Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (40 page)

Ely was still feeling pretty rotten. The nausea was gone, which was a huge relief, but she couldn’t believe how exhausted she was. There was no way she would have accepted a babysitting job if it hadn’t been for Jessie. Jessie had begged her to say yes. She said if Maria got a new sitter she would lose her future jobs in the Sanchez household, and that was why Ely was trekking her way through the snow to the next-door neighbor’s house to babysit two little brats. Could life be any worse?

Cody, the boy, answered the door.

“You’re not Jessie,” he said.

“Go you, but no prize.”

“Ely. Hi, come on in.” Rick Sanchez was a bit more welcoming. “Do you play Xbox?”
 

“No, but maybe Cody can show me.” Ely tried to make a bit of an effort, even though all she wanted to do was sleep.

Maria arrived next, looking amazing. She was wearing a figure-hugging, scarlet-red dress. The plunging V-neck highlighted her stunning hourglass figure, and her hair bounced around her shoulders in big soft curls. “Wow, Mrs. Sanchez, you look terrific.”

“Thanks.” Maria did a twirl and winked at her husband. There was serious chemistry between the two of them. It was hard not to think about herself and Josh. Not a lot going on there these days.
 

“Jessie tells me you’re good with babies.” Maria needed reassurance, and Ely nodded just like Jessie told her. In fact, Jessie had said to call if there were any problems and she would run over. She was just down the road, and Jessie swore Alice was an easy baby.

“I have young cousins,” Ely said with great authority. “I kept them amused for the entire Thanksgiving holiday.” That much was true-
ish
.

Maria nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem. I put Alice down. She’ll probably sleep all night. Just watch this guy for me, but he’s promised to be on his best behavior.”

Cody gave his mother a
you’re embarrassing me
look.

“We’ll be just dandy,” Ely said.

Cody focused on Ely then. “You talk funny.”

“So do you.” She was in no mood for kids.

He switched on the television. “Can we rent a movie? We have pay-per-view.”

“If it’s age appropriate. Ely, make sure he doesn’t rent anything unsuitable.”

She nodded.

“Okay, we gotta go. You have our numbers if there’s any problem, and you know we’re at number sixteen,” Rick said.

She nodded again. “Go have fun. We’ll be fine.”

Once they had left, Ely pulled out her phone. No new messages from Josh.
Damn
.

“How about
The Hangover 3
?” Cody said.

“What’s the rating on it?”

He raised his hands to say he didn’t know.

“What the heck? Just don’t tell your folks. If they ask, you watched
The Smurfs
—deal?”

He gave her a fabulous smile. “Deal! I think you and me are gonna get along just fine.” He spoke with an excellent put-on Southern drawl, which made Ely giggle. It felt good—she hadn’t done much laughing in a while.

“Are you okay watching this for a bit? I need to make a call. I can do it in the kitchen.”

“Sure.” He was already pressing the necessary buttons to get the movie up and running.

Ely sat at the kitchen table and speed-dialed Josh’s number.

He answered it on the first ring. “I got nothing to say to you.”
 

She tried to humor him. “That’s something.”
 

“Ely, I don’t want you even calling me. Not unless you’ve changed your mind. Have you?”

She couldn’t answer. She so needed his support at this time, but he wouldn’t help. He had all but left her.

“Please, Josh, don’t be like this. We can get through it and come out the other side together.”

“No way. What you’re doin’ is wrong—plain and simple. That’s our baby you got in your belly. Yours and mine. I have every bit as much right to see him or her as you do. You can’t just get rid of it.”

Even though she was alone in the kitchen, she looked around to make sure nobody could hear. “But you have to understand my side of this. I’m the woman. It would finish my life. I’ll end up working some deadbeat job with some kid I didn’t want.”

“I want it. I’ll take it.”

“You say that now, but we’re too young, Josh. This is all too soon.”

“I’m hanging up, Ely. I can’t talk to you. If you change your mind, I can be there in three minutes, but I’m not standing by you if you’re gonna have an abortion.”

Tears rolled down Ely’s cheeks. “I’m so alone. I need you.”

“No, you don’t. Seems like you don’t need anybody. You’re an ice queen, Ely. I told you I love you, and God help me I still do, and now you’re carrying my baby . . . I agree it was a lot earlier than we planned, but damn it, we’re not teenagers either. I’ll be out of college in a few years. I’d even quit if you wanted me to—just to make money for us. But you? You got other plans that don’t include our child. I can’t be part of those plans.”

She had heard it all before. This was where he asked her one more time to reconsider.

“Well?” he said right on cue.

“I can’t,” she said.

“Then we got nothing more to say.” He hung up.

Ely listened to the dead line and let herself feel miserable. It hadn’t been an easy decision. She abhorred the idea of an abortion. Who the heck wanted one? She had gone through hell deciding what to do but ultimately concluded she had no choice. Her life was over if a baby arrived. Of course it was a terrible thing to do, but she simply had no options. She hated herself for it, and now it looked like Josh did, too.
 

She didn’t dare tell Jessie. They hadn’t discussed it, but Ely knew Jessie would be dead against her plans. She’d never felt so alone or lost. The sooner she went through with it the better. Sometimes, just sometimes, she could pretend it wasn’t happening or it was all a dream, but most of the time she was living in terror. If she had an abortion, she could put it behind her. She would lose Josh, but that was a price she had to pay.
 

Cody appeared in front of her. “You okay?”
 

She sniffed hard and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. “Yeah, I’m fine. Allergies.”

He didn’t look convinced but accepted it. “Movie’s started.”

Ely tried to smile. “Great, I’ll be right in. Just gotta make one more quick call. You start without me, okay?”

He studied her face and then nodded again, leaving her alone.
 

Ely pulled herself together. She knew she had no choice about calling her mother. Getting her on the cell instead of the house phone was smart, because Ely was still avoiding her father after the Thanksgiving speed bump. Her mom answered almost immediately. She always knew when it was her daughter phoning because of the caller ID.

“Honey, it’s lovely to hear from you. I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.” Her mother sounded so good, so warm and reassuring—like hot chocolate.

“Oh, Mama, that’s why I’m calling. I’m afraid I’m going to have to stay here a few more days. One of my tutors is giving me grief. He’s not happy with my paper but says if I do it again, he’ll grade the new one higher.”

“Elyse, that’s shameful. Can’t you bring it home, write it here, and e-mail it back to him?”

Ely’s mind moved fast. She thought one thing but said another. “All the reference books (
abortion clinics
) are here. I need the library (
doctor
). Don’t worry (
I’m worried enough for two of us
), I’ll fly home on Tuesday (
I’ll desperately need you on Tuesday
).”

Her mother wasn’t happy. “That’s Christmas Eve. Must you stay so late?”

“Yep.” She tried to sound like her normal self. “That’s me—a regular little Santa Claus landing into your living room on Christmas Eve.”

It worked. Margaret Briskin laughed. “You’re all the present I want this holiday, darlin’.”

Ely thought she might lose it again if she heard too much affection from her mom.

“Okay, gotta go. See you in a few days.”

“I’ll be at the airport to welcome you. Just text me your flight details.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Bring on the Fireworks

“You’re so welcome,” Cathi said, but Maria knew she didn’t mean it. Her eyes always glazed over when she was being insincere, and right now they were as frosty as the sidewalk outside.

“Oh my God, is that mink? I haven’t seen this before.” She pawed one of the soft arms of Maria’s new coat. “It’s darling.” Her eyes were pierced with clarity now but she sounded ridiculously pretentious.
 

“Just a little Christmas present from Rick,” Maria said and slid her arms out of the coat. “Darling.” Maria dropped the word at Cathi’s feet like a snowball.
 

Rick stepped in to kiss the hostess on the cheek. “This is my first time in your new house, Cathi. Congrats. It looks amazing.” Maria knew he was trying to smooth things over between the women. He was good at that.

“Thanks, Rick. I must say we’re very happy here. There’s so much space, the location is fabulous, as you know, and the views of the lake? Well, they just take my breath away.”

Maria tried to suppress the annoyance she felt toward her friend. She sounded so fake, like she was playing a role. What the hell was she doing? This wasn’t the Cathi that Maria knew and once loved.

“Katie and Stacy are doing tours if you’re interested.”

Ricky laughed. “Are they? Wow, you’ve thought of everything. I think I’ll go find the bar first.” Then he turned to Maria. “Honey, can I get you a drink?”

The doorbell chimed again, and Cathi moved on to her next performance.

Ricky slipped his hand into his wife’s. “Sheesh, what’s got into her?”

Maria was relieved he felt the same way. “I know, right? It’s like she’s swallowed a bowl of bullshit. She’s pretending she’s above the rest of us. What’s with that?”

They walked through the house and into the enormous kitchen. Rick was scanning the place for familiar faces. “See anybody we know?”

“Not a one. Who are all these people?” Maria asked, looking around. Party music pulsed throughout the entire house.

Rick whispered into her ear. “These, honey, are what I’d call the
beautiful people
.”

Maria kept looking. “Ah, that explains why everybody here is tanned and in perfect shape.”

Rick nodded. “And that’s just the guys.”

Maria laughed. “It’s like she rented a crowd from some Hollywood red carpet event.”

“We should have known when we saw the Porsches and Ferraris parked along the street.”

“This is so weird.” Maria looked about. “We left the perfectly ordinary world of number seven, Crystal Lake Lane where everything felt normal—grumpy kid, messy kitchen—but now I feel like we’ve entered some sort of parallel universe. On this side of the road, everything is
darling
,” Maria said, exaggerating the word.

Rick wrapped his arm around Maria’s waist and guided her toward the bar. “Come on, let’s get us some
darling
drinks.”

The barman smiled at them. “Maria and Rick, am I right?”
 

“Impressive,” Rick said, looking a little confused, but Maria recognized him.

“You’re our new neighbor in number three—Bruce, isn’t it?”

He nodded and offered them both a glass of champagne.

“Ah yeah, you’re the guy who found Orga. Thanks again for that.” Rick looked at the glasses of champagne. “You don’t have any beer, by any chance?”

“Sorry about that. It’s champagne or nothing. That’s all she’s serving.”

“What?” Maria felt cheated. “I wanted a vodka and orange juice.”

“You’re not alone. Noreen Palmer was complaining about the lack of strong martinis. She told me a weak martini is even worse than a weak dollar,” Bruce said.

“Is this meant to be cool or something?” Maria asked.

Bruce leaned toward them so he could whisper. “Haven’t you heard? It’s a Botox and Bollinger party. The Botox is in the front room. They have a certified lady doing the job, and I’m the Bollinger boy.”

“Ah man, gimme that drink,” Rick said. He took the glass and swallowed half of it in one gulp. “I think I’m going to need a few of these.” Then he downed the rest of it.

Jessie walked by with a large silver tray balanced on her hand, up over head. It was full of glasses of champagne.
 

“Jessie,” Maria said upon seeing another familiar face. The waitress swung around, but the champagne in the glasses didn’t move.
 

Maria glanced up. “Whoa, how do you do that?”
 

“Years of practice. I worked in a pizza restaurant in Dorking all through my teens.”

“Neat.” Rick smiled. “Don’t suppose you have anything other than champagne? This stuff doesn’t agree with me.”

Jessie shook her head. “Sorry, guys it’s Botox and Bollinger or sparkly water.”

“Jeez, even the water sparkles?” Maria was getting fed up and chose to drink the champagne. “Isn’t anything dull around here? I like dull.”