Pregnancy Countdown Read online

  “How about an early night?” she asked the dog.

  The fact that she was going to bed with her dog instead of a good-looking man wasn’t lost on her. But she refused to worry about it.

  It wasn’t the first time.

  “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Rick!” Mark held up his beer bottle in a toast. “Thanks for giving us reason to celebrate.”

  “Until next month when it’s Eric’s birthday,” Rick pointed out, holding up his own bottle along with the five other men present at the country-western bar to celebrate a friend, and coworker’s, birthday.

  “Whatever works,” Jeff touched his beer bottle to the others held up for the toast. He took a long drink then reached for another slice of pizza.

  “Hey, Mark, you’ve got some admirers,” Brian commented.

  “Huh?” He looked blankly at his brother.

  “Two little blondes at the bar are giving you the eye,” Brian said.

  “They’re not looking at him, they’re looking at me,” Rick boasted. “Two blondes for my birthday sounds like the perfect present.”

  “Nah, they’re checking out Mark.” Eric grinned. “You giving them the patented Walker charm, Mark?”

  “Giving who?” He looked blankly across the table at his friend.

  “Aren’t you listening to us? There’s two cute blondes at the bar,” Eric repeated. “One in red and the other one in blue.”

  Mark shrugged. “I didn’t notice,” he said, not bothering to look in that direction.

  The other men first looked at Mark then looked at each other.

  “Something is gravely wrong here, gentlemen,” Brian intoned in a somber voice. “It looks like my babe-magnet brother is at death’s door.”

  “He must be at death’s door since he hasn’t bothered even looking at those cute blondes,” Jeff took up the conversation. “There has to be a reason for this absence of interest in the opposite sex. Anyone have any ideas?” he appealed to his friends.

  “Terminal illness?” was one suggestion.

  “Temporary blindness?”

  “A bad case of indigestion?”

  “A woman?”

  “A woman?” Jeff hooted. “Baby brother hooking up with just one woman? No way.” He leaned forward, using his hands to make his point. “Who are you seeing now? The last one I remember is Kim.”

  “We broke up three months ago,” Mark said, shifting uncomfortably under his friends’ avid regard.

  “That’s right. You’re dating Paula, the flight attendant, now. Are you bringing her to the barbecue at Mom and Dad’s?” Brian asked.

  “I haven’t seen Patti in a while,” he admitted.

  Each man slowly turned to stare at him.

  “Paula, not Patti,” Brian reminded him.

  Mark shrugged as if his giving the wrong name wasn’t of any importance.

  “You’re saying you’re not seeing anyone right now?” Rick asked as if he couldn’t believe his ears.

  “I didn’t realize there’s a law that says I have to date,” Mark said sarcastically.

  “Where you’re concerned there is,” Terry, one of the other EMTs, said. “Do you realize your exploits are better than anything we can watch on TV? So if you’re not dating Paula, there must be someone new and you’re not willing to share the news. Who’ve you got stashed away? Does she have a sister?”

  “Cousin?”

  “Young aunt?”

  All the men laughed and kept pressing Mark for answers, but he wasn’t having any of it. He was so engrossed fending off the questions, he didn’t notice the silent communication flying between Jeff and Brian.

  Mark wasn’t about to admit he was so busy thinking about Nora that he not only didn’t notice other women, he didn’t mind his suddenly dateless nights.

  He was still haunted by Nora. Except now all he had was the memory of her in his arms, the smell of her perfume and the warmth of her smile.

  He wasn’t about to tell even his friends that only one woman mattered to him. He felt as if he was following the same path as his brothers, and damn, how terrifying that feeling was.

  Mark picked up his beer bottle and drank deeply then reached for another slice of pizza. “We should have had them put candles on this,” he joked.

  “Hey, Mark, since you’re not interested in the blondes, you won’t mind if Rick and I see if they’ll settle for us, will you?” Terry asked.

  “I’d be careful of the one on the right. She looks like she could eat you up and spit you out,” Mark warned.

  “Maybe once you tell her you’re a fireman, she’ll just melt into your arms,” Brian kidded.

  Terry grinned and flashed him an obscene gesture as he pushed back his chair and headed for the bar. Rick followed him.

  “Are you sure you’re not sick or have some strange rash you don’t want to talk about?” Jeff asked Mark.

  “Yeah, little brother, you turning down a gorgeous woman isn’t normal,” Brian added.

  “None of the above. I’m just taking a breather,” he told them.

  Mark flashed them a grin he hoped would convince his brothers enough to lay off him for a while until he could come up with a better reason.

  Right now, the only woman that interested him was one who didn’t want anything to do with him unless he could find a way to convince her to give him a second chance.

  He realized he was at a point where he might need the help he’d dreaded asking for before.

  “I’ve got to make a phone call,” he announced, pushing back his chair and reaching for his cell phone that was hooked on his belt.

  “A woman?” Eric asked.

  “Is there any other kind?” He winked before heading for the door and outside where he hoped he’d have enough privacy for his call.

  He walked to the side of the building and punched in a number. Two rings and a woman answered.

  “Did I ever tell you you’re my favorite mother?”

  NORA WAS GOING to get through this morning if it killed her. And it just might.

  She was on her third packet of crackers and fourth glass of Diet 7-UP and it wasn’t even ten o’clock. Her hopes her stomach would settle down were long gone.

  “Are you all right?” Ginna stopped her when she returned to her station.

  “Remind me not to eat Thai food late at night,” Nora lied, pasting a credible smile on her lips.

  Ginna didn’t look convinced. She placed the back of her hand against Nora’s forehead.

  “Ginna!” She wiggled away.

  “You don’t have a fever,” she said, peering closely at her. “But you do look pale. Are you feeling faint?”

  “All I’m feeling is the aftereffects of eating very spicy food,” Nora replied.

  “I hope you don’t have the flu. I don’t want you to miss the party at Mom and Dad’s this weekend.”

  “I’ll have to see how I’ll feel,” Nora said, deciding it might be better if she acted a little weak until after the Walker party.

  “You have to be better by then!” Ginna insisted. “I want you there. You used to come out all the time.”

  Until you and Mark broke up.

  Could she do it? Could she go out there and act as if nothing happened? All right, she could do it, but could Mark do it? He was still leaving messages, asking her to call him. So far, she’d been able to hold off returning his calls.

  “If I feel fine, I’ll be there,” she promised.

  “Then please stay away from Thai food,” Ginna pleaded.

  Nora solemnly drew an X across her heart and held up her hand, palm out.

  “Not even a noodle.”

  Ginna rolled her eyes as she walked away.

  “Just for that I won’t bring my killer brownies,” Nora called after her.

  “Yes, you will.”

  “Yeah, but I won’t frost them,” she added the additional threat that she already knew didn’t hold an ounce of truth. Nora considered the frosting the best part of her fudgy brownies.

&n
bsp; By the time Nora got home that evening, she found two messages on her answering machine. One she expected. What she didn’t expect was the heavy artillery.

  “Hi, it’s Mark.” She knew who it was the moment he said hi. “I thought I’d see if you’d like a ride out to Mom and Dad’s for the barbecue on Sunday. No strings attached, I swear. Let me know, okay?”

  “Nora, dear, it’s Cathy Walker. We’re giving a barbecue for Ginna and Zach this weekend. I hope you’ll come. I’d love to see you. It’s been a while. And don’t forget to bring Brumby with you.”

  A woof caught Nora’s attention. She looked down at her dog.

  “I guess if you could have picked up the phone you would have told your auntie Cathy we’d be there, wouldn’t you?” she asked the dog.

  She took Brumby’s woof to be a yes.

  “All right, you can go too, but no begging goodies from the kids,” she warned him. She picked up her phone and tapped out Mark’s number. She was prepared to leave a message on his voice mail, when she heard him pick up.

  “Hello?”

  “Mark, it’s Nora.”

  “Hi!” He was clearly surprised to hear from her. “Does this mean you’re going to Mom and Dad’s?”

  “Your mother also called me.” She cradled the handset between her shoulder and chin as she dug for a can of dog food and hooked it under the can opener. Brumby’s nails clicked on the floor as he pranced back and forth eagerly awaiting his dinner.

  “I knew bringing out the big guns would work.” He sounded satisfied with himself. “No one ever turns down Mom.”

  “What if I still said no?”

  “Then I would have called Gramps and Grandma. No way you could turn them down.”

  “Theo said he’d never forgive me for buying a German car,” she reminded him.

  “Which means he’ll take advantage of your presence by pointing out what a mistake you made and try to talk you into buying an American car. He thinks you bought your Beetle on purpose just to rile him up. Besides, you know Gramps. There’s nothing he loves more than the chance to make a point.”

  “Seems like there’s some of that personality in his grandson,” Nora said dryly. She spooned beef chunks in gravy into Brumby’s dish and placed it on the floor. The bulldog immediately buried his face in his dinner.

  With her dog’s dinner out of the way, Nora rummaged through cabinets to find something for herself. She discovered once her morning and afternoon sickness left her that she was incredibly hungry. Right now she was convinced she could eat an entire cow.

  “At least Dad’s more subtle about it,” Mark pointed out.

  “True, he merely mourns that one of the great classic cars came from overseas.” She winced as a can rolled out of her fingers and dropped onto the counter.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Fixing myself some dinner.”

  “Anything good?”

  “I haven’t done any shopping for the past few days, so it’s more a matter of what I can find.” She opened the refrigerator and studied its contents. Nothing looked good. She closed the door and then realized there was a pizza coupon slid under a bulldog-shaped magnet. Her mouth started watering at the idea of a roasted red-pepper-and-mushroom pizza with extra cheese. Maybe some spiced ground beef too. Her mind was spinning with the possibilities.

  “Nora?” She immediately came back to earth.

  “Sorry, I was still getting Brumby’s dinner ready. Mark, I have to go.” She needed to call the pizza place and have them deliver a large pizza. On second thought, she decided, an extra-large would be better.

  “How about I pick you up around nine?”

  “I’ll see you then.” She quickly disconnected and tapped out another set of numbers. “Hi, this is Nora Summers. I’d like to order an extra-large mushroom and roasted red-pepper pizza with extra cheese to be delivered. Oh, and a salad. And your cheese garlic bread.” She figured the salad would be the healthy part of her meal.

  What Nora didn’t expect was that her favorite pizza toppings would keep her up half the night with heartburn.

  “We need to have some ground rules here, kid,” she muttered, tapping antacid tablets out of a bottle into her hand. She chewed them slowly. “The day will come when you’ll love pizza, so why are you giving me a hard time already?” A cold wet nose nudged her bare leg. She looked down at her dog. “We have to train the little human right away, Brumby. I hope you’re up to the job.” His grumbling woof told her his opinion. He waddled back into the bedroom and waited for her to join him. Before she climbed in, she picked him up and placed him on the end of the bed. She fluffed her pillows behind her and reached for the book she’d been reading before she fell asleep earlier. Brumby made a tight circle several times before settling down, and immediately began snoring gently.

  Nora sighed, wishing she could sleep as easily. But it seemed her dinner of pizza, salad and garlic bread wasn’t about to let her even doze.

  “If you try this with me when I eat chocolate, I swear you will have an eight o’clock curfew until you’re at least thirty,” she informed the tiny being nestled inside her.

  If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn she’d heard giggles.

  MARK WISHED he was on duty that night. Maybe with the other guys around him he’d be able to sleep instead of lying in bed and staring at the ceiling for the past couple of hours. Restless beyond belief, he kicked off his covers and crossed his arms behind his head. Since he couldn’t sleep, he replayed his conversation with Nora.

  Normally, he spent as little time on the phone as he could manage. He was never one to spend hours on the phone talking to his latest lady. Tonight he wanted to keep on talking. He didn’t want to lose that connection with Nora.

  He thought that maybe he could have another chance with her. She’d claimed she didn’t like him kissing her out there on the beach, but for a second her lips had clung to his. He sensed she’d wanted to kiss him back. So why hadn’t she? She wasn’t acting coy. If anything, she had seemed almost sad about the whole thing.

  Which gave him more questions than answers.

  Could he have hurt her so badly back then that she felt she had no choice but to break up with him?

  Mark cast his mind back to that time. What had they done that evening? Where had they gone? All he could bring up from his memory bank was a mental picture of Nora’s face as she told him she didn’t want to see him anymore. What surprised him was how clear her face was in his mind’s eye. Not just her face, but the memory of a lone tear trailing down her cheek.

  “Damn!” He shot up in bed. Had she cried when she had broken up with him? He couldn’t remember anything but his anger and frustration that out of the blue she had told him to stay out of her life and never call her again. After his discovery she’d changed her home telephone number, he’d done just that.

  So, was the tear something he had conjured up now or had he deliberately ignored it back then?

  He didn’t think she’d forgiven him since then, but something must have changed. And not because of those two nights they’d spent together. He had felt something happening between them when they had gone to dinner at Syd’s Place. Then it had seemed to disappear. Nora had retreated and he’d seen the animation leave her face and her expressive eyes. He had no idea why. As far as he could tell, nothing had happened out of the ordinary. Unable to just lie there any longer, Mark climbed out of bed deciding he’d be better off finding something on one of the sports channels to watch until he got tired. He barely took two steps before he tripped over something hard and unforgiving.

  “Son of a bitch!” he swore, hopping up and down on one foot. He started to kick at whatever had tripped him up then had second thoughts. He hopped around it over to the bedroom light. He narrowed his eyes against the bright light as he stared down at the offender. “Where did the hammer come from?”

  Then he looked around at his bedroom that looked as if a hurricane had blown through it. Clothes were to
ssed everywhere, a baseball bat rested against the chest of drawers, a baseball mitt on the floor next to it and his towel from that morning’s shower tossed nearby.

  He kept everything where it belonged at the station. At home, he seemed to keep everything where it didn’t belong.

  Mark winced as he viewed the devastation he called home.

  “I’ve got to keep Mom away from here.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Woof!”

  “Yes, Brumby, you are going,” Nora carefully wrapped plastic cling wrap over the large pan of brownies she had just finished frosting.

  Brumby walked from the front door back to the kitchen, his nails clicking on the hardwood floors. In his own way, he knew something exciting was going to happen and he didn’t want to be left out. He stuck close to Nora’s heels, impeding her movements as she grabbed her toast out of the toaster the moment it popped up. Used to his insistence on not being ignored, she merely stepped over him as she moved around her kitchen. She poured honey on her toast and stuck it in her mouth, chewing furiously.

  “Finally, something my stomach won’t reject first thing in the morning.”

  Still nibbling on her toast, Nora headed back for her bedroom with Brumby still hot on her heels.

  “Luckily, what to wear hasn’t become difficult yet,” she murmured, studying the contents of her closet. The day was warm, so she chose a pair of black-and-white-gingham capris and a loose-fitting black V-necked top with three-quarter-length sleeves. For color she added a trio of black, red and white plastic bangle bracelets and a braided necklace with the same three colors. She dug out a pair of black tennis shoes and slipped them on. She brushed her hair up into a loose knot and secured it with a clip. She kept her makeup minimal with a brush of mascara, a hint of dusty-rose blush and rose lip gloss.

  She was just adding a bottle of sunblock to her tote bag when Brumby barked and ran as fast as his short legs would carry him to the front door a few seconds before the doorbell chimed.

  “A man has to be very self-confident to wear a shirt like that,” Nora proclaimed, studying the psychedelic colors and geometric shapes that adorned Mark’s shirt. In contrast with the eye-jarring colors, his baggy cargo shorts were a sedate tan. She wasn’t sure if his running shoes were supposed to be the off-white they were or just not washed lately. Or perhaps not ever washed.