A Promised Fate (31 page)

“Have you tried calling her?”

He nodded sadly up and down.

“Has Julia ever mentioned Cameron Gallo before?”

“Cameron Gallo?” he snorted. “You mean that dude in
the tabloids your sister's been crushing on?”

“Uh, yeah, him. Julia has never said anything to you
before about him?”

“No, should she have?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore. I met
him last night. He was weird but he made it sound like he knew her
maybe. He knew
who
I was…you know?”

“Oh God.” He put his head in his hand. “Call
her…please…call her now and talk to her. I have to know she's okay.
I know she’ll answer for you.”

“Right.” Unlocking my phone, I tapped Julia’s name,
the line rang twice and then I was forwarded to her voicemail. “Hi,
this is Julia. I’ll call you back later. Bye!” Her voice sounded so
happy.

“Uh, Julie...um...hey. It’s me. Call me back just so
I know you’re okay…alright?” I hung up and Rory stared at me with
glassy eyes. If Ava were awake, she would know what to say.

“Hey, Are.”

I turned around at the sound of the door and my
sister's voice.

“Hey, Roar.” She gave him a sad smile. “Ari, special
delivery, I am bringing home your little monster. He got distracted
by that cat on your porch.”

“Dangit, I need to buy cat food
,”
I
mumbled.

“Gotcha covered!” Lauren held up a couple of cans of
meaty kitten food with a yellow tabby on the label.

“Where did you get that?”

“Mom. She bought it for you this morning and forgot
to send it home when you two left. She said you can thank her
later.”

“Mmmm. I'm sure she did. How was Max today?”

“Quiet.”

“Quiet how?”

“Just quiet. He hasn’t said too much. He asked for
Ava a couple of times. He ate all his supper…”

“That’s something.”

“Yeah, well, hey, I’m going.”

“Where you goin’?” Rory grunted.

“I’m going to take a walk up the beach. Do you want
to come with me?”

Rory pushed off his stool without answering her. “See
ya, Ari.”

“See ya. Hey!” I hollered at both of them before they
could close the door. “I am going to change the code to our alarm
so no more just walking in…at least for a while. Call before you
come, or maybe knock and I’ll need everyone’s spare key to our
house.”

“Why?” Lauren asked with a snotty attitude.

“Whoever broke into the house, they knew our code, so
I have to change it.”

“Well, just give us the new one.”

“I can’t, Rory.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“That’s not it, I just don’t want any doubt. I can’t
take any chances – not with Ava and Max in the house alone…”

“Whatever. I knew I shouldn't have come here.” He
tossed his spare key at me. “Just … Ari, when she calls you, tell
her I really love her. Tell her to come home. She’ll listen to
you.”

“I will.”

“Morning!”

I cracked open one blurry eye with a moan to find Ava
perky and smiling brightly down at me. The very early morning
sunshine filtered in behind her through our bedroom window making
her look even more like the goddess she is. Her soft waves of dark
hair cascaded downward and tickled my bare chest. “You had better
wake up, Ari. Your alarm didn’t go off this morning. You're late
for work.” She gave me a shake with her hips.

“Mmmm. You’re up early.” My voice was throaty and
thick. I blinked my eyes a few times in an attempt to focus my hazy
vision. Ava slipped my glasses onto my face with a pretty smile.
“Ah, that’s better. No work today, Baby. I took the day off.”

“Oh!” She smiled again. “Why?” And then she frowned
with a confused crinkle in her nose and brow.

“We had a bad weekend, I worked a lot and we fought.
I miss you. I really miss you and Max.”

“We miss you, too.”

I palmed both sides of her belly. “I thought we could
take the day and hang out and get all of the things we're going to
need for this baby. Cal will be here before you know it and we've
hardly started getting ready for him.”

“He's just a tiny baby. What more do we need? I mean,
all he'll do is sleep and eat and poop. Right?”

“You. Are. So. Cute.” I poked the end of her nose.
“Have you read the pregnancy books I bought you yet? And the baby
books?”

“Some of them…have
you
read them?”

“Yes, I have. All of them.”

“Oh.” She had been expecting a different answer.

“We have a lot to do. And since you refused to allow
my mother to throw you a baby shower, we have to do it all on our
own.”

“Okay then, sounds like we have a busy day ahead of
us.” Ava moved her knee to climb off my lap.

“Whoa, whoa. Not so fast.” I eased Ava back down onto
my lap. “We still have a little time.” I said and adjusted my hips
below her. “We can still fool around…”

Ava bent down and placed a small kiss on to my lips.
“Max is awake.”

“How do you know?”

She didn’t need to answer me, the sound of Max
opening his bedroom door carried through the monitor, he tore
through the hallway with lightning speed and Ava crawled off my lap
just in time for him to come crashing through our bedroom
doorway.

“Hiya, Max!”

“Hey, Buddy.”

He flopped down into our blankets with a poof and a
giggle.

“I’ll throw him in the tub, Ava, and you get ready to
go. We'll meet you downstairs in a half hour.”

“K!” Ava kissed Max’s forehead and then disappeared
into the closet.

I wrestled Max in and then out of the tub, dressed
him and myself and then sat down for breakfast all while Ava
deliberated in the closet. She appeared in the kitchen twenty-five
minutes later with a long pony tail pulled through her baseball
hat, jeans and a band tee-shirt that just covered her belly button.
She looked cute and I planted a kiss on her glossy lips.

“You ready?” She asked, holding a to-go cup of coffee
in one hand.

“You need to eat first.”

Ava shook a granola bar and banana in the air at me
with the other hand. “I’ll eat in the car.”

“Sit and eat, Ava. I have to feed that cat
anyway.”

Fluff stood at the glass door and looked in at us
with a meow. He was cute and had almost grown on me. If it weren’t
for constant sneezing and raw eyes, I would have been almost
receptive to having an animal in the house, especially since the
kitten made Max so happy. Popping the top off a tin can, I slid
through the backdoor, plopped the food in his dish and refilled the
water bowl. He rubbed against my leg with a thank you nudge and I
shooed him off softly with my foot. Removing the spare key from
under the cactus pot, I shoved it in my pocket and then locked the
doors behind me.

“Ava, I changed the alarm code last night. You need
to make sure the alarm is set all the time, even when you are home.
Ok?”

“Ok.” Ava nodded.

“I know it sucks.”

“It really does.”

I had grown up with an open-door policy. Everyone was
free to come and go. People popped into our house all the time to
say hello or sit for a morning cup of coffee or sip a glass of wine
in the evening. Our pool always seemed to have someone lounging by
it and our kitchen welcomed everyone. Ava and I had adopted that
easy routine as our own way of living. Dinner was rarely just the
three of us; Rory and August especially were near-constant dinner
guests. We loved the drop-in way of life. Now our doors are always
locked and the alarm is always set, even in the afternoon. Going
out and coming in had become an inconvenient hassle.

“No more spare keys, so don’t get locked out of the
house. The code is 0804. Don’t tell anyone.”

“0804. Our anniversary. I can remember that.”

“Good. Our secret?”

“Our secret.”

I set the alarm and made a quick glance down at my
cell phone before we drove away from the house – no call from
Julia. On the ride into town, I broke the news of Julia leaving
Rory to Ava. She was upset. She was also worried.

****

We stared up at a massive wall shelved with an
enormous selection of baby bottles. Max’s tired feet had given up
on him three stores prior and he was hitching a ride on my hip.

“How do I know which kind of bottle to get? There are
just so many!”

“Have you given any thought to how you're going to
feed the baby?”

“What do you mean?” Her face pinched.

“Are you going to breastfeed or use a bottle, do you
just want to use baby formula…”

“Errrr…”

“I kind of thought you would breastfeed. I would like
you to, but only if you are comfortable with it. Breastfeeding is a
good way to bond. I know that puts a lot of the work on to you, but
I can still help. I'll still get up with you in the night.”

“Ok, yeah, I want to.”

“Good. Do you know how long you plan to breastfeed? A
couple of weeks or months, a year?”

“I don’t know! For as long as I can…I guess.”

“When will you go back to work for
House to
Home
?”

“I wasn’t really planning on taking an extended
leave. I’ll just work from home most days. With the fundraiser out
of the way, I won’t need to be in the office as much as I have
been.”

“The doctor won't want you to go back to work for six
to eight weeks, Ava – depending on the delivery. And if I have any
say in the matter, and I think I should have some say, I don’t want
you returning to work for at
least
eight weeks. I was hoping
you would take a year off of work. My father will understand and
it’s not like you really take pay. Don’t you still cut your
paycheck back to the fund?”

“Yeah…but I don’t want to take that much time off
work, Ari. I really enjoy what I do. Are
you
taking a year
off work?”

“
Pfft
. No.”

Her brow rose and her lip curled. I had somehow
insulted her. Accidently implying that my job was more important
than hers.

“Eight weeks it is. You’ll need a pump then. And
you’ll eventually need to switch to bottles, so you should find a
bottle with the same kind of nipples as yours.”

I picked a box of bottles that came highly
recommended from a pediatric group and then grabbed a pack of
nipples and tossed them in the cart. “Those are probably the most
similar to your own.”

“How do you know?”

“I have spent a lot of time with them, that’s how.” I
winked.

Ava blushed so hard, I could feel the heat radiating
off her cheeks. “Ava! It’s just your body, everyone has nipples. No
need to get embarrassed.”

“I’m not embarrassed!” She hissed.

“Yes you are!”

She turned a shade darker and then walked away
towards the wall of diapers.

Catching up, I grabbed a jumbo pack of newborn
diapers and shoved the box below the cart.

We piled in tiny nail clippers, baby wipes and a
booger sucker, a breast pump, a baby bath and a monitor. Ava and I
deliberated on a baby swing for twenty minutes until Max whined and
begged to move along to the next item on the list. We tested
strollers, car seats and high chairs and I could tell that Ava was
overwhelmed.

“We already have a crib, why do we need a bassinet,
too?”

“The baby will sleep in our room for a while. It'll
just easier for you that way, since you'll be feeding in the middle
of the night. With your nightmares, I just can't see you sleeping
with the baby in our own bed. It’ll be too dangerous, you toss
around so hard. A bassinet will have to be the way to go.”

“Right. God, I'm nervous.” She chewed her lip.

“Don’t be. You're a great mom, Ava. Isn’t she,
Max?”

“Yesss!” he cheered and Ava beamed at him.

“It's different this time. We have to start from
scratch with this one. I don’t know what to do – this is new
territory.”

Max had arrived potty trained and eating table food,
walking and somewhat talking on his own. A baby was a whole new set
of rules.

“You aren’t alone. You have me. We're going to learn
together.”

“K.” Her head bobbed.

“And my mom is right next door.”

“Yep...Aggie. I’m gonna need her.”

“Speaking of…”

“What?”

“Have you thought about the delivery room?”

“What about the delivery room?” Her brow pulled up in
a question.

“I am going to be in there with you when the baby is
born, but have you thought about anyone else. My mom asked me if
she could be there, too, and I didn’t know what to tell her…”

“No. And I don’t mean that in a mean way. But that
day belongs to us, Ari. The birth of our baby is a most special
day...and those first moments? I want to share them with just you.
That moment in time, we are going to remember it forever, it will
be our best memory together.”

“You’re right.” I grabbed a pack of white onesies and
tossed them in the pile and headed towards the register, feeling a
little more prepared for a new addition to the family than I had in
the morning.

With my SUV completely loaded down, I pulled into the
garage and popped the rear hatch to start unloading a whole carful
of baby must haves. All three of us were in fun and carefree moods.
Ava and Max had plans to raid the freezer for ice cream as soon as
they got inside. The heaviness from the past week was beginning to
ebb away. I could breathe again.

Ava helped Max from his seat, unlocked the door and
followed after him through the doorway. I was right behind her with
my hands loaded down with bags.

“What on Earth is that noise?” I called ahead of
them. The hallway echoed moans that were similar to Ava’s birthing
video. Animalistic howls of pain.

The small, crying moans sounded off like an alarm and
my mind raced as I tried to place the noises. Howls, too, as if a
dying animal were trapped and hanging on to its last breath.