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She stood on tiptoes to kiss him, fully aware that he was going to try to woo her with gifts. But she didn’t care. She was ready to be wooed.
After he left, she loaded Stevie and his toys and snacks, and for Maggie, a bottle of wine, into the stroller. “Come on, buddy, let’s go see your friends.”
“Davie and Tina.”
“Yes!” She pushed the stroller out of the front door.
Walking through town today felt good, like she belonged. Cypress Cove was her home. The people she cared about the most were close by. Everything she needed was available to her.
A car beeped at her and she looked up to see Dave Chastain, Katrina’s partner, waving from his sheriff’s patrol car. Stevie saw him and screamed, “Sheriff!” Annie waved as he passed.
They had just crossed the truck trail when she heard her name being called. It was Chris’s cousin, Bridget Esprit, pushing a jogging stroller with a hitchhiker on the back, holding her newborn and her toddler.
“You’re putting me to shame,” Annie cried, waving to Bridget as she crossed the street.
“You’re out and about, that’s all that counts. And I hear you’re getting horses at the new house! Oh, God, I hope that wasn’t a surprise.”
“Ha! No, not at all. We are. Chris just mentioned it this morning.”
“There’s your friends,” she said, waving to Katrina and Maggie at the park. “I’ll stop by on my way back.”
“Okay, see you later,” Annie said.
She ran down the paved path that snaked along the riverfront while Annie pushed her stroller across the grass to her friends.
“She just had a kid and she’s out running. That’s why I could never be friends with her,” Maggie said, grimacing.
“She’s too busy to have girlfriends. She told me as much. She hopes she doesn’t regret it someday. How can you work nearly full time with two kids and have much left over for friends?”
“I don’t know,” Katrina said. “I managed to do it for almost a year, and I had to travel, too.”
“Yeah, but we were built-in friends,” Annie said.
“I think she feels guilty about the upheaval she caused by doing her DNA and then stirring the pot with Val.”
“None of the men feel that way,” Maggie said. “They’re all happy she did it or they’d never have met Chris.”
Maggie called one of the sitters to come and get Stevie. He jumped out of the stroller and ran for her, not bothering to greet anyone.
“That kid has a one-track mind and that’s playing with Davie and Tina. He actually said their names right today.”
She placed the bottle of wine on the table with the requisite plastic wine goblets.
“Oh, I thought…” Katrina said, exaggerating licking her lips.
“Must we have this conversation every Saturday?” Maggie asked. “We’re waiting for Lent to abstain, remember? Drink up while you can.”
“You two are a riot. I guess I’ll be odd man out because we’re not getting married and I don’t want to get pregnant again without being married.”
“And you’re not getting married again because why?” Maggie asked. “Did you ask him to put you on the title?”
“I just did this morning. He said he would. But that’s not why. I feel like a broken record.”
“Because of his sons?” Katrina asked.
“Right.”
“This probably sounds lame as a comparison, but you have a kid, Annie, and Chris is accepting him with open arms.”
