Page 77 of Goodbye Paradise
“Come here.” I pulled her down into a hug. She smelled like the stale air of a three day bus trip, the poor thing. “Maggie has lots of plans to spoil you,” I said.
“So I hear.”
Maggie was standing in the doorway, with Daniel too, looking fit to burst. I could see on her face that there had already been many tears.
Chloe chose that moment to wake up, her blues eyes popping open to see a black-and-blue stranger leaning over us. She opened her mouth and shrieked.
“Oh sweetie,” Miriam crooned. “I’m sorry.”
Tears began to pour out of Chloe’s eyes like two fountains. That’s what happened when a toddler woke from her nap at just the wrong moment. It meant nothing, but I worried that Miriam would take it personally, unless I worked a little magic.
I scooped Chloe up, facing her into the shoulder of my shirt.
“Bosh!” she wailed.
“Shh, shh,” I said, rocking her. “Some naps have a rough landing. Nothing we can’t fix with a bottle of milk.”
“Baba,” she agreed.
“Okay, missy.” I scrambled off the bed.
“Oh, you two are killing me,” Miriam said. “That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Isn’t it?” Maggie said, stepping out of my way. Because she knew better than to get between a hungry one-year-old and her baba. “Those two have a special relationship.Boshis indispensable.”
My face began to heat, of course. “Where’s Caleb?” I asked to change the subject.
“Still at work. It’s only five.”
“Ah,” I said, holding the railing to walk down the stairs carefully. I had precious cargo on my other arm. I was still waking up, too. By the time I made it to the kitchen, my brain was functioning again.
And I realized that Caleb was going to walk in here in less than an hour, see those bruises on Miriam’s face, and fliprightout.
When I heardhis tires in the driveway, I was standing in the kitchen, peeling a cucumber for Maggie. Chloe was in her father’s arms in the living room, where he was chatting with Miriam.
I set down my salad prep, shoved my feet in my boots, and went outside to meet Caleb.
It was dark already, and his headlights nearly blinded me before he shut them off. So I couldn’t see his face after he jumped out of the car, slammed the door, and approached me.
“Hi baby,” he said under his breath. He leaned in and kissed me on the lips, right in front of God and everyone. Well, we were alone out here. But it wasn’t something that I would have let him do a week ago.
But today? The kiss made me deliriously happy.
“Hi,” I said, putting my hands on his shoulders.
“Hi yourself. Why are you outside?”
“Ah,” I said, giving his shoulder muscles one quick squeeze. “I wanted to warn you before you come in. Miriam is fine, okay?”
His chin snapped upward by a couple of degrees. “Okay.”
“But, Caleb, somebody hit her. There are bruises and a cut.”
Under my hands, he took a slow breath. “All right.”
“And Miriam is very, very pregnant.”
His body jerked backward, and my hands slipped off of him. Later, I’d remember that as the moment when everything went bad. Although, there in the driveway, I still couldn’t quite read his face. “She’s… pregnant?”
