Clever man. He knew immediately that something was up.
“Now what have you and Kim been doing?” he asked as he put his arms around my waist and gathered me to him. “Last time you tried the newspaper-and-slippers routine on me, you’d agreed to foster a potential seeing-eye puppy without talking to me first.”
“Did you even consider that it might be because I love you and I want to show it?”
“No.” He grinned, and his dimples deepening. “I know you love me. You show it every day and in every way. Something else is going on.”
I ran my finger along the chiseled line of his jaw and was supremely thankful to have this man is in my life. Blessed. I am so blessed.
I stared into the inky blueness of his eyes and watched them grow round with surprise as I whispered, “Chase, how do you feel about having a baby?”
Chapter Two
Though I’d caught him off guard, radiant warmth spread across Chase’s features.
He took me in his arms and kissed me until I totally forgot our topic of conversation. When he finally set me away from himself, he held me at arm’s length to ask, “Do you really mean it?”
“Huh?” My lips were deliciously swollen and rosy, my cheeks were flushed, and a little mechanical monkey in a red suit was riding a bicycle around in my head where my brain had been. Over two years together, and the impossible just keeps happening—I fall more and more deeply in love. If this is the way God’s will feels, then never let me out of it.
“A baby? You’re ready?”
I tipped my head and stared at him. “It’s not as if we haven’t talked about having children before, Chase.”
“True, but I’ve never heard you say you’re ready for them, either.”
I have to admit that several things have been standing in my way—the thought of having my blissful relationship with Chase change when a little third party arrives, what I would do about my job at Innova, and the enormous responsibility of bringing a brand-new soul into the world for eternity.
There’s also that little issue of my mother. Even though she desperately wants grandchildren, she’s recently begun telling people I’m her younger sister. She says she’s not old enough to have a daughter my age. It’s problematic to have my mother stop aging while I continue to grow older. When I surpass her in age, she’ll have to start introducing me as her big sister.
Becoming a grandmother might send her over the edge. Then again, why worry? She’s been dancing pretty close to the edge for some time now.
The baby conversation feels right this time. Maybe it’s because Kim’s been harboring the same thoughts, or that Mitzi keeps leaving baby magazines and maternity clothing catalogs on my desk at work. It was Mitzi who decided I needed to get married and registered unwilling me for an evening of speed dating with Hasty-Date. She’d had high hopes that someone would take pity on me and ask me out. Hasty-Date turned into a Hasty-Dud, but I ultimately met Chase, who is Kim’s doctor and Kurt’s good friend.
I’d also humored Mitzi when she told me I had to get rid of all my out-of-date clothes and found me a personal shopper. And the time she said my hair would look great in cornrows. When Mitzi decides it’s time for something to happen, there’s no stopping her. Could I put up with Mitzi’s pride if she thought she’d convinced me to have a baby? The idea gives me cold chills. I can already imagine her volunteering to be my conception coach, carrying a megaphone and a stopwatch and cheering me on.
“How do you feel, Chase? This isn’t something you can agree to, just to make me happy. When we make this decision, we both have to be ready.”
Chase is far too indulgent with me. He lets me eat saltines and drink hot chocolate in bed and wear his new T-shirts as pajamas. He shares his toothbrush with me when we’re traveling and I’ve forgotten my own—the definitive sign of true love. The only thing he really holds the line on with me is football. I can snuggle with him, blow in his ear, rub his back or sleep on his shoulder. But I cannot turn the television off during an interception thingy, walk in front of him during a touchdown or keep asking him why they have “downs” instead of “ups.” It’s a small sacrifice on my part, I think, since I really love taking naps in his football jersey on Sunday afternoons.
“I can’t imagine anything I’d love more than having a beautiful little mini-Whitney around the house.”
“It could turn out to be a mini-Chase.”
“As long as you’re involved, he or she will be perfect.”
“Besides, there’s no way we can duplicate me. Dad says I’m one of a kind.”
“He’s correct there.”
“He also says I wasn’t spoiled as a child but that I just smelled that way.” I learned humility from Dad.
“Life will imitate art.” Chase pulled me close and cradled me in his arms. “And you, my dear, are the highest art form I know.”
As I closed my eyes and let him kiss me again, I reminded myself never to let Mitzi know that those baby magazines she left on my desk had had any effect on me whatsoever.
Tuesday, March 2
The idealistic baby fantasy lasted almost twenty-four hours. Then Kim asked us if we’d watch Wesley while they went out for dinner and discussed the “you-know-what” issue.
I know why they didn’t want Wesley along while they were trying to decide if they should have another child. Wesley—precocious, beautiful, intelligent, gifted, spoiled Wesley—is the finest form of birth control ever invented.
He marched into our house on chubby BabyGap jean-clad legs, pulling a little wheeled suitcase. He shrugged off his denim jean jacket, ruffled his pale blond curls, opened his big baby blues in an expression of vast innocence and said authoritatively, “Disney-dot-com.”
“Wes, you know Aunt Whitney doesn’t let you play on her computer,” Kim chided.
“Sorry, buddy. The dot-com era bit the dust. Didn’t you hear? According to the Wall Street Journal, it’s still in recovery mode.”
He stared at me, his lower lip wobbling tremulously, a single perfect tear forming on the center of each of his lower eyelids, giving me an opportunity to relent and stop the floodgates of misery and mayhem about to erupt.
I, like a fool, didn’t bite.
In slow motion, Wesley’s world, and even Wesley himself, crumbled. He fell to the ground, opened his mouth and let out a wail that shattered all my crystal in the dining-room buffet, scared Scram and Mr. Tibble off the couch and into the bedroom and put a slight crack in the picture tube of my television.
Okay, I’m exaggerating a little. The television was not damaged.
“What’s this about?” I yelled to Kim over the din.
“He’s in a phase. Just ignore him.”
“It would be quieter in here if my house were sitting in the middle of an airport landing strip.”
“He’s had separation anxiety lately. His supper is in his little suitcase. You know what a fussy eater he is.” Kim smiled weakly. “If we do have another baby, I don’t think we’ll indulge him or her quite so much.”
“Good idea.” I picked Wesley up by the armpits and made a wet, noisy raspberry sound on his bare belly. He quit crying out of sheer surprise, waved goodbye to his mother and demanded ice cream. So much for separation issues.
Chase walked upstairs from the basement. “Who’s being murdered up here?”
“Say hi to our houseguest.”
“Hey, buddy.” He and Wesley high-fived. “How about some smoked