He tilted his head to one side, seeming to consider me. “We really are a pair, aren’t we?”
“Yes, we are,” I told him. “Now buy me some lunch before I pass out. As I told Marie, I’m eating for two.”
“Angela McAllister, I would love to buy you lunch.”
* * *
We ended up at the Lumberyard Brewery, partly because it was walkable, and partly because by then I really was starving, craving something heftier than tapas or a sandwich.
“You sure you’re okay with eating at a brewery?” Connor asked after the waitress had handed us our menus and left to fetch us some water. “I mean — ”
“It’s okay,” I cut in. “I was never much of a lunch drinker anyway. As for the rest….” I shrugged. Thank the Goddess that I really hadn’t drunk excessively after I got back to Jerome, except for that first night. Part of me had wanted to, had wanted to down bottle after bottle in an attempt to erase Connor from my mind. That wouldn’t have solved anything, though, and I’d told myself I wasn’t going to let him affect me that way. Even so, I’d had more than I should. I could only hope a glass here and there hadn’t hurt the baby, but there wasn’t much I could do about it now. “I’m not such a lush that I can’t give it up for a while. What worries me is that I think I heard somewhere that you’re not supposed to eat chocolate when you’re pregnant. Now, that would be a hardship.”
Connor grinned and shook his head. The waitress came by then with our waters and asked if we wanted anything else, but we both demurred. I had a feeling Connor could have used a beer at that point, even though it seemed he was planning to abstain right along with me. We both ordered burgers, and I asked for a side of mac and cheese in addition to my cheeseburger. After the waitress left, he remarked,
“You weren’t kidding about eating for two.”
“Nope,” I replied, swirling the straw around in my glass, watching as the lemon slice bobbed up and down between a couple of ice cubes.
“Have you seen a doctor?”
I looked up from my water to see Connor gazing at me intently. It seemed pretty clear that he wanted a lot more detail than what I’d already provided. Fair enough. “Yes. I went to Planned Parenthood, because at that point I really didn’t want to see my own doctor. I’m around ten weeks, and they want to have me come in for an ultrasound if I’m not going to get my own doctor in Cottonwood. But otherwise they said everything looks fine and I’m totally healthy, and it’s really not a big deal.”
“It is a big deal,” he said, his tone quiet. “And we both know that.”
He was right, of course. To the doctor at Planned Parenthood, mine was just another in a long line of pregnancies she’d encountered, and since I was young and healthy and everything looked normal, she couldn’t possibly understand what this baby meant in terms of my personal survival.
“You should come with me to see our healer,” he continued. “I mean, if you’re not going to your own doctor.”
That suggestion gave me pause. True, that was the way we witches usually dealt with such matters; a healer’s gifts were often far more reliable than modern medicine. And I’d met the Wilcox healer when the Damon-wolf had bitten my leg. She seemed pleasant enough, an attractive woman in her late forties or early fifties. What was her name? Eleanor?
Even so, I hesitated. Going to see the Wilcox healer seemed so…final. As if I were choosing sides. And we’d had enough of that.
“I don’t know, Connor,” I said at last. “I think I’d rather just go to a doctor. I mean, I don’t even know where — ” Breaking off, I hesitated. I’d been about to say, I don’t even know where we’re going to end up. It seemed that Connor and I had reconciled, and that was wonderful, but there were still some logistical issues we needed to work out. After all, my clan needed me, and his needed him. Settling down permanently in either location was going to leave one family or another out in the cold.
He seemed to understand, and nodded. “It’s something we’ll have to figure out eventually, I know. So do you want to see a doctor near Jerome, or would you be open to choosing one here in Flag?”
It would actually make more sense to find someone in Flagstaff, just because it was a much bigger city and had some very good medical facilities. “Do you know anyone?”
“I can get some recommendations. Eleanor has a lot of experience, but I know a couple of my cousins went ahead and got their own ob-gyns. I’ll get the information from them.”