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Chapter Eight
Six Weeks Later…
“Mom! You look good,” Haley said, as she tilted her camera a bit. For a moment, Brenda lost sight of anything but her daughter’s knees over the Skype connection. “You’re so tan.”
She laughed, running her hand through her brassy curls. Her hair had gone from auburn to a fiery red, matching the feathers of the mythical phoenix that Jamsheed so often teased her about. “That’s the great part about living in Zomelia as opposed to being trapped in London fog and long nights. How are you doing, honey?”
“Good. I quit my sorority.”
Brenda breathed a sigh of relief but schooled her features back to neutral as soon as she could. It might be that Haley was still upset about that choice. “Oh, did you?”
Haley laughed. “Mom, you are the worst actress. I bet you’re super relived I’ve done it.”
“I think that maybe some of your friends there weren’t really your friends, and you were making poor decisions. After the car accident, I was really scared about you making the same mistake again.”
“That’s the definition of insanity. I was trying to move on from that.”
“Good.”
“But you’re still deflecting a little from how amazing you look. I was worried about Sheikh Rahal at first, about his reputation, but the news has been covering how caring he’s been about his father and the new laws he’s trying to enact for his people. I think he’s really a better man than I thought.”
“Thanks, I think,” Brenda said, winking at her. “I know I’m just your old mom to you, but I’ve learned a thing or two as well.”
Haley smiled, a brilliant megawatt look that had always been her daughter’s best feature, something she’d had even as a toddler. On nights when she hadn’t slept, when the days after were long and hard as hell, Brenda would see that smile and know that everything was going to okay. That raising Haley was the most important job she could ever have; the only job she’d ever truly want.
“I’m super glad,” she said. “You do deserve it.”
“Yes, in fact…” Brenda felt it then, the surge of bile rising in her throat and the wave of nausea overtaking her.
Bolting up quickly, ignoring the confused shouts of her daughter, she lunged for the bathroom. She made it in time to unload the contents of her stomach into the porcelain bowl. The heaving wracked her body, causing her back to arch up, even as she emptied her breakfast into the toilet. Sighing, she flushed the bowl, and leaned her forehead against the cool stone.
She knew that feeling well, had known it for what it was twenty years ago with Haley as well.
She knew she was pregnant.
Standing back up, she rushed to her laptop to ease out of her conversation with her daughter. “Honey, I have to go. I think I had some bad yogurt for breakfast.”
“Uh-uh, no way. I know what happened.”
“You do?”
Haley rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, the flushed and ruddy-looking cheeks. The ralphing at eleven A.M. and now the guilty look on your face. Wow, Mom, I didn’t even think… I mean I know you two had to be doing the horizontal Mambo like crazy, but you gave me the talk when I was twelve. I just… wow!”
Brenda blushed, embarrassed, and then stared down at the wood of her desk as if it were the most interesting thing on earth. “It’s complicated.”
“Already? I mean, you’re also old.”
“I’m in my early forties! That happens sometimes.”
“But I thought they might be freeze dried by now or something.”
Brenda shook her head. “Good Lord, child, what did they teach you in Sex Ed?”
“Not a lot, but I can put a condom on a banana faster than any girl at Lincoln High.”
“I’m so proud.”
“You should be!” Haley beamed. “I’m serious. Is this moving too fast? Mom, I know he seems like a very good man, but this is so fast, so whirlwind.”
