Chapter Nineteen

Rue

“What happened?”

“They held an intervention for me.”, I answered.

“An intervention for what?”

I accepted the cool cloth that Christopher held out to me and wiped it across my chest. The waves of nausea that I had been feeling eased and I took in a breath, letting it out slowly to ease my trembling.

“Apparently, they think that I’ve been bewitched in some way, I think. I’m not entirely sure. I couldn’t totally follow everything that was being screamed at me.”

“So, the takeaway lesson for the day is that the people of Whiskey Hollow aren’t ready to have a surrogate mother in their midst.”

“No, the takeaway lesson for the day is that the snake handlers of Whiskey Hollow should be turned over to the FBI and not be allowed to operate motor vehicles, even if they are marked for farm use only.”

I tried to sit up but felt another rush of nausea and rested back again.

“I thought that the morning sickness was supposed to go away by this point,” Christopher said.

“That’s another one of those delightful lies people tell you about being pregnant,” I said. “They say that you’ll feel so much better by the end of your first trimester. I felt fine up until these last two weeks. Now I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck.”

“What about Richard?”

“I’m sure he’s feeling fine.”

“No,” Christopher said, sitting down beside me and pressing another cool cloth to my forehead. “What about Richard?”

He knows me too fucking well.

“I can’t think about Richard,” I said. “I go back to the midwife in two weeks and I’ll see him then, but that’s really all I can think about.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? You know exactly why.”

“No, I know that you said that this man has been falling over himself to make you happy.”

“And that he’s getting married.”

“In theory. In theory, Rue, and to a woman who you, yourself, said was the Bitch of All Evil.”

“I might have been a little hasty about that. I don’t really know her. Besides, it doesn’t matter what I think of her. He chose her. He is planning a family with her. He intends to marry her. What I think of her is completely inconsequential.”

“You can’t just give up on him. I haven’t seen you look like this when you talked about a man - you know what? I’ve never seen you look like this when you talked about a man. This is different. There’s something here, and you can’t just let yourself pretend you don’t feel it because it’s convenient for you.”

“There’s nothing convenient about this, Christopher. Nothing at all. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Yeah, I can see your conflict. A gorgeous, exorbitantly wealthy man builds a medical center to ensure you get the best care possible, spends Thanksgiving with you, decorates your home for Christmas. I just don’t know what you could possibly see in that.”

“He didn’t build the medical center for me. He built it for the baby.”

“The baby that is half yours, I’ll point out.”

“It’s not half mine,” I said, trying not to let the tremble come into my voice. “It’s all theirs. I’m just an oven.”

“If that’s what you want to think,” he said, shaking his head, “but I know you. I know you better than you want to admit. And I can see it. I know that you have feelings for him. You just have to accept it.”

****

“Hello?”

“Rue?”

I was so groggy I could barely decipher my name.

“Yes? What time is it?”

“It’s midnight, did I wake you?”

“Midnight?”

Last time I looked at the clock it was 8:30 and I was sitting on the couch binge watching a British baking competition.

“Yes. I’m sorry it’s late. I needed to talk to you before tomorrow.”

“It is tomorrow.”

I was coming awake and I dragged myself up into a sitting position as I realized that I was still sitting on the couch and half the competition was now over. I didn’t even get to see the much-ballyhooed frozen custard cake sabotage scandal. I was going to have to go back and watch it all again.

“I needed to talk to you before later. I’m getting on a plane for a business trip and I wanted to let you know this first. I moved up your next appointment with the midwife.”

“Richard?”

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

“Who did you think you were talking to.”

“I wasn’t entirely sure.”

“Yes, it’s Richard. I moved up your appointment.”

“Why?”

“I really liked Kathryn’s idea about announcing the pregnancy on Valentine’s Day, but I’m leaving the next day for nearly a month to handle some overseas business. I didn’t want to miss the appointment, so I thought that it would be best to move it up.”

“Did Kathryn say that was alright?” I asked. “I thought that she scheduled them on a particular timeline.”

“She said that a few days either way is fine.”

The sleepiness was gone now, and the tension in Richard’s voice was more evident. It sounded like he was holding something back, like he was trying to keep his emotions in check and not say something even though he wanted to. I figured that meant that I needed to be the one to say what we were both thinking.

“Then fine, I’m ok with it if she is.”

“Good. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks. I’ll have Kathryn call you with the new appointment time.”

“Alright. Travel safely.”

“I will.”

The call disconnected, and I listened to the silence for a few moments, willing the tears to stay in my eyes.

****

Dear Baby,

The first trimester is officially over. Today starts the second. We’re one-third of our way through, now. That’s hard to believe. I feel like I can breathe a little bit better. They say that now that we’ve gotten this far I can feel safer knowing that you have an even higher chance of getting here. I hate the way that that sounds, but it’s reassuring all the same.

You have all of your organs. Did you know that? There are bitty little lungs, and a teeny tiny stomach, and all sorts of other weenie things. They aren’t ready to work yet, though, so don’t get any ideas about testing them out.

Your daddy left on a business trip and is off doing whatever it is that he does. Sometimes I wonder if that’s something that I should know. Does it matter that I don’t know what he does for a living? Considering I don’t understand why someone who is already as ridiculously wealthy as he is would want to keep working, I think that the answer to that is probably ‘no’. If I had even a fraction of the money that he has, I wouldn’t work a moment of my life. It’s not that I’m lazy, and I really did enjoy the career that I had, but there is so much more to life than work. Life is full of beautiful things to see and do and experience. There is so much out there, so much more than any person can ever even begin to do, that I don’t understand why anyone who doesn’t have to work to support themselves would spend any of the limited time that they have working.

You are going to get to do so much. You are going to have such a life. It’s all out here waiting for you, Baby, and the limits are truly so few. I hope that you take advantage of every opportunity that is given to you. I hope that you do things that scare you every day. I hope you do a few really stupid things. I hope you do exceptional things. I know you will do exceptional things. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

Rue