Page 94 of Never Forever
He leaned forward and dropped his voice. “I don’t think you’re supposed to lift anything.”
His eyes dropped to my stomach and then back to my face.
I was so shocked I let it go, and it was only after he walked away with the suitcase that I caught my mother’s eye. She was watching all of it.
I grabbed a smaller bag and practically ran toward the gate.
“Honey,” Mom said. “Is there something going on with you and Matt Sullivan?”
“What?” I cried. “Matt Sullivan? Are you crazy? Gross.” I pretended to gag. Which I could admit was laying it on a little thick.
“What would be wrong with that? Man’s got a helluva an ass,” Gran said from behind us. Mom and I jumped.
“Stop sneaking up on us, Mom,” Mom grumbled.
“I’m hardly sneaking,” Gran said. “What would be the problem with Carrie and Matt Sullivan? I always thought they made a great couple.”
“That was years ago and thank goodness it ended when it did,” Mom turned to me. “You’d have gotten pregnant and married and never left Calico Cove.”
“Would that have been so bad?” I asked, the words just popping out of my mouth.
“You just told me how you had gotten everything you ever wanted,” Mom said. Looking crushed, maybe a little betrayed.
She was right of course. I thought of my growing financial power and kissing Tom Cruise. I thought of the money I made that allowed my sister to manage these two women and the house falling down behind us.
No. Everything worked out the way it was supposed to.
However, the irony of being back here in Calico Cove, possibly pregnant with Matt’s baby, was not lost on me.
With all of us working, we got the porch cleared of luggage in no time. On the last trip, the four of us lingered at the gate, looking back at the house.
“It will be better than ever when you get back,” I promised.
Annie slipped her arm around Gran’s shoulder.
“Think of those warm tiles in the bathroom,” she said. “And the windows that don’t stick in the winter.”
“And summer,” I added.
“A roof that doesn’t leak,” Mom added.
“A den that doesn’t smell like all the bad husbands,” Gran added.
I swallowed my hoot of laughter.
“A basement that doesn’t have all their old dirty magazines,” Mom said.
“There are dirty magazines in the basement?” Gran cried. She turned to Annie. “Don’t get rid of those!”
“Maybe this is a mistake,” Mom whispered, and pressed a hand to her stomach. She’d packed a medical first aid kit that was so complete it was nearly a portable ambulance. I really hoped that all this stress wouldn’t set off an episode. Everyone knew her poor health wasn’t anything more than low iron and high anxiety, but it didn’t make it any less real to her.
I thought about Patrick and his cancer and wondered again when he’d gotten sick the first time. How scary that would have been for Matt, faced with losing the only parent he’d ever known.
“You’re going to have fun, Mom,” I said, low in her ear just between us. “You deserve this.”
“Because of you,” she said and cupped my cheek in her hand. “You’ve made all of this possible. Don’t worry about us. You… you be careful.”
“With what?” I asked with a laugh. “I’m going to keep an eye on renovations and eat cheeseburgers for a few days. Nothing to be careful about.”