It Happened One Night (22 page)

“I think this is our table,” he said, pulling out a chair from the empty table and motioning for her to sit.

She took her seat, looking nervously around the room.

“You okay?” he asked.

He saw the muscles in her throat go tight. “Everyone’s going to ask about the baby.”

“No one’s going to think anything except what a beautiful, intelligent, fascinating woman you are.”

“Can I just tell them I did it myself? That it was a spontaneous conception?”

He sat down and brushed a tendril of hair back behind her ear, not because it needed placement, but because he relished the
feel of it between his fingers. It killed him not to push all his fingers into her hair, to rumple that neat bun.

He drew away, exhaling.

Whether he succeeded with her or failed, there would be no going back to friendship ever again. He had to do everything right.
This was his last chance.

One by one people sat down at their table, and with each arrival Lana felt a little more at ease. She knew a few of the guests
who had joined them and she was pleased that the conversation flowed easily, without those fragile, awkward pauses that could
sometimes taint an otherwise vigorous conversation among old friends. She leaned back in her seat and tried to relax, but
having Eli so close wasn’t making it easy.

The wedding ceremony had been beautiful. The couple had written their own vows, and they read them to each other with impassioned
voices and visibly trembling hands. Tears had come to Lana’s eyes. Here were two people confidently embarking on their future
together. They spoke of the love and support they would give each other, and of the children they would one day raise. They
seemed entirely unafraid of what was before them. If their future was a vast and unpredictable ocean, they were eagerly pushing
away from the shore.

They were lucky that marriage was such an easy decision. Every day Lana saw one of her customer’s eyes land with pleasure
on her belly, then linger on her naked left hand. People would expect her to get married. They would feel sorry for her and
for her baby if she didn’t. But marriage had never held much appeal.

She’d been too young to see her parents’ marriage fall apart, but she had walked through the kitchen at the boardinghouse
time and again to see strange women eating breakfast at her father’s table, trying to make small talk with the back of Karin’s
head. As far as Lana could tell, romances came in two sizes: people who got into restrictive and stifling marriages, and people
who had flings. Perhaps that was why Lana’s best relationship had always been with Eli, who broke that mold and fell into
a category all his own.

There was no getting around the truth. Some old vestige of her desire for him was rearing up again. But she would learn to
get it under control—she had to. She would suffer through anything to keep their relationship sturdy and the same. What they
had
worked
. She took comfort in knowing that once the baby was born and found a family, she would be able to go to Costa Rica without
the fear that things between her and Eli would change. She could have her own adventures, just like Eli was having his, and
they would never make demands on each other or hold each other back. Even though some part of her fantasized that one day
she might look into Eli’s eyes and see that she was the only woman who had ever truly understood him or claimed his heart,
she didn’t believe passion would earn her that permanent position. But friendship might.

“What?” Eli asked, a twinkle in his eye.

“What do you mean,
what
?”

“You were staring at me.”

Quickly, she turned her gaze away. “I was daydreaming.”

“Don’t let me stop you,” he said. His smile was flirty and sly. “I like the idea of being in your dreams.”

She took a sip of her water; the lemon was cool against her lips, a good distraction. Eli’s sudden interest in her had to
have come from somewhere. But where? Maybe breaking up with Kelly had done some damage to his ego, and now he needed a little
harmless flirtation to restore his pride. Maybe all this was just rebounding.

Who was she kidding? This was more.

She ran her finger through the droplets of condensation on her glass. The baby kicked her bladder and she drew in a big breath.
Time for a bathroom run.
She excused herself and began to slide her chair back, suddenly desperate. It was dazzling, how quickly she could go from
having an empty bladder to feeling suddenly and painfully full. She put her napkin down on her clean plate and stood.

“Oh my goodness, Lana!” Leroy, who had been “Mr. Federer” to her in college, threw his napkin down on his plate. His eyes
had gone right to her belly when she stood. “Why didn’t you tell us you were expecting?”

Lana watched as one by one the faces at the table turned toward her. Protectively, she put a hand over her belly button, which
as of last week wasn’t much of a belly button at all. The baby was growing more rapidly than it had before, bigger each day.
She smiled nervously and shrugged.

“When are you due?” he exclaimed.

She told him. Eli got to his feet beside her as if he might shield her.

Leroy also stood to shake Eli’s hand. “Nice work, Eli. We all used to wonder how long it would take you kids to get together.”

Lana stuttered, trying to pick out just the right words.

He went on. “Better late than never, I say.”

“Yes, well…” Lana blushed and crossed her arms before her. She was mortified… but poor Eli. He must have felt a hundred times
worse. She had to set the record straight. “Actually, the truth is—”

“We’re slow learners,” Eli interrupted. “But thanks.”

Then she felt his hand at the small of her back, guiding her away from the table and toward the exit. She felt every eye in
the big hall glued to her belly, as if it were the leader of a parade and she merely a follower. She hurried, wobbling badly
on the high heels that Karin had insisted she buy.

Finally they turned a corner, stopping beside a white-lit ficus in the secluded hallway that led to the ladies’ room. And
then they were alone. Blessedly alone. She leaned toward him and whispered in case anyone came near. “Why did you do that?
How are we going to go back there and explain that it’s not yours?”

“We’re not,” he said.

She looked up at him. He wore contacts tonight, his brown eyes gleaming warm but serious below his dark lashes. His face was
calm, determined, and his gaze was focused solely on hers. Warmth uncoiled and spread within her. She tried to contain it,
to tamp it down, but she could not.

He reached up and settled his hand into the crook of her neck, fascinated by something there, perhaps the contrast of his
skin and hers. He was so confident, so sure that everything would work out. It made her want to simply put herself in his
hands, in every sense. She would give herself to him entirely, and then everything—the baby, her father, her memories, the
future, her body, her feelings about
him—
would stop being her decision and become his. She would let him pull her into the flames, into the fire that would incinerate
them both.

“It will be okay,” Eli said, his gaze gentle. “Trust me.”

She couldn’t stand to look at him, afraid he might read her feelings in her face. The man she’d spent the evening with had
been a stranger to her. This was not Eli, the best friend who’d gone uncomplainingly with her to see chick flicks, who never
“took her out” to dinner but was always glad to “join” her, who looked away from her when she met his eye. This new Eli was
steelier, more confident and more demanding. And he wanted something. He wanted her.

She had to stop this. Right now. She would cut him off. She would hurt him. Just like she’d done before. She would be terrible
and cruel and hateful and say,
No matter how much I wish it was true, telling people it’s your baby won’t make it yours…

But when she opened her mouth to speak, the words died on her lips. “Eli…”

The pad of his thumb slid along her neck, heat slicing through her like a blade. She inhaled sharply. All at once, her whole
body remembered him. Reason was useless. No amount of logic could undo how he’d made her feel that night on the fields. How
he was making her feel right now.

“Lana…” His gaze dipped down to her mouth, then rose back to her eyes.

Yes
, she thought.
Anything you want.

He stepped back. “The bathroom is over there.”

She nearly fell forward. She hadn’t realized she’d leaned all her weight on the balls of her feet. Cool air rushed around
her, fanning her hot skin. “Oh. Thanks.”

“Are you okay?”

She laughed. “Am
I
okay?” But once she was inside the safety of the ladies’ lounge, she had to clasp her hands to keep them from trembling.

He was pushing her. Deliberately. Purposefully. She hated it. She loved it. She was out of her mind. She leaned her hands
against the black granite sink and looked herself square in the eye. “Nope,” she said. “Not okay at all.”

Karin turned off the lights of the Wildflower Barn and set the alarm. An entire four days had gone by since she and Gene had
talked about adopting Lana’s baby. And Karin congratulated herself for having had the strength not to bring it up. She walked
to her car under thick autumn clouds and copper-tinted leaves. A footstep on the gravel parking lot made her jump out of her
skin. And when she turned around, Calvert was there, lurking in that particular way of his. He wore old jeans and an old coat.
He hadn’t shaved. She guessed his duffel bag was everything he had in the world.

“Hello, Karin.”

Her emotions churned. She wasn’t entirely surprised to see him; Lana had told her that he’d paid her another visit earlier
this month. She looked over his grungy clothes and tired posture, and on one hand she thought,
Good, he deserves to look that terrible.
But on the other hand, her heart reached out to him, felt bad for him, and saw only a person in need of help. Her plan had
worked perfectly; Calvert was officially homeless. And yet now that she’d gotten what she wanted, vengeance turned to acid
in her throat.

She opened the car door and threw her purse inside.

“Karin, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do. But I need… I need…”

“What?”

“I tried to handle it myself these last couple days,” he said. “But I need
help
.”

Her heart thumped in her chest. He needed help. He needed
her
help. He needed
her
.

She knew the man standing before her was her father, and yet for some reason she felt as if he was a complete stranger, like
their pasts had been erased—or balanced out—and they were meeting as equals for the first time.

“I got nowhere to stay. They want me to leave town.”

“So what do you want me to do?” she asked.

Calvert hung his head. “Don’t know.”

Karin sighed. This wasn’t what she’d planned. She hadn’t wanted him to be homeless. She’d thought he would just disappear.
Vanish back to wherever he came from. But here he was, calling on her for help.

Oh, Lord
, she prayed silently.

How could she refuse him? Things were different now than when he’d first shown up and from when she’d set the police after
him. Now that Lana was pregnant, she could see the direction her own life was heading. There was a baby in her future. Her
near future. And she knew she had to be grateful for that. She’d made a promise before God to be a better person. If she refused
to help Calvert now, it would be going back on her word.

Calvert went on. “I got a job working construction by the lake. Making eight bucks an hour under the table. Just ’til I get
back on my feet. And I’ll be able to get a place soon. But I don’t start work for another few days. And I didn’t know what
else to do, except to come see you.”

“I don’t know,” Karin said. To his credit, she couldn’t remember a time when he’d ever lied to her. But still, she didn’t
trust him. She pressed her lips together and looked over the man who used to be her father, his scruffy work boots, his jeans
that had been washed so many times they were more gray than blue. The picture he presented said he’d done real penance and
now he was begging at her proverbial door. She couldn’t refuse him. Especially since part of his misery had been caused directly
by her.

“Karin, I know I messed up with you girls. And I probably shouldn’t have come back to town. But I thought… I thought I might
be able to set things right. See if there was something I could do to make up for it all.”

Karin was silent.

He laughed, a hollow sound. “But now I messed up again.”

“Where have you been sleeping?” she asked.

“Here and there,” he said. “The weather’s been warm. It’s not so bad.”

She looked away from him, unable to imagine him sleeping on the ground. She hated to think he was unsafe. “How long do you
need?”

“Well, I…”

“What if I just buy you a train ticket back to Wisconsin?”

“That’s nice of you. But I only need a few days. Three, tops. See, I—”

“Fine.” She leaned against the minivan, its paint still warm from the sun. “I can put you up in a motel for a little while.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

She pointed at him and frowned. “And don’t think that because I’m helping you it means anything’s changed. I don’t like you.
I never will.”

“I understand,” he said.

She hesitated. This was crazy. She felt as if she was opening a door for him to come back into her life.
But maybe
, a small voice inside her said,
maybe this is what you’ve wanted all along
. “This is only temporary,” she said.

Then she unlocked the door of the van and let him in.

September 25

Lana and Charlotte sat next to each other on matching chairs at the women’s clinic. Two teenage girls also sat together in
the corner, so committed to their ferocious texting that there was no way to misinterpret their intense typing as anything
but nerves. Under an old TV set that showed Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, an older couple sat leafing through month-old
magazines. Lana had the urge to ask them,
So what are you two in for?
She stared at the wall of pamphlets before her, and a dozen drawings of worried faces stared back.