Mummy in the Making. Victoria Pade
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“Does that leave room for me?”
“Plenty. I have a fairly big SUV and car seats have to be in the back. You can have my passenger seat all to yourself.”
“Okay, then. I guess if it’s all right with you, it’s all right with me.”
“We’ll be doing our small part to save the environment,” he concluded. “Tomorrow night, shortly before six?”
“Sure.” Couldn’t she say anything else? That was four times! She hoped he wasn’t counting. “I can meet you downstairs.”
“I’ll see you there and then.”
“There and then,” Issa echoed, wishing after the fact that she hadn’t.
That was when Hutch Kincaid should have left, but he didn’t. He stayed where he was, standing in her doorway, staring at her, studying her.
“Okay, then,” he muttered after a moment, as if his mind was somewhere else. “And if the lock gives you any trouble, you know where to find me.”
Somehow that had sounded a bit awkward on his part, although Issa couldn’t imagine why Hutch Kincaid would feel at all ill at ease saying goodbye to her.
“I do know where to find you,” she confirmed.
“Anything else you need, too.”
“Thanks.”
He really was having trouble leaving. She didn’t know why, but it made her want to smile.
Then he seemed to jolt out of his reverie. “Okay, see you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow.”
But another split second still went by before Hutch Kincaid followed his son out her door and, without another glance in Issa’s direction, went down the stairs.
And yet just the fact that he seemed to have been even a touch gawky at the end made her feel so much better.
It even made it easier for her to think about riding over to her half brother’s place with him the next night.
Which she suddenly found herself looking forward to.
Chapter Three
“Oh. Wine.”
“Not just any wine, Issa, this is from that little vineyard in Napa that you like so much,” Logan said when Issa hesitated to accept his offer of a glass of wine. She, Hutch and Ash had just arrived at the Mackey and McKendrick compound for Monday evening’s barbecue.
It hadn’t occurred to her that not being able to drink because of her pregnancy would raise questions. Ordinarily she would have gratefully accepted the glass of wine and enjoyed it and the relaxing benefits that would have helped her be more comfortable socializing. That was something that her half and whole siblings Logan, Hadley and Dag knew well. Which was likely why Logan had gone out of his way to get her favorite wine. And why it looked all the more suspicious that she was holding back.
But she couldn’t drink. And she also couldn’t think fast enough to come up with a plausible excuse.
Maybe she should say yes to the wine, have one tiny sip for show, then pour the rest of it out by small increments when no one seemed to be looking, and hope she didn’t get caught.
“Oops, she promised to be my designated driver tonight, so I started early and had a beer before we left,” Hutch jumped in suddenly, saving the day.
“I saw your SUV out front, Hutch. You came in that instead of Issa’s car even though she’s driving?” Hadley asked.
Luckily no one had seen them actually pull up or they would have known that Hutch had driven.
“Car seat!” Issa said, her brain finally functioning so she could help things along. “It was more trouble to switch it to my car, so I just said I’d drive Hutch’s. But now that I’m committed, no wine for me. I appreciate that you went to the trouble, though.”
“We’ll open it another time,” Meg interjected, moving things along. “How about iced tea or lemonade? And Hutch, you’re drinking beer?”
“Tall and cold!” Hutch said with vigor, making everyone laugh and drawing the focus off Issa.
To Issa’s relief.
“I can pour my own lemonade,” Issa said, grabbing the pitcher from the kitchen table.
“Then, because we’re all here, we can take everything out back,” Meg suggested.
In the backyard Chase was manning a big barbecue grill. Standing nearby overseeing things were the rest of the guests—Shannon, Dag, Jenna Bowen—whom Issa knew because they’d both grown up in the small town, and another man who had to be Hutch Kincaid’s twin because they looked so much alike that Issa could have picked him out of a crowd.
The barbecue contingent greeted Issa and Hutch as they came out onto the back porch carrying whatever they could manage of beverages and condiments—the last of what was needed to get down to the business of dinner. Logan, Meg and Hadley followed with even more plates of goodies.
“Issa,” Logan said then, “you haven’t met Ian yet, have you? Issa, Ian. Ian, my sister Issa.”
Issa and Ian exchanged nice-to-meet-yous, but Issa refrained from commenting on the twins’ resemblance to each other because she thought they probably heard that too often.
Then to round out the introductions, Jenna said, “And the other one you don’t know is over there—Abby. She’s the baby my sister, J.J., had in high school. My niece—”
“And now her adopted daughter,” Ian contributed.
“And soon to be Ian’s adopted daughter, too, as soon as the paperwork is finished,” Jenna said, smiling a beaming smile at Hutch’s brother.
“I was sorry to hear about J.J., and about your parents,” Issa said. Through her family she’d heard about all the losses that Jenna had suffered during the past year. Even though Issa had visited Northbridge periodically during that time, her visits hadn’t coincided with any of the funerals and she also hadn’t seen Jenna when she was in town, so this was the first opportunity to give condolences. In fact, neither Jenna nor Issa had lived in Northbridge until very recently, and Issa hadn’t seen Jenna since they’d graduated from high school.
Jenna thanked her for her sympathy and Issa cast another, more concentrated glance in the direction of the sandbox. She felt obligated to show an interest in the child Jenna had made a point of telling her about.
Earlier when Issa, Hutch and Ash had arrived, Meg had informed the toddler that the other kids were out back. Ash hadn’t wasted any time running through the place to join them. Now Issa spotted him playing in the sandbox with Issa’s three-year-old niece, Tia; with Shannon, Chase and Hutch’s twenty-month-old nephew, Cody, who Issa had met her first day back in Northbridge; and with a beautiful, curly haired baby girl who had to be Jenna’s niece-turned-adopted daughter.
“How old is Abby?” Issa asked, too unfamiliar with children to have any clue.
“She’s seventeen months,” Ian answered in a proud voice.
“She’s cute…” Issa said, unsure if she should be more gushy, if she should say or do anything else, and how long she should go on looking at the child before she could move on to other things. She was just no good at this stuff.
When Jenna thanked her for the compliment, Issa took that as her sign that admiring the child had gone on long enough and switched her focus back to the adults.
It was about then that the men moved nearer to the barbecue and the women migrated toward the picnic tables not far from there.
At the urging of Hadley, Issa sat beside her half sister on the bench. But as the other women began