Laura Ray (Ray Series) (21 page)

Next she brought out an oblong glass baking dish and placed a cube of butter in it and set it in the hot oven to melt. She stirred up some cake batter and set aside. She pulled the melted butter out of the oven and opened a can of pineapple rings. She placed the rings carefully in the butter and sprinkled brown sugar over them. She poured the cake batter evenly over the brown sugar, smoothed it out and placed it in the oven with the scalloped potatoes.

What next
, she thought, why not, the oven’s on. She stirred up a pan of biscuits.
A couple of cans of green beans sound good with this meal.

Laura leaned against the cabinet and stared at the floor.
What if I’m pregnant
?

She looked at the ceiling for answers. She consoled herself with the thought that
if she were pregnant, Art would have the child he wanted for so long. If she were pregnant, she would immediately quit her job and put all her time into her art.

Well! That was a revelation! She blinked her eyes for a moment. Maybe she did want to
quit her job. Did she need excuses to quit her job? With her mind made up to quit her job as soon as they got married, she reached over and turned the chicken in the skillet.

She felt much more at
peace. It was a win-win situation. Life would be sweet either way. When Art and Danny came in, she had the food all prepared and a happy smile on her face.

“Wow! Mom,” Danny exclaimed. “Did you have a good day or
what?”

Laura laughed, “Come here, Danny. You need a hug.”

“I didn’t know it,” Danny laughed, “but Okay.” He lifted her off her feet during his bear hug.

Art stood in line, “Me, too.” He grinned but took the liberty to give her an affectionate kiss along with it.

During the meal Art asked her, “Could you meet me Friday after you get off work at the jewelry shop? I think I can get off to meet you there to get our rings.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll be there,” she said looking at her
bare hand. “I’m getting excited about all of this.”

“I can tell, you seem very happy tonight,” Art smiled.

“I am,” Laura smiled. “I wanted to let you know that Mary, Samantha and I plan to shop on Saturday, so I will be busy most of the day.”

“Okay,” Art nodded. “That will give me some time to catch up on some things.”

“I really got a scare today.” She swept her hand over all of the food, “I had to work off my nerves.”

Showing concern, Art asked, “What scared you?”

“I was talking to Samantha and she suggested that I might get pregnant.” Laura explained, “The thought had never occurred to me.”

“Mom!
You might have a baby?” Danny shrieked looking from one of them to the other.

Art sat back in his chair with a solemn look on his face.

When he found his voice, he said, “You are saying that you have a healthy uterus and ovaries.”

“Very healthy.
Active, too.” She nodded, implying that she still had regular menstrual cycles.

“I’m ready for dessert.” Danny stated ready for a change of subject.

“Go get it yourself,” Laura said, not breaking eye contact with Art.

“Okay,” Danny got up cheerfully and dished up three servings of pineapple upside down cake. He set cake before each one of them and sat back down to eat his cake. He took one bite and said, “I’m going to eat mine in my bedroom.”

“It’s okay, Art.” Laura soothingly said. “I’m okay with it either way.”

After Danny went into his bedroom and shut his door, Art leaned over the table and asked, “When was your last period?”

“I don’t remember,” Laura looked around trying to remember. “It was last month some time.”

“Focus, Laura. This is important.”

“What I do know,” she explained, “is that it should be any time.”

Art leaned back and let his breath out, “We should be in the clear then.” He shook his head. “When we were trying to get my wife pregnant, I learned a lot about women and their issues. Usually a woman ovulates in the middle of her cycle.”

He dismissed the issue from his mind with a brush of his hand. He reached for his cake and took a bite.

“Art, I meant what I said.” Laura insisted, “I’m okay with it either way.”

He looked at her and realized the love she offered him in being willing to have his child this late in her life. “Thank you. I understand what you are saying.” He reached over and pressed her hand. “I also love you too much to risk your life. From now on, I will be more careful.”

Chapter Twenty T
wo

Laura met Mary and Samantha at
Williams Land Realtors at nine o’clock on Saturday morning. There were several houses on their list to see.

After Laura sat down in the back seat
, she proudly showed off her new engagement ring. It was going to be a fun day.

By the end of the day, they had narrowed it down to two houses, either one looked good to Laura. Now, it was a decision for Art and Laura to work out together.

Mr. Williams said, “I’ll be available tomorrow afternoon. If you want to show him the houses then, give me a call.”

Laura took his card. She wondered how Art would take this. She hoped that when she explained her reasons, he would be satisfied.

She called Nora when she got home and told her all about Art and their plans to get married.

“Mom, you sneaky person,” Nora accused with a laugh. “You never even told me that you were dating. Now, you are getting married.”

“Well, until lately we were just dating. Now it’s serious.”

“I bet Danny could tell me some stories.” Nora proclaimed, “I’m going to start calling him. He tells me the juicy stuff.”

“Well, as you well know, he has the knack of embarrassing a person, if he can get a good laugh.”

“Oh, yes. I chased him out of the room lots of times.”

I really miss you and Danny. We are so busy with school and work but I asked Jeremy if he could get loose for Thanks giving. It would be really nice to spend our whole Thanksgiving break with family this year. I’ll ask Samantha if we can use Jeremy’s old room if it’s available.”

“I would love that,” Laura replied.

“Let me know when you have some definite plans about the wedding, so that I can take time off work.”

During Sunday dinner, Laura began her prepared speech about how she wanted the wedding in the backyard. She described the setting she wanted, about what Samantha said about what kind of flowers to plant so that it would spare expense of planting the next year. She went on and on.

Art began to get suspicious. He started to get a puzzled frown across his brow wondering what she was going with all of this. This made Laura all the more nervous, so she kept inventing more things to say.

Finally, Art held up his hands. “Laura, out with it. What are you trying to tell me without telling me?”

Her round eyes seemed to expand, if that were possible. She rubbed her hands together, and said in a thin voice, “I’ve been talking to a realtor about a new house.”

Art threw his head back and laughed. She tried to smile but it didn’t come out right.

“Come here,” Art beckoned with his hand.

She walked around the table and Art pulled her down to sit on his lap. “Laura, sometimes you act like you’re afraid of me.” He kissed her. “Don’t you know that you make me happy?”

She rolled her eyes a bit and smiled. “You were frowning at me.”

“I was wondering what in the name of Sam Hill you were talking about.”

“All that time you were talking about the wedding, I was imagining that you wanted it in the back yard here. If that’s what you want, I could live with it.” Art explained, “What I am having a hard time with is living in that small apartment that I rented. I was envisioning you wanting me to live in that tiny bedroom of yours. Honey, the colors I can live with but there is no space for my things in there.”

“I figured that out, too.”

“Do you think the realtor could show us some houses today?” Art asked.

Laura stood up and produced a card beside the telephone. “He wants us to call him this afternoon. That’s why I was trying to work through this during dinner.”

Art liked both of the houses that the realtor showed them but he told him that he wanted to look around a little more before he made up his mind. Now that he had an idea what Laura wanted he thought he could find a better house.

Laura felt a little disappointed that Art didn’t choose either one of them
, but she tried to be gracious about it. At least, now the ball was rolling. Getting her new house was only a matter of time. Also her wedding date seemed contingent upon when they could get the house.

Running down the street in a slow jog to work off her nerves, she began to run down her items on her ‘to do’ list.
She knew that some might say that she was feeling sorry for herself, but she felt like her hands were tied. She wanted to find the right house, she wanted to get the wedding arrangements set up, she wanted to quit her job, and she wanted to get started taking art lessons. Someday, she hoped to make a little profit to replace her loss of income from quitting Cherokee Togs. Then on top of that, there was the little issue of pregnancy looming in the back of her mind. She was reminded of some comedian on TV saying, ‘Life sure gets complicated, don’t it.’

Harold had taken Danny and Aaron fishing again. Art was busy at his shop working, so she had the day to herself. When she ran back to the house, she knew the run should have exhilarated her system to feel like tackling anything. She felt nothing but tired.
She stopped at the door of the art room, and then went in and sat down on the chair. She looked at the canvass and picked up a brush as if she had paint on it and lifted it to the canvass. Her arm felt as heavy as lead so she put the brush back down. She went to the bathroom and discovered that she definitely was not pregnant.

Well, she told herself, that’s a problem I can mark off the list. She went to her bedroom, wrapped herself in a blanket and went to sleep.

On the first of October Art called to say that he had a house he wanted her to see at five o’clock. When he arrived, he excitedly told her, “The couple is desperate to sell the house. They are going through a divorce and need to turn it as soon as possible. It’s a honey of a deal.”

“Have you seen it?” Laura asked
picking up a little of his enthusiasm.

“No,” Art said as he maneuvered a corner. “Mr. Williams says that it has everything we want. I wanted you to see it with me. If you don’t like the house, then we will keep looking.”

Mr. Williams’ car already sat in the driveway. The red brick house included an attached garage with beautiful landscaping in the front yard. Mr. Williams opened the door to a foyer inlaid with brown tile. To the left was a partial wall with decorative posts which reached to the ceiling. Laura decided the large sunken living room was designed with her in mind. Large picture window opened toward the street allowing a nice view of the neighborhood. The kitchen was behind the living room and opened up into the garage. On the right of the kitchen was a nice sized dining room which would be great for big family dinners.

The hall led to the bedrooms. Art wanted to see the master bedroom. Would there be enough room for both of them to store their
clothing? First on the left, Mr. Williams opened a door into a bathroom. On the right were two regular sized bedrooms. Finally he opened up the master bedroom. Laura stood with her mouth open. Never had she seen such a luxurious master suite. But then she had never seen a master suite before either.

The bedroom looked almost as large as the living room. Art said, “This is almost the same size of my apartment.”

Mr. Williams smiled and showed them the large walk-in closet. Next, he opened the door to the master bathroom where no expense was spared. A large glassed in shower stood next to a whirlpool tub. On the opposite wall a large eight foot long cabinet displayed two sinks spaciously placed so there was plenty of room. A large mirror covered the wall above the cabinet. Extra cabinets and storage space filled every available nook.

Art’s smile reached from ear to ear. Laura wondered how they ever could afford anything so elaborate.

As they entered the back yard, they stepped out onto a large wooden deck where a wrought iron, glass topped table stood surrounded by wrought iron chairs filled with deep cushions. Lounge chairs filled the space beyond. Laura looked up at the largest walnut tree she had ever seen. Across from the walnut tree in the glittering sunshine stood a cute little water fountain pouring it bucket of water upon shining rocks below. The fountain perched above blooming petunias intertwined among other greenery. Red and violet crepe myrtles bloomed profusely behind the display.

Art’s smile never left his face.
Laura’s heart pounded with excitement. She breathed shallowly and clutched her hands together knowing that this house must cost way above their budget.

Mr. Williams took them back to kitchen table and had them all sit down. “I have a contract right here in my folder for you to make an offer if you are interested.”