“That felt pretty normal to me,” she said, and giggled like a kid. It sounded like silver bells to him in the darkness.
“I’m not doing it again tonight,” he warned her, “or the baby will come out and hit me.” In fact, the baby hadn’t moved while they were making love, and she had the feeling it was sleeping. And as Mike caressed her again, and the same urge rose in him, she made a liar of him a few minutes later.
Chapter 17
Much to their amazement, life became almost normal between Mike and April in the next few weeks. At the end of April, he moved in with her, although he had been there every night before. He went to work in the morning, and hung out in the restaurant. He helped out in the kitchen when they needed a hand. April looked blissful every time she looked at him. And everyone was relieved to see her so happy. The only one who wasn’t was Jean-Pierre, and he made it obvious to April. It made his heart ache every time he saw them. He looked like a scorned lover, which she found irritating since he wasn’t. He was only an employee with a crush on her and nothing more. She tried to ignore him. She had been honest with him and had never led him on. Her heart clearly belonged to Mike. And Mike thought the baby looked the size of twins. She got bigger every day.
She told her mother he was back. And Valerie told Pat. Jack was relieved for her. He just hoped the guy was reliable and stuck around. Jack and Valerie came to have dinner with them one Sunday night. Although Jack had been leery of him, he admitted to Valerie afterward that he liked him.
“He seems like a bright guy. I just hope he treats her right and doesn’t run out on her again.”
“So do I,” Valerie said, looking concerned. She had just bought a whole set of baby furniture for her grandchild, and Jack had teased her about it. But she was getting used to the idea.
She and Jack had planned a trip to Europe for early May, and they were leaving in a few days. They were going to travel for several weeks. London and Paris were on their itinerary, and a weekend in Venice. Jack called it their honeymoon. It was the perfect time of year for both of them to get away, since she was on hiatus and he had time off. They were still bouncing back and forth between their apartments, and couldn’t decide where they wanted to live. So they stayed in both places, and decided where to spend the night, depending on their mood and schedules the next day. It seemed to work for now.
Valerie had hesitated about the trip at first with April so pregnant. But April had insisted her mother go, and now that Mike was living with her, Valerie was less concerned. And April said that if she started having any early warning signs, she’d call her mother and she could come home. Valerie had finally agreed.
The night before they left, they had dinner with Mike and April again. Valerie told April about the furniture she’d ordered for her, and April was touched. And Valerie warned her not to have the baby before she got back. She was still nervous about going.
April and Mike had discussed his being at the birth, but he wasn’t sure. He was afraid it might be too much for him, and April wasn’t pushing, but said she hoped he’d be there. If he wouldn’t, Ellen had volunteered to go as April’s coach.
Valerie called April on the way to the airport, and told her again to take care of herself and call immediately if there was any problem. She looked so vulnerable and so pregnant now. And her due date was only five weeks away. Suddenly it was all going very fast. Valerie planned to be back two weeks before the baby was due to come.
That afternoon April saw her doctor, who said everything was fine. April had told her that Mike was back the month before, and the doctor was pleased for her. She said the baby was a good size, and it was in the right position. April had had another sonogram but the baby’s back had been turned and they couldn’t see its sex, and April had decided not to check again and be surprised instead. It didn’t matter either way, as long as it was healthy. She was still hoping for a girl, and Mike was just as hopeful for a boy named Sam. April kept insisting it was a baby girl named Zoe.
On the way home late that afternoon, she stopped for a cup of tea with Ellen, who was between patients and happy to see her. They talked about pressure points and things she could do to bring on labor, if she was overdue. April felt like she was ready to deliver now, and was already starting to have contractions if she worked too long, or was on her feet all day and night in the kitchen, which the doctor said was normal and didn’t mean early labor or anything wrong. April was worried about who would cook in her absence when she went to the hospital. She didn’t totally trust the sous-chefs to do it right without her.
“I have this vision of you having that baby in the kitchen, trying to fill your orders at the same time.” Ellen laughed.
“It could happen. Maybe I could have it at night after we close, and be back in time for lunch,” April said, smiling.
“You’d be just the one to do that,” Ellen told her as she left. And April went back to the restaurant to start dinner. She had already done most of the prep work before she saw the doctor.
April smiled to herself as she started work, knowing that by then Jack and her mother were in Paris. He had been a wonderful addition to her mother’s life. Her mother said she didn’t want to marry him, she didn’t need to. They had agreed that they were comfortable with the status quo, and neither of them had any desire to get married. In their hearts, they already were. They had been inseparable since December. Jack said it was the longest relationship he’d had since his marriage, and it was for Valerie too. And by far the best one.
They had a particularly busy night at the restaurant. Mike was out, having a long, elaborate dinner, for a review: She liked going with him sometimes, but they had too many reservations for her to join him. The restaurant was doing better than ever, and their reservations were a month out now. At this rate, she would pay her mother back earlier than she’d hoped.
Everyone in the kitchen was working hard that night, the dining room was full, and one of the sous-chefs was working the pans. April had her back turned when she heard a scream, and turned around to see a wall of flame on the stove. One of the pans had caught fire, and it had already leaped to a stack of towels that were in flames, as one of the sous-chefs threw them to the floor and stomped on them. While he did, the fire on the stove got even more out of control. One of the waiters was in the kitchen, and grabbed the fire extinguisher and pointed it at the stove, and in her panic, April took it from him and aimed it at the stove herself. But the fire wouldn’t abate, and was getting worse. People were screaming, and Jean-Pierre ran in, and tried to pull April away. She pushed him off, and was aiming the fire extinguisher steadily, but the whole kitchen was in flames by then, and people were running out of the restaurant.
April could hear fire engines in the distance, but they weren’t coming fast enough. Jean-Pierre and the others were screaming at her to leave, but she wouldn’t. The restaurant that was her baby and first love was going up in flames, and she wouldn’t leave it. The fire had leaped into the dining room through the open door, and the sirens kept getting louder. She felt her arms and the back of her hands burning, and suddenly there were men in the kitchen, finally, with hoses and water everywhere. The kitchen was thick with smoke, and a man in a black coat was carrying her out. Her head was swimming, and people were staring at her when they set her down on the sidewalk and put an oxygen mask on her. She kept fighting to get up, she could still see the flames inside the restaurant, and they were shooting water everywhere. The restaurant was going to be destroyed and she was sobbing, as two of the waiters knelt beside her and wouldn’t let her stand up.
She heard the firemen call for an ambulance then, and shouting to someone that she was pregnant. All she wanted was to get up and go back inside. She was crying so hard she couldn’t stop. The ambulance was there minutes later, and just as she was fighting them not to take her, April fainted. One of the waiters had called Mike on his cell phone by then. They said the restaurant was on fire, and looked like it would be destroyed, and April had just been taken away by ambulance, but they didn’t know to which hospital.
Mike called 911 frantically and they told him to go to the Weill-Cornell burn center. All he could think about was April and their baby. The waiter had told him that she had fought the fire herself and wouldn’t leave until the firemen carried her out.
Mike literally bolted out the door of the restaurant he was reviewing, and ran out into the street. He hailed a cab and was at the hospital in less than ten minutes. April was in the trauma unit, and he told the woman at the
