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“Just a report that’s due today,” he yawned. “But, I’m looking forward to spending Saturday together.”
“Me, too. Uhmm, I wondered what you’re doing tonight?”
He felt his stomach twist. He’d already accepted a valet shift tonight. He’d have to lie to her. How could he explain his need for the extra job and still keep the ring a secret? Suddenly it occurred to him, he might buy the ring, ask her to marry him, and she might say no. He’d assumed she’d agree. How could he find out for sure, without actually asking her?
“Uhmm, I actually have to help my father on a project tonight. I’m sorry.”
She looked disappointed. Well, it was good she was disappointed, right? At least that meant she wanted to spend time with him. But he needed to keep her from suspecting anything, and it would be even more difficult when he started taking dance lessons. Maybe he could think of some plausible story to tell her.
“It’s okay. I may just rent a movie.”
“Okay. See you Saturday.”
Confusion reigned in Emily’s head. Since that fateful Monday night at the pool when Grace had insisted Spencer loved her, she’d been fighting her emotions. Certain he would eventually move on to another girl, she’d done everything possible to avoid falling in love with him. But what if Spencer really loved her? Would he be able to break his old habits of flirting and dating multiple girls? And he was obviously more experienced than she was physically. Would he tire of her rule restricting their physical contact? Would he be so overwhelmed with need he sought relief elsewhere? She had no idea how long guys could actually go without having sex. The movies implied they couldn’t wait for long without having physical pain, but she didn’t know if that was true. And she was too embarrassed to ask someone. If he did find relief with someone else, how would she know? She simply couldn’t bear the thought of him with another girl.
But then to further confuse matters, he’d been acting a little strange since Monday night. Instead of calling constantly and asking to spend time with her every night, he’d only made plans for one or two nights that week. Granted, she’d been mostly turning him down when he asked for more time, but only to avoid the temptation that came from being alone together. Especially since she’d proven to herself she had absolutely no ability to resist him. But now she saw him less and less. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was already getting tired of her or tired of all her dating rules. Further adding to her suspicions, he hadn’t been available to answer his cell phone the past two nights. He’d called her back within thirty minutes, but it was unusual for him not to answer.
She really needed to talk this through with someone. But who? She considered asking Grace, but she was too defensive of her brother to ever believe he was up to something. She could ask her mom, but she was actually afraid her mom would be too frank with her. Steven and her mom already managed to embarrass her on a regular basis with their overt affection. She could talk to Charlie. But her sister was in a real funk over her relationship with Josh, determined to make a clean break with him before he ever had a chance to disappoint her. Charlie seemed to end most of their phone conversations in tears, a habit highly unusual for her carefree sister. Maybe she could talk to Steven. What was she thinking? She must be getting desperate.
Her cell phone chirped. “Hey, Josh. What’s up?”
“Hi, Emily.” He drug her name out, using the miserable voice he seemed to have adopted permanently. “I wondered if maybe I could hang out with you and Spencer tonight? Brad and Grace are getting tired of me lurking around, and all my single friends just want to go out and party.”
Her heart went out to him. Charlie had broken plenty of hearts, and she seemed to have done an extra special job on Josh. Secretly, she thought Charlie was wrong not to give Josh a chance to prove himself.
“Spencer’s busy tonight, but you could watch a movie with me at my place.”
“Really? That would be so awesome. I’ll pick up a pizza and a movie. What do you want to watch?” He actually sounded almost happy. Poor guy.
“Anything that’s not raunchy. I’ve hardly seen any movies, so I’m sure whatever you pick will be fine. I’ll pay you for half so we’re officially just hanging out instead of going on a date—according to house rules.”
“Good idea. I need to make sure Charlie can’t accuse me of dating her sister. That is, if I can get her to talk to me.”
“Didn’t y’all have a phone conversation last week?”
The glum tone came back to his voice. “Yes. It was about ten minutes of me saying over and over I’d changed and I wasn’t ever going to be with another girl, while she insisted that was impossible and it would never work out anyway.”
“Oh... Sorry.”
“I promise not to spend the whole evening moaning about Charlie.” Then he added, “But probably part of the evening.”
*****
Anne was excited to be going by herself to a routine pregnancy monitoring appointment. Her first week back at work had gone well, except she was extremely fatigued. But she guessed that was to be expected. She couldn’t really remember how tired she was with Emily and Charlotte—it had been way too long. The oral medications seemed to be working well to control the nausea. She was certain she’d gained, and soon she’d be at least back to her normal weight.
The doctor was listening for the heartbeat, and Anne noticed her brows pushing down over her eyes.
“Is everything okay?” Anne’s tongue felt thick and wooden. Was the baby dead? Was she going to miscarry?
“No, everything is fine. But I’d like to do an ultrasound today.”
“But I thought you weren’t going to do an ultrasound until twenty weeks? Is there something wrong with the baby’s heart?”
“No, I promise. The heart sounds healthy. Please don’t be concerned. But there’s no harm in doing an ultrasound to confirm everything is progressing normally.”
“Okay, but we decided we don’t want to know the sex. We want to be surprised.”
“That’s fine. We may not even be able to determine the sex at fourteen weeks. But if I can, I won’t say anything.”
