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Ally knew she was expected to respond at this point, but nothing she could say would help matters. She wanted someone to talk to, sure, but not Tag’s sister. She didn’t trust Shay. Not to mention, she didn’t even know where she and Tag stood at this point. Instead, she took the opening Shay had just given her to change the subject.
“I can see that about your family. You don’t have any children of your own yet?” She knew the answer but hoped the question would prompt Shay to talk about herself.
Shay looked a little stricken by the question. “No, um, not…yet. I don’t know if I can have children.”
Squelching the prickle of guilt for raising the subject, she asked, “So, it’s not a medical certainty?”
Shay stared back at her, indecision stamped across her face. Ally sensed that she wanted to talk about it and so she waited.
Shay inhaled a deep breath, blew it out and answered, “No, I can get pregnant. It’s the carrying the baby that hasn’t worked out. But…sometimes I think it would be easier if I couldn’t…” Her voice cracked, tears welling in her eyes. Ally felt her heart twist with sympathy. “Because that tiny kernel of hope is slowly destroying me. It shouldn’t be, I know. And right now, I should be thrilled…” She paused to swallow a sob.
Ally slowly absorbed the implication of her words. “Are you…pregnant?”
Nodding, Shay wiped at her tears with her shirt sleeve. “I’m sorry, that just slipped out. I’m so emotional right now. I’m… Stressed out doesn’t even begin to cover how I’m feeling. Please, don’t tell Tag or anyone. No one knows, except Jonah. I’m only a couple of months along and I’ve been here so many times and then…lost it. Every day, every waking moment I worry about losing this one, too. Pregnancy is supposed to be a happy experience, but for me, it’s not. It’s more like a nightmare and… And I can’t bear the thought of facing anymore pity.”
Ally wondered if Shay’s family, her husband or anyone knew the true depths of her misery and fear? And at that moment, she didn’t see Shay as her adversary, the sister who didn’t approve of her brother’s relationship with an eccentric, younger woman. She saw her as a person who needed help. And Ally wanted to help her if she could.
Ally nodded. “I won’t say a word, Shay, I promise. It’s your secret to share.”
* * *
TAG COULD BARELY think straight, so crowded was his brain with information about polls, PACs, endorsements and finances, not to mention a myriad of complicated and hot-button issues, all of which he needed to wrap his brain around. But above everything was this aching need to see Ally.
By the time he and Bering returned to Rankins late Sunday afternoon, Tag wished, right or wrong, that he could flip a switch and turn it all off, except for the part about Ally. Because all he wanted to do was relax with a cold beer and have Ally snuggled by his side. His phone, unfortunately, was not at the hangar/office where he kept his planes or in his pickup.
At home, he dropped his bag in the bedroom, changed his clothes and brushed his teeth. No phone. Had Ally worried when she hadn’t heard from him? Why hadn’t that thought occurred to him sooner? Surely, Iris would have told her he lost his phone. Would Ally be as happy to see him as he would be to see her? If he’d spent even a fraction of the time in her thoughts that she’d spent in his, all would be well. He was even beginning to wonder how he was going to manage future campaign events if he missed her this much over a weekend.
The thought flickered through his mind that he should check the newspaper, because Bering told him that Laurel had texted to say the Rankins Press had picked up an article from the newspaper in Juneau. Later, he decided, climbing back into his pickup and heading to Ally’s house.
* * *
“SO, HE LOST his phone, and that’s why you didn’t hear from him all weekend?”
Flynn stood in Ally’s kitchen, where less than an hour earlier she’d comforted and counseled poor Shay to the best of her ability. They’d made plans to meet again. Flynn held the newspaper in one hand and both his expression and tone conveyed the same skepticism Ally felt.
