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CHAPTER NINE
“Damn it.”
Ninety-nine times out of one hundred, when Heidi spotted Valerie’s vehicle pulling into the same lot as hers, she’dalmostsqueal with glee. Valerie would have Naomi with her, and Heidi’s baby snuggle quota was shamefully far from being met.
The one remaining time, Heidi wanted to practice her deviancy in peace. She couldn’t do that if Valerie was going to stand around predicting every move Heidi would make.
Heidi slung her truck to the curb at the intersection side of the Shora office and killed the engine. She waited until Valerie had parked in front of her before getting out.
They met halfway between their respective vehicles. Valerie’s windows were down, and her arms suspiciously empty. The baby was probably asleep in the backseat.
Just my luck. No snuggles.
“Looking to buy a house, Heidi?” Valerie asked.
“Maybe I am. Maybe I’m tired of hearing kettlebells clinking.”
“I see. There are probably houses for sale closer to your work if you want something turnkey.”
Heidi made a non-committal sound and studied her nails.
Drat. Another chip. Another strike against that manicurist.
“Maybe I was interested in something newer than what’s in town,” she said mulishly. “Something that doesn’t have history and ghosts.”
“Oh. I see. Definitely no history here.”
They stared at each other for a minute, then Valerie sighed and shook her head. “I just came to pick up a hard drive Lipton mailed down. Need to get a little work done at home. Want to clear the queue a little before I’m back in the office full-time.”
“Are they paying you for that queue-clearing?”
“You better believe it.”
Heidi made a clipped sound of approval. “Naturally, I had to check.” Even knowing what she did about Carine’s work frustrations, Heidi could make no assumptions about what sort of employment conditions Lipton had across the board in their communities.
“Stay here and make sure no one abducts my child,” Valerie said. “Then I’ll be out of your hair, and we can pretend we didn’t see each other, but I’ll always know exactly why you’re here, and you should assume any knowing look I give you will be about it.”
“I would expect no less from my ex-husband’s wife.”
Valerie shook her head again and rounded the corner toward the front porch.
Heidi leaned against the back passenger door of Valerie’s vehicle and peered through the window at Naomi. “Ugh, why are you so stinking cute?”
The last time she’d had anything close to baby fever, she’d doused it by planning a two-week trip to the Highlands and reminding herself of all the things she could do because she could actually leave the house unaccompanied. The yearnings had been far more frequent before Kevin entered his sullen fatalistic phase. She assumed that was biology at work. Her brain was telling her to get with the program and do her part to seed more humans on the planet before the one she’d already made could forever turn her off the proposition.
Valerie bounded back with the external drive in one hand and a giant brownie in the other.
“What’s that about?” Heidi asked.
Valerie saluted her with the chocolate behemoth. “One of the homeowners is on deadline, so she’s baking instead of working.”
“Ah. Yes. I’m familiar with that productivity scheme.” Heidi gestured to the window. “Precious cargo still exactly where she should be.”
“Did you ever finish that sweater you promised to knit her?”
Vexed, Heidi grit her teeth. She’d hoped Valerie had forgotten about that sweater. “I finished it,” she said haughtily. “But by the time I did, she’d already outgrown it. I need some time to heal emotionally from that. Maybe by Christmas, you could ask me again.”
“Mm-hmm.”
