Pelican Court (Cedar Cove #3)(35)

“It’s too late now.”

“I know.” He groaned the words. “Where were you?”

“If you must know, it’s my birthday, and I was at dinner with Justine and Seth.”

“Your birthday! Damn, Olivia, I forgot. You’ll forgive me, won’t you?”

“As long as you don’t ask me how old I am.”

He chuckled. “Don’t ask, don’t tell?”

“You got it.”

“Anybody else there?” The question was a blatant request regarding her ex-husband.

Olivia had the option of lying and avoiding any chance of another dragged-out misunderstanding. She hated to risk upsetting him just when they’d reconciled, but she couldn’t, wouldn’t deceive him. “Yes,” she admitted reluctantly. “Stan showed up. Unexpectedly.”

“Bearing gifts, no doubt?”

“A few.”

“Flowers?”

“Not as pretty as the ones you sent a while back.” Olivia had left Stan’s bouquet with her daughter.

“Candy, too?”

“No candy.”

“Wine, then?”

“Wine,” she confirmed.

He growled something under his breath. “You still want me to put on a pair of boxing gloves and fight him?”

Olivia smiled. “I never wanted you to get into a fistfight,” she said. “I just wanted you to prove you cared about me.”

“Okay,” he said. “Should I call him or do you want to do it?”

“Call Stan?” Jack wasn’t making any sense.

“I think we should duke it out, just the two of us. Man to man.”

“Jack Griffin, that’s ridiculous! Tell me you’re not serious.”

He paused, and she thought she could hear him shadowboxing in the background. He was definitely moving around.

“You could simply declare me the winner,” Jack suggested hopefully.

“I could,” she agreed, “but first you’d have to win my favor.”

Jack groaned again. “And exactly how am I supposed to do that?”

“You don’t know?” She feigned surprise.

“Apparently not, but I’ll study on it.”

“You do that.” Olivia gave a full-throated laugh. “I have a feeling you’ll find a way.”

Oh, yes, it was good to have him back in her life.

Ten

Maryellen was going back to work. She dropped her ten-week-old daughter off at her sister’s on Monday morning, the last week of October. She’d resumed a nine-to-five schedule at the gallery.

“She’ll be fine,” Kelly assured her, as Maryellen lingered anxiously at the front door.

“You’ll phone if there’s a problem?” Leaving her daughter was harder than Maryellen had dreamed possible. It was difficult enough to let Jon take Katie for his regular visitation. She’d assumed that leaving Katie with her own sister would be easier than this. Tears filled her eyes at the prospect of being away from her baby for more than eight hours a day.

“Every new mother goes through this,” Kelly assured her. “It’s hard leaving our babies, even when we know they’re getting the best care in the world.”

“She usually needs to be fed around ten,” Maryellen said, although she’d gone over Katie’s schedule twice already. She’d expressed the milk earlier and had filled several bottles.

“I know, I know. Now, get out of here before you’re late for work.”

Her sister was right, but still Maryellen hovered there in the doorway. Then, before she could change her mind about the whole thing, she turned and hurried to her car. Within a few days, dropping the baby off would become part of her daily routine. She’d considered bringing Katie to the gallery with her, but an infant would be distracting. While not openly forbidding it, the owners had been discouraging.

She hated being away from her baby for a large part of every day, hated the sick sensation it left in the pit of her stomach. Doubts haunted her, fears that she was a bad mother. She couldn’t help feeling that while Kelly was Katie’s aunt, she couldn’t possibly love her as much as Maryellen did. Despite her regrets, she knew this was necessary, and she had to face these demons sooner or later.

By ten that morning, Maryellen had phoned her sister no less than three times. Katie had slept for most of the morning, just as she normally did. During her last phone call, Kelly had told her she was warming Katie’s bottle and would be feeding her right on schedule. Maryellen trusted her sister, but she worried that Kelly might not hold the baby the same way Maryellen did. Worried that the strange environment might disrupt her routine. Worried that Katie would intuitively know she wasn’t in her own home, her own bed.

The bell chimed above the gallery door just as Maryellen replaced the receiver. Taking a moment to calm her pounding heart, she made an effort to look friendly and professional. As she stepped into the gallery’s main room to meet her first customer of the day, she managed to smile.

Her business facade crumbled the instant she saw it was Jon. She was so pleased to see him, so glad to have someone to talk to about Katie.

He took one look at her and frowned. “I thought so.”

“Thought what?” Her hackles immediately rose. Her pleasure at seeing him vanished. The last thing she needed was a lecture.