Waking Up In Charleston

Amanda declined. She’d wanted to make sure the house was spotless before her first impromptu party. She didn’t want any of these people to think she didn’t prize the home they’d built for her and couldn’t care for it properly.

Of course, the men had barely spared the inside of the house a glance as they’d headed straight for the backyard. And the women had immediately congregated in the kitchen, which had been turned into a sewing room and was now covered with yards and yards of pink eyelet fabric.

“I had curtains made out of material just like this when I was six,” Dinah said, her expression nostalgic. “It was the prettiest room I ever had. When I have a little girl, I’m going to do her room exactly the same way.” She scowled as the needle she was using to sew a hem pricked her finger. “Of course, someone else is going to make the damn curtains.”

Maggie regarded her with interest. “Any timetable for the arrival of this girl?” she inquired.

To everyone’s surprise, Dinah blushed. “Could be sooner rather than later.”

“You’re pregnant?” Maggie asked delightedly. “Does Cord know?” She shook her head. “Of course he does. You’d tell him first, wouldn’t you? When’s the baby due? How soon will you know if it’s a boy or a girl? Oh, Lord, this is going to give Josh ideas.” She sat back, looking stunned.

Amanda laughed. “I have never heard one woman’s good news cause such commotion for someone else before.”

“Then you haven’t spent nearly enough time around Maggie,” Dinah said dryly. “Trust me, she is not worried about this giving Josh ideas. She’s the one who’s always had to do everything I do and twice as fast.” She grinned at Maggie. “Sorry, sweetie. Not this time. I’ve got an insurmountable head start.”

Maggie’s gaze instantly narrowed. “How much of a head start?”

Nadine draped an arm around her daughter-in-law’s shoulders. “Maggie, honey, when it comes to babies, it’s all but impossible to make up any kind of a head start. Nine months is pretty much the rule. You can’t set out to have your baby in eight, though I for one would certainly like to see you try. I’m ready to be a grandmama.”

“But with those early pregnancy tests, Dinah could be only a few days pregnant,” Maggie argued. “If I take Josh home right this minute—”

“Give it up, Magnolia,” Dinah said. “This is one contest I’m going to win. Do you think I’m stupid enough to tell you news like this when you might have time to catch up?”

“So when is the baby due?” Maggie asked. “It’s November now.”

“I’m not telling,” Dinah said, her lips twitching with amusement.

Maggie headed for the door. “Cord will tell me. I always could wrap that man around my finger.”

“Not this time,” Dinah retorted. “I’ve put him on notice that he is not to tell you a blessed thing about this baby’s due date.”

Amanda listened to the two of them sparring as only best friends could and regretted that she’d never had a friendship that ran that deep. Her father had been her best friend, and then Bobby had taken his place. Now with both of them out of her life, she recognized the foolhardiness of not making more of an effort to surround herself with women like these.

“Hey, you okay?” Nadine asked, studying her worriedly.

Amanda nodded. “Just feeling a little envious, I guess.”

“Because of the baby?” Dinah asked. “Would you like to have another one someday?”

“Sure,” Amanda said without hesitation. “I loved every second of being pregnant, even the morning sickness. I loved it when the baby started to move inside me. I can’t say I was crazy about the pain of getting those little monsters into this world, but holding them in my arms for the first time was amazing. When they call it one of God’s greatest miracles, they get it exactly right.”

No sooner had she spoken than she looked up and spotted Caleb standing on the other side of the screen door. He looked as if someone had just delivered devastating news.

“Caleb?” Amanda asked, regarding him with concern. “Are you okay?”

He smiled, but she knew him well enough now to recognize that it was forced.

“I’m great. Just loaded down with all this food,” he said, juggling several bags. “Can somebody get the door for me?”

Nadine sprang up to do it. Maggie and Dinah immediately began poking in the bags to see what he’d brought for lunch, pulling out huge containers of coleslaw and barbecue and potato salad.

“Pickles?” Dinah queried. “Where are the pickles?”

“Right here, little mother-to-be,” Maggie responded, retrieving a plastic container of dill pickles. “I imagine you think they’re all for you.”

“Of course,” Dinah said, reaching for them.

During the exchange Amanda kept her gaze on Caleb. She’d never seen him looking quite so out of his depth before. She crossed the room. “Can I get you something to drink? A soda, maybe? Or the guys have beer in a cooler outside.”

“No, I’m fine,” he said with another of those halfhearted smiles.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she pressed, keeping her voice low while Maggie, Nadine and Dinah chattered on.

“Nothing’s going on,” he said more tersely than he’d ever spoken to her before. He immediately winced. “Sorry. Bad morning, I guess. I’ll go outside and take out my foul mood on some wood. Hammering a few nails should make me feel better.”

Amanda reluctantly let him go. How could he claim that the two of them were friends when it was apparently so one-sided? He was always there for her, but the one time he looked as if he needed a friend, he shut her out.

She might not have a lot of experience with friendship, but she knew that wasn’t the way it was supposed to work, which meant that the minute this crowd dispersed, she and Caleb were going to have a chat. She was going to get to the bottom of whatever had put that lost and devastated look on his face.

Caleb wanted to kick himself for betraying even a hint of his reaction to Amanda’s comments about having another baby. Thankfully she’d only picked up on the fact that there was something wrong, not what had triggered his mood. He had a hunch, though, that he hadn’t heard the last of it. She was going to get in his face the very first chance she had.

Which meant, of course, that he needed to be away from her house one step ahead of everyone else. The minute the food had been served and the kids had gone inside for their naps, he made his excuses and started around the side of the house. Even though it made him feel like the worst sort of coward, he did it while Amanda was inside.

Unfortunately, the woman apparently had radar. She met him the second he turned the corner into the front yard.

“Going somewhere?” she inquired sweetly, her expression knowing.

“I have an appointment,” he said. It was only a slight stretch of the truth. He was going over to Mary Louise’s later to talk to her parents about the baby. She’d called that morning and asked him to be there when she broke the news. She’d sounded so nervous and uncertain, he’d agreed immediately.

There it was again. The whole baby thing. It seemed like everywhere he turned these days people were talking about babies. It was beginning to take a toll.

“Oh?” Amanda said, her expression skeptical. “Anything you’d care to talk about?”

“Sorry, it’s confidential,” he said evasively. “And I really do need to get going.”

She studied him with apparent disappointment. “I thought you trusted me more than this.”

“I told you, this appointment is confidential.”

“I’m not talking about that,” she said impatiently. “I’m talking about the fact that you’re obviously upset and you’re trying to hide the reason from me.”

“I can’t talk about it, Amanda. I really can’t.” He’d never discussed it with anyone, and Amanda was the last person with whom he’d share it. He hated the idea that it might change the way she looked at him.

“Then it’s all part of this confidential meeting you’re going to?” she asked.

For the first time since he’d known her, Caleb lied. “Yes,” he said. He could live with the lie far more easily than he could live with Amanda ever knowing the truth.

She regarded him sadly. “I wish I believed you.”