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Andie was looking at Luke, not the monitor, when that first furious little flutter came over the speaker. The joy, the wonder, that first electrifying jolt was all there in his face. Every emotion she felt tearing through her heart was reflected in the eyes of her child’s father, and Andie let the tears come; if ever a moment called for tears, the first time you heard your baby’s heartbeat had to be in the top ten. That furiously fastthump thump thumpdrumming away inside her was a baby. Her baby. Luke made a sound, and as she caught him surreptitiously wiping the corner of his eye, her joy was complete. They were going to have a baby.
“God,did she have to stick her whole hand up there? I mean really!” Andie complained indignantly—and only partially kidding—on their way out of the doctor’s office loaded down with trial-sized everything from diapers to prenatal vitamins and stretch mark cream.
“I don’t think it was all—”
“I know what I felt! Don’t you dare try to speak up for her just ‘cause she’s pretty and was nice to you. She went clam digging down there! I almost peed all over her! That fucking hurt!”
“Boy, you’re really on a tear about this. You want to find a new doctor? I thought she was nice, but if you—” His hands, which were also full of samples and pamphlets, flopped at his sides as his shoulders shrugged.
“No, I don’t want a new doctor. I loved her. But. Ow. Okay, that really was awful.”
“If you could just give me a clue about what kind of response you’re hoping to get out of this little exchange right now, that’d be great. ‘Cause I really just don’t wanna say something stupid to piss you off. Since I don’t know what the hell is actually wrong, I don’t know what the right thing to say would be.” His rant finished on a frustrated grumble.
He looked fit to be tied, and Andie thought it was probably the first time she’d actually seen someone flummoxed. She burst out laughing.
“Luke?” The voice was shocked and all femme fatale.
“That’s Luke?” This voice was more blunt, lots of New York attitude in its sultry tones. “Oh lordy. Prenatals? Pampers? Holy shit. Are you telling me, nineteen years later, you’re still procreating? Holy shit, man. Get a hobby.” A leggy, slender black woman with close-cropped natural hair and a handbag that looked like a tiny boutique glared at him quizzically, as if she actually expected a response.
Luke had none to give her, because he couldn’t take his eyes off the blonde standing to her right. “Christy.”
Andie froze in shock for what felt like an eternity. “Christy? Logan’s mother Christy?ThatChristy?”
“I see some things never change, Luke.” Logan’s mother’s eyes darted from the pregnancy swag in his hands to Andie then to the boldly printed OB/GYN on the door behind them. Luke just continued to stand beside Andie, who was staring at his ex like she was a ghost.
“Um, hi.” Not knowing what else to do, Andie fumbled one hand free and extended it for a shake. “I’m Andie.” Since Christy continued to shoot eye daggers at Luke and completely ignored Andie, she swung her hand toward the stunning black woman next to her.
“A pleasure, I’m sure.” If the tone didn’t make a mockery of her words, the expression on her face sure conveyed it. “I’m Sharon.” Her fingers were long and her grip secure when she took Andie’s clammy hand in her cool one.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Luke’s voice was low. Deceptively so, for Andie felt the rage pumping off him in waves. He seemed barely able to rein it in.
“Momma’s sick. It was time for me to come home and see to her.” Tears gathered in her aquamarine eyes and glimmered there like jewels in the sunlight.
“See to selling off the farm, you mean.” It was a statement. Spoken with cutting cruelty and a disdain forged over almost two decades of singlehandedly raising the child she’d turned her back on. The words were a well-aimed arrow, and Andie watched them hit their mark, sending trembling tears falling down those porcelain cheeks.
Sharon’s expression hardened, and she glared up at Luke with open hostility. “Hey! You don’t know a damn thing about the woman standing in front of you right now. Believe me, the only thing she has in common with the girl you used to know is that she still has the good sense to steer clear of you.” She grabbed the silently weeping Christy by the elbow and started tugging her across the street. “Asshole.”
Andie watched the two women’s hasty departure with barely contained curiosity. She had so many questions right now. From the look on Luke’s face, none of them were appropriate at the moment however, so Andie swallowed them back with a grimace and rubbed a hand on his arm. “You okay, Luke? What can I do? What do you need?” The tender expression he gave her made Andie glad she’d squelched her inner Mrs. Kravitz. The man looked blindsided. She hooked her arm through his and started them in the opposite direction. “Come on. Let’s go grab some lunch.”
* * *
“Well,that couldn’t have gone worse.”
Sharon gave Christy the look that comment deserved. “Yes, it could’ve,” she contradicted. “I could’ve punched him in his smug, superior face.” The fury was still swimming just under her calm surface. Christy had warned her, hadn’t she? Long before they agreed to come here, Christy confessed everything to Sharon. She told her about running away in the middle of the night, leaving not just her man and parents behind but her baby too. It was the number one tool she used to beat herself up with.
“The worst part’s over now, right?” Sharon gave Christy’s hand an encouraging squeeze. “The cat’s out of the bag, and within the hour, this whole town is going to know you’re back. And that you’re gay,” she added under her breath.
“You know that part has never been a problem for me.” All the tension she didn’t know she was holding melted away when Christy met her gaze and returned the encouraging squeeze. “You being here with me is the only reason I’m strong enough to face them all.”
So she’d said. Over and over. Insisting that what they had was real. But Sharon wasn’t naïve or stupid.
Christy was a shallow, spoiled doll of a woman. She loved to be the center of attention, in the eye of any storm, and more than anything, she wanted to be loved like a princess on a pillow. Sharon wasn’t blind to Christy’s faults; she was enamored by them. Though most of her friends were worried for her, Sharon saw her and Christy as kind of a modern-day Rhett and Scarlett. OnlyherScarlett had a wounded and tender heart beneath that fiercely sparkling surface.
“I half expected you to introduce me as yourfriend.” More than half, if she were being truly honest. Sharon had known she liked girls since her second-grade crush on Ms. Clarkson. Christy, on the other hand, had never been with a woman before they met. Sharon felt like she was walking a tightrope in this relationship. One that could snap at any minute. “This isn’t the strip though. It’s the sticks.”
A warmth came into Christy’s eyes that she rarely showed. “Strip or sticks. It’s always going to be you.” As her heart did that slow, dizzying twirl it only did for Christy, Sharon let her shoulders relax and picked up her fork. They were going to be okay.
Chapter 11
