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After Addie paid, she handed me a wristband, and I stared at the leftover ones in her hand. “You forgot one,” I pointed out, turning to get back in line.
“No, no,” she said quickly, grabbing my arm, “we’re good. I’m not skating.”
I looked her over. “Why?” She loved skating.
She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to hide a smile.
“No, you’re not…?”
She quickly turned away from me to find an empty bench where we could all sit to lace up our skates.
I followed after her and placed Beau down between us, then leaned behind him and mouthed, “Pregnant?”
She finally broke into a smile. “Yes,” she whispered. “We’ve been keeping it quiet, just in case. Casey wanted to tell you himself, so pretend you don’t know, okay?”
“Damn,” I said, happiness washing over me. I loved Addie like my own sister and I knew how much she had always dreamed of having a bunch of kiddos. Beau was busy studying the skaters, so I leaned in and quietly said, “Happy for you guys. Boy or girl? Better question– one or two again?”
“Just one this time,” she said with a giddy smile. “And we’re not finding out.”
“Wow,” I breathed out, looking out to the ice. Adults and kids shuffled around the rink, but there was a red scarf zipping through the clutter pretty smoothly.
“Oh shit…” I breathed out.
I whipped my neck around quickly, hoping the owner of the scarf wouldn’t see me. My heart pounded with panic.
“What?” Addie’s forehead creased with concern.
“No, don’t look over there, I am begging you,” I said through clenched teeth. “Please pretend we are engrossed in a super important conversation.
“Uh…” a laugh popped out of her mouth. “Why…?”
I used my little nephew’s body as a human shield, dipping my head low behind him. “The rink monitor. Red scarf.”
“Okay?” she drawled. “She’s helping a child to their feet right now. She looks nice. Do you know her or something?”
“Not really,” I grumbled.
“Then why all this?” She motioned to me looking all freaked out.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling frustrated. I wanted to bury the whole afternoon away for the rest of my life and never address it again, which was what I tried to do with every source of embarrassment, but I guess that wouldn’t be happening. “Okay, I’ll tell you,” I finally said, looking at Addie’s expectant face. “So you know how we have to go read in schools for community involvement? Well, I was reading tohersecond grade class, but then a kid sneezed and got a big, fat snot-rocket all up on my nice shoes, and I said…”
She looked at me and groaned.
I clamped his hands over Beau’s ears. “Fuck,” I confirmed. “The whole class gasped and she yelled at me to go out in the hall and wait for her.”
“Did you?” she asked with worried eyes.
“Well, duh. What was I supposed to do?” I shook my head. “So then she met me in the hall and chewed me out like I was back in school. Humiliating.” I visibly shivered. “Gave me flashbacks.”
She clapped a hand over her mouth to stop from laughing. Addie was around through my teenage years so she probably remembered how many times Casey had to reprimand me over school problems.
“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” I grumbled.
“I’m sorry, that’s kind of funny.” She patted my shoulder.
I shook my head seriously. “No, it’s really not, Adds,” I said incredulously. “She probably hates my guts, and I…” I blew out a breath. “I can’t get her out of my head.” It was true, I’d been waging an internal war all day, trying to erase her face from memory, but I couldn’t.
“Aww, well, maybe I should go talk to her,” she said, smiling now. “It would be a bit of karmic justice foryourmeddling, I think.” She started getting up, but I grabbed her arm to hold her in place, silently begging her to drop it.
