An Engagement in Seattle - Debbie Macomber [72]
At night, she slept with her hand on her stomach. She talked to Junior, carrying on lengthy conversations with her unborn child.
Jerry and Virginia had become ridiculously vigilant. Julia swore her assistant suffered more from her bouts of afternoon sickness than Julia did herself. And Jerry. She smiled as she thought about her brother and how solicitous he’d become. He was constantly asking after her health. He’d even gone so far as to contact Dr. Feldon about her daily bouts of afternoon sickness.
She had been to see Dr. Brandt and liked the young, attractive woman very much. Thanks to her and the pregnancy book she’d recommended, Julia understood far better the changes that were taking place within her body.
She tried not to think about Alek, tried not to dwell on how much she missed him. Or the mistakes she’d made in her brief marriage. Sooner or later she’d have to get in touch with him. She needed to tell him about the baby. And to thank him. Phoenix Paints had taken the market by storm. A national television network had called today wanting to do a news piece on the ideas behind the innovative paints.
She owed Alek so much and she’d treated him so poorly.
She hadn’t asked Anna his whereabouts since that first morning. His sister didn’t volunteer any information about Alek even when Julia asked. Julia didn’t think Anna had forgiven her yet for hurting her brother.
She pressed her hand to her stomach and whispered, “Your daddy is a wonderful man, Junior. He’s going to love you so much.”
She took another bite of the celery stalk and turned the page of her text. Labor and delivery. She’d read this chapter first, the same night she’d bought the book, wanting to learn everything she could on the subject.
When she did deliver Junior, she hoped Alek would be there to coach her. From what she’d seen of Jerry, he wouldn’t last ten minutes in a delivery room. And Virginia wouldn’t be able to take watching her in pain, Julia was convinced of that.
When she’d finished her snack, Julia moved into the living room to exercise. She turned on the television and inserted the low-impact prenatal aerobics DVD. Ten minutes later she was huffing and puffing and sweating enough to dampen the gray T-shirt she wore.
“I hope you appreciate this,” she told the baby.
After a full thirty minutes, she went into the kitchen, got a glass from the cupboard and gulped down some water. After that, she grabbed a pencil and marked the schedule posted on the refrigerator. Anna thought it was a diet sheet and it was. Sort of. Julia listed the food she ate, plus her water intake. Eight glasses a day, no excuses.
That was another interesting aspect of her condition. Her life was now ruled by how long it would take her to reach a bathroom. She’d considered having one installed in her office because it was so disruptive to hurry down the hall every hour, and sometimes more often. The eight glasses of water didn’t help matters.
She was feeling better, though, and for that Julia was grateful. The first couple of weeks after Alek had moved out she’d felt as if she were living in a nightmare. She did what needed to be done, performed her duties, ate, worked and slept, but did it all with a low-grade sense of dejection—and with an air of expectancy. She couldn’t seem to let go of the idea that Alek would come into her office one day the way he used to. It was the hope of seeing him again, of telling him about the baby, that had kept her going. That and, of course, her happiness about the baby.
The doorbell rang and Julia ripped the sweatband from her forehead. It was probably Jerry, who’d taken to checking up on her in the evenings.
But it wasn’t. When she opened the door, Alek stood before her, looking more furious than she’d ever seen him.
Thirteen
“Alek.” Julia couldn’t say anything more. He looked wonderful, while she must have resembled a towel that had been sitting at the bottom of the dirty-clothes hamper.
“I