan payments left to make,” Carla said morosely. Christian moved in front of her, pulling her against him as he stroked her back. He felt her relaxing into him.
She trusted him.
Oh God. Lord, please help me. I don’t know how I’m going to do this…
But he had no choice. Carla and their baby needed him. He had to make this work.
“Let me look at rental ads tomorrow,” he said quietly. “See what I can find. The baby won’t show up next week – we’ve got, what, five-and-a-half months before this baby will make its appearance? We’ll figure something out, I promise.”
She nodded against him, her trust in him complete.
Now he just had to make sure that it was earned.
Chapter 26
Christian
You think it’ll work? ~Valerie
It’d take a miracle. ~Miracle Max
In The Princess Bride
The cows moo’d to each other as they ambled into the next field, thick and lush with clovers and grass. Just a few days here in the triangle pasture, and then they’d make the move to the field closest to the barn. After years of rotating in a giant circle from pasture to pasture, ending up back where they started and beginning the cycle again, the mama cows knew just where to go next, and made sure their calves made the move safely. After only a few moves, even the calves caught on and were happy when a farmhand showed up to lead them to fresh, green pastures.
The Goldfork Mountains were already covered with a dusting of snow, and Christian knew it wouldn’t be long before the green fields would be covered in a blanket of white. This meant selling off most of the herd except the yearlings and the mamas, and hauling hay bales out to the remaining cows. There’d also be a lot of checking to make sure that waterers hadn’t frozen over, and…
It was hard to remember during the winter just why it was he lived in Idaho.
“Lookin’ good,” Stetson said, pushing his hat back on his head and wiping at the sweat on his forehead. He leaned against a post with a sigh. “I can’t believe the trailers are coming next week. The herd’s about to get a whole lot smaller.”
“And we’ll be on the hook for hay and water, all winter long.” Christian’s voice made it clear just how enthusiastic he was about that idea.
“Winter does always suck,” Stetson said with a what-are-you-gonna-do-about-it chuckle. “Well, we better get headin’ back to—”
“Before we go,” Christian interrupted his boss, “I wanted to tell ya something.”
Stetson looked a little unnerved at that, but nodded. “Spill.”
“I…well…Carla’s pregnant.” He was sure there was a better way to broach the topic, but damned if he knew how. Laying all his cards on the table seemed like the only choice he had.
“Oh, well now!” Stetson said, his face breaking out into a huge grin. “Congratulations!” He slugged Christian on the shoulder. “Flint was an oopsie too,” he said in a conspiratorial voice, “but I wouldn’t trade him for the world. When’s she due?”
“April 9th.” Christian tried not to show the panic on his face. It’d been nine days since Carla had told him the big news. Nine days of scouring the want ads and Craigslist and asking around. Nine days of not a centimeter of progress.
He’d always known that the rental market in the area was out of whack, what with Franklin being so close by and all. Tourist towns were hell on earth, in his opinion, bringing both loads of strangers through town and also jacking up the prices on everything from milk down at the store to rentals. Anyone with four walls and a roof wanted to rent it out on Airbnb, to a rich tourist. A farmhand? Well, they were plain outta luck.
“Hold on, today is, what, October…” Stetson fished around in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “October 23rd. That’s less than six months from now. Did Carla just find out?”
“Yeah. She…didn’t notice.” He wasn’t about to talk about his girlfriend’s periods with his boss. Stetson swallowed uncomfortably, clearly not happy that he’d even asked.
“Well, y’all have a lot to figure out. Hey, where does Carla live? I just realized I don’t think I know.”
“It’s a state secret,” Christian said with a wry grin, “so you can’t tell anyone, but above the flower shop. To save on rent, she’s living there.”
“Happy Petals…” He scratched his nose, thinking hard. “That’s gotta be tiny. Hardly enough room to turn around, unless there’s a backside to the building that I’ve never noticed.”
“Nope, it’s just as small as you’re thinking. Maybe smaller. And then there’s my trailer…”
Stetson nodded so slowly then, Christian almost couldn’t tell if he was nodding or just sorta bobbing his head around.
“You can’t raise a baby in there,” Stetson finally said quietly. “I feel bad enough having single men living in a place like that. It’s no place for a family.”
“The rental market, though. It’s…not pretty.”
“No, not with Franklin nearby,” Stetson mused softly, pulling his hat off and twirling it in circles in his hands. “I keep expecting someone to put a cardboard box up as a rental, and I imagine if they did, they could keep it rented out full time. It’s one of the reasons why I offer the trailers for help to live in.”
It was quiet then, as Stetson thought things over, and Christian let him. The cows were moo’ing less, now that they were settled into the new field, and were busy munching away. It was a damn pretty sight – dark brown cows scattered out in a field of green grass.
Not as pretty as Carla, of course, but still, it made a heart feel good to look at it.
“Let me talk to Jennifer,” Stets said after a while. “After she took over the books, I stopped even stepping into the office, just in case I screwed them up by looking at ’em wrong. You know I didn’t have a head for books and numbers. I’ll see what Jennifer says.”
Christian straightened up a bit, taking the first full breath of air into his lungs that he’d had in a long time. He knew Stetson was a good man. If he could help, he would.
Could it be just that easy?
Lord, he hoped so.
Chapter 27
Carla
Fencing, fighting, monster, true love, miracles.
~Grandfather in The Princess Bride
Thanksgiving weekend, 2020
Carla was quite sure she hadn’t displayed nearly enough sympathy and understanding to Christian when he’d worried about meeting her family for the first time. After all, her family was kind and friendly and of course they’d like him.
Nothing to worry about.
Not that his family wasn’t also kind and friendly, and she was pretty sure they’d like her. And, this wasn’t her first time meeting them. She’d helped with Nieves’ quinceañera, after all. She knew the Palacios family just like she knew everyone else in town.
But it was a very, very different thing altogether to meet them as Christian’s girlfriend.
Christian’s girlfriend who was also pregnant with his baby, in case anyone cared. Not something his family knew – yet – but that was going to change tonight.
She felt her heart rate rev and her palms grow sweaty. There were roughly a thousand different ways this could go wrong, and—
Without warning, Christian sneezed three times in rapid succession.
Carla patted his arm consolingly, happy to focus on something other than her ever-escalating terror. “Sorry,” she said for probably the thousandth time. “How are the shots going?”
“Eh,” he grunted. “Did you know I could be taking them for the next five years?”
She squeezed his hand in sympathy. She did know that, actually – he may or may not have mentioned this particular fact a couple of times.
A day.
She loved Christian, of course, but she was beginning to discover that he did not suffer in silence. She’d thought more than once that he’d die if he had to be pregnant for nine months, and she was sure he wouldn’t make it through childbirth.
Not that she was exactly looking forward to it. The horror stories she’d heard all her life sent shivers down her spine at the mere thought. She was already wondering how many drugs the doctor could legally give her. She hoped the answer was, “A Lot.”
“Are you cold?” Christian asked, as always, attuned to the smallest change in her. He reached for the climate controls before she could even answer. “Here, we can turn up the heat. It’s only the end of November, and the snow’s already started. It’s gonna be a looonnnggg winter.”
She didn’t want to tell Christian she’d been shivering at the thought of giving birth, so she just squeezed his hand again and sent him a grateful smile. Maybe he wasn’t dealing with the shots all that well, but who could blame him? She didn’t want to be stuck with a needle every week or two for five years either. At least she could give birth and then be done with it.
They pulled up in front of Jorge and María’s house, pulling Carla out of her thoughts. She looked out the window, automatically cataloging all of the changes that she could see.
Growing up, this had always been Abby Connelly’s house, and remembering that the Palacios’ owned it now wasn’t something Carla was sure she’d ever quite adjust to. She and Abby had graduated together from Sawyer High School, and Carla had spent many-a Friday night here on sleepovers.
When Abby’s father lost it to a bank foreclosure years ago, Carla had been away at college but of course heard every gory detail from her mom and sisters. Wyatt Miller buying it and rubbing it in the sheriff’s face that he’d “done it all wrong” and lost the farm because of incompetence…
Painful. Maybe that was true, but still, you didn’t tell a person that.
Somehow, Wyatt and Abby (and the sheriff) had worked things out, though, and every time Carla saw her old friend around town, she could see how happy she was – like someone had turned on a 1000-watt light bulb in her eyes and heart.
When Wyatt and Abby had decided to build a bigger house and sell the old Connelly homestead plus five acres to their foreman, Carla had heard the news in town like everyone else. At the time, she never would’ve guessed she’d be back here as the guest of honor at a party the Palacios’ were throwing, let alone carrying the baby of the oldest Palacios.
