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“Not necessarily. You said she got Maggie gifts, too. Maybe she’d already shopped after they were out at Bayou Cottage to pick up their rescue and saw you two pregnant. I’m just saying if Rose or Maggie’s aunt told Gus and he told Grace, that might have spurred her on to bring the gifts today. I’m not sure.”
“I should have said something to her. Now I feel stupid. Here she is bringing us hundreds of dollars’ worth of baby gifts and I didn’t tell her. She’ll assume I’m ashamed.”
“Look, what do you care what Amber thinks?” He leaned forward and kissed her. “If she doesn’t know now, she’ll find out when the rest of Cypress Cove does.”
“I doubt they’re holding their breath.”
“I doubt it, too,” he agreed. “We have to stop this obsessing. Everything doesn’t revolve around the baby having Down syndrome. He’s just a baby. Look at all this stuff. She probably took Phil’s credit card and had a field day at Walmart.”
“This isn’t Walmart,” Katrina replied. “Not that there’s anything wrong with Walmart, but this is all from Mignon.”
“Never heard of it.”
“It’s a high-end baby store in New Orleans.”
Leaning back in the chair, Katrina felt all the happiness and contentment she’d had that morning looking at the nursery and then the generous gifts from Amber leave her body, replaced by despair. “I need to pull it together.”
Dave had finished eating and took his plate into the kitchen. “You’re fine. You just had an unwanted visitor do a drop-in, which we hate, and it opened up a bunch of feelings we are trying to stuff. It’s normal.You’renormal.”
His phone beeped, and he took it out of his pocket. “Well now, here’s a thing.” He looked at her. “My dad is asking if he can come by to see the cottage.”
“When?” she asked, trying not to whine.
“If we let him come now, we’ll have tonight free. We can close the shutters and sit on the terrace until the bugs get too bad.”
“It’s too hot to sit outside,” she said, slumping over. Then she laughed. “I sound like a spoiled child.”
“I’ll put the misters on. It’s too much for anyone in one day. We just got home last night and already two nuisance visitors.”
“Do whatever you want. I’d better answer a few emails before he gets here. Does he say Rose is coming? That might push me over the edge.”
Rereading the texts, Dave scratched his cheek. “He says, ‘we,’ so yeah. It looks like he’s bringing Rose.”
Back at her computer, angry at herself, Katrina couldn’t help being unreasonable, like she had no control over her mouth or attitude.
“I’m sorry I’m being a bitch. Please forgive me. I’ll try harder not to act so miserable.”
“Aw, babe, you’re just fine. I’m not happy about any of this either and I don’t have an extra appendage hanging off my body. What I can do is tell him you’re exhausted from the trip and ask him to come another time.”
“No, you’re right. Let’s get it over with. When they leave, I’m taking a nap.”
“Good idea. What are you going to eat?”
“I’ll figure something out,” she answered, pounding the keyboard.
He got the message.In other words, leave me alone.
***
Vic Chastain and Rose Angel arrived at Creole Cottage an hour later. They brought gifts, too—dinner for that night including a pork roast and all the accompaniments along with a Louisiana Crunch cake plus several frozen casseroles in foil pans.
“We got a portable crib, too, for when he comes to stay at Pawpaw’s house,” Rose said.
“Thank you so much,” Katrina said. She didn’t say anything, but doubted the baby would be staying there overnight.
No one mentioned Down syndrome, the atmosphere pleasant and almost joyful. Rose even seemed excited.
“Maggie is due before you, isn’t she? But there’s a chance you might deliver early. I hope not too early, but how fun if you were in the hospital at the same time!”
