“It was nice to meet Bess and Herbert,” Lily told Wil in the truck on their way home to Spring City at the end of their honeymoon. “They are a kooky couple and I can see why your family has loved them all these years.”
“Yeah, Bess was already talking about coming to Spring City when the baby was born because she knew we wouldn’t get back out to Happy Endings for a while,” Wil said.
“When I talked to your mom last night she said to stop by the house and pick up the apartment keys before we headed to the station,” Lily said.
“Yeah, she wants an excuse to see us outside of work,” he said knowing he’d be seeing her on a daily basis until his classes started. “We’ll need to pack up your things at some point too… have you talked to your mom and dad about the apartment yet?”
“No I haven’t, but they just assumed I’d be moving in with you after the wedding, just not sure where or when that would be,” Lily said rubbing her stomach. “I need to get some cocoa butter lotion. Bess said that would help with the itching and the stretchmarks.”
“Ha,” Wil chuckled, “Did you ever think we’d be discussing lotion for stretch marks?”
Lily also laughed and reached over and grabbed Wil’s hand that was resting on the gear shift. “I never thought we’d do a lot of things, but we’ve sure made some memories in the short time we’ve been together.”
“Hey Lil?”
“Hey Wil?”
“I need to know if something ever happens like that again, God forbid it does, but if something ever happens, I need to know that you’ll come to me,” Wil said squeezing Lily’s hand.
“I promise, Wil,” Lily said squeezing back, “I hope you know that I didn’t tell you because I thought I was protecting my sisters and I see now that was wrong.”
“I also feel like you are at a greater risk now,” Wil said waiting for Lily to respond.
“Why would I be at a greater risk now?” Lily asked scrunching her nose.
“You haven’t even thought about it have you? How your life is different now that we’re married?” Wil continued to hold onto Lily’s hand as he drove down the interstate.
“Honey, I know I don’t talk about it much and I come off pretty humble for the most part, but you’ve married into the Griffin family. I’m an heir to the Griffin Gas Company. You’re never going to have to work a day in your life, unless you want to. And that kind of money comes with some issues sometimes,” Wil stopped for a second and took a breath.
“I guess I never realized you were that rich… no wonder your father thinks I’m a gold digger,” Lily said softly.
“I want you to stop worrying about him and that comment. He really is looking out for all our best interests all of the time, despite how the words come out sometimes. But you’re not a gold digger and I don’t want to discuss that anymore. When people have the kind of money we do, there’s always something lurking, someone who’ll try and break in our cars or get past the gate at the estate and try to get in the house, or hit up my dad for a loan. There’s always something. Like the reason Mom wanted to know about the apartment so she could get the security system updated…”
They continued their drive home and Wil took advantage of his captive audience, who was extremely quiet after the revelation she had just heard.
“I’m not trying to preach to you Lil, I just want you to know how people are,” he said reaching over and petting her cheek. “Let’s stop for lunch, I want to talk with you about something else before we get home.”
A darling little town near the Keeneland racetrack was just on their way to Spring City and Wil wanted to take her to a greasy spoon just off the interstate. The place was known for its quirky owners and pie to die for. They also had some pretty tasty sweet tea, which Wil was happy to sample, but pregnant Lily turned down reluctantly because of the caffeine and sugar content.
“This is a cute little cafe,” Lily said to Wil as they sat down at a booth. “I’m starved.”
“Me too, I worked up an appetite doing all that talking,” Wil said with a chuckle. “And as soon as we order, I’ve got a little more talking to do and then I promise that I’ll shut up for a while!”
The waitress came by, took their orders and off she went to the kitchen. They had arrived after lunch and before dinner, so Wil was pleased they had a little privacy.
“You never mentioned his name or anything about him,” Wil said making eye contact with Lily.
“No I didn’t,” she said twiddling her thumbs as she rested her arms on the table, “I wasn’t sure you wanted those details.”
“Well no, I don’t want those details, but I feel like I need to know… what if he shows up one day and I have no idea who he is?”
“I understand,” Lily said and proceeded to tell him Ricky’s name and what he looked like.
“I also want to take a few more precautions,” Wil continued and reached over and linked his fingers with hers. “As far as we’re all concerned, we need to bury this secret. If there’s any chance anyone could find out that this baby is potentially not mine, it puts you both at risk. It could ruin our reputations and cause bad business for Pop. When the baby is born, there will be no paternity test and you’ll put my name on the birth certificate as the father, no questions.”
“You don’t want to…” Wil cut her off.
“It doesn’t matter. That child growing inside of you is my child, my son or daughter, and we won’t question that,” Wil felt like a grown up since this whole issue had entered his life. He was talking and acting like an adult. He thought of Herbert and hoped he was making the right decision.
“First thing when we get home, we need to get you a cell phone on my plan. I need to know that you can reach me at any point in time. And,” he shook his head and smiled, “I know this is going to sound kooky, like something Bess might come up with, but we need a code word. I need to know if you call or text me with a specific word that something is wrong and you need me.”
“We had a code word when I was growing up, so if my parents sent one of their friends to pick us up from school or something, they had to know the word,” Lily said.
“Yep, that’s exactly it,” Wil said as their food was delivered to their table. “This looks fantastic, thank you,” he told the waitress.
“What about Keeneland?” Lily asked stuffing a bite of the extra-large club sandwich in her mouth.
“What about it?” Wil wasn’t following her.
“Keeneland can be our code word. Anytime we say anything about it, we refer to it as ‘the track’ so it could be our code word. It’s not anything weird or out of the ordinary and can be used in a plain sentence.”
“Works for me,” Wil said, “Keeneland it is.”
They finished their meal off by splitting a big slice of chocolate chip pecan pie before hitting the road back to Spring City. They were less than an hour away and had plenty of time to get Lily a cell phone before heading to Wil’s house.
“Will it be weird for you staying in my bedroom tonight? After all, we are married, you know,” Wil and Lily both liked the sound of that. Married.
“It sounds just fine to me. Do you care if I call my parents and let them know we will be swinging by to grab some of my things? I really want to get my stuff out as soon as possible so Daisy can have her own room.”
“Of course honey, we’ve got plenty of room in the truck and we can take anything you need,” Wil reassured her.
“No furniture or anything of course, just some clothes and stuff out of my desk,” she said and used Wil’s cell phone to call her parents. Her mom was home with the kids and her dad was still on a job site. By the time they got there, he was due home too.
Lily told her mom about their trip to Endings and all about moving into the apartment over the station. She was glad her daughter would still be so close to home as their pregnancy announcement and then quick marriage had been somewhat of a shock to all of them.
They ran their errands then stopped by Lily’s parents’ home. Wil helped Lily do the heavy lifting, of course, which didn’t amount to much because she didn’t have a whole lot to move out. She intentionally left some things that Daisy could use knowing full well that Wil could replace anything she could possibly need. She had no intentions of taking advantage, but she had to get used to the idea of having money for a change.
“You know you can’t be a stranger around here,” Lily’s mom said to her as Wil packed up the truck, “You’re still my baby girl and I expect to be part of your life and spoil this little grandbaby.” She rubbed Lily’s stomach and kissed her on the cheek.
Her dad was coming in as Wil took out the last bag and Lily saw them shaking hands in the driveway. She was secretly glad they got along as well as they did, hoping they’d see more of each other in the days ahead.
“Hi honey,” Lily’s dad said to her as he came inside the house. He was dirty and didn’t want to touch her for fear of ruining her clothes.
“Hi Daddy, it’s good to see you,” she said reaching over and kissing him on the cheek.
“You eat a watermelon seed or something?” He said with a huge grin across his face.
“I guess so, this belly just keeps growing!” She smiled back at him and Wil appeared on the porch.
“Did we get it all?” he said through the screen door.
“Yep, that’s it, I’ll be there in just a minute,” she said waving Wil off to the truck.
“I was telling the guys at the job site that my baby had gotten married and was gonna have my first grandbaby,” Lily’s father said beaming as they stood there in the living room.
“Your daddy might be a little excited to meet that little watermelon that you’re growing,” her mother said.
“Oh yes, aren’t we all, this little watermelon is stretching me like a rubber band!”
“Mrs. Suzanne, the foreman’s wife wanted to know when you were gonna have a get-together, I think she wanted to make you a baby blanket or something,” her dad continued.
“I think Wil’s mom is planning something, if that’s okay, Mom?” She looked to her mother for approval. “Sounds good to me, tell her I’m happy to help any way I can.”
“The guys were all teasing me about being a grandpa so young,” he chuckled, “Ricky specifically asked about you and when the baby was due.”
The color immediately drained from Lily’s face and it was everything she could do to keep it together and leave her parent’s home.
“Haven’t seen him in a while,” Lily said and excused herself to the porch, “We gotta get going Ma, Daddy, I love you all.”
Wil saw the look on her face and got out of the truck to help her into the passenger side.
“Are you gonna be sick, sweetheart? You look like you’re gonna puke,” he asked as he reached for a towel behind the seat.
“It’s very possible, I need you to get me outta here, like now…”
Wil hopped in the truck and drove a minute or two down the road to the Dairy Freeze, a local drive-in ice cream shop. He parked just so he could get a good look at her.
“Is it like morning sickness, or lunch not agreeing with you?” Wil asked, “Want me to run up to the window and get you a Sprite or Ale-8? I think they have Ale-8 here…”
“Yeah, yeah, I would like that, but just call it in on the speaker, don’t go up to the window, I don’t want you to leave me right this minute,” she told him and sunk down in her seat burying her head in her hands. Wil called on the speaker ordering her an Ale-8 and getting himself a Coke. Once the order was complete, he rolled the window back up and cranked up the A/C to try to ease her nausea.
“Daddy was just beaming when he was telling me about how all the guys at his job site teased him about being a grandpa so young… he even said the foreman’s wife was making us a baby blanket,” the nausea was creeping back up as she told Wil the story. “Yeah, yeah, and Daddy said Ricky asked how far along I was and when I was due…”
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Wil beat his hand against the steering wheel.
“He disappeared after… after it happened; Daddy even said something one day about him flaking out on their construction job and taking off without telling anyone,” Lily was fighting back sobs, “I just assumed he had skipped town because he figured I’d blab…”
The car hop came out carrying their two drinks and Wil paid her in cash telling her to keep the change. Even to the finest detail of putting a straw in her cup, he made sure to attend to her every need. Except now he was at a loss.
“I just don’t know what to do now,” he told her taking a long sip of his own beverage. “No, that’s not true, I know exactly what I need to do, I just don’t want to…”