Page 72 of Lone Star Longing
“But it looks good on you now.”
Lacey couldn’t help herself. She slowed as she walked past the baby department.
“Baby A is a boy,” she said softly to herself as she lifted a little beach-themed onesie from the rack. “I’m not going to dress them alike. They should each be their own individual person, well, as much as they can be raised together by the same mother, at the same age.”
“That is super cute,” Poppy said.
Lacey glanced at the price tag and winced a little. Two babies, just her, she was going to have to watch her pennies. But this one little thing wouldn't hurt, would it? She had told Mrs. Conover that she wanted something concrete to look at as she anticipated his—their—birth.
She held onto the hanger as she wandered through the racks, and found something equally adorable, different enough that the babies wouldn't be dressed alike. This was how she was going to tell her father.
God help her, she didn't want to tell her father. She didn't want to stress him out.
God, what was he going to think?
She stopped in the middle of the baby department, frozen, two little outfits in her hand, and suddenly everything was blurry.
She could not have a nervous breakdown in public.
She fought for control, blinking the tears from her eyes, and walked to the register.
“Would you like to sign up for a baby registry?” the clerk asked brightly.
“Not right now,” Poppy spoke for her when she couldn’t.
“Okay, but the time goes pretty quick, and if you’re going to have a baby shower, it’s better for you to pick out your own presents than just let people buy whatever they think you should have.”
“Well, if I was having a shower, most of them would know better than me what I should have,” Lacey said, finding her voice.
“Oh, I could help you with that.”
Lacey looked around the department. Was there anything she would really need here? No, it was mostly clothes and bedding. She should register at a store that carried everything, including diapers.
“I’ll just take this for now. Maybe on my next trip to town. No one who would come to my shower lives here, anyway.”
The clerk’s expression fell and she went about the task of ringing up the outfits.
“Listen, Poppy,” Lacey said as they walked out of the store. “Let’s not tell anyone about the twins yet. I need time to think about it, and everyone’s going to freak, so I’d just really rather not deal with it now.”
“I get it,” Poppy agreed. “My lips are sealed.”
It might be for the first time in Poppy’s life, to be honest, and Lacey didn't hold out much hope.
*****
LACEY’S DAD WASN'Thome when she got home. Was he at one of his town council meetings again? She hoped he wasn't too late, because she’d been working up her nerve to tell him the whole way home.
Poppy had talked her into a good lunch, and a few more shopping stops, and Lacey had felt she owed her friend for putting up with her breakdown, so she’d gone along with it. And really, for a while, she’d forgotten to stress about the babies.
But now, she set the two outfits on the kitchen table and sat to wait for her dad.
Thankfully, he came in only about twenty minutes later, through the kitchen door as always
He spotted the outfits on the table right away. “Hey, I see you went shopping. Those are cute.”
“Yeah, I couldn't resist. And I got some news.”
“News? What kind of news?” He walked to the refrigerator and opened it, pulled out a bottle of beer and sat at the table, turning the outfits toward him with one hand.
