Things I Want My Daughters to Know_ A Novel - Elizabeth Noble [155]
HANNAH JUMPED UP AND PUNCHED THE AIR TRIUMPHANTLY. “You’re pregnant! That’s fantastic!”
Jennifer laughed.
“It is fantastic, isn’t it?”
“It’s fantastic.” Good word.
“I’m going to be an aunt.” With teenagers, in the nicest possible way, and however wise the head on their young brown shoulders, it was always just a little bit about them. “Auntie Hannah.”
“I can expect loads of free babysitting, then, I assume.”
“Too right. As long as it’s not prom night. Or Saturday nights. Or Fridays.” But she was grinning. She hugged her big sister.
“I’m so, so happy for you!”
“Thanks, Hannah.”
“How does Stephen feel about it?”
Stephen was quietly ecstatic. All his lines, in the ski chalet, about babies not mattering…she’d known what he meant, but she hadn’t bought it. This was what he’d wanted all along. That was fine. He’d just been more sure. There was nothing wrong with that. They hadn’t told anyone yet. At some point, there would be a trip to his parents. She looked forward to telling Kathleen, but part of her resented giving Brian what he said he wanted. She’d get over it. This wasn’t about any of them, anyhow. It was about her and Stephen, and this baby.
“When are you going to tell Dad?”
“Tell me what?”
Neither of them had seen Mark come into the garden. Hannah looked at her watch. “You’re home early.”
“No law against that, is there? It’s such a gorgeous afternoon. I came home to observe this delightful bucolic scene. I knew Jennifer would be toiling out here in the heat. I assumed she’d be getting precious little help from you, so I thought I’d come and give her a hand.”
Jennifer winked at Hannah. The wink granted permission.
“Quite right. She shouldn’t be working so hard…in her condition….”
Hannah had never been able to keep secrets. Amanda had complained bitterly about this trait for years. She hadn’t had a surprise gift for a childhood birthday since Hannah had learned to talk.
“Very subtle, Hannah. Highly cryptic.” Jennifer laughed so that her sister knew she didn’t mind.
“You’re…pregnant?!” Mark put down his case and laid the jacket that had been over his arm over the back of the chair Hannah had been sitting in.
“Three months. So I suppose it’s official.”
“That’s the best news I’ve heard in I don’t know how long!” He came to her and caught her in an easy, close embrace. “That’s brilliant, Jen. I’m made up for you.”
He pulled back and smiled at her. “And so would your mum have been.”
She nodded, not wanting to cry. “I know. I know she would.”
LATER, WHEN JENNIFER HAD GONE HOME AND THE NEWLY SELF-STYLED Auntie Hannah was doing her homework upstairs (or at least said she was, although Jennifer noticed she took both her iPod and her phone upstairs with her), Mark, who’d changed into shorts and an old T-shirt, poured himself a beer and went out onto the terrace. Jen had done a great job, but there was still a lot to do before July. He pondered his work schedule in his head and wondered about taking some time off in the next couple of weeks. It was dusk, so he turned the hosepipe on at the wall, and positioned the sprinkler so that droplets arced across a section of the lawn and the bed that Jennifer had been working on. Thank God there was no watering ban yet, though if the weather continued as it had been these last few weeks, there doubtless would be. He remembered Barbara, barefoot and wrapped in her robe, carrying bowls of dirty bathwater across the terrace to pour on the thirsty, cracked earth in previous summers.
He lay back in his Adirondack chair and took a long drink, enjoying the sounds and scents