LITMIR.BIZ

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      Rosie felt as if she might explode before she reached Zach’s building. Normally she left this sort of unpleasantness in her attorney’s capable hands, but this couldn’t wait for Sharon Castor.

      No soldier marched with stronger purpose than Rosie did as she made her way from the parking lot to Zach’s apartment. She braced herself, thinking Janice Lamond might be with him that very moment. She certainly wouldn’t put it past him. The two of them might even be in bed together. The thought sickened her, but she didn’t stop to analyze why.

      When Zach opened the door to her fierce pounding, he looked stunned to see her. “Rosie! What are you doing here?”

      “We need to talk,” she snapped.

      “Now?”

      “What’s the matter, Zach, do you have company?”

      He moved aside, letting her into the apartment. Rosie stepped in and her stomach twisted with an expected knot of pain. His new place was sparsely furnished, but what there was had come from their home. Her husband had brought this other woman into his apartment to sit on furniture Rosie had shopped for, to use the very dishes she’d purchased and cherished and been forced to release.

      “What do you want?” Zach asked, his voice guarded.

      “As a personal favor to me,” she said carefully, “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t entertain your girlfriend while the children are here—at least until the divorce is final.”

      “What the hell are you talking about?” Zach glared at her with such ferocity that she barely recognized his face.

      “Janice was with you this afternoon.”

      “What did you do, drill the children about my activities?” he demanded.

      “No, I did not. Eddie said he didn’t want dinner because of all the pizza he ate at lunch with Chris.”

      “And your point is?”

      “I believe I’ve made that abundantly clear. If I need to bring up this matter with Sharon, then I will.”

      “Go for it,” Zach said, a smirk on his face. “Make an even bigger fool of yourself than you already have. Personally, I couldn’t care less.”

      Rosie refused to stand there and exchange insults with him, but it wasn’t beneath her to get in one last parting shot as she turned and started for the door. “I’d have to go a long way to top you.”

      Zach slammed the door after her and she went back to the parking lot. Climbing into the car, Rosie found that her hands shook so badly she had to calm herself before driving.

      Holding the steering wheel tightly, she squeezed her eyes shut in a desperate effort to keep from dissolving into tears.

      Maryellen stepped into the A-line skirt and raised it over her hips only to discover she could no longer fasten the button at the waistline. She wasn’t even six months pregnant, and her normal clothes had already stopped fitting. It was all too clear that she needed to buy a few maternity outfits.

      “You want the whole town to know, don’t you?” she said to her baby, placing a hand over the slight mound. Her doctor was paying special attention to this pregnancy because of Maryellen’s age. At thirty-five she was older than most of Dr. Abner’s first-time patients.

      It wasn’t only her wardrobe that was about to change, but her entire life. She glanced around her home and envisioned what it would be like in a year’s time. Where her bookcase stood now there’d soon be a baby swing or a playpen; she didn’t know which. She’d need to find room in her compact kitchen for a high chair. Her second bedroom, which she now used as an office and craft room, would become the baby’s.

      A sense of excitement filled her, unlike anything she’d ever experienced. This was her baby, her very own child. This time she’d do everything right. This time there wasn’t a man standing in the way.

      High on enthusiasm, she reached for the phone and dialed her sister’s number. She felt closer to Kelly than she had in years. The weekend getaway had brought them together again, all three of them. How wise her mother had been to arrange it.

      “I didn’t get you up, did I?” she asked when her sister answered.

      Tyler bellowed in the background. “That’s a joke, right?”

      Maryellen smiled. “You doing anything special for lunch?”

      “Nothing in particular. What do you have in mind?”

      “Can you meet me at the Potbelly Deli?”

      “Sure.”

      Kelly had the luxury of being a stay-at-home mother. Paul and Kelly had waited years for this baby and were determined to make whatever sacrifices were necessary. That option—staying with her baby—wasn’t available to Maryellen. She’d have to find quality day care and wasn’t sure where to even start.

      Just before noon, Kelly arrived at the gallery, pushing Tyler in his stroller. At nine months, the little boy sat upright, waving his chubby hands, cooing happily and directing the world from his seat.

      “Let’s grab some soup from the deli and eat down by the waterfront,” Kelly suggested. It was a lovely spring day after a week of rain, and the fresh air would do them all good.

      “Sounds like a great idea,” Maryellen told her. Practical, too, since it would be easier to amuse Tyler at the park than in a crowded restaurant.

      Maryellen phoned in their order and her sister trekked down to grab a picnic table. Several other people had the same idea, but she’d secured a table for them by the time Maryellen got there.

      Sitting across from her sister, Maryellen opened her container of chicken rice soup and stirred it with a plastic spoon. Cantankerous seagulls circled overhead, squawking for a handout, but Maryellen and Kelly ignored them.

      “I wanted to ask you a few things about being pregnant,” she told her sister. “If you don’t mind.”

      “Fire away.” Kelly licked the back of her spoon, looking childlike and mature at the same time. She removed the plastic wrap from her oyster crackers and gave them one by one to her eager son, who instantly stuffed them in his mouth.

      Maryellen didn’t know what to ask first. For years she’d watched her friends marry and raise children. They all seemed so relaxed about it. So natural. She felt none of that. While excited and exhilarated about the prospect of motherhood, she shared none of their confidence. Kelly had waited years for a baby; surely she understood.

      “Were you…afraid?” Maryellen asked.

      “Terrified,” Kelly admitted. “I read every book I could get my hands on.”

      “Me, too.” Her mother had raided the library shelves and given Maryellen a constant supply of the most recent books regarding pregnancy and birth.

      “What happened when you brought Tyler home from the hospital?”

      Kelly laughed and shook her head. “Go on to the next question.”

      “Why?”

      “Because Paul and I couldn’t agree on anything.”

      Maryellen reached for a small cracker and chewed it. “I won’t have that problem.”

      “Exactly. How are you doing for clothes? I have the cutest maternity tops. Would you like to borrow some?”

      Maryellen nodded.

      “I’ll bring them over this weekend.”

      “That would be great.” Maryellen’s heart warmed toward her sister.

      “What about day care? You need to start thinking about that, especially with being single and all.”

      That was, of course, another pressing concern. She had to

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