Virgil grabbed a sausage with his bare fingers. “I didn’t get the memo.”
“If you’re not out of here in three seconds, I’ll give Bear a vacation and put you on cooking duty for a week.”
“If you do that, you’ll have to ask yourself who’s the one being punished. I could eat cereal every day of my life. Do you like Lucky Charms, or are you a Cheerios kind of guy? I bet you like all that whole-grain stuff with fiber.”
When Tak scooted his chair back, Virgil shoved two sausages into his mouth and jogged out of the room.
“Someone needs to take him to the bar,” Tak grumbled.
Everyone knew that when Virgil didn’t go out enough, his behavior became mischievous and argumentative. He was a city boy adjusting to being cooped up in a country home.
As were we all.
“It must benice not having to keep that secret anymore,” Mercy said. Her country accent was simply endearing. “You shouldn’t have been doing all that manual labor or painting. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers. Something coulda happened.” She rotated the steering wheel of Hope’s sedan and sped down a long driveway surrounded by a thicket of trees. “You need to keep your feet up, mama.”
I chuckled softly. “Gee whiz. Everyone’s been treating me like an invalid this morning. I’m perfectly fine and don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be?—”
“Climbing up that library ladder?” she finished. After turning off the engine, Mercy unbuckled her seat belt. “You’re too far along to be doing all that. No more lifting heavy boxes or climbing up ladders. If you need someone to shelve books, I’m your backup.”
I opened the door and got out. “What is that delectable smell?”
“Gingerbread,” Milly called out from the porch of her quaint house, her grey bob swaying gently. “I bake when I’m pissed off.”
A pang of guilt sliced through me as I approached the short woman with a grey bob. “I’m so sorry if I’m putting you out.”
Her laugh sounded more like a wheeze. “You’re fine. It’s those damn blackbirds that keep gathering all over my car. If they know what’s good for them, they’ll keep migrating before I get out my pistol. Come, come. I’ve got warm gingerbread if you’re hungry.”
We walked through a narrow hall just as the cuckoo clock started chiming. While I didn’t understand her aestheticof mismatched furniture and an old TV set, the attached greenhouse in the back caught my eye.
“That’s beautiful.” I approached the sliding glass doors and admired the rows of plants.
“Here. Eat up.” She handed Mercy and me a slice of warm gingerbread on napkins. “That’s where I grow all my medicine, and I’ll be damned if those birds figure out how to pick the lock.” She pulled the drapes and then adjusted her glasses. “They might look like dumb feather dusters, but they’re intelligent assholes. They work things out.” She briefly picked up a box of cigarettes before setting them back down by the TV. “Damn. I should’ve smoked before you two showed up.”
“I don’t mind waiting,” I told her.
She pushed a button to an elevator on the right-hand wall in her living room. “I have a rule about smoking around pregnant women. Right this way.”
I followed her into the elevator, and my stomach dropped when the door closed. My shawl slipped off one shoulder, but I couldn’t adjust it with the warm cake in my hands. Since Mercy had already devoured hers, I offered her mine.
“You take it. I can’t eat a thing right now. Nerves.”
Milly smoothed her hand over her hair. “You don’t strike me as a nervous Nellie. Babies pick up on our emotions, so the calmer you are, the better. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
After removing my shawl, I folded it up in a tidy square. This was the first time I had dared to wear a fitted blouse, and the material revealed more of my full breasts and rounded stomach than anyone had seen. Mercy gobbled up the cake while staring at my belly.
Milly noticed the direction of her gaze. “How far along are you?”
“Almost eight months.”
“Lucky. When I carried, I looked like I was smuggling a beach ball.”
I smiled politely. When the doors opened and revealed a sterile hallway, I froze in place. Mercy and Milly took off ahead of me, but I didn’t like that it stank of rubbing alcohol and bleach.
Milly glanced over her shoulder and then did a double take. “Come on, girl. It’s just us down here. Nothing to be scared of. Nothing at all. It’s not the prettiest place to look at, but it has everything I need. Tell you what, I’ll give you the rest of that cake to take home with you. How does that sound?”
Clutching the shawl, I followed behind them.
“You can wait out here,” the Relic instructed Mercy. “This won’t take long.” She disappeared into a room and flipped on an overhead light.
