“Sure.”
As I watch Quinn leave the table and Lily come back, I think about the movieSliding Doorsand the concept of parallel universes. How could I have lived on earth for the last few years and not known that I had a daughter? I think about the photos of Lily on Margaret’s Facebook page, about how much she’s already grown and changed in her short lifetime, and I have the strangest feeling that a large chunk of my life has somehow gone by without me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Quinn
Monday, May 13
SO HERE Iam once more, with plans to go to the zoo with a father, only this one isn’t mine, and this time—just my luck—he’s going to show up. Zack just texted me that he’s on the way.
I stash a tube of sunblock and a package of hand wipes in my purse as Lily skips into the kitchen, her friend Alicia behind her. “Auntie Quinn, can Ruffles come with us?”
“No, sweetie,” I say. “Pets aren’t allowed at the zoo.”
“Aww!”
“She’ll take a nap while we’re gone, then be ready to play when we get back home. Zack is on his way, so please go put on your shoes.”
“Yay!” Both girls run away shrieking. I smile as I watch them race to the back door and pull on their sandals. Alicia is accompanying us. She only goes to preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I owe her mother some payback. She watched Lily again this morning while I went to the hospital to visit Margaret and handled Lily’s preschool reregistration, and she’s agreed to do so once more this evening. There’s another reason, too: I hope that having another child along will dilute some of the tension I feel around Zack.
I’m don’t like secrets, and I’m really uncomfortable with the secret connections between the three of us. Lily doesn’t know Zack is her dad, and Zack doesn’t know I’m carrying his unborn child. It’s still early days and I’m not yet showing, but I’m feelingso unlike myself that it’s hard to believe the world can’t tell I’m pregnant. My tummy is bloated, my breasts are tender, and my stomach is alternately—and sometimes simultaneously—nauseous and ravenous.
Zack’s presence in my life has other complicating factors, as well. It’s raising eyebrows with those who don’t know the full story. Alicia’s mother looked at me questioningly when I’d said a male friend was going to the zoo with us when I picked up Alicia.
“Is this someone you’re dating?” Caroline asked.
“No, nothing like that. He’s just a friend. Actually, he’s a friend of Miss Margaret’s.”
“Is this the same guy you and Lily had ice cream with?”
So Lily has been talking. “Yes.”
“Lily said he looks like a prince. I asked if he was a friend of Brooke’s, and she said no.” She paused and looked at me expectantly, obviously waiting for me to contribute information.
I just smiled and nodded.
“Does he live in the same town as Margaret?”
“No, he lives here. But he and his wife are about to move to Seattle.”
Her eyebrows arched upward. “He’s married?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re going with him to the zoo.” Her voice held a question, although it wasn’t asked as one.
I lifted my shoulders. “You know Lily—she enchanted him. When he heard about Margaret being in the hospital and Lily losing her mother, he wanted to do something to cheer her up.” The more I talked, the odder the whole thing seemed. My face grew hot.
“Well, that’s really nice of him.” Caroline’s expression said she found this all very peculiar.
Did she think I was getting involved with a married man?Open, earth, and swallow me now.“Yeah,” I muttered. “He’s a nice guy.”
Maybe too nice. He’d dropped by the hospital again this morning to meet with Dr. McFadden. I appreciate hearing what Margaret’s physician has to say, but I find Zack’s involvement disconcerting. I’d hustled Alicia out her front door and back to my place before Caroline could pose any more awkward questions.
The two girls are playing zoo with Lily’s stuffed animals in the living room when Zack rings the doorbell ten minutes later. Ruffles barks and races to the front foyer. The two girls charge after her. I try not to notice how good Zack looks in jeans and a Tulane T-shirt when I open the door. He’s changed clothes; he was in a suit and tie at the hospital.
He flashes his dimple as he says hello. “Great house,” he comments as he steps inside.
