Chapter 9: Dell
I make the call to my mother while Arianna bathes and dresses Grace for her big meeting.
She answers on the second ring. “Hasmund?”
“Yes, it’s me, Mom.”
“Are you in town already? It’s so early!”
“Yes, we’re downtown.”
“Well, what are you doing there?”
I laugh. “We got a hotel for the night. So, I’ve got us reservations at La Fontaine downtown at noon.” I glance out the window. “It’s a nice day, so I thought we could go to one of the downtown parks for a bit.”
“Cancel them,” Mom says.
“What?”
“Your reservations,” she says. “First of all, I don’t go nowhere that requires reservations. They’re too hoity-toity for me. Second, I already got everybody ready for you. We have a big potluck planned late afternoon when everybody gets off work. Aunt Marge roasted a pig. Been working on it all night. And we got cakes and pies and that corn casserole you used to scarf down.”
She almost has me at corn casserole. But then I remember — family. People. Too many.
Grace.
“Mom, we can’t do that. We have some really big news for you. It’s private.”
“Ah, baloney,” she says. “Getting married isn’t private. We want to tell everybody! We’ve got the whole thing set up. A regular engagement party. Your cousin Daniel Dean got on his computer and made y’all a fancy sign for congratulations. He’s a wizard on machines.”
This is a disaster. “Mom, we can’t do that. It’s too much. Arianna will flip.”
“I always knew you were ashamed of your family. Is your bride one of those rich snooty types?”
“No!”
“Well, then shut your bellyaching and be down at the VA Hall at five. And don’t give me any more lip about it.”
She hangs up.
I stare at my phone. What just happened?
Arianna stands in the doorway with Grace wrapped in a towel.
“Not go according to plan?” she asks. She’s careful not to look smug.
I can’t even answer. I’m still stupefied that somebody ordered me around. I had completely forgotten what she could be like.
“You okay, Dell?” Arianna steps closer.
“Mom has set up an engagement party for us,” I say. “I’m not sure how to get out of it.”
Arianna settles on the armchair near me, drying Grace’s head. “Maybe you need to rethink the weekend. Reconnect with them.” She glances down at Grace. “Let’s just hold the ruse, okay? We can do this. We had a relationship, broke up, then found out I was pregnant and decided to try again.”
“We’ll mess up the details. We don’t have the story foolproof.” This is a disaster.
Arianna reaches out to touch my arm. “I think it will be fine, Dell. These are people who love you. And it’s no big scandal to have a baby before we’re married. It happens all the time.”
I walk the length of the hotel room. I hate it. It’s small. Ordinary. There is nothing to my standards here. This town. This hotel. This life.
Grace coos from the towel. She loves being dried off after a bath.
“Here, give her to me,” I say.
Arianna lifts Grace up, and I take her. She smells of baby shampoo and heaven. Her bright eyes look up at me, as innocent and guileless as the moon.
She calms me. Arianna is right. Babies are just babies. The only scandals are the ones done by the adults. And we’re doing the right thing here. Getting married. Taking care of her.
I just don’t want any of this to reflect badly on Arianna. She’s done nothing but save me. And now she’s entering a place where she’ll be judged.
“This is not how it was supposed to go down,” I say.
“I guess it’s time for Hasmund McDonald to realize he doesn’t control the world,” she says. “There’s no Dell Brant here.”
Arianna stands and smooths her fitted gray pants. An elegant fluttery shirt in subtle tones looks expensive and classy. She’s going to stand out at a Legion Hall potluck.
But she’s right. I have no control here. If there is anything I’ve learned from these last conversations with my mother, it’s that if I got my domineering, my-way-or-the-highway attitude from anyone, it’s her.
“Am I overdressed?” she asks.
“Is that an Armani blouse?” I ask.
She looks down at it. “Yes.”
“And pants?”
“Isabel Marant Étoile,” she says. “A gift from my mother.”
“I guess you know that outfit is two house payments down here.”
She plucks at her shirt. “Do I have time to shop somewhere more appropriate?”
“No, I love you just as you are. Just know that everyone you meet will buy their things at Wal-Mart.”
“I’ve never been in a Wal-Mart,” she says. “Do they have them in Manhattan?”
“Manhattan, Kansas,” I say wryly.
“Maybe I should go,” she says. “I could stand to learn a little culture. Broaden my horizons.”
This makes me laugh out loud. “Sure, okay. Let’s make sure we squeeze that in.”
She frowns. “Are you making fun of me?”
I switch Grace to one arm and wrap the other around Arianna. “Not in a million years. I’m making fun of me. And I’m not any more fit to walk into this party than you are.”
“We’ll be gracious,” she says. “You and I are the epitome of manners.”
“That’s a good thing,” I tell her. “Because we’re about to be tested.”
She takes Grace from my arms and heads back to the adjoining room, where we’ve stored all of the baby’s things. I glance around the cramped room. I should be fitting back into the land where I grew up.
But instead I find it stifling, unfamiliar, and if I’m willing to admit it, scary as hell.
I have no idea how they will treat Arianna. Maybe I should have her dress more plainly. But it is an engagement party. People will pull out their best.
At this point our best hope is that Grace steals the show.
And that my father doesn’t show up.