Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (37 page)

Ely sat on the floor next to the toilet basin.
 

“I don’t believe it,” Jessie said, pulling back from her friend in shock.

“Believe.”

“Ely, we have to get a test. You have to find out for sure.”

“I’ve done the test. I do know for sure.”

“What? When? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m telling you now. I did it last night, and then I went out and got drunker than I think I’ve ever been in my life.” She rested her cheek on her hand, on the rim of the toilet basin. Jessie winced and made a mental note to clean the bathrooms even more thoroughly as soon as she got a chance.

“Oh my God, Ely, you’re pregnant! You have to stop drinking. Does Josh know?” Jessie sat back against the other wall.

“Who do you think got me into this mess?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean he knows. Have you told him?”

“He suspected last week. He said he could see it in my eyes even before I did the test. He says it’s the same with mares. He can tell.”

“Jesus, he compared you to one of his horses? Smooth talker,” Jessie said. “How many weeks pregnant are you?”

“I remember having a period around Halloween, so I guess I’m about seven weeks along. I haven’t gone to a doctor yet.”

Ely had stopped retching.
 

“Can I help you up to bed?” Jessica asked.

She shook her head. “I’m not tired. I slept all morning.” She pushed back from the toilet rim, which made Jessie a bit more comfortable. “It’s just all this damn nausea. I think I’m gonna puke almost all the time.”

“You poor pet. But hey, congratulations—I think. Have you thought about what you’re going to do?”

Ely covered her face with her hands. “Before or after my father kills me?”

Jessie scooched along the floor and took her friend in her arms. “Shh, I know it’s scary, but you know it’s going to be okay. At least you and Josh love each other. This will work out.”

Ely pulled back. “Yeah, I love him, but I hadn’t settled on spending my life with him. Okay, it was a possibility, but jeez, I’m twenty-three. I’m too young to be thinking about settling down.”

There was a knock on the bathroom door.

“Is everything okay in there?” Noreen said from the other side. “Bruce and I have decided to have a glass of mulled wine to welcome my little Christmas tree into the house. Will you join us?”

Ely gave a panicky look and covered her mouth, like she was going to be ill again, so Jessie spoke. “That sounds great. I’ll be there in just a moment, but I think I’ll get Ely to bed first.”

Despite the protests she wasn’t tired, Ely was content to hide in her room, saying she didn’t want to see a glass of red wine—much less mulled with herbs and oranges. Jessie gave her own hair a quick brush because she had lost her clasp and headed back down to Bruce and Noreen.
 

It was a relief to know he wasn’t Miserable Bruce after all, even if it meant Mr. Miserable had gone to his great reward. He seemed so nice, but she was still embarrassed by Noreen’s blundering attempts at matchmaking. Bruce could be married, for all anyone knew. Once bitten, twice shy. She was off men for the foreseeable future.
 

“Sorry about that,” she said with a forced smile when she got back to them.

Bruce and Noreen were standing in front of a rekindled fire and drinking mulled wine, admiring the little Christmas tree. Its twinkling lights flickered rhythmically.
 

“Oh, this is nice,” Jessie said. “Very festive.”

Bruce handed her a warm glass and gave her a warmer smile.

“Tell me, Jessie, is there a town called Epsom anywhere near your mother’s home?” Noreen asked.
 

“Yes, I know it well. It’s quite close to where I live.” She took a sip. It had been years since she’d had mulled wine. It was warm and sweet—very pleasant, even more so with the snow piled high outside. All they needed now was George Michael’s “Last Christmas” crooning in the background. Jessie smiled to herself. Noreen’s taste for music and musicians was a little older than George.

“I work in Epsom,” Bruce said.

“Oh, I live in Dorking. Funny that we meet all the way over here.”

“Funny, indeed.” Noreen looked from one to the other. At that moment her eyes were Crystal Lake clear, and Jessie knew she wasn’t missing a thing. Rusty started to bark again and headed for the door.

“Do you think he needs another visit to the great outdoors?” Jessie said, eager to move the conversation along, but then the doorbell rang.

“Clever dog.” Bruce crouched down, and Rusty came running back to him.
 

“I think my dog likes you,” Noreen said.

“That’s why I brought Bruce in to meet you. He’ll walk Rusty if you want,” Jessie said, but her landlady had left the room to answer the door and was out of earshot.

“She’s quite a force of nature,” Bruce whispered when it looked like Noreen couldn’t hear them.

“I’m sorry if she embarrassed you. She’s a bit eccentric.”

He looked surprised. “Me? I’m all right, gov.” He used a London Town-East End accent. “I thought it was you who was feeling the heat.”

“Me? Why should I?”
 

They stopped talking because Noreen was back, with Cathi Grant in tow. Jessie had only met her twice, once in this very room and once in Maria’s kitchen, but already she didn’t like the woman.

Noreen did the introductions. Bruce smiled and gave her a slight nod.
 

“Hello.” Cathi was polite, but her focus was Jessie. “It’s you I came to see. Well, you and your friend who lives here. I was wondering if you girls could help me with a holiday party I want to throw. The thing is, it’s a bit rushed now with the holidays coming in so fast, and all the caterers I’ve called are booked. I need people to serve drinks and small plates of food. Would you be interested?”

Jessie was thrilled. With all of her sitter’s work disappearing, she needed extra cash. “Yes, I’d love to.” Then she thought of her friend in bed upstairs. “But I don’t think Ely can. She’s not well.”

“Oh dear.” Cathi looked disappointed for a moment, but then she eyed up Bruce. “What about you? Would you help Jessie? You look like you could work behind a bar, no problem.”

Jessie watched Bruce suppress his smile. She guessed it had been a while since he’d done bar work, although he still looked young enough.

“I’d be delighted to help,” he said.
 

Cathi’s eyes brightened. “Your accent—are you British, too?”

He smiled warmly. “Yup.”

Cathi looked smitten. “This is neat—very international. It won’t be a big party. I’m just doing a sort of get-to-know-your-neighbors thing because we’ve only just moved in. I haven’t even come up with a theme yet, and it’s next Saturday.”

“You could do the ever popular bells and balls party?” Noreen said.

Cathi looked at her. “What?”

“You know, festive holiday bells and decorative balls you hang on your tree?” Jessie said.

“Oh, I see. Yes, well, I’ll have to think about that. See you both next Saturday, then, around six?”

Noreen walked Cathi back out to the door. “I didn’t mean festive bells and balls at all,” she said when she returned. “I was talking about Southern belles, and balls referred to the men in the room.” She said it with such an angelic smile it was impossible not to laugh.

“Your reputation for wild parties is legendary, Mrs. Palmer,” Bruce said. “My grandfather told me all about them.”

“Did he now?” Her eyes twinkled. “Well, I get the feeling Cathi Grant’s holiday party will be a much more sophisticated affair.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

The Same Only Different

“It’s going to be a sophisticated affair.” Cathi gushed when she called at Maria’s house just after Noreen’s.

“But of course.” Maria didn’t even try to feign enthusiasm. She was too tired, and she was fed up hearing about Cathi’s fabulous life. Maria set a mug of coffee down in front of her friend.

“Coffee? They’re having mulled wine next door.”

“You wanna go back there?”
 

“No. Sorry. Coffee’s great. So put my party in your diary for next week—big night at my house.”

“Your house? You bought it now?”

“No, Maria, what’s wrong with you? I haven’t bought it, but I’m renting, so it’s mine for now.”

“Whatever you say. Want me to bring something?”

“Just yourself and your fabulous husband,” Cathi said and smiled.

Maria collapsed onto one of the kitchen chairs at her table. “Believe me, he’s not so fabulous.”

“Oh, honey, are you two still arguing? Can’t you get past it? Have you thought about counseling?”

“You need to be talking to each other to manage counseling. All we’re doing is screaming at each other.”

Cathi sat down next to her friend. “Maria, this is nuts. You guys were so good together. You have to talk.”

Maria looked down to her kitchen floor. It needed to be mopped again. “We’ve tried. Every time we talk, we end up fighting. It’s exhausting. Even Cody knows about it at this stage. I can see it’s wearing him down. Alice has probably picked up on it, too. You know, there comes a time when I think it’s better to just walk away while there’s still some civility there.”

Cathi put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, Maria. I had no idea you were in this much trouble. Can I help? Can I do anything?”

Maria wrapped her hands around her big mug of coffee. “You? You should be resting,
chica
. You know you shouldn’t be throwing this crazy party. No disrespect, but we’re not as young as we used to be. Having a baby at forty-one means you should be taking it easy.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Cathi waved her hand in the air.

Maria looked at her friend. She was acting strangely for a woman in her condition.

“How come you’re so calm about this baby? Why aren’t you freaking out?”

Cathi squirmed in the seat and looked around. “It’s a long story, but don’t worry, everything’s fine.”

“Are you in denial? What’s up?”

Again Cathi looked around. “Where’s Rick?”

“He took Cody and Todd to the movies, and Alice is in bed. It’s just you and me. Spill.”

Cathi studied her mug like she was trying to weigh up the situation. Then she spoke. “Well, here’s the thing. I’m not pregnant.” She smiled. “I don’t know how this crazy misunderstanding came about.” She shook her head and looked bewildered. “Michael somehow decided I was pregnant, and then he blurted it out over Thanksgiving dinner in front of Rick. Well, I was stunned, and I don’t even know why—I just told him he was right.”

Maria stood up. “You what? You’re not pregnant? Are you stark raving mad? You have to tell him.”

Cathi stood up then. “I will, I will. He just seems so happy. I didn’t want to disappoint him. I don’t even know how I got into this insane situation.”

“I do. You admitted to being pregnant when you weren’t. You do know that’s certifiably insane, right? How are you going to tell Michael now? He’ll be crushed. He was so happy about it, Cathi.”

She came over and took Maria’s hands in hers. “It’s not that bad. I’ll have to fake a miscarriage—probably at my next period.”

Maria pulled her hands back. “What? Now you’re going to fake a miscarriage? Cathi, you should hear yourself. You can’t go around faking everything.”

“Why not?” Cathi grinned. “You and I have laughed about faking orgasms in the past. We’ve sure faked interest in our husbands’ business lives for years. Anything we’ve done has always been with the best intent. This is the same—only different.”

Maria went over and switched on the coffee machine again, just to have something to do. “There’s a huge difference between pretending to be interested in a corporate publicity campaign and pretending to miscarry a baby—and don’t get me started on the pretending to be pregnant in the first place.
Chica
, you’ve so abused Michael’s trust. Do you hear me?”

Cathi raised her hands in the air. “Honey, you’re way overreacting. First off, I didn’t start this ball in motion. He did. He was snooping through my stuff and came up with this crazy idea. I just went along with it, and I have to tell you, it made him very happy. Now I’m afraid the game will have to end, because I can’t just produce a baby out of thin air. I know he’ll be sad for a while, but after, he’ll be himself again. Look, I managed to convince him to sell our old house, and I’m living on Crystal Lake Lane, just like I always wanted.”

Maria felt sick. Was her friend that delusional? “But at what cost, Cathi? You’ve manipulated Michael so badly—all to your own ends. He made this house move in good faith. You have to tell him.”

Cathi stomped her foot. “Oh my God, will you lighten up? I’ll tell him. It’s not that big of a deal. Women have miscarriages all the time. If anything, he’s been more attentive to me over the last month than over the last year. I will tell him and we’ll get over it together.”

“Together? Get over what? Cathi, there is no baby! You’re not pregnant!”