Angie’s expression softened. “It won’t be so hard once you hold your baby in your arms. Your heart will be so full of love the world will feel absolutely perfect.” Her eyes grew wet. “Even when your head knows it isn’t.”
The phone rang at 5:15, and it was Joe asking for Angie. Maud answered and immediately gushed about baby Ethan. She kept him talking for at least five minutes before she handed the phone to Angie with a look of encouragement.
“Hello?” Angie faced the wall and spoke softly. “Yes, I know. It was spontaneous, but I wanted to visit Maud.” She paused. “No, it wasn’t about that. I just wanted to get out of the house.” She twirled the phone cord around her finger. “Okay. Yes. I’ll see you later.”
She hung up and turned to meet Valerie’s sympathetic gaze. “He’s coming to get me at six. He said he wants to help me give Ethan a bath tonight. He refuses to change a diaper, so maybe he’s feeling guilty about calling me foolish.”
Maud watched Angie with understanding. “Don’t hesitate to call us if you ever need anything.”
“I appreciate that,” Angie replied, “but I’m sure everything is going to be fine. Sometimes Joe and I just get under each other’s skin, but we always manage to work it out.”
The following day, Valerie woke at five thirty in the morning with a deep cramp in her belly. It didn’t last long, but it was concerning, so she tossed the covers aside and swung her legs to the floor. She needed to use the bathroom, but it was chilly in the house, and the thought of leaving her warm bed made her want to crawl back under the covers until July. Unfortunately, her bladder was ready to burst, so she forced herself to push up off the mattress and pad across the plank floor.
Out in the hall, she paused at the top of the stairs, and suddenly there was asplat. She looked down at a puddle on the floor, between her bare feet, and realized her water had broken.
Valerie’s heart began to race with trepidation, yet she was excited at the same time. It was happening. Today was the day.
“Maud?”
There was a squeaking of bedsprings, then a tapping of footsteps in the downstairs bedroom. Maud, while pulling on her terry cloth bathrobe, reached the bottom of the stairs and looked up. “What is it?”
“I think I’m in labor,” Valerie said.
Maud’s eyebrows lifted, and she laid a hand over her heart. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. My water just broke. I need a towel to wipe up the mess.”
Maud quickly tied the belt on her robe. “Don’t worry about that, sweetheart. I’ll call the midwife. But should I call anyone else? What about your father?”
Valerie quickly shook her head. “No, please don’t do that. And don’t tell anyone else either, not even Angie, because I don’t want to give up this baby. The last person I want to know about this is Frank Brown.”
“You have my word. No one will know until you’re ready. Except the midwife. We can’t do without her.”
Another labor pain squeezed at Valerie’s insides, and she winced as she bent forward. Maud quickly turned and ran to the phone in the kitchen.
CHAPTER 20
Four hours later, Valerie lay in bed with her newborn child, spellbound as she hummed a pretty lullaby. Her body was weak with exhaustion from the labor, though it had progressed quickly and had been over in less than two hours. Afterward, the midwife had told Valerie that she’d been blessed with a body built for childbirth, as it was one of the easiest deliveries she could recall in recent years, especially from a first-time mother.
Valerie took it as a compliment. Now she was alone with her little one, a beautiful son she named Cameron. Cam for short. He had glassy eyes, a straight nose, and pudgy, long legs that would one day carry him into school on his first day. Or perhaps onto a soccer field.
She was thrilled at the thought of their future together, a whole life of new discoveries and love and affection. His hands were ever so small, and his fingers were long. She wondered if he had inherited her love of music. Perhaps he might become a piano player. She would probably teach him how to play guitar and read sheet music as soon as he was old enough, if he was interested. She certainly wasn’t going to pressure him into doing things that didn’t appeal to him. She wouldn’t be like her father, controlling in that way.
As for a father figure, Blaine had expressed a desire to show him how to dribble a basketball. Maud couldn’t wait to have him help herout in the kitchen as soon as he could walk. She would let him lick the bowl when she baked a cake.
They were lovely thoughts and dreams, and Valerie was awestruck by the notion that she had created a whole new person with her blood running through his little veins, feeding into his miniature heart. His flesh was her flesh, his bones had formed and grown inside her womb, and in this moment, he was completely dependent on her for his survival—for sustenance and love.
She couldn’t wait to give him everything. She would treasure him and protect him, and she would love him forever.
That evening, a knock sounded on Valerie’s bedroom door. Maud peered in to find Valerie on her feet with Cameron in her arms. His head rested on her shoulder while she slow danced with him and hummed “Moon River.”
“We have a visitor,” Maud said.
Valerie jolted with panic. She was constantly afraid that Frank Brown was going to burst through the door any moment and snatch her baby from her arms. “I thought we weren’t going to tell anyone. Who is it?”
“It’s only Jeremy,” Maud replied. “He came with a cooler full of fresh trout. Lord knows where he got it. Blaine didn’t see a fishing rod in his skiff. But we accepted the gift nonetheless, and Blaine is about to fry some up on the stove. Would you like to come down?”
Valerie considered it. “I’m still quite tired. I don’t feel like getting dressed, but you could send Jeremy up. I’d like to see him, and this little man needs to be presented to at least one visitor on his first day in the world.”
