Not Another Bad Date

Chapter 17

Zach rang the doorbell, then rocked back on his heels. He’d told Adele he’d be back in town on the second, but he’d packed up Tiffany and all her crap and returned last night. Tiffany had pouted most of Christmas Day, and he’d missed the quiet calm he always found with Adele. Tomorrow was New Year’s Day. If she could find someone to stay with Kendra, he’d like to take her to the big party in the new Radisson downtown. He knew she was weird about dating, but she needed to get over it. What was between them was more than just sex.

The door swung open, and a woman in a blue bathrobe stood before him. She had blond hair, and she was hunched over.

“I’m sorry.” He started to leave, looked up at the house number, then turned back. “Is Adele around?”

“She ran Kendra to the hospital to meet up with her father. You must be Zach.”

“Ah, yeah.” He looked into the woman’s tired face and turquoise eyes. “And you must be Sherilyn.”

She swung the door wider and he followed her inside. “Adele will be back in a bit.”

“And you must have had your baby.”

She shut the door behind him. “Yes.”

“Congratulations. How is he?”

“He’s still in the hospital, but he’s going to be just fine. Thank you for putting his furniture together.”

“You’re welcome.” He followed behind her as she shuffled into the living room. “Can I get you anything?” he asked. Coffee. Tea. A wheelchair?

“No.” She sat slowly on the couch. “How well do you know my sister?”

Zach paused in the act of lowering himself onto a chair. “We met at UT and then again a few months ago.” He sat and looked at the clock on the wall. “When do you expect Adele? I’m sure you need your rest, and I’d hate to keep you from it.”

Her gaze narrowed and she waved away his concern. “What are your feelings for her?”

He hadn’t felt so scrutinized since he’d thrown five interceptions against the Bears back in ’01. “Adele’s great.”

“Yes I know. What are your feelings for her?”

He hadn’t been grilled about a girl since he’d been…Well, he’d never been grilled. “Maybe I should come back later.”

The door to the garage opened, and Sherilyn settled against the cushions. “I hear her now.”

Less then a minute passed, but it felt like five. The door to the garage opened and closed and Adele called out from the kitchen. “I’m back. William was at the hospital, and the tool was wearing a toupee.”

“I’m in here.”

It had been over a week since Zach had heard Adele’s voice in person, and the sound of it rushed over his skin. He’d tried to call a few times, but he’d never reached her.

“I stopped at Starbucks and got us some tea. I think the tea will help with the…” She stopped when she saw him and her eyes widened. She wore a big bulky sweater, jeans and held two cups in her hands.

“Hey there,” he said as he stood.

“I didn’t expect you until Wednesday.”

He shrugged. “I got bored.” I missed you. If Adele’s sister hadn’t been sitting on the couch staring at him as if he were a criminal, he would have put his hands on the sides of Adele’s face and kissed her until she took his hand and led him to the bedroom. Or spa tub. Or shower. Or floor. Which brought up a dilemma. He wouldn’t mind taking Adele to his house and making love to her in his bed, but Tiffany was there.

“I’ll leave you two alone.” Sherilyn scooted to the edge of the couch, and Zach crossed the room to help her stand. “Thank you,” she said, and shuffled over to Adele. She grabbed one paper cup of tea and took a sip. “Tell him.”

“Shh.” Adele glanced at Zach, then returned her attention to her sister. “We’re not even sure.”

“Dele, don’t be stupid. We’re sure.”

She gave her sister a very hard look, then pasted a phony smile on her face. “Go to bed.”

Sherilyn glanced over her shoulder. “It was nice to meet you, Zach.”

“My pleasure.” He stared at Sherilyn’s back until she disappeared. There was something going on between the sisters, but first things first. He moved toward her and placed his hands on Adele’s cheeks. He lowered his face to hers and brushed his lips across her mouth and waited for her to open up for him. She remained stiff and unmoving, just as she had a few months ago when she’d thought they shouldn’t get involved with each other. He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “What’s going on?” He had a feeling he knew. Ever since he’d seen Adele again, she’d talked about leaving after her sister had the baby. He’d known she would leave, he just hadn’t anticipated that it would be so soon nor that the thought would leave him so cold.

“Oh…” She shrugged a shoulder, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

He slid his hands to her shoulders. “What is it?” He wouldn’t mind if she decided to move to Cedar Creek. He liked having sex on a regular basis. He liked his life with her in it.

She opened her eyes and blurted on an exhaled breath, “I have something to tell you.”

His grasp tightened, and he steeled himself against the news that she was leaving. He wondered what she would do if he asked her to stay?

“I think I might be pregnant. Maybe.”

He dropped his hands and looked into her pale face. He felt the blood drain from his head and his stomach drop. “Tell me you’re kidding.”

“I wish I was.”

The floor beneath his feet shifted, opened, and the bottom fell out of his life. “How can you be sure?”

Adele took a drink of her chai tea. The liquid warmed her throat and upset stomach. She gazed up at Zach’s brown eyes and the furrow creasing his forehead. “I took six pregnancy tests, and they all came back positive.” She loved him with every beat of her heart. She loved the way his blond hair touched his forehead and the curve of his lips when he smiled. She loved the way he made her laugh and the way he looked at her when they were alone together. But he wasn’t looking at her that way now, and she wanted so badly for him to take her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay, even if it wasn’t true. “I’m pregnant.”

Instead he stepped back as if she was suddenly radioactive. “Goddamn it.” He scrubbed his face with his hands, then pressed his fingers into his forehead. “Fuck. How in the hell did this happen?”

Adele’s heart sank, but she wasn’t surprised. She moved past him and sat on the couch. She was tired and sick, and she just wanted to go to sleep and wake up and have this all be a bad dream. “I don’t know. It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

He dropped his hands and turned to face her. “You said you had one of those IUDs.”

“I do. Or did. Or, I don’t know.” She took a sip of tea. “Your condom broke just that one time. Just once. I don’t understand. I can’t believe this is happening. I’m as shocked as you are.” She glanced over at him and her heart sank even more. He was looking at her as he had the night the condom broke. With suspicion and distrust. “Don’t say it, Zach,” she warned.

But he went right ahead and said it anyway, “I don’t think you’re as shocked as I am. Obviously you don’t have an IUD.”

She wanted to cut him some slack for shock, but she wasn’t feeling generous. She was still in shock herself, but she wasn’t blaming him. “You think I planned this?”

He folded his arms across the chest of his flannel shirt and didn’t say a thing. He didn’t have to.

“I didn’t lie about the IUD, and don’t you dare suggest I did anything to the condom. I just didn’t know you have turbo swimmers that can take out birth control.”

“You knew this was the only way that I would ever get married again.”

She set her tea on the table and stood. She loved him, and his words sliced at her heart. “Who said anything about getting married?”

“Isn’t that what this is all about?” He raised his chin and looked down at her. “I knock you up, and we get married?”

“No.”

“Let me make this really clear. I’m not asking this time.”

Her wounded heart could only take so much. “Leave.” She pointed toward the front door. She was tired and sick and not in the mood to put up with Zach’s anger. “I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow,” she said, her lips stiff with her own anger. “I’ll call you once it’s confirmed.”

He reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out his keys. “What time tomorrow?”

She’d called Sherilyn’s OBGYN, who’d had a cancellation and had been able to get her in. “Ten thirty. I’ll call around noon.”

“I’ll take you.”

“I can drive.”

“I said, I’ll take you.”

“Fine.” But it wouldn’t change anything. They’d find out she was pregnant, but Zach still wouldn’t love her. She’d still be alone and scared and wondering what the hell she was going to do.

On the drive to the doctor’s office the next morning, Zach was unusually quiet. The scent of him filled the Escalade, his spicy deodorant and soap mixing with the smell of leather. He wore khakis and a wool coat over a blue button-down shirt. His hair was wet as if he’d just gotten out of the shower, and he looked tired. She knew the feeling. He’d asked how she was feeling and if he could get her anything, but that was about it.

They sat in the waiting room with other couples, the women in various stages of hugeness. While Adele filled out her medical information, Zach hung their coats on hooks by the door, then he took the seat beside her and kicked back with a golf magazine. Adele glanced up from the clipboard at the couple across from her. The man placed a hand on his wife’s rounded belly and leaned to whisper something into her ear. The woman smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. A couple in love, happy about having their baby.

Adele returned her attention to her clipboard, and her heart pinched. She looked at Zach out of the corners of her eyes. She would never have that. No loving touch or comforting whisper. No strong shoulder on which to lay her head. He lifted his gaze from his magazine. His eyes were void of any emotion.

After about half an hour, a nurse came and got Adele. When she stood, Zach rose also. She turned to him, and whispered, “Stay out here.”

He shook his head. “Not a chance.”

The thought of her feet in the stirrups in front of Zach heated her cheeks. “Things get a little personal in there.”

He lowered his face and said next to her ear, “I’ve had my face in your crotch. It doesn’t get any more personal than that.”

Her heated cheeks caught fire. “Fine, but if I am pregnant, you better not swear and start saying I tricked you again.”

He sat next to her right shoulder as Dr. Helen Rodriguez examined her. He didn’t say anything when the doctor confirmed the pregnancy, and Adele was reluctant to look at his face to see his reaction.

When it was over, the paper drape around Adele’s hip crinkled as she sat up. “Where did the IUD go? My doctor said it was there at my last exam back in June.”

Dr. Rodriguez stood and pulled off her latex gloves. “My guess is that it’s in your uterus, but I can’t be sure without an ultrasound.” She tossed the gloves in the garbage and picked up Adele’s chart. “Get dressed, and a nurse will take you down the hall, and we’ll look for it with the ultrasound.”

So many thoughts raced through Adele’s head, and none of them stuck. She was pregnant. It was real. She was going to have a baby. It wasn’t until the door closed behind the doctor that she thought to ask questions. Like, what did it mean if the IUD was in her uterus?

“You’re pregnant.” Zach frowned and handed over her panties and jeans.

She hopped down and reached for the table for support as she stepped into her panties. Zach wrapped a hand around her arm, and she wished things were different.

“Contrary to what you think, I’m not happy about this.” She felt sick to her stomach and sick at heart. She was scared, and she just wanted someone to tell her it was all going to be okay. “I’m not any happier about it than you are.”

“I doubt that.” He dropped his hand from her. “You’re the woman whose biological clock is tapping her on the shoulder.”

She looked up at him as she stepped into her jeans and buttoned them over her flat abdomen. “Don’t turn my words around on me. Wanting a family someday and an unplanned pregnancy are two different things.”

The arch of his brow spoke volumes. He was never going to believe that it was unplanned.

She and Zach followed the nurse to a second room, and fifteen minutes later, she lay on a table with clear goop on her stomach while the doctor ran the probe across her skin. “I don’t see the IUD anywhere,” she said. “If it was there, I’d see the copper.”

Adele glanced up at the doctor, then returned her gaze to the monitor screen. “It’s just disappeared?”

“It’s not anywhere in your pelvis.”

“That’s good. Right?” she asked.

“Very good. An IUD pregnancy is very high-risk. If it was there, we’d either have to dilate your cervix and chance a spontaneous miscarriage. Or leave it in, and at seven weeks gestation, there’s a 25 percent chance of a spontaneous miscarriage. The rate goes up to 50 percent by midterm.”

“How does an IUD just disappear?” Zach asked.

The doctor looked at him. “About 7 percent of IUDs are expelled by a woman’s body. Usually within the first year of insertion.” She returned her gaze to Adele. “Which makes this case unusual because you’ve had yours in for three years.” She pointed at the monitor and moved the probe. “Here’s a heartbeat.”

Adele squinted at the monitor, and Zach scooted forward in his chair for a better look. “That little white thing surrounded by black?” he asked.

“Yep. That’s a baby.”

It looked like a shrimp to Adele.

The doctor slid the probe a few inches. “And here’s the second.”

Adele scrunched up her eyes. The screen looked kind of like a television between channels except for two black circles with white images in the middles. “The heartbeat shows up in a second place?”

The doctor laughed. “Two babies.”

“What?”

“Shit.” Zach sat back in his chair.

“Two?” Adele heard a buzzing in her ears.

“Yes. You’re having twins,” the doctor assured her.

She closed her eyes. “Shit.”

A half hour later, Zach helped her on with her coat. Armed with prenatal vitamins, a card with her return visit on it, and a printout of the twins, Adele walked from the doctor’s office. She was numb from shock as she made her way to Zach’s Escalade. Her vision blurred, and she looked down at the picture. “These fuzzy white spots don’t look like babies to me.” Her voice sounded like it was coming from a distance. “I don’t want to have twins,” she said, and held up the photo. “You did this to me, Zach.”

“Yeah, me and my turbo swimmers.”

“That isn’t funny. What am I going to do with…” she held up two fingers, “two?”

He opened the passenger door of the Cadillac. “Twins. Jesus, are you on fertility drugs?”

She hit him on the shoulder through his coat. “You get me pregnant with twins, then act like you’re the wounded party.” She thought of how big Sherilyn had gotten with Harris, then doubled it in her head. “I’m going to be as big as a whale,” she wailed. “My hands and feet are going to swell up, and it’s all your fault!” Hot tears splashed down her cheeks as she climbed in the car. Zach closed the door, and she wiped her face with her hands. Twins! She hadn’t known what she was going to do with one baby, let alone two. How was she going to take care of twins? One baby would be hard enough, but two? She stared out the side window as Zach got into the vehicle. He started the engine and sat for several long moments, the sound of the heater filling the silence between them.

“Just once,” he finally spoke, “I’d like to attend my own wedding where the bride isn’t knocked up.”

Adele turned and looked at him across the SUV. “What? I’m not marrying you.”

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “You’re pregnant,” he said through a sigh. “With twins. You can’t take care of two babies by yourself.”

She’d been thinking the same thing but wasn’t about to admit it to him. “Which is no reason to get married.” She shook her head. “You don’t want to marry me any more than I want to marry you.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He put the Escalade into gear, and they rolled out of the parking lot. “Pick a date, and we’ll go to the courthouse and do it,” he said without the slightest hint of emotion.

“I’m pregnant, not stupid. I’m not going to make two mistakes.” It was all so horribly unromantic, so loveless, that it might have been funny if it weren’t so sad. “You don’t love me, and I don’t want a bad marriage on top of everything else. Admit it, you don’t want to marry me any more than you wanted to marry Devon.”

He glanced over at her, and he lifted his gaze to her hair. “It probably wouldn’t be that bad.”

She hadn’t realized until he’d spoken that she’d been holding her breath, waiting from him to tell her he wanted to marry her because he loved her. She’d fallen in love for the second time with the same man who didn’t love her. Only this time it was worse. Two times worse.

“You’re not Devon.” He looked into her eyes.

She laughed through the little sob that broke her throat. What irony. She and Devon had always loathed each other and yet they’d ended up impregnated by the same man, and he didn’t love either one of them. The only difference was that Adele hadn’t done it on purpose. And of course, Adele would demand a lot more from the man she married than money and social position. “You’re right. I’d expect more from you than Devon. Money is easy. I’d expect something that I don’t think you can give.”

“What’s that?”

“I’d expect you to be faithful.”

“And you don’t think I can?”

She shook her head. “A man has to have a reason to be faithful.”

“Yeah?” he said through a scoff. “What’s that?”

“He has to love his wife.”

Zach watched Tiffany push ravioli around on her plate. She’d eaten half her pasta and salad and was now making patterns through the sauce.

“Are you finished?” he asked.

She nodded but didn’t look up.

“I have to talk to you about something important.”

“Is it about Adele?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to talk about her.”

Hell, Zach didn’t really want to talk about her either. Not with Tiffany. Not until he had it all sorted out in his own head, but he figured he better before she heard the news from Kendra. “She’s going to have a baby.”

The fork stopped and Tiffany finally looked up.

“Two babies, actually.”

“Your babies?”

“Yes.”

Her big green eyes rounded. “You had…” she paused and spelled out the word, “…s. e. x.?”

“That’s generally how babies are made.”

She sat back in her chair and looked at him as if he’d suddenly turned into some kind of pervert. “Yuck! That’s so…yucky.” She gasped and her mouth fell open. “And you’re not even married.”

Lord he felt like a sinner. A perverted sinner.

“How could you do…that?”

He stood and reached for the plates. “I’m an adult, and sometimes adults do ‘that.’ You’ll understand someday.”

“You’re gross!”

On top of everything else, he thought as he moved from the dining room, his daughter thought he was gross. He set the plates on the counter and planted his hands on the cold granite. How had his life gotten this fucked up? Just when it had been better than it had been in a long time, the bottom falls out. God, he’d give anything to go back to his life a few weeks ago, when everything had been good. When he’d won the state championship and he could relax. When he looked forward to seeing Adele every morning, making love, and sharing a waffle afterward.

How had this happened to him again? He’d learned his lesson the first time. He’d been careful with Adele. Even after she’d told him she had an IUD, he’d always worn a condom.

He thought of her face as the doctor examined her. She’d looked so pale and tired. When she’d slid off the table and stepped into her pink panties, he thought she might pass out, and he’d grabbed her arm to keep her from falling. He’d fought the urge to pull her against his chest and tell her everything would be okay, but he hadn’t. It wasn’t going to be okay.

Twins. He couldn’t wrap his brain around one baby, let alone two. He didn’t want any more children. Hell, he didn’t know what he was doing half the time with the child he already had. He didn’t want a wife either. He hadn’t meant to mention marriage as an option, but as she’d sat in the Escalade crying about getting as big as a whale, he’d felt responsible. She’d accused him of getting her pregnant, then acting like the wounded party, which was partly true, and for a few unguarded seconds, he’d felt like he had fourteen years ago when Devon had told him she was pregnant. Like before, he’d proposed marriage, but unlike Devon, Adele had turned him down flat. He should be congratulating himself.

I’m pregnant, not stupid. I’m not going to make two mistakes, she’d said. You don’t love me, and I don’t want a bad marriage on top of everything else. He should be doing a victory dance in the end zone, but he didn’t feel like celebrating. Admit it, you don’t want to marry me any more than you wanted to marry Devon. He hadn’t given marrying any woman a lot of thought. Knocked up with his twins or not. He remembered how he’d felt when he’d married Devon. Responsible. Resigned. Trapped. Like fourteen years ago, he was responsible for creating new life, two new lives, and he felt like someone had kicked him in the chest and knocked the wind out of him, but he didn’t feel trapped. Adele hadn’t tried to trap him, or she clearly wouldn’t be so upset about it herself. He should probably clear that up with her. Maybe even apologize for thinking she’d lied about the IUD. Yeah, maybe he’d do that when she wasn’t so emotional.

“Daddy?”

Zach turned his head and looked at Tiffany. “Yeah?”

“Are you going to marry Adele?”

“I asked.” He pushed away from the counter. “She said no.”

“She doesn’t like you?” Tiffany asked, as if the mere thought was impossible.

Adele refused to marry him and didn’t think he was capable of being faithful. “No, I don’t think she likes me right now.”

“Do you like her?”

“Yeah.” He liked her. He liked the way her hair wrapped around his fingers and the way her cheeks got real red when she jogged. He liked that she’d moved to Texas to help out her sister. He liked a whole lot of things about her that he wasn’t even going to think about with his daughter around. Mostly, though, he liked the way she made him feel when he was with her. Alive for the first time in a very long time.

Tiffany moved toward him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m sorry I said you were gross. You’re the best ever.”

At the moment he didn’t feel like “the best ever.” His life was suddenly a damn mess. He’d been knocked flat. Now he needed to pick himself up and figure out the game plan.

One thing was for certain though, having Zach’s twins certainly settled the question of Adele leaving town.

Adele sat on the edge of the couch where she’d slept the night before and took a careful sip of tea. She flipped on the television and watched the last segment of Today. Kendra and Sherilyn had already left for the hospital an hour before. This morning, little Harris was coming home to begin his life with his mom and his sister.

Adele curled up with the quilt and took another sip, hoping she’d keep it down this time. Her shoulder ached from sleeping on the pullout, and she thought of her own bed. In her own home, and she felt a wave of sickness that had nothing to do with her pregnancy.

The doorbell rang, and she ignored it. It rang again, and she pushed the quilt aside. Zach. It had to be. Who else would be so pushy so early in the morning? Adele moved to the door and swung it open to stare into Tiffany’s green eyes and neon blue eye shadow.

“My daddy says you’re gonna have his babies,” the teen said without so much as a hello.

“Yes.” She stuck her head outside and looked around. “Does your daddy know you’re here?”

“No. Joe and Cindy Anne Baker came over. He went to breakfast with them at the Caralinda’s Cozy Cafe.” She played with the pull on the zipper of her coat. “I think they’re dating.”

“Who? Joe and Cindy Anne?”

Tiffany nodded.

Just a few short weeks ago, Joe had wanted a skin sandwich with Adele. “Come in.” She shut the door behind Tiffany, and the young girl followed her into the living room.

“Do you know if they’re going to be girls or boys?”

“What?”

“The babies.”

“Not yet.”

Her gaze lowered to Adele’s stomach. “You don’t look pregnant.”

“I’m not very far along.”

She looked back up. “When are the babies due?”

“August.”

Her eyes rounded and she pointed to herself. “My birthday’s in August.”

Adele smiled at the irony.

“My daddy said you won’t marry him.” Tiffany folded her arms across her chest. “Why?”

She really didn’t know how to explain it to a thirteen-year-old. So she said simply, “Because he doesn’t love me.”

“Maybe he will.” Tiffany shrugged. “Someday. You should think about it.”

Adele wasn’t going to wait for someday. She tilted her head to one side. “I thought you didn’t like me.”

“Things are different now.”

Which was a huge understatement.

“Where’s Kendra?”

“She and Sherilyn are bringing the baby home.”

“Gosh. Today?”

Adele heard the car pull into the driveway. “Right now.” A few minutes later they were all crowded in the baby’s room watching him sleep in the cradle Zach had put together. Adele was the first to leave the room. She returned to her spot on the sofa and closed her eyes. She was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep for a year or two.

She wanted to go home.