Married by Accident Page 8

  Cole had not returned by four-thirty. Melinda wondered aloud what might have held him up. He’d been gone for two full hours. Annie said he’d probably made a stop at his motel.

  “His motel?”

  “Mm-hmm. There just wasn’t much room for him here, since the place is so small, so he’s staying at a motel. He’ll be back soon enough. And in a better mood than when he left, believe me.”

  In her heart, Melinda knew what was keeping him. He was waiting. Giving her plenty of time to get lost.

  She understood. There was something hard and hungry that crackled in the air between them now. Oh, she should never have kissed him. She’d been wrong to do that. And he was justifiably angry with her for leading him on, then telling him no.

  And it really was time that she left. With some regret, she handed Brady to Annie. “I think I’d better be on my way now.”

  “Come back,” Annie said. “Soon.”

  “I will. I promise.” She took a Forever Eve card from her purse, and wrote her own address and phone numbers on the back. “There.” She set the card on the little table by the blue-and-yellow bouquet. “You’ve got all my numbers now, even my cell phone—if I ever find the darn thing. You call me, if there’s anything at all I can help with.”

  “I will. And I’m in the phone book. Under Logan. James Logan. Call me, too. If you need me, I’ll be there.” Annie let out one of her cute little giggles. “’Course, you might have to wait a while before I show up, since Brady and I will be hopping a bus. But we’ll get there if you need us.”

  “I know you will.”

  “See you. Soon.”

  Melinda thought of Cole again, of how she owed it to him to stay out of his way now. But what about Annie? She felt so connected, to Annie—and to her baby. Annie really did need her. And maybe, the truth was, she needed Annie, too.

  “Yes,” she said. “Soon.”

  At five o’clock, when Cole pulled into the driveway on the way to the carport behind Annie’s apartment, he noticed that Melinda’s rental car was gone.

  Good, he thought with grim satisfaction. He’d managed to stay away long enough this time. With a little luck, she’d have had her fill of playing Good Samaritan to his sister. She’d go back to peddling sexy underwear to ill-bred Hollywood stars and they wouldn’t have to deal with her again.

  He parked in the back and carried the bags of groceries inside, making two trips, since he’d picked up quite a bit of food. When he let himself into the apartment, Annie was sitting with Brady in the beat-up wooden rocker near the bed. She didn’t say a word to him as he went back and forth, bringing everything in. He could see by the pursed shape of her mouth that she was annoyed with him. Probably for not being nice enough to the spoiled little rich girl she considered her friend. the rocker give

  He was putting it all away when he heard the rocker give a long creak as she got up from it. She came and stood behind him, with the baby on her shoulder.

  “I can do that, Cole.” of Quaker Oats in

  “It’s no problem.” He put a big box of Quaker Oats in the cupboard, and then a bag of flour and one of sugar, too.

  She was looking at all the grocery bags crowded on the little kitchen table. “That’s a lot of food. How much was it?”

  “Don’t worry about it.” He put away a box of Ritz crackers and a jar of crunchy peanut butter. Annie had always loved her Ritz and peanut butter.

  “But I do worry about it. You’ve paid for everything since you’ve been here. And I know you told them at the hospital to send you the bill.”

  He stopped, turned to her fully. “I said not to worry.

  She put her hand on the baby’s back—rubbing—and kept her voice low, though there was anger in it. “Well, just because you said it doesn’t mean I won’t do it.”

  Some devil must have been in him. He heard himself say, “You fight your own brother when he’s helping out, but you’ll let some stranger spend a bundle on you and all you got to say is Gee thanks.”

  Her mouth pursed up tight again. “Melinda is no stranger. Somethin’ special has happened between her and me.”

  He let out a disgusted grunt. “Oh, come on. Don’t be a fool. You only met her yesterday.”

  “It doesn’t matter when I met her. She’s my friend. I know what’s in her heart. And she can see inside mine. That’s precious and rare, and not foolish at all. And I don’t know why you suddenly decided to be mean to her. You seemed to like her real well yesterday.”

  I still like her real well, some idiot’s voice in the back of his mind whispered. I like her too damn well. “I’ve got nothin’ against her.” It was a lie, but he said it anyway. “I just don’t want her buttin’ in to your life.”

  “She’s not buttin’ in.” Annie let out a small cry. “Oh, I don’t know what’s got into you. Melinda made me promise not to say anything to you. She said to let bygones be bygones, but—”

  “Oh, so she was talkin’ about me, was she?”

  “No, she was not. I was the one talkin’ about you. I was apologizing. For my rude brother. And she said—”

  “I don’t need to hear what she said. It doesn’t matter.”

  “It does matter.”

  “Forget about it.”

  She shifted the baby to her other shoulder, and gave him a look he didn’t like at all. “Cole. Did something...happen, between you and her, when you took her home last night?”

  He got busy unloading the bags again. “No, nothing happened,” he lied some more. “Not a thing.”

  “Then why were you so rude to her?”

  He bent to open the low refrigerator, tossed in a carton of milk and shoved it closed, rising to his full height once again. “Look. I’m sorry, okay? Let’s just do what that friend of yours suggested, huh? Let bygones be bygones. Now, put the baby down and then lie down yourself. You look like you’re about to fall over. Get some rest. I’ll put some supper together and—”

  “When she comes to see me again, if you’re still here, I want you to treat her right.”

  He didn’t like the sound of that. Not one bit. He was counting on the woman staying away. And when he left, by God, Annie and the baby would be going with him.

  “Cole. I mean it. You be nice to my friend.”

  He picked up a container of cottage cheese, hefted it. “Fine. If she comes around here again, I will be nice. Now will you please go lie down on that bed?”

  “You promise you’ll be nice?”

  “Don’t push me. I said what I’d do. So go lie down. Now.”

  When Melinda got back to her house, she took the number Cole had given her out of her purse and dropped it into the trash. The next morning, she called her insurance company. Right away, the clerk asked for information about the other vehicle.

  She baldly lied. “Oh, that. It was a pickup—a black one, I think.”

  “Did you get the number of the other insurance company?”

  “The man gave it to me, but I can’t find it now.”

  “How about a license number?”

  “No. Sorry. I forgot to look.”

  On the other end of the line, she heard the clerk sigh. “All right, Ms. Bravo. I’ll get an adjuster out to your address within the hour.”

  Since the car was new and expensive and the front end was still intact, the adjuster declared it worth fixing. He also warned her that her insurance rates were bound to go up. She smiled at him and said she understood. At noon, she stood in the driveway and watched another tow truck take the car away to be fixed.

  She went back inside, ate lunch and read the want ads. She even circled a few that looked vaguely promising.

  But she kept thinking about Annie, stuck in her tiny apartment with her baby and no easy means of transportation. For now, Cole could deal with making sure she had the things she needed. But what would happen when Cole left? Annie would need a lot of help then.

  And she would have to have a stroller, Melinda thought with a smile. A really good,
sturdy one, the kind that could carry the baby, his diaper bag—and a load of groceries, too....

  Chapter Seven

  Melinda managed to hold out two more days, through the weekend, before she visited the courtyard apartment in East Hollywood again. Yes, she did go right out and buy the stroller—and she picked up a battery-run baby swing while she was at it. But she held off taking the new gifts to her friend.

  After all, Cole would not appreciate her presence—or her presents. And maybe, if she waited a while, he would return to Texas. She wouldn’t have to see him, to feel the tension that vibrated between them, to put up with his coldness—or her own acute awareness of him, which kept her nerves on a thin edge.

  On Sunday, she scoured the big Employment section of the Times. And on Monday first thing, she made a few calls and arranged some interviews. The weather had turned hot, so she dressed in cool white linen and swept her hair back in a single French braid. At ten-thirty she left the house to go on two of the interviews, which were set up for eleven and one o’clock.

  By two, she was back at her house, with one job offer and a “We’ll get back to you.” Both of the interviewers had been male. And both had spent too much time sending long, suggestive glances at her legs and her breasts. She called and turned down the one offer and hoped the “We’ll get back to you,” had meant what it usually did: that they wouldn’t.

  She took off her dress and drew a tepid bath. Then she settled into the tub and lay back, thinking of the jobs she’d had over the years. During the time she’d been in college, earning a virtually useless four-year degree in Humanities, she’d modeled a little, both print and runway. And she’d worked for an art dealer, being decorative, answering phones. During her five years with Christopher, she hadn’t really worked at all. He’d called her his “assistant,” which meant she typed his poems and essays, carried his papers around whenever he spoke somewhere, and told him constantly how brilliant he was.

  She had dared to hope, with Forever Eve, that she might be discovering something she could do well. She’d enjoyed showing other women how to choose just the right “intimate” look for them. And even Rudy had sometimes gone along with her suggestions when it came to floor displays. Plus, he’d had no interest in making passes at his female employees, since he preferred men. That had been a big bonus, as far as Melinda was concerned.

  But then along had come Evelyn Erikson. And Forever Eve was out of her professional future for good. She was back to pounding the pavement in the hot July sun, trying to find something reasonably worthwhile to do with her time.

  And she was also lying here in this deep, comfortable tub feeling sorry for herself—when she lived in a nice house, drove an expensive car and would never have to worry where her next meal was coming from.

  Unlike Annie.

  Melinda rested her head on the tub rim, closed her eyes and pictured Annie’s sweet face in her mind. “Come back,” Annie had said. “Soon.” Melinda wondered how Brady was doing. And the stroller and the baby swing were just waiting, out in the garage, for her to stick them in the back of her rental car and take them where they would get some use.

  It had been three days since she’d seen them, if she counted today. And maybe Cole would have given up on Annie and headed back to Texas by now.

  But, no. Melinda couldn’t make herself believe that Three days, counting today, wouldn’t be long enough for a man like him to accept the fact that his sister wasn’t going anywhere until her wandering husband came home.

  So he was probably still there.

  And he wouldn’t be glad to see her again.

  But Annie would. Annie’s eyes would light up and that wide, generous smile would take over her cute heart-shaped face.

  And just maybe, Cole would be off somewhere, doing the shopping or running the errands or something. Melinda could hold Brady and give Annie the new and necessary baby equipment she’d bought for her. They could talk and laugh together for a little while.

  Melinda climbed from the tub, dried off and put on shorts and a crop top. She reapplied her light makeup and managed to get the collapsed stroller into the trunk. The swing, unassembled and still in its big box, fit in the back seat. She slid in behind the wheel, started up the car and backed from the garage.

  It worked out fine. Annie was thrilled to see her again. And Cole wasn’t there.

  “Did he go back to Texas, then?” Melinda asked.

  Annie giggled. “Don’t get your hopes up. He’s still hanging around. But he’s not here all the time. It gets him too crazy, stuck in one room with just me and the baby. Especially in this heat. So he went out for a while. Probably over to the motel to go for a swim. He said he’d be back by four-thirty or so.”

  It was almost three-thirty right then. An hour, Melinda thought. I could stay for an hour and with any luck I could be gone before he returns.

  Annie tried to say no to the stroller and the swing. But Melinda didn’t listen to any of that.

  “You need these things and I can afford them. I want you to take them and use them. And when Brady doesn’t need them anymore, I want you to pass them on, to another mother like you, who loves her baby with all of her heart and needs a little help to get by. Will you do that for me?”

  “Oh, Melinda. How do you do that—make it sound like I’m the one doing a favor for you?”

  “Because you are.”

  And right then, as they stood by the door of the too-hot apartment, with the virtually useless window air conditioner roaring away, Melinda told Annie about the baby she’d lost. “My due date was July 8,” she said in a whisper.

  “Oh my sweet Lord. The day Brady was born.”

  “Exactly. And it really does mean a lot to me, to think I can buy these things for your baby, when I never had the chance to buy them for mine. Say you understand.”

  And of course, Annie did.

  Melinda said, “And I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone else, about my baby.” She was thinking of Cole. Somehow, the idea that he might learn about the child she’d lost bothered her. Way too much.

  “Oh, Melinda. Don’t you worry. I will never say a word. Annie glanced toward the crib where her sleeping son lay. And then she looked back, met Melinda’s eyes.

  Melinda saw that Annie knew. Of the emptiness inside her. Of the precious, singular life that never would be. Of the nights she still woke up sometimes, her pillow drenched in tears of loss.

  “To lose your baby,” Annie whispered, “that must be the hardest thing in the world. It’s not something you would want to talk about with just anybody, or to have just anybody know. Because it is your pain, and it is your right to choose who you would share it with. I would never take it on myself to tell another soul.”

  Right then, Brady woke up. He stirred in the crib and let out a few pleading little cries.

  Melinda looked toward the sound. “Oh. Please. May I...?”

  “You go on. Hold him. He will like that so much.”

  So Melinda sat in the rocker with Brady for a while. At first, he lay silent, staring up at her dreamily. But then he began fussing again. Annie fed him. Melinda changed him and put him in his crib.

  Annie and Melinda sat together on the bed for a while, talking. Annie admired Melinda’s French braid, so Melinda braided Annie’s hair in the same style. It felt so lovely, to kneel on the bed with Annie in front of her, the silky strands of Annie’s fine hair sliding through her fingers as they talked and laughed and finished each other’s sentences. Melinda told Annie a little about Christopher.

  “He was a lot older than I am,” she said. “He’d already been married. He had...I mean has two grown children. When I got pregnant, he wanted me to get rid of the baby. He said he’d reproduced himself twice and that was more than enough. He needed peace and quiet for his work— he’s a well-known poet. And having a crying baby around would drive him right up the wall.”

  “So you left him?”

  “Mm-hmm. And then, two months
later, I lost the baby anyway.”

  Annie shook her head. “Well, you’re lucky to get shut of a man like that, a man who didn’t even want his own child.”

  Melinda thought of Jimmy Logan.

  And of course; Annie knew. “Jimmy’s not like that,” she said in answer to the words Melinda had never even said. “He’s just scared, and he hates himself now, for the way things have worked out. But his fear and the bad feelings he has about himself won’t be enough to keep him away forever. Our love is stronger. Just wait and see.”

  “Oh, Annie. I hope you’re right.”

  “I am right. Like I said, you just wait and see.”

  The hour passed too quickly. Melinda wanted to stay longer, but she knew it wouldn’t be wise. She bent over Brady’s crib one more time. He was lying on his stomach, his head turned toward Melinda. His little mouth made sucking motions, even in his sleep.

  “He’s so beautiful,” she whispered.

  Annie said, “He’s my joy.”

  Melinda turned from the crib and gave Annie a final hug.

  Outside, just as Annie shut the door behind her, Melinda saw Cole coming around the back walk from the carports. He strode right for her. And instead of turning and making for the street, she just stood there, watching him approach. He wore old, frayed cutoffs, rubber sandals and an unbuttoned shirt. His legs were muscular, hairy and tanned—like the slice of bare chest his open shirt revealed.

  Something tightened under her breastbone, then went liquid, sending heat rolling through her. It was ninety-eight degrees in the shade and suddenly it felt like a hundred and ten. His sandals made that that clip, clip, clipping sound.

  She managed to cast a glance back, at Annie’s apartment. But all the curtains were drawn and the windows shut tight. No way Annie would look out and come rescue her. She would have to face those accusing hazel eyes alone—not to mention the thoroughly unwelcome sensations those eyes stirred in her.