Independence Day (17 page)

“That doesn’t seem quite fair,” she retorted, strong enough to protest.

“Just the exercise’s version of you-know-what happens.” He chuckled and she could feel the sound in his chest as well as hear it. “Still trust me?”

“I always have,” she replied and suddenly felt an overwhelming love for this man. And insight.

Here she thought his job was her competition, but she’d chosen him way back in high school for the qualities that ultimately made him so good at his job. The kind of thoughtful program he’d put together today, the kind of patience and understanding he’d shown her in this exercise. Strength. Empathy. Respect for others. The ability to instill trust.

She’d forgotten how simple it was to just close her eyes and trust those qualities in Nick she’d fallen in love with all those years ago.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Nick said. “Are you all right?”

“More than all right.” She smiled and felt at ease, despite the blindfold.

The five-minute whistle blew. “Sighted participants stand close as your partners remove the blindfold.” Sylvia’s voice came over the bullhorn. “The sudden return of light may make them a little unsteady.”

Carefully, Nick untied the knot at the back of Chessie’s head. Despite the lesson she’d learned, she could barely wait to see again.

When she felt the strip of cloth fall away, she shook her hair and opened her eyes. And quickly felt the world slip away to black.

Nick watched Chessie slide to the ground.

“Water! Someone bring water!” Blood pounding in his ears, he leaned over the collapsed form of his wife to feel the steady pulse at her throat. “I think she’s fainted.”

He knew of her phobia and had clearly sensed her fear during the exercise, but she’d soldiered on. And it had been too much. He cursed himself.

The school nurse came running with the first aid kit while several hands offered up water bottles. Taking the smelling salts first, he cracked open the plastic vial and held it under his wife’s nose. She flinched, then seconds later her eyes fluttered open.

“Chessie!” He cupped the back of her head in his hand. “Sip some water.”

“What happened?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. We’re going to get you to the doctor.”

“No! I’m fine. I just got worked up over being blindfolded.”

“I don’t think so.” He held the water bottle to her lips, encouraging her to sip. “You’re not the fainting kind.”

As she accepted the water, she glanced warily at the crowd gathered around her. “Help me up. I’ll sit in the shade. I’ll be all right.”

“Sit still. Please.” He pulled out his cell phone. “If our family doctor can’t fit you in, I’m taking you to the E.R.”

“No!” She reached for the phone, but he turned aside. “You can’t leave,” she insisted. “Staff day’s only half over.”

Hattie knelt beside Chessie as Nick waited to be connected. He could hear Hattie assuring Chessie that the day was set up so that, once in place, it ran itself as a group effort. It didn’t need a fearless leader. Nick didn’t feel particularly fearless at the moment. Not with Chessie taking a nosedive on the turf. Why was it you could bear the pain yourself, but nearly came undone when a loved one was hurt?

He accepted the first appointment slot, then clicked his cell phone shut. “Come on,” he said, lifting Chessie. “The nurse practitioner will see you as soon as we get there. If you need a doctor, she’ll squeeze you in.”

“This isn’t right,” she protested as they left the field to a chorus of good wishes. “You belong here. It’s your job.”

“No, Chessie. I belong with you. It’s my life.”

He placed her in the Volvo. Why did healthy people faint? He racked his brain for answers, but found he could only focus on Chessie, sitting pale and unusually quiet in the passenger seat.

At the doctor’s, he tried to carry her inside, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Made him stay in the waiting room, too. She insisted she was fine. She had to be. He didn’t like being left behind because it gave him far too much time to imagine all that might be wrong. Chessie didn’t faint. Something had to have triggered it.

He counted the chairs in the waiting room. He paced. He sat and flicked through a two-year-old
Field and Stream.
He paced. He thought of calling Isabel and Gabriella, but decided against it. They weren’t expecting Chessie and him home until after three. It was twelve-fifteen. Better not alarm them.

What was taking so long?

He paced.

Finally, he couldn’t stand it. He pushed through the door that led to the examination rooms, and asked the first person he saw, “Where’s Chessie McCabe?”

“I put her in room six, but the nurse practitioner’s still with her.”

Good. He had questions.

He opened door number six and found himself staring into Chessie’s wide hazel eyes. She looked stunned.

“Mr. McCabe,” the nurse practitioner said, “I was about to call for you.”

He felt rooted to the floor. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong! We were just discussing good news.” The nurse practitioner smiled broadly even as the color drained from Chessie’s face. “You and your wife are going to have a baby!”

P
REGNANT
. Chessie couldn’t find words to speak as Nick drove them home. She was thirty-seven years old, the mother of two teenagers. And pregnant.

Two months pregnant. Due in February. Valentine’s Day.

Except for the very solid jar of prenatal vitamins she held in her hand, this might be a dream. She glanced over at Nick in the driver’s seat. He seemed as shell-shocked as she.

At home they walked into the kitchen in silence. Nick rummaged in the refrigerator for something to drink while she sank into a chair, numb. She looked around the cluttered room and thought of everything that would need to be baby-proofed. After all these years.

Nick poured juice for the two of them, then sat across from her. The tension lines that fanned from the edges of his eyes were deeply etched. His mouth was set in a straight and serious line. A baby certainly threw a monkey wrench into all his well-laid plans.

How could this happen? Well, she knew. After
Gabby was born, she didn’t want to be on the pill indefinitely, so she and Nick had been vigilant about using condoms. Until the past few years. Maybe because she hadn’t gotten pregnant, they’d grown lax. Two adults. And people expected teenagers to be responsible.

“We should talk.” Nick sounded tired.

“I need time—” she felt tired “—to decide.”

“What’s to decide?” There was hurt in his eyes.

“Decide was the wrong word.” She grasped for the right one. “I need time to let this soak in. Meanwhile, let’s not tell anyone—”

“Not tell anyone what?” Gabriella asked as she and Isabel came through the door.

Chessie and Nick looked away from each other, and she felt like a kid caught red-handed.

Isabel stared at one parent and then the other. “Is something wrong?”

“No.” Nick was quick to answer. “Your mother and I were just discussing…a change in plans.”

Gabriella spotted the bottle in Chessie’s lap. “Is someone sick?”

“Not at all,” Chessie replied.

“Then what are these?” Gabriella snatched the bottle before Chessie could react. As she read the label her face flamed red. “Prenatal vitamins?”

“You’re pregnant?” Isabel gasped.

“Yes,” Chessie replied quietly.

“My thirty-seven-year-old mother is going to have
a baby?” Gabriella shrieked. “Eeuuw! Gross! You’re not going to have it, are you?”

“Gabriella! That’s enough!” Nick started to rise out of his chair, but Isabel had already yanked her sister’s arm and now held her with a steady grip and a steely-eyed glare.

“Are you going to have it?” Isabel asked, her voice filled with concern.

“Yes,” both Chessie and Nick answered together.

Although Gabriella’s eyes widened in disbelief, Isabel looked relieved.

“But I really don’t want it talked about,” Chessie said. “Not yet. Not even with the aunts and uncles. Or with Gramps.”

“Why not?” Gabriella asked, astounded. “If you’re going to have it, what’s the point of keeping it a secret?”

What was the point of keeping it secret for a little while longer? Nothing more than to let the reality of this bombshell sink in.

“Obviously, we need to make plans.” Nick was already in schematic mode. Chessie could see it in his eyes. But was it for a child—their child—or a problem that needed to be solved?

“I’d say,” Gabriella retorted. “This is a three-bed-room house. Where are we going to put this baby?”

“We have seven months to figure that out.” Nick was fielding the questions, and Chessie let him. She felt as if she weren’t a part of this scene, as if she were watching it from the wrong end of a telescope.

“Can we even afford a baby?” Gabriella sounded more and more like her father, but her question gave Chessie pause. How would Nick now feel about letting that lucrative job offer in Atlanta slip by? At her urging.

“Yes, we’ll be able to afford this baby.”

“Mom…?” Isabel looked worried. “Will you be able to do your pottery? The classes? The gallery?”

Wow. That was a whopper of a question. “I don’t know,” she replied.

Nick cocked his head as if he hadn’t expected that answer. “Sure you can. It won’t be exactly as you envisioned, but you can do it. We can help.”

“Nick, we need to talk about so many things.”

“Gabby, that’s our cue.” Isabel tugged on her sister’s shirt. “Let’s go get subs for supper. Mom, is there anything you can’t have?”

Chessie smiled at Isabel’s thoughtfulness. “Anything’s fine. Thank you.”

When the girls were gone, Nick took Chessie’s hands in his. “I’m happy about this baby, Chess.”

“You are?”

“Yes. I grew up in a big family. Lots of kids don’t scare me.”

“But after fourteen years, a baby…”

He inhaled sharply then exhaled hard. “I must admit the news came as a shock.”

“But you’re ready?”

“When are we ever really ready for what life
throws us? I’d say, with your help, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“About help…” This was one of many thoughts that had been scratching around in the back of her mind from the minute the nurse practitioner had spoken those fateful words. “I’ll need more from you this time. This time around I’m more deeply into my pottery. You told Isabel you didn’t think I had to give it up. I don’t want to. But Gabby and Izzy are on the verge of having their own lives. You can’t count on them to fill in all the time as babysitters.”

“We’ll work it out.”

“And what about us? As a couple? We were just starting to make headway. Just starting to look forward to four years from now when we’d be a twosome again. Now we’ll be fifty-six when this baby goes off to college.”

“In eighteen years, right?” Nick smiled gently at her. “So, if this baby hadn’t come along, how old would we be in eighteen years?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I know. We’ll have to work it out. Make time for each other. Like the pops concert. Like the walk the other day. Like closing our bedroom door.”

“There’s so much to work out. The last time I had a baby, I had a diaper pail. Emily has a diaper system for Eric. It’s this big high-tech machine that shrink-wraps soiled diapers into odorless little pack
ages suitable for party favors.” She felt a fat tear roll down her cheek. “I feel like such a dinosaur, Nick.”

With a chuckle, he stood and pulled her into an embrace. “Now I hear the hormones talking.”

“I’m allowed,” she snuffled into his shirtfront. “For the next seven months I’m allowed.”

“So…can we tell the family?”

“Not yet. Please, not yet.”

Nick worried at her hesitation. Her lack of joy at the prospect of a baby. Maybe she was afraid he felt obligated. Not committed. If so, he’d have to rectify that misconception.

He needed help to convince her, and, for Chessie, he wasn’t afraid to ask for it. From Gabriella and Isabel. And from the rest of the McCabes. If they were going to raise another child, he needed to call in the tag-team.

I
T TOOK HIM
a couple days to set the stage, and as the plan unfolded in his mind, he wondered if it might be too over-the-top. But watching Chessie retreat into silence, taking long walks alone, he felt certain what he had in mind would show her he could think outside a buttoned-down world and give her what support and intimacy she needed.

On Friday he announced he’d asked Brad and Emily if Chessie and he could “borrow” one-year-old Eric for a day to get reacquainted with a baby.

Well, tomorrow was here. A rainy, gray Saturday that could not have suited his plan more if he’d been
able to special order it. He’d make sure Chessie took her vitamins.

Before she awoke, he was downstairs collaborating on the final few details with Gabriella and Isabel. The girls took off as he readied a breakfast tray of tea and toast for Chessie.

When he re-entered their bedroom, she rolled over and opened one eye. “What’s the occasion?” she asked, indicating the tray.

“We have a minute alone. I thought we could enjoy the peace and quiet.”

She propped herself up against her pillows, and he sat on his side of the bed, carefully placing the tray between them.

“Thank you.” She nibbled on a slice of toast.

It hit him that they weren’t alone, hadn’t been for the past few days even when they were the only two people in the house. With the prospect of a baby looming over their heads, the room actually felt crowded. By the end of the day he hoped they’d be able to get back to the two of them. For a few moments at least.

“So, when is Emily bringing Eric over?” she asked.

“Any time now. I told her we’d like a whole day’s experience.”

She offered him a tentative smile. “You know, when you mentioned this idea last night, I thought you were crazy. But I’m starting to look forward to the day…especially since we’re doing it together.”

“It looks as if it’s just you, me and Eric, kid. Ma
riah called Izzy earlier. I don’t know what that was about. And Gabby’s spending the day in a special dance rehearsal. Seems she’s got to learn some new complicated number by this afternoon.”

He heard Emily’s van pull in the driveway, followed by Pop’s truck. Right on time.

“Our refresher course is here,” he said, standing. “I’ll go down to meet him.”

“Give me a second,” Chessie said, getting out of bed and opening the dresser drawer. “I don’t think the day calls for anything fancier than sweats.”

Truer words were never spoken.

By the time Chessie made it to the kitchen, Nick was balancing a very squirmy Eric on his hip while Alex, Nina, Noah and Olivia chased each other around the first floor. Alex had brought Nick’s junior-high-school trumpet, which she was using liberally to lead the troop charge.

“Eric started walking last week,” Emily said, “and he doesn’t think he needs to be held anymore. He loves to go for a walk, but if this rain keeps up all day, that won’t be an option. Sorry.”

Through the side door Nick could see Pop and Jonas unloading the power tools from their truck to the first floor of the barn. “We’ll be fine, Em. It’s not as if we’re first-time parents.”

“Not at all.” Chessie reached for Eric, held him aloft, then planted a big noisy raspberry on his tummy much to the one-year-old’s delight. Nick
didn’t know how she could feel inadequate over having another child. She was a natural mother.

“Okay,” Emily said. “Good luck.”

When she turned to go and the four older children didn’t follow, Chessie shot Nick a questioning look.

“Uh, Em?” he said. “I thought we were going to just watch Eric.”

Emily looked guilty, and for a minute he thought she might not go through with the plan. After all, she was the one who’d told him either Chessie would love his creative effort…or she would divorce him on the spot. But she took a deep breath and said innocently, “Oh, dear, I must have misunderstood. I thought you wanted all the cousins. That’s why I had Alex sleep over. That’s why Brad and I made a date to go to Portland to shop for a new car. I… I suppose we could cancel.”

“Oh, I know how hard it is to find time for just the two of you,” Chessie said as Noah ran by with Nina in hot pursuit. “Isabel doesn’t go to work at the pound until later this afternoon. She can help entertain the older ones. You and Brad go and enjoy the day together.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Nick said emphatically.

“You won’t have to worry about Eric being bothered by the chaos,” Emily said, backing to the door. “He’s used to it.”

“Chaos,” Chessie murmured as Emily drove off. “Let’s see if we can minimize it.” She put Eric on the floor where he happily toddled right toward the cup
board under the sink. “Find something to secure those doors,” she said, heading for the living room.

“Okay, gang,” Nick heard her say as he grabbed some duct tape off the counter and quickly taped all the Eric-accessible doors shut, “who wants to work with some clay?”

“Me!” came the chorused reply.

“Well, follow the Pied Piper!” Chessie marched out of the living room and through the kitchen. “You can bring Eric,” she said over her shoulder. “I bet he’d love to get squishy.”

Nick scooped up his nephew and joined the end of the line. The only way he could keep the boy from fussing was by “flying” him with all the appropriate noises. This was better than a weight-lifting program.

When they hit the utility room, they could hear the screech of power tools coming from the barn’s lower level. Pop and Jonas stopped when they saw the gang.

“Hey, Chessie!” Pop called out. “Jonas and I had a free morning, and we thought we’d get your shelves up. It’ll be noisy for a few hours, but it shouldn’t be too bad in the house.”

“Actually, we were headed to the loft for a pottery class.”

“You won’t disturb us,” Pop replied with a grin.

A dubious expression on her face, Chessie led the kids upstairs, but no sooner were they settled at a table than the din began in earnest. The power saw’s high-pitched whine could etch glass. Jonas added his own touch by turning up his radio to a favorite heavy metal
station. And the hammering— Nick was sure professional carpenters never needed that many strokes per minute—the hammering rocked the rafters.

“We can’t work up here,” Chessie yelled.

“Awwww!” The cousins didn’t seem to mind the noise.

“He said they were only going to work this morning. We can come back this afternoon.” She motioned for everyone to follow her. “Let’s make cookies.”

“Yaaaay!” The cousins were really getting into it.

As they trooped downstairs and back through the gallery, Pop winked at Nick.

No sooner had they settled around the kitchen table than Isabel came through the door with Mariah’s big wet Airedale, Muffin. The cousins shrieked with glee as they rushed to manhandle the dog who stood in the middle of the kitchen and shook rain water all over everyone and everything.

From his perch on Nick’s shoulders, Eric crowed his approval.

“What are you doing with that dog, Isabel?” Chessie was trying to get the cousins corralled.

“Aunt Mariah is getting her apartment painted this weekend. She needed a dogsitter. I offered.”

“Well, put him in the utility room,” Chessie ordered. “And all my bakers need to wash their hands. Again.”