A long silence followed. Elizabeth could hear the shop’s customer moving around the display room, probably examining similar pieces and other price tags. Her footsteps returned to the area where the Chesterfield sofa sat in the alcove staged to resemble a Victorian drawing room. Elizabeth really should check on the potential sale. Yet Becca was talking now. She couldn’t leave her.
“I love Calvin so much. I thought he loved me too. We were going to live together. We’ve sort of talked about getting married. Then we looked at this house to rent, and something went wrong. I thought we should look around more, and I worry about my dad being alone if I move out, but Calvin didn’t understand how I feel. He said he didn’t want me to make the wrong decision, but he sounded mad. I don’t know what to do.”
“I see. You’ve been under a lot of stress, Becca. Maybe you should talk to your doctor. You don’t want that tummyache to come back—”
“It’s not an ache, more like queasy, and I couldn’t work the other day. It wasn’t the first time. Honest, I was surprised Olivia didn’t fire me before she left.” She buried her face in her hands. “I’m such a mess—happy one minute, mixed up the next. I never used to cry.” She sobbed harder. “And I just want to sleep all the time.”
Elizabeth’s pulse lurched. Yes, she was an older woman, at least in Becca’s mind, but that gave her experience. She’d had three children and, only months ago, had lost another. Now Elizabeth was carrying the baby Dallas didn’t know about. Possibly she was off base here, but this didn’t sound like stress, grief or depression over a job Becca didn’t love. The same signs Elizabeth had ignored were there in Becca. In this brief conversation, they’d moved from being merely Olivia’s employees to mutual confidantes. The question had to be asked.
Elizabeth used her gentlest tone. “Becca, could you be pregnant?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ON THIS CLEAR, sun-bright summer day, under a cloudless blue sky, Becca drove home from Barren lost in a dense mental fog. She kept hearing Elizabeth’s words. Could you be pregnant? Becca hadn’t answered. Her heart in her throat, she’d gasped then rushed from the office through the store, nearly knocking over Elizabeth’s customer as she ran. She’d ignored Elizabeth’s calls to wait. Yet now she sensed the truth.
She was turning onto the driveway at the farm near Farrier when, instead, she pulled over. She couldn’t go home yet; she couldn’t face her father. He’d see the distress on her face, the tears that threatened to fall again. He’d know. Becca turned the car around and drove back through town toward Clara McMann’s ranch.
Trying to think what to say to Calvin, she parked beside the barn. She saw him coming from inside, a lead rope in his hand, but he didn’t see her at first. On his way to the corral, he had his back turned, and for a moment Becca simply watched as he opened the gate, his quick strides approaching the gray-brown horse that rested in the corner.
“Easy, bud, workday’s over,” she heard him say, one hand scratching behind the horse’s ears. “Until the farrier gets here to replace that shoe, you’re on vacation.” He led the gelding out of the paddock past Becca, who was standing by the fence. Was he ignoring her? Still angry about the rental house? What would happen when she told him?
“Calvin.”
He turned his head, and for an instant she saw his eyes warm. Was he glad to see her? Maybe he wasn’t mad, and this wouldn’t be that hard. “Hey, Becca. You get a chance to think about the house?” He thought that was why she’d come.
“I need to talk to you,” she said. “Not about that.”
His voice faded as he walked the horse into the barn. “I’m at work till five.”
Becca followed. “Can you spare a few minutes? Please. It’s important.”
He opened a stall door, stood back while the gelding sashayed inside, then slid the door shut. “We can talk while I refill his water.” He walked in front of her to the faucet, fetched a clean pail and turned on the tap. Over his shoulder he sent her a smile. “Now, what’s so important you left the antiques place and drove all the way out here on a workday?”
Words failed her. He had no idea how important this was. As she’d done with Elizabeth, Becca burst into tears, which ran down her cheeks like the water flowing into the bucket. She shook her head, kept shaking it.
Calvin shut off the tap, put an arm around her. “Hey,” he said again as Becca leaned into him, “you upset because we didn’t agree about the house? I don’t care where we live. You pick. If you’ve found another, better place—”
“No.” Like her tears, the words spilled over. “Calvin, we’re having a baby.”
“We... What?” All expression had been wiped from his handsome face, which had turned white under his summer tan.
“I’m pregnant.”
Calvin swore under his breath. He dropped his arm from her shoulders. “How do you know? Did you take one of those tests? See a doctor?”
“Not yet,” she admitted. “I should have waited, I guess, to tell you. But I’m sure, Calvin.” Her stomach had already begun to swell.
His eyes looked haunted. She could almost see his mind racing like a high-speed computer. “But we only...that one time...”
“Yes,” she said. She told him about her conversation with Elizabeth, then explained, “But I missed my last cycle and the one before...” She trailed off, not to discuss her symptoms. Her body’s changes embarrassed her, as if she had no control of herself. “I’m scared.”
“You should be. So am I. What would we do with a baby?”
“What will we do,” she said, starting to tremble.
“I don’t know, and I don’t know if I can take this on.”
“I wouldn’t have told you if I didn’t
