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Getting to his feet, he got back into his gardener’s pickup truck and twisted the rearview mirror to get a look at his jaw.
Shoot. It was already starting to bruise.
CHAPTERSEVEN
“Nothing yet?” Mel asked, occasionally rubbing her knuckles as the five of them sat down around the dinner table. Four sat in ordinary ladderback chairs. One had been prodded into the giant recliner someone had hauled in from the living room. Maya sat there, feet up, tray positioned to one side. It would have been in her lap, she supposed, if she still had a lap.
“No,” Maya said with a scowl. “Nothing yet.”
“That’s okay, hon. Christmas is coming.” Kara grinned, and there was a knowing twinkle in her eye. “Things are bound to get better.”
“How are you feeling, Maya?” Selene asked.
“Like a beached whale. Why do you ask?”
Selene shrugged and smiled a secretive smile. “You’ll feel better soon.”
“I’ll feel better when I have these babies,” she snapped.
“Oh, come on, don’t be so grouchy,” Kara said. “This should be a cheerful time for you.”
“She can be grouchy if she’s of a mind to,” Vidalia put in. “It’s allowed the first few weeks and the last few weeks. And you have to admit, she’s been a real trooper in between.” Her mother smiled indulgently at her.
“You all just try carrying a couple bags of feed tied around your middle for a few months and tell me how cheerful you are.”
Everyone went silent, and for a moment they just ate while the tension built. Maya’s three sisters kept looking at their mother sort of…expectantly. Finally Maya picked up on those looks, and, narrowing her eyes, she said, “What’s going on that I don’t know about?”
Vidalia licked her lips. “Well, I don’t suppose there’s any point in waiting for you to be in a better mood to tell you this, is there?”
“Not unless it can wait until these kids are tucked in their cradles, there isn’t,” Maya said.
Vidalia lifted her dark, perfectly shaped brows. “Fine. Then I’ll just tell you flat out. That man is back in town.”
Her sizable stomach clenched—no small task. “What man?”
Her mother let her gaze slide down to Maya’s belly and with a nod said, “That man. Ida-May Peabody called. She said he showed up this afternoon, got himself a room at her boarding house.”
“Holy Chri—.”
“Watch your mouth, young lady,” Vidalia scolded.
“Mother, really,” Selene said. “You say more off-color things than anyone.”
“But I do not take the Lord’s name in vain, nor will I tolerate anyone else doing so.”
Maya was pushing her tray away and struggling uselessly to get out of the chair. And Selene, the silver sister said, “Hon, it was inevitable, him coming back here. And besides, it’s for the best. He has a right to know that he’s going to be a father, don’t you think?”
“Right? What right? Geez, Selene, he didn’t even give me his real name!” She pulled herself partway up, then fell back again. “Will someone get me the hell out of this chair!”
“Your language, Maya,” Vidalia scolded.
Kara shot to her feet and hurried to her sister’s aid, gripping her arms and tugging. She was really leaning into it, too, Maya thought.
“Well, I couldn’t care less about his rights,” Mel put in, rubbing her knuckles again. “But he does have some responsibilities here, and if you’re smart, you’ll make sure he lives up to them. You’ll feel much better with someone else shouldering part of the financial burden, if nothing else.”
Kara tugged harder.
“I don’t need any help from any man. You leave him alone, Mel!” The moment she said it there was a knock at the front door, about ten feet away from the dining room.
