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“I’ll leave as soon as I can tonight. We’ll be together for a long weekend! I can’t wait. I have a surprise for you, too.”
“Do I have to wait?”
“Nope, I’ll tell you now. Giuseppe texted me last night that we’re going to close on the house today!”
“No way! That’s great. As soon as I get the key, I’ll head over. Maybe Joey will help me do some cleanup because he’s off today, too.”
“Candy was at the house last night. We baked cookies. I ate at least a dozen chocolate chip.”
“Good. I know what I’m having for breakfast, then.”
“I’d better get back inside before Charlie comes looking for me.”
“If he gives you any crap, tell him to call me.”
“Right, I’ll do that,” she said, smirking. “Goodbye.”
She got up on her toes and kissed him, pushing him toward his truck. “Go home.”
They waved to each other as he pulled out of the driveway.
Later that day, Giuseppe gave Tony the keys to the new house. Joey took a ride over with his tool bag in the back of Tony’s truck. The first thing Tony did was install a flag holder on the front porch. He went to the backseat of his truck and retrieved a neatly stored flag wound around a wooden stick, and when it was displayed in the holder, Tony smiled.
They worked at cleaning up, tearing up old carpet, and began the process of gutting the bathrooms and kitchen. Big Mike stopped by on his way home from work to offer advice. In the morning, Tony was going to meet another cousin at the house, who would do the wiring. Once they had heat and light, Bridget could come to keep him company. But for now, she’d stay home with baby Flynn at night and wait for Tony.
The words of the doctor about the tiny fluid-filled space in the back of the baby’s neck haunted her, but she wouldn’t let it take over her life. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. When she got back to the station that afternoon after the ultrasound, she’d sat at the computer in the office and Googled chromosomal abnormalities in babies. The first condition mentioned was Down syndrome. Reading until she had to do some work, the one thing that kept going through her mind was that the little baby’s heart was good. As long as she was physically healthy, they’d cope with anything else.
She came across a website promoting ending the use of the R-word. So she wasn’t alone in her abhorrence of it. And it was at that juncture that she put it out of her mind.
There was another thing she’d failed to tell Tony. The night before, she’d perched on a barstool with Flynn, watching Roberta and Candy rolling out sugar cookie dough.
“My boys said I never baked cookies for them. You know that’s hogwash, right? I had all these boys running around here; they’d grab a handful and take off. Did your mother bake, Candy?”
“My mother worked nights the whole time I was growing up. I might remember a time or two that she baked Christmas cookies, but we were too busy playing to notice, just like it was here. We’re all fat, so it didn’t kill us if she didn’t bake all the time.”
“What about you, Bridget?”
“My mom? Oh yeah, she’s like you. I should probably go over there this weekend and help out. She’d roll out the dough, we cut it with cookie cutters, and then after they came out of the oven, she handed the decorating all over to us. It was a mess.”
“That’s a strong motivation not to let your kids do too much because of the mess.” She shuffled baking supplies around the counter. “We’re running out of powdered sugar.”
“I’ll go out,” Bridget said. “I need to move around or I’ll fall asleep.”
“Do you want to leave Flynn here?” Roberta asked.
“No, thanks, he can come along. We both need the fresh air.”
“Take your time. These still have to bake and cool before we can frost them.”
Arriving at the store felt surreal. She hadn’t been out at night alone with the baby in a long time. Pulling into a parking spot close to a well-lit entrance, she thought of all the safety measures. The carts were scattered all over the parking lot, and she grabbed the closest one, putting Flynn in the seat, strapping him in. Inside the store, she went over every inch of the cart with an antiseptic wipe.
Before she forgot why she was out, she went right to the sugar aisle to get the powdered sugar. Wandering around the store felt good for some reason, like you’d feel while on vacation, mindless, suspended in time. Down the baby aisle, she reached for things she didn’t really need yet but would in about three months: tiny disposable diapers, nursing pads for her bra, the smallest spoon she’d ever seen, like it was made to feed a bird. In a trance, she slowly placed one item after another in the basket, unaware of anything around her.
“Are you pregnant?”
The voice, loud and abrasive, had come from behind Bridget, who’d flung around to see who the speaker could be. And with a flabbergasted look on her face was, of all people, Patty. Dressed to kill, she wore a formfitting red off-the-shoulder cocktail dress with those amazing platform shoes that made her tower over Bridget. And that golden hair, shining, tumbled over her shoulders, kept off her face with the ever-present tiara. Roberta was right. It was getting a little tarnished.
Maddeningly, Bridget knew she was blushing and couldn’t control it. With her heart beating so hard she felt dizzy, she answered, “Hi, Patty.”
