The Husband Project

Meg, still wearing her veil, carried a paper plate piled high with meatballs and pasta salad over to Lucia. She nodded toward Loralee. “My mother just told me I needed to use more mascara. She seems to be having a good time.”

“As always.” Loralee, wearing silver boots, black jeans, a white sweater and glittery headband, was knocking back what looked like a blue martini and chatting with Patsy, the local hairdresser.

“She’s talking about coming back here when Shelly’s baby is born or maybe not even leaving at all.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Her broken wrist encased in plaster, Shelly moved carefully around the buffet table and chatted sweetly with Mrs. Parcell, an older woman who, along with her husband and grandson, ranched outside of town. The newest resident in town, the former runaway teen’s long blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she sported an overlarge pink sweatshirt that covered her growing baby bump. Lucia guessed the sweatshirt belonged to Loralee, the now-surrogate grandmother who had unceremoniously taken the girl under her wing.

“Has Shelly said what she’s planning to do?”

“Face reality,” Meg said. “At least, that’s what she told us.”

“What exactly is reality?”

“Raising a baby alone. Giving the child up for adoption. I don’t know.”

“We’ll all help her,” Lucia said. “Whatever she decides.”

“It won’t be easy.”

“No,” Lucia said, knowing full well how hard it was to raise children on one’s own. “It won’t be easy. Whatever happens, she’s better off with your mother to keep an eye on her.”

“Yes, which is amazing, since I’m the one who’s always had to keep an eye on my mother.” Meg smiled ruefully. “Do you think Loralee is finally growing up?”

“Well, she hasn’t been married in years,” Lucia pointed out. “That’s progress.”

“You’re right. I should be grateful.” Meg perched on a bar stool and surveyed the party.

Mama Marie hurried over. “You’d probably better start opening presents,” she told Meg. “You’ve got a lot of them, and it’s gonna take a while.”

“I can’t believe this,” Meg sighed. “A party and presents.”

“That’s what happens when you get engaged,” Mama Marie pointed out. “At last.”

“You didn’t have to add the at last,” Meg grumbled.

Lucia laughed.

“I’d like to make a toast!” Aurora lifted a glass of champagne. “Quiet, ladies! We also have several announcements.”

The crowd’s chatter died down, but excitement stayed in the air. Lucia met Mama Marie’s smile with one of her own. Loralee, standing beside her, winked.

“First of all,” Aurora began, “we’re here to congratulate Meg for having the good sense to wait for Owen MacGregor to return to town.”

“It only took sixteen years,” someone hollered. Lucia thought it was Patsy, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Whatever,” Aurora said, waving her elegant hand. “It finally happened, so let’s raise our glasses and wish the couple well. And then? Presents!”

Cheers filled the room as the women clinked glasses.

“Speech!” called Loralee.

“No speech,” her daughter said.

“Just a little one,” Lucia said, pushing Meg forward so she could see the crowd of friends gathered to wish her well.

“Okay.” Meg cleared her throat and smiled at her neighbors. “Thank you, everyone. And thanks especially to Lucia and Aurora for putting this together.” She raised her left hand and wiggled her fingers. “You’ve seen the ring?”

Another round of cheers.

“I wore this secretly for two weeks when I was a teenager,” she said. “Some of you have heard the story, I know. And I just want to say I’m really happy to have it back.” She laughed when several of the older women fist-pumped the air. “So thank you for coming. It means a lot to me.”

“Open the presents!” This came from Shelly, who looked ready to burst from excitement. At more than six months along she looked ready to burst, period.

Now it was Lucia’s turn to blink back tears. She remembered the sweet discovery of having created a life and feeling the baby move inside her for the first time.

Shelly had inadvertently created a baby with a man who turned out to be married, a man with the morals of a stray, unneutered dog, and her young life had immediately changed and shifted in ways she never could have imagined.

It was a tough thing to learn. Lucia herself had been smacked in the face with the reality that nothing was forever. You never knew what lurked around the corner.

She’d been tiptoeing around corners ever since.

* * *

“HEADING HOME?” The man in the seat next to him turned away from the window and adjusted his seat belt. They were about to take off from a dirt runway in Nicaragua.

“Not exactly.” Sam needed to pick up some things in Miami, then head to Los Angeles for production meetings. “Are you?”

“I’m getting closer,” he said, seeming happy with the idea of being on his way. He appeared about Sam’s age but had a military look, with his clipped dark hair. “You know what the opposite of the Amazon is?”

“Alaska?”

“Montana,” the man had said quite seriously, as though it were a well-established fact. He’d glanced out the window as the plane vaulted into the sky. Beneath them lay thousands of acres of green foliage, brown water and vague dirt roads twisting into the jungle.

“Montana,” Sam repeated. He’d never been there. “Any special place in Montana?”

“Willing,” the man replied immediately.

“Excuse me?”

“Willing. The center of Montana.” He’d flipped through the pages of a tattered airline magazine until he found a map of the United States. “There,” he said, tapping his index finger on the page. “That’s the best place in the world.”

Sam believed him. The stranger was earnest, his expression one of intense longing.

“And that’s home?”

“Yeah,” he said, flipping the magazine shut and stuffing it into the seat back pocket to join a wad of out-of-date reading material. “Always.”

“We’re here,” someone said. “Welcome to Willing.”