1022 Evergreen Place - Debbie Macomber [41]
“I think that about does it for me,” Peggy said. “What about you?”
“Ah, I’m finished.” Corrie glanced over at the outlet where she’d stumbled on the infant jumper.
“You don’t look like you’re ready to go.”
“Okay, this won’t take long.” Corrie rushed back to the store while Peggy waited in the car. She grabbed the yellow sleeper and two others, along with a set of receiving blankets. Before she could stop herself, she added more and more clothes, and blankets and toys to her load. All the while she told herself this was crazy. Roy would laugh his head off, but she didn’t care.
They managed to squash the bags in the backseat. Corrie didn’t tell Peggy what she’d bought. They resumed their easy camaraderie, discussing movies they’d recently seen and books they’d read and exchanging gossip of the unmalicious but still enjoyable variety.
“Thanks for coming with me. I appreciated the company,” Peggy said, parking in front of 50 Harbor to let Corrie out.
“Anytime,” Corrie said. “It was fun.” She started to walk away when Peggy called her back.
“Don’t forget your bags.”
“Oh, yes!” Corrie had nearly left them behind.
Roy, of course, was at the office, which was just as well. She dreaded telling him the only purchase she’d made was baby clothes—for a nonexistent baby. Even now, she wasn’t sure why she’d done it. Guiltily, she shoved the packages in the spare-bedroom closet.
The phone rang as she entered the kitchen, and a quick glance at caller ID told her it was Linnette’s cell. Hearing from her daughter in the middle of the week, let alone the middle of the day, was highly unusual. Linnette was often so busy at the clinic that she didn’t get home until six or seven at night. Thankfully Buffalo Valley had provided housing close by, so her daughter didn’t have far to go when she finished at the end of the day.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Corrie greeted her cheerfully. “Is the weather in North Dakota as nice as it is here?”
“Where were you?” Linnette asked. “I tried earlier and no one was home.”
“Shopping with Peggy. Is everything all right? Did you try your father at the office?”
“I didn’t want to talk to Dad. I wanted you.”
Corrie sat on the kitchen stool she kept near the phone. “I’m here now. What’s wrong, Linnette?”
Her question was met with silence. “I guess there isn’t any easy way to say this.”
“Say what?” Corrie tried to control the stomach-churning anxiety she immediately felt.
“I should’ve told you before and I didn’t, and then the longer I put it off, the harder it got, and now…now it’s going to come as a shock and I apologize. Please, please, don’t be mad at me.”
Inhaling deeply, Corrie said, “Linnette, of course I won’t be angry with you. Just tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong, Mom. In fact, this is really good. At least, I think it is.”
A tingling sensation went down Corrie’s spine. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” The response was half laugh and half sob.
“Oh, my goodness…” Corrie slid off the stool and stood upright. Excitement bolted through her—excitement followed by anxiety. Who was the father? Would Linnette, single and self-supporting, keep the baby? Somehow Corrie felt sure she would. “I must’ve known. Somehow I must’ve suspected. I was shopping with Peggy Beldon and I had this irrepressible urge to buy baby clothes.”
“Um, there’s more,” Linnette said.
“You’re having twins,” Corrie blurted out.
“No. I’m married.”
“Married.” For some reason, this second shock hit her harder than the first. “To whom?”
“Pete, of course.”
“Pete Mason? The guy we met at Christmas?”
“Yes.”
Pete had driven Linnette home so she could visit her family for the holidays. Corrie had liked him, but hadn’t sensed that he and Linnette were anywhere close to marriage.
“Do you love him?” Corrie’s biggest fear was that her daughter had married on the rebound.
“Oh, yes… We got married when we were driving home. We stopped in Vegas on December twenty-ninth. We didn’t plan to get married. I know it sounds insane, but we could only find one hotel room, and then Pete said we should take it even if