He said, “Anybody ever tell you that you ask a lot of questions?” Then he hopped out and came around to open her door. He also put a hand under her arm to help her out, which she appreciated, since she wasn’t feeling what you’d call “graceful” at the moment. He took her hand, tucked it through his arm, and said, “And by the way, you look beautiful. In case I don’t tell you enough … I’m proud you’re mine.”
She looked startled that he’d said it. In fact, she opened her mouth to say something, then shut it again. Why? Was that wrong? Did it sound like he didn’t respect her personhood or something?
Modern life was so confusing. He’d just wanted her to feel good, walking in. She seemed not to know how pretty she looked now, or what a thrill he got when he looked at her, because having her pregnant was hot as hell to him.
He probably shouldn’t say that last part, either.
He was thinking about that, because he was nervous.
He wasn’t a nervous guy. He was a cool guy. He was a guy who ran his pattern the same in the fourth quarter as he did in the first. Perfectly.
Yeah, big shot. But you’re nervous now. Heart pounding. Breath coming too shallow. The works.
No time for second thoughts. He opened the front door and ushered her inside.
Kickoff.
63
How Forever Feels
It was an empty house, at least from what she could see. As in, no furniture.
The front door opened into an entry hall, around the edges of which twined a graceful curved staircase. Ah. The tower was for the stairway. All righty, then. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go to just for a fancy staircase, but whatever.
She said, “I guess you’d call this decorating style “minimalist.” She nearly whispered it, but it still echoed.
He didn’t answer. He had her hand and was nearly pulling her through the entry and into the living room. Where the party was.
Well, if the party was being held in a very large but totally empty house. And if it was Owen and Dyma and Annabelle and Blake and Dakota and … her grandfather.
She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to think. So she just stood there, rooted to the floor.
“It’s not my birthday,” she finally managed, after she’d recovered enough to kiss Grandpa Oscar, who grinned and patted her on the shoulder and looked pleased as punch.
“No,” Harlan said. “We’re doing it now because I just bought it. The house.”
“The … house.”
“Yeah. The one we’re in is all right, but it’s not good for the baby. The railings on the galleries don’t work for a baby, and nothing’s carpeted. Plus, it’s not cozy. And let’s face it, it’s weird. It also doesn’t belong to me. Rented. I figured—family house, right? It took a while to find it, and I just signed the papers today, but I wanted you to see it right away.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well … it’s great. Really, uh, pretty.”
“I like having more rooms,” he said. “A little separation instead of that museum look. Also, the view’s nice, don’t you think? Here, I’ll show you outside.” He took her through a dining room with beamed ceilings and a wall of windows, a kitchen with every single convenience, out sliding doors, and onto a covered patio. “Outdoor kitchen, living room, all that. These guys are the caterers. The table isn’t mine. We’re doing dinner out here in a little bit. See, I told you I’d take you out to dinner.”
“You did. It’s a great surprise. I’m really surprised.” Her face hurt from smiling.
“You could use this even if it’s raining,” he said, “because there are heaters, and misters for summer. Another thing I really liked was that it has a full-size lap pool. I’ll have to get that fenced off, but there’s nothing like swimming outside.”
“Also a basketball court,” she said. “Putting green. Tennis. Et cetera.”
“Yeah. But come on.” Around the corner and back into the house at Harlan-speed—in other words, fast enough to make her have to hustle to keep up—and he started opening doors. “Media room. Game room with enough room for a ping-pong table and a pool table. Gym. Gym’s big, which is always good. Oh, and another staircase over here, so you don’t have to go all the way through the house to the curved one in order to get up to the bedrooms. Come up, and I’ll show you.”
She followed after him, and the rest of them trooped along behind. Four bedrooms up here, and three bathrooms. In an L shape, because the house had wings. “The views are beautiful,” she said. “The bedrooms are a nice size, too.”
He wanted her to say something more, she could tell, but she couldn’t think what to add.
Also, she was having trouble controlling her face, because she needed to cry. She’d thought, when she’d seen Blake and Dakota and her grandfather, that this was … something else. That it was a proposal.
Harlan always knew how she was feeling. He was sensitive. How could he have done this? How could he have gotten it so wrong? Didn’t he know how she felt about him?
Focus on the moment, she told herself, but it didn’t work. Because in this moment, all she felt was …
Devastated.
He couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He’d thought this was a great idea. Even Oscar had thought it was a great idea. At least, when Harlan had gone up to visit him after they’d come back from North Dakota, on a day he’d told Jennifer he had an offense meeting, Oscar had seemed pleased. Of course, that could be because Harlan had rebuilt the carburetor on his truck for him, which had seemed to put him a little further up the ladder, son-in-law-wise.
“I’d like to get her a house,” Harlan had told the old man while he was knee-deep in car parts. “A real house. Seems to me that a family ought to start out in a house together. She’s still got all her clothes in that apartment of mine, and it’s driving me nuts. Like—the house belongs to me, and she lives in the apartment. What do you think?”
“I think that’d be a good start,” Oscar had said.
Clearly not, because Jennifer’s tone was too bright, her face too stiff. She hated the house. Harlan had thought it was perfect, but he should have waited and let her choose. He’d been looking for weeks at the time, though, and had started to think it wasn’t going to work out. And then the realtor had showed him this one. It’d had everything he’d wanted, he’d been positive she’d love it, and it had been vacant, which meant he’d been able to buy it for cash and seal the deal in a matter of days. Also, the first preseason game was next week and Jennifer got more pregnant every day. He was running out of time, and having this unresolved between them was driving him crazy.
Ever since he’d met her, the restlessness in his spirit had started to settle, like an albatross who’d flown ten thousand miles finally gliding in for a landing and folding its tired wings. For the first time, he wanted to go home at the end of the day, and for the first time, he wanted to know somebody he loved would be there when he did.