Pregnancy Countdown

For the next hour, Nora was relieved only to have to listen to her beloved client’s stories about past alien abduction.

“I know you think I’m cuckoo, dear, but I don’t mind.” Mrs. Crockett patted Nora’s hand after Nora finished styling her snowy-white hair. “My friends certainly think that, although they’re nice enough not to say so out loud. I appreciate you being so sweet and listening to me prattle on.”

“You don’t prattle. You use such vivid imagery when you tell me about your adventures, I think you should write about them,” Nora urged her. “There are magazines out there that would publish your stories.”

Mrs. Crockett’s eyes twinkled merrily. “Actually, I have written a few tales,” she admitted in her whispery-soft voice. “In fact, I would love it if you would read one of my little stories.” She dug into her briefcase-size black purse and pulled out several sheets of paper.

Nora took them from her. “I’m flattered you’re asking me,” she said honestly.

“You don’t have to be kind with your critique, dear.” The elderly woman patted her arm. “But I would be interested in your response.”

“I’ll read it before I see you next week,” Nora promised.

She watched the elderly woman walk toward the front of the salon where an equally elderly man sat on one of the soft-cushioned couches. His wrinkled face lit up in a smile as she approached him. The two walked out together, arm in arm.

“I thought Mrs. Crockett was a widow,” Ginna commented, following the direction of Nora’s gaze.

“She is. That’s Harold, her boyfriend,” she explained. “She told me she likes to call him her boyfriend because he makes her feel seventeen again. It seems they were high-school sweethearts, had a fight back then and they broke up. They didn’t run into each other again until a few years ago. Both spouses are gone and they decided to give it one more try.”

“How adorable! Did she ever say what the fight was about?”

Nora chuckled. “He wanted them to be intimate, she told him no. Sixty years later, they’re living together. She said she hasn’t told her mother she’s living in sin. The woman would be horrified.”

“You mean her mother’s still alive?”

“She’s ninety-eight and going strong. She lives in Leisure World in Laguna Niguel.”

“And now Mrs. Crockett is writing stories about her alien visitors?” Ginna eyed the papers with curiosity.

Nora nodded as she held up the papers. “For the past sixty years they’ve met for brunch at one of the hotels in Newport Beach. She’s never said which one.”

“Since your next appointment is here and I have a free hour, may I read the story?” Ginna’s glance focused on the papers.

Nora handed them to her. “Don’t tell me the ending.”

As she worked that afternoon, Nora found herself looking toward the front every now and then. Did she expect Mark to walk through the door and declare that she was the only one for him? Was that why she’d spent the past few nights picking up her phone every now and then to make sure it was working? Or looking out the window every time Brumby gave one of his rumbling barks? She was furious with herself for these feelings of expectation.

After all, she was the one who’d told him that what they had was nothing more than sex. She didn’t want any ties between them. She didn’t want to expect more and have him fail her somewhere down the road. She had pretty much told him she would prefer he didn’t come back.

“I am such a hypocrite,” she muttered to herself as she stood in the supply room selecting hair color.

“Nora!” Ginna ran into the room. The papers Nora had given her were in her hand.

Nora turned and noticed her friend’s high color. “What’s wrong?”

Ginna carefully folded the papers in half then half again. “I suggest you stand in a cold shower when you read this.”

“What?”

Ginna laughed. “Trust me, Nora. This stuff is so hot it’s downright sizzling. Mrs. Crockett didn’t just write about her alien visitors, she wrote about their sexual practices. This makes the Kama Sutra sound like a grade-school textbook.”

“Their what?”

Ginna nodded. Her blue eyes danced with laughter. “We aren’t talking about little green men here either. We’re talking about guys with huge orange—” She gulped. “I can’t go on. The thing is, she writes an incredibly believable story. It doesn’t read like a joke.” She lowered her voice. “It reads like the truth.”

Nora took the papers from her and tucked them into her skirt pocket. “No offense, Gin, but I think you honeymooned a little too hard.”

“After I read her story I wanted to call up Zach and tell him to be ready, because I was going to jump his bones big-time when I get home,” Ginna admitted as she walked back to the door. “If she gives you any more stories, I want to read them!”

Nora shook her head in disbelief. “Oh yes, the woman had way too much honeymoon,” she muttered under her breath.

“HEADS UP, little brother.”

Mark looked up at Jeff, who held out a can of beer. He accepted the icy can. “I just finished three straight games of dodgeball with twenty million kids. I’m discovering I’m getting too old for those games.” They were at their parents’ house for the family weekend barbecue.

“You volunteered to be their first target,” Jeff reminded him. He dropped into the patio chair next to him. “So who are you looking for?”

“Your hot-stuff wife. Who else?” Not for anything was he going to admit who he was really looking for.

Mark knew Nora had a standing invitation to attend the weekend barbecues and any other party thrown by the Walkers. She’d still shown up once in a while even after they had broken up.

It wasn’t until today that Mark realized Nora hadn’t been out here for some time. For the past couple of years, he’d been able to put her out of his mind. Mainly because it was easier that way rather than constantly wondering what went wrong between them. It was only after the first time they made love that he’d found himself looking for her. Not that he asked about her. Privacy about one’s love life wasn’t an option in the Walker family. If he asked about Nora, his mother would want to know if they were dating again. There was no way he’d admit they’d slept together. Cathy Walker would be making noises that it was time for her baby boy to get married. Then Jeff and Brian would join in on the chorus…and Ginna. Hell, Ginna would just plain make his life miserable. She’d done more than her share of that right after he and Nora broke up.

He’d always felt Ginna’s accusations about his being a scuzzball were unfounded. After all, he’d been the injured party in the relationship. All he knew was that they’d gone out for the evening, at some point she had turned a little surly, and by the end of the night she had told him not to call her anymore. When he’d demanded a reason, all she’d said was that she finally saw him for what he was and she didn’t like it. When he’d asked her exactly what she meant, she’d coldly informed him that he, of all people, ought to know. He’d left her house confused, angry and just plain hurt. He had called her, wanting to know what went wrong, and she had refused to even speak to him. Finally, he’d pushed his hurt deep down inside and went looking for any woman who would assure him he was still a stud. He’d never admitted that his mega-dating spree hadn’t helped one bit.

To this day, he still had no idea what he supposedly did wrong that night. And he still wanted to know.

Come to think of it, he’d add to that interrogation by asking Nora why she pretty much threw him out of her house that second morning. Some hostess she’d been. The last time, she didn’t even offer him coffee.

“Like hell you’re looking for my wife,” Jeff said amiably, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Admit it. Abby terrifies you.”

“Yeah, she does have that scary quality, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like looking at her. Your wife is one hot-looking babe. Ow!” He clapped his hands on top of his head where he’d just been delivered a painful thump.

“Ingrate,” Abby Walker informed her brother-in-law with a shark’s smile. She stepped around him and dropped into her husband’s lap. She looped her arm around Jeff’s neck as she studied Mark. “No wonder you can’t keep a girlfriend. You always look like a fugitive from a Jimmy Buffet concert.”

“I give you a compliment and this is what I get in return?” Mark grumbled.

“Be grateful you didn’t get worse.” Abby stared him down.

“Fine, you’re an old crone.”

Which everyone knew was untrue. Not when Abby was blessed with California-blonde good looks. As a mother of three small children, she should have looked tired and worn out. Instead, she was the picture of energy and health in a pair of pink floral-print capris and a solid-pink tank top that bared her flat midriff. Her sun-golden blond hair was pulled back in a complicated braid he knew Ginna had created that morning. At the moment, Abby looked more like a college cheerleader than a thirty-something mom of three young children who kept her constantly running.

Until recently, Mark hadn’t bothered to consider how lucky his older brother was. Now he looked at Jeff and saw more than a guy who had lost his freedom on his wedding day. Now he saw the father of twin girls and a boy who was starting to walk, a loving husband to a woman who was drop-dead beautiful. He remembered when his brother seemed to have a girlfriend for every day of the week. Then Abby flew into Jeff’s life with hurricane force and Mark’s big bad brother had fallen like a ton of bricks for the energetic blonde.

Mark watched Brian on the other side of the yard talking to their dad. Brian had been something of a party animal too. Then Nikki, their baby sister, put Brian’s picture and personal information on the Steppin’ Out’s Blind Date Central bulletin board and Dr. Gail Douglas chose him to accompany her to a dinner. Instead, they were carjacked, kidnapped, dumped in the middle of nowhere, caught in a rainstorm and, after spending the night in an abandoned house, almost arrested for trespassing.

Gail was an uptight, no-nonsense pediatrician and Brian was a laid-back, easygoing guy. Who knew they’d end up together along with a baby girl conceived on that memorable night?