Surprise Baby, Second Chance

‘We could try someone else—’

She broke off when thunder echoed again, this time followed by a vicious flash of lightning. And then everything went dark.

‘Aaron?’

‘Yeah, I’m here.’

Her panic ebbed somewhat with the steadiness of his voice. ‘Does this mean what I think it means?’

‘Yeah, the power went out.’ She heard movement, and then the light of her phone shone between them. ‘The generator should be kicking in soon though.’

Silence spread between them as they waited.

And relief took the place of tension when the lights flickered on again.

‘I think we’re going to be stuck here for a while,’ Aaron said after a moment.

‘We could just try calling someone again.’

‘Who?’

‘Look up the number for the police,’ she snapped. Sucked in a breath. Told herself her confident façade was slipping. Ignored the voice in her head telling her it had slipped a long time ago.

Aaron didn’t reply and tapped on the screen of the phone. Then he looked up. ‘There’s no signal. It must have something to do with the electricity being out.’

‘That’s impossible. We can’t not have a connection.’

‘It’s Mariner’s Island,’ he said simply, as though it explained everything.

And, if she were honest with herself, it did. Mariner’s Island was tiny. The locals who lived and worked there did so for the sake of tourism. And it was the perfect tourist destination. In the summer. When the demands on power and the likelihood of storms were low.

There was a reason the airport had closed over the weekend. A reason the lights had gone out. The island thrived during summer, but survived during winter.

A clap of thunder punctuated her thoughts and she turned in time to see another flash of lightning streak across the sky. She badly wanted to try the door again, but when she turned back she saw Aaron watching her. And if she tried the door again she would be proving him right. She would be proving to him that she was running. She would look like a fool.

She didn’t want to look like a fool. A fool desperate not to be in the same room with the husband she’d left.

With the husband she still loved.

* * *

Again, Aaron found himself enthralled by the emotion on her face. She looked torn, though he didn’t know between what.

It wasn’t the ideal situation, them being locked in this room together. But it was what it was. And, since the storm was probably going to keep the good folk of Mariner’s Island in their homes, no one would be saving them for a while.

They’d have to accept that fact and do the best that they could.

It almost seemed as if he were okay with it. As if being alone with the woman who’d left him wouldn’t remind him of all the reasons he’d given himself for why she’d left.

His reluctance to be spontaneous. His caution surrounding their lives. How he always had to clean up the messes his mother created. How he did so without a word.

She hadn’t seemed to mind any of it before. But then she’d left, so what did he know?

‘You should turn your phone off.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Preserve the battery.’ He took off his jacket, loosened his tie. Threw them both over the couch. ‘We’re not calling anyone for a while, but we’ll have to do so tomorrow.’

‘But what if someone tries to contact us?’

‘No one is going to contact us.’

He opened the top button of his shirt, and then narrowed his eyes when he saw two suitcases in the corner of the room. He’d known something was up when he’d got to the top floor and saw that it hadn’t been set up for a party. Instead, it looked as it usually did when they visited normally.

Perhaps that had dulled his suspicions. He’d thought his mother had wanted them to share a meal, or that they’d meet there before going to the actual party.

He should have known better.

The pieces had only fallen into place when he’d seen Rosa. And he’d barely managed to see the whole picture those pieces painted when he’d been battling the emotion at seeing her again.

He walked over to the cases and laid them both on the bed. The first held men’s clothing. The second, women’s.

‘Is that lingerie?’

His lips twitched. ‘Yes.’

She’d come over from where she’d been standing on the opposite side of the bed and now began to throw the offending items out of the case. ‘Well, at least there are some other things here too.’ She paused. ‘Did your mother pack this?’

He shrugged.

‘The other things—’ she pulled out a casual-looking dress, holding it between her index finger and thumb ‘—are less...seductive, I suppose. But I don’t think any of them would fit me.’ She frowned. ‘If it was your mother, this makes no sense. She knows what size I am.’

‘Maybe the selection was meant to seduce anyway.’ He fought to steady his voice. ‘You’d be able to wear that, but it would be tighter than what you’re used to. Or more uncomfortable. So you’d—’

‘Be encouraged to wear the lingerie?’

‘I was going to say you’d look different.’ He said the words deliberately now, determined not to show her how the conversation was messing with his head.

‘There’s nothing wrong with how I usually dress.’

‘No,’ he agreed.

‘So...what? Tighter, more uncomfortable—different—clothing would seduce you? And then we’d reunite.’ She said the last words under her breath, as though saying them to herself. ‘There isn’t anything I can wear here that’s appropriate for this.’ She gestured around them.

‘I don’t think my mother intended this.’

‘Us being trapped?’