Ex’s and Oh’s (10 page)

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

They parted ways. The heat wave had continued, ringing in the busiest months of the summer. Tourists were everywhere, dressed so skimpily that much more than their noses were sunburned. Falling into step with the flow of pedestrians, Caroline started toward the corner restaurant. A sign in a storefront caught her attention. She
stopped abruptly in the middle of the crowded sidewalk, forcing surprised shoppers to veer around her.

There on the window were the words Karl T. Peterson, Attorney-at-Law. The script was old-fashioned and professionally printed. Directly above it hung a faded red sign: For Sale or Lease.

Caroline had gone to the museum on Lake Shore Drive after visiting Karl today. The displays of coins, anchors and sunken artifacts were impressive, but the real treasures had been buried in the newspaper archives at the library on the corner of Third and Elm streets where she’d read a dozen articles about the town’s formidable lawyer. Karl Peterson had sat on committees and boards, but more often than not, the grainy photographs had depicted him with the people he’d helped. In one photograph, he stood next to the parents of a slain girl, the father wrongly accused of the horrific crime. In another, he was leaving the courthouse with a poor farmer following a land dispute with the state, and in yet another he stood beside a woman victorious after a long battle to win custody of an ill child.

She’d earned a six-figure income for years, and yet she doubted she’d changed any of her former clients’ lives in any lasting, meaningful way. Karl hadn’t made a great deal of money, and yet he’d touched more lives than she knew.

Trying to keep from getting run over by window-shoppers,
she shifted the bags into one hand and reached into her purse for a pen. After scribbling down the number, she stared at the name in the window. She’d looked at office space in Charlevoix. And here was Karl’s former office, vacant, and right here in Harbor Woods.

More and more, Caroline was coming to believe in fate.

For
a long time, the only sounds in Elaine’s grand living room were those the four massage therapists made as they worked their magic on the friends stretched out on portable massage tables evenly spaced down the center of the room. Nell, Elaine and Tori were lying on their stomachs on the padded tables, a sheet covering them from thigh to waist. Caroline was lying on her back, her pregnant stomach making it difficult for her to get more than a shoulder massage. Aromatic candles flickered throughout the room and mood music played from a technician’s portable CD player.

“Oh, yeah,” Tori said. “Right there.”

Nell giggled. “Sorry,” she told her technician. “That’s a ticklish spot. If I forget to tell you later, thanks for tonight, Elaine. This is fabulous.”

Caroline could only imagine how much it must have cost to hire four licensed, uniformed technicians for an entire Saturday evening of facials, manicures and massages.

“Don’t thank me,” Elaine said, getting comfortable. “Thank my lying, cheating, two-timing, ass-is-grass husband.”

“Does Justin know you know, then?” Nell asked from the table next to her.

“He knows something is going on. He’s been watching me closely, and yesterday he sent me two-dozen peach-colored roses, despite the fact that I pretended to be asleep when he wanted to have sex the night before. He’s still seeing her.”

“What are you going to do?” Nell asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Elaine said. “I’d like to talk to you about that, Caroline.”

Silence.

“Caroline?”

Caroline was drifting too far off the table to reply. It felt wonderful to relax. She’d been keyed up since discovering that vacant office space yesterday. It wasn’t uncommon for her to be impatient. It was just that in the past she’d always been able to use it to move things along. Standing on that sidewalk yesterday, pedestrians streaming past her, she’d known exactly what she wanted. And there was nothing she could do about it until the owner of that office space returned her call. Even Tori’s hands were tied.

Caroline had spoken with someone at the State Bar Association, and had been assured that it was indeed possible,
and in fact highly likely that she would be allowed to waive into the Michigan Bar, providing she supplied them with the proper information and it met with the review board’s approval. That wasn’t going to happen overnight, either.

She’d been dizzy again earlier while walking along the channel. Resting in the shade in a little park at the edge of Oval Lake, she’d seen Shane and his son. They were riding bikes, and had stopped to rest, too. Although Shane had introduced them, Andy had barely met her eyes. She understood why Shane and Tori worried.

“Caroline?”

“Yoo-hoo. Are you awake over there?” Elaine called.

“Barely,” Caroline crooned softly.

“It’s too bad Pattie couldn’t join us,” Nell said. “But she’s spending the weekend with Dave and the kids.”

“I guess I can forgive her for being happily married,” Tori grumbled. “My ex is seeing someone.”

Shane was seeing someone? Caroline thought.

“Who?” Nell and Elaine asked at the same time.

“I don’t know, but I hear she’s chunky. It figures. He never did appreciate everything I go through to look good.”

Caroline digested the information. She remembered how alone Shane had looked that moment before he dove from the rock. No one should be that alone. The fact that
he was involved didn’t affect her one way or the other. She’d overreacted to simple human kindness. Still, if Shane was seeing someone, there was no sense mentioning their association to her friends.

She wondered who he was seeing.

Giving herself a mental shake, she lifted her head to look at Tori, only to lower it again dizzily. That was strange. She was light-headed again. She probably shouldn’t have come. She’d felt better after resting in the shade by Oval Lake earlier. If they’d been planning anything other than the most decadently relaxing treat, she would have stayed home.

“You don’t care, do you?” Nell asked. “I mean, you’ve been divorced for a long time.”

“Why would I care?”

“Atta girl. Whose turn is it?” Nell asked.

Elaine and Tori groaned. Evidently, they went through this two or three times a year, when Nell asked everyone to suspend reality and visualize the life she wanted.

“Nell, this is the most lame pastime in the world. Aren’t we a little old for what-if?” Elaine asked.

“Who are you calling old?” Tori said. “What do you want, Elaine? Come on. Nell’s right. It never hurts to dream.”

“Fine,” Elaine grumbled. “I’d like to take Trish and Tracy to Rome and never return. And while I’m there, I’d
like a piano to fall on Justin’s mistress. And I’d like Justin to experience what I’m feeling. And if that isn’t possible, I wish he’d get his johnson stuck in his zipper and have to have it surgically removed.”

“The zipper or his johnson?” Nell asked.

Everyone chuckled. Even the massage technicians.

“He deserves worse,” Nell said. “But for someone who didn’t want to play, that’s a lot of wishes. You’re next, Caroline. What do you want?”

“My wish doesn’t involve pianos or zippers.”

“Count your blessings,” Elaine mumbled.

“I want to open a law practice in Harbor Woods. And I would appreciate it if Logan and Bernice Carlson would return my call. Who puts a For Sale sign in a window then doesn’t have the decency to return a simple phone call? Okay, ten simple phone calls.”

“They’ll call. Who’s next?” Tori asked.

The technicians continued kneading and massaging. In the center of the room, Nell said, “I want to lose twenty more pounds, and I’d like to do it eating hot fudge sundaes. Your turn, Tori. What do you want?”

“I want to experience the breathless wonder of anticipation of a girl at her first dance.”

Caroline, Nell and Elaine all raised their heads to look at her.

“Just making sure you’re listening. What I really want is hot, blazing, mind-altering, ravenous sex.” Eyeing the other three, she said, “Don’t tell me you don’t want the same thing.”

Caroline wasn’t certain Nell’s latest giggle was due to another ticklish spot.

“It isn’t too late to change your wishes,” Tori cajoled. “Oh,” she said around a deep moan. “I have one more wish. I’d like breast implants, too.”

Even the massage therapists groaned.

By the time the massages were over, everyone felt sluggish. Caroline dressed in the hall bathroom. Taking a moment to splash her face with cool water, she studied her reflection in the mirror. Her skin was glowing from the facial, her nails beautiful from the manicure, her muscles relaxed at last. Her light-headedness had finally passed.

The entrepreneurs had taken their tables, candles and mood music, and gone. Feeling much better, Caroline left the bathroom, intent upon joining her friends in the living room.

She didn’t make it far before the wooziness returned.

Caroline stopped in her tracks, placing a steadying hand on the wall. Lights flashed before her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Nell, the group nurturer, asked.

“Caroline?”

Tori’s voice came from far away.

“Something’s wrong with her.”

“She’s pale as a ghost.”

“Sit down, Caroline. Now.”

Caroline blinked. “I think I moved too fast. I just felt—something.”

“What?” Elaine said, rising quickly from the sofa.

“I think I’m going to—” Caroline took another step. But only one.

“She’s coming to.”

“There you are.”

“Can you hear me?”

Caroline stared up into three familiar faces, one narrow, one round, one nearly perfect, all etched with concern. “Why am I on the floor?”

“You fainted.”

“I did?”

“Don’t you remember?”

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

“She didn’t hit her head, Nell,” Tori insisted.

“Do you have a better suggestion?” Nell grumbled.

“I’ve been feeling strange today,” Caroline said groggily.

“Strange, how?”

“Light-headed.”

“All day?” Elaine asked.

Caroline rolled to her side. The moment she sat up, noise roared through her ears. She quickly lay down again.

“What should we do?” Elaine asked.

“I don’t know.”

“I think we should take her to the emergency room,” Nell said.

“That isn’t necessary,” Caroline said weakly.

“She is pregnant,” Elaine continued as if Caroline weren’t there.

“And over forty,” Nell said. “Sorry, Caroline.”

“Elaine,” Tori called, taking charge. “Go unlock your van. Nell, help me get Caroline to her feet. Oomph. Geez, Caroline, for a size six, you weigh a ton. Where’s a man when you need one?”

Caroline accepted the help getting situated in the back seat of Elaine’s van, with the cool washcloth Nell placed on her forehead and the pillow Tori tucked behind her head. Since she knew it was futile to argue, she let all of them fuss over her and ask how she was feeling every fifteen-and-a-half seconds. At some time during the short drive to the hospital, she realized something she hadn’t known about friendship. Sometimes, the doting was more for the doters’ benefit than the dotee.

It didn’t take long to reach County General. Elaine
parked beneath the portico and Nell ran for a wheelchair. Together, she and Tori pushed Caroline in.

The emergency room was noisy. Phones rang, a toddler cried, and those waiting complained about how long it was taking. The nurse who took Caroline’s vitals insisted a bee sting, two sprained ankles, several serious sunburns, an ear infection, a possible food poisoning, a finger pierced by a fish hook and two men complaining of chest pains were par for the course on any holiday weekend. Being pregnant had moved Caroline to near the top of the waiting list. A thermometer had been stuck in her mouth. As a precautionary measure, the midwife had been called.

The curtain was drawn around Caroline’s bed, for all the good it did. Nell, Elaine and Tori crowded around as the midwife listened to Caroline’s heartbeat.

“She said she’s been light-headed all day.”

“Yesterday, too.”

“She went out walking in this heat.”

“Do you think it’s heatstroke?”

Along with some very impressive credentials as a nurse-practitioner and midwife, Alice Cavanaugh possessed the rare and uncanny ability to move her eyebrows independently of each other. She demonstrated while casting a pointed look at the other three women.

Taking the hint, Elaine, Nell and Tori shut up.

Once again, Alice turned her attention to the patient. “Have you fainted before?”

“No.” Caroline’s voice sounded small. “Is my baby all right?”

The midwife placed her stethoscope on Caroline’s belly. “Your baby has a strong heartbeat. And you’re not spotting. Those are good signs.”

Thank God for good signs. Caroline started to relax.

“Tell me what happened,” the midwife said.

“I felt light-headed earlier, but I assumed it was the heat.”

“It’s possible it was.”

“After my friends and I had facials and massages tonight, I felt much better. In fact, I thought the bout had passed completely, when I felt something.”

“Something,” Alice repeated.

Caroline nodded. “Wait. There it is again.”

“What is it?” Nell asked. “See? I was afraid something was wrong.”

“I felt this just before I fainted. In my excitement, I moved a little too fast.”

“Are you in pain?” Tori asked.

“Where does it hurt?” Elaine quipped.

“Shouldn’t she be lying flat?” Nell insisted.

When the midwife was able to get a word in edgewise, she said, “What did you feel, Caroline?”

“Like something nudged me. From the inside.”

“That’s what you felt?” Nell asked.

“That’s why you fainted?” Elaine said.

“Why didn’t you say so?” Tori complained.

Again, the other three women all talked at once.

“We rushed you to the emergency room because your baby moved?” Elaine grumbled.

Caroline didn’t have the heart to remind everyone that coming to the hospital hadn’t been her idea. She was too busy feeling awestruck by the knowledge that she’d felt her baby.

She’d felt life, her child’s life.

“Everybody except Caroline, out,” Alice Cavanaugh ordered.

“We can’t leave.”

“Out.”

“We’re her support group.”

“Out!”

“We’re going. We’re going. There’s no need to yell.” Tori threaded her arm through Nell’s.

Elaine was sensible enough to follow on her own.

When the curtain stopped fluttering again, the midwife said, “Just to be on the safe side, I want to run a few tests, do a complete blood workup, and schedule an ultrasound. You didn’t faint because the baby moved. You and the baby are probably fine, but I want to ensure you stay that
way. The bad news is, your friends probably won’t let you live this down.”

Caroline nodded. She’d fainted, but she was feeling better now. She wasn’t worried about Tori, Nell and Elaine. “They mean well,” she said. “Besides, I can handle my friends.”

It felt good to say it. It felt even better to have friends who cared.

“Now,” she said, looking the midwife in the eye, “tell me about these tests you want to order. What are you looking for?” She placed her hand over her abdomen. “What do I need to watch for? You’re sure my baby’s heartbeat is strong?”

Alice Cavanaugh outlined the tests she was ordering, their purpose, and the reasons she was taking these precautions. Before releasing Caroline to her friends, she placed the stethoscope to Caroline’s belly again, letting Caroline listen to the strong, steady, and amazingly loud heartbeat of her child.

Caroline told Tori, Nell and Elaine all about it during the drive back to her summerhouse. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling. As she let herself into her house, her baby was no longer some abstract notion. Her child had a heartbeat. He or she was real. And Caroline didn’t think she would ever be the same again.

Oh, she hoped not.

Tori wandered through her house in Charlevoix. The air-conditioning was on but even with the windows closed, she heard the occasional
pop-pop-pop
of fireworks over Lake Charlevoix. The big fireworks extravaganza over Lake Michigan wouldn’t take place until tomorrow night.