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Chapter TwelveBy the time the dinner rolled around on Friday, Hope was a hot mess. She’d changed for the third time and was going back for a fourth when Daniel intercepted her. “You look great.”
“I feel like a…” She pulled at her sundress. Surely it hadn’t been this tight last time she’d worn it? She felt like she was walking around with a giant scarlet A on her chest, that anyone who looked at her would know that she was pregnant with Daniel’s child and that it hadn’t been planned. “I don’t know. Something huge and ungainly.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You’re seven weeks along, darling. You haven’t changed a bit.”
He might not think so, but she felt different. The nausea that everyone seemed to talk about hadn’t overwhelmed her apart from a few food aversions, but her body was just off. The food she usually loved she didn’t even want in the house, and her skin felt too tight. And that wasn’t even bringing up the fact that apparently naps were the name of the game right now. It was just so wrong.
All she wanted to do was to wrap a blanket around herself and curl up with Ollie on the couch so she could get back her to Gilmore Girls binge session while she worked on what she could swing remotely, but she had to put on real clothes and leave the house and face what felt like half of Devil’s Falls.
No one was going to be happy about this turn of events.
She’d very carefully not thought about what her parents would think. They were shocked she was back in Devil’s Falls, but they’d accepted her excuse of needing to hammer out some last-minute details with the town board about John’s scholarship. The only thing getting them to make the drive north to town was her presence here. It had been six weeks since she saw them last, and she’d been battling the guilt of how things fell out with Daniel and their hookup. It made her sick to think about facing them now. They’re going to be so disappointed in me.
“It will be okay.” Daniel turned her around to face him and framed her face with his hands. “I promise.”
“There you go again, promising things you can’t fulfill.” And she was being depressing as all get-out. Hope took a deep breath. “I’m as ready as I’m going to be.”
He searched her face and finally nodded. “Let’s go, then.”
The trip into town took far too little time. They’d rented the back room of the Finer Diner to give them a little bit of privacy and to make sure no one had home court advantage. We planned this out like we’re going to battle. It felt a whole lot like waging a war rather than what should have been a joyful occasion. In another life, it might have been…
No use thinking that way. This is your life. Not that nice little land of what-if.
Daniel’s parents had beaten them there. His mom rose. She was a slightly overweight Hispanic woman with the kindest eyes Hope had ever seen, who always seemed to have a giant smile on her face. That was no different now, as she rushed around the corner to hug her. “As I live and breathe! Hope Moore!” She swept Hope up into a hug. Almost immediately, she gripped her shoulders and stepped back. “Let me look at you. Good lord, girl, but you’re even more beautiful now than you were at eighteen.” She registered the scar peeking out of the bottom of Hope’s sundress, but her expression didn’t so much as flicker. “I hear that you’re running your own business. I always knew you were ambitious. Makes me so proud.”
While she’d been chatting, Daniel’s father had come to stand next to them. “Lori, you’re manhandling her.” He’d always seemed more biker than rancher to Hope, with his burly build and long graying hair and beard, but the fierce exterior was matched by an equally fierce love of his family. He hugged her, too, lifting her off her feet. “We missed you, Hope.”
“I missed you, too.” Against all reason, her eyes pricked, and she sniffed. She’d forgotten how much she loved the Rodriguezes—and how much they adored her.
Rodger set her back on her feet. “I hear you’ve decided to give our boy another shot.” He gave Daniel a significant look. “It’s a shame it took this long for him to pull his head out of his ass.”
“For God’s sake, Dad.” Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. “You know there were extenuating circumstances.”
Extenuating circumstances like him blaming himself for her brother’s death and wallowing in his guilt.
Lori wiped her eyes, still beaming like it was Christmas morning. “None of that matters now that you’re back.”
I don’t know if I’m back. She couldn’t force the words out. Every time she said them, they felt more and more like a lie. She wanted to be back. But every time she was in danger of falling completely under the spell Daniel and Devil’s Falls wove, something would happen to jar her back to stark reality. She wanted to believe. She just couldn’t help waiting for the other shoe to drop.
