She turned, desperate to leave the restaurant. She needed fresh air. She wound her way through the tables, clutching her coat and purse to her chest, almost positive she dropped a roll somewhere between their table and the front door, but she kept on going. She didn’t make eye contact with anyone, hoping to God there was no one she knew here. What were the odds that quiet, shy Claire would be making a spectacle of herself twice in the same week?
Her knees shook and her body trembled as she walked away from her mother. The smell of grilling steak and sizzling beef wafted around her like a cloak of anti-pregnancy fumes. She swung open the giant wooden doors and gasped the fresh, crisp spring air as she stood on the sidewalk. She had to squint against the bright sunlight, taking a few moments to gather her bearings. And then she stood there, basking in the warmth of the sun, in the middle of the sidewalk in downtown Red River. She took one breath, then another, until a strange calm permeated. She thought of her father. Of Jake. Of how far she’d come.
She touched her abdomen, saying a quiet, proud hello.
I did it, baby.
Chapter Seven
Claire held Ella while Holly wrestled a shopping cart free of the lineup.
“Ella-Bella,” Claire whispered in a singsong voice, smiling as Ella laughed and squirmed. Holly took Ella and secured her into the top seat of the shopping cart, handing the toddler a large cookie and a sippy cup
“Okay, so I want details. All the details. Starting with the night of the wedding,” Holly said as the automatic doors to the grocery store swooshed opened. Claire’s stomach clenched. When Holly and Ella had descended on her in her shop this afternoon like a great mama hawk and her little bird, demanding Claire come along with them, Claire felt she had no choice. Holly knew her store was closed on Monday, so she really had no way of getting out of it. And she owed Holly an explanation and an apology. She’d been so wrapped up in her own drama she hadn’t even thought of what her best friend would think about her spectacle. And after her doctor’s appointment this morning, followed by lunch with her mother, she could really use the company of someone supportive. A part of her missed the old Holly and Claire, when they would sit around and chat and gossip. Before life had become complicated. She did owe her best friend an explanation, but details, while they strolled through the aisles of the produce section with a two-year-old in tow, wasn’t exactly what she’d envisioned.
“Oh, come on, you owe me,” Holly said, dropping a few mangoes into a plastic bag and then looking up at her. Ella stopped eating her cookie and watched her too. Claire started pushing the cart. She needed them to get through the produce section or Holly would never finish the interrogation. “I mean, first you stab Jake’s burger with a pregnancy test, then I almost break my neck tripping over dinner rolls on the floor of your store today. Obviously, you are having some issues.”
Claire groaned inwardly. She should have picked up those buns. “I had lunch with my mother,” she said in a low voice.
“Oh. Oh, no.”
“Let’s just say there were lots of carbs involved and me walking out after announcing I’m pregnant.”
“Are you okay, sweetie?”
Claire nodded. “I don’t know why I was even surprised. Nothing’s changed. She’s the same woman. It doesn’t matter, anyway.”
“Well, you never know, sometimes when there’s a baby in the picture, people change. Give her time, she might realize everything she’s going to lose if she doesn’t come around,” she said, adding some oranges to the cart.
Claire didn’t think so, but she kept her mouth shut.
“I highly doubt it.”
“Hey, never say never,” Holly said with a gentle smile. It was that same smile her friend had for her in high school whenever she’d been humiliated.
“Sure. Thanks. I’ve got to tell you, I’m so sorry about the other night. I know I ruined your barbecue. It was so rude and so selfish.”
“Uh, I know what came over you—anger! I’d be angry too. No apology necessary. Are you kidding? Jake deserved it!”
“Thanks,” Claire said, darting her eyes around the store. Holly had a tendency to speak very loud when she was animated.
“You know, Jake came by our house the morning after the burger-stabbing.”
“Can we just refer to it as the barbecue?” Claire winced.
Holly nodded vehemently. “Of course, of course.”
“So what did he say?”
“He was a wreck,” her friend said with a theatrical sigh, putting bananas into the cart.
Claire frowned. She couldn’t picture Jake being a wreck over anything.