Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Darla listened to the woosh, woosh, woosh of the Doppler machine, surreptitiously wiping away tears as she listened to a sound she’d never tire of hearing. Doctor Lofton gave her a moment to gather herself as he put away the equipment.

“Well,” he said when he turned back to her, “as you can hear, baby is sounding good and strong in there. And you’re almost through your first trimester, if you can believe that! Pretty amazing, huh?”

“Seriously amazing,” she agreed. “Do you ever get tired of hearing it, given that you see so many patients?”

He shook his head instantly. “Not ever. Being an obstetrician wasn’t my calling, but knowing that I’m helping bring new life into the world is one of my favorite parts of doing family medicine. And I admit that it’s extra exciting when it’s people whom I know have been waiting and hoping to grow their family with a little one—and when it’s people who I like a lot,” he added with a wink.

Darla grinned. “Well, since we’re getting personal,” she said, mimicking his playfully sly tone, “I can’t help but notice that you seem to be in an uncommonly good mood today, Doctor Lofton.”

To her unending delight, the normally implacable Doctor Lofton blushed happily.

“Yes, well, as you know perfectly well, I have you to thank in part for that,” he said. “I don’t think I ever managed to tell you how grateful I am to you for setting me up with Emily.”

“I won’t be giving up the art museum to be a full-time matchmaker any time soon,” she said, “but I’m really glad it worked out between the two of you. I don’t know what exactly gave me the thought that the two of you would be good together, but I’m glad I trusted my instincts.”

“Me too,” he agreed. “I just—she’s so amazing, you know? I don’t know how much she’s shared about her past, and I don’t want to tell her story for her, but she faced some hard times and came through on the other side. She thought that made her weak, but it’s so clear to me that it made her so strong. I’m just in awe of her. And then, on top of that, she’s so funny, and smart, and gorgeous, and?—”

He broke off, casting a sheepish sidelong glance at Darla when he realized he was gushing. He cleared his throat and then spoke with exaggerated professionalism.

“Anyway. Thank you so much for introducing us, Mrs. Mahoney.”

It was the use of her last name that finally broke Darla’s restraint. She dissolved into laughter.

“You are very welcome, Doctor Lofton,” she said, imitating his formality. “And I promise, I won’t tell Emily about how you sang her praises when I see her for coffee in—” She glanced at her watch. “Oh, whoops, about twenty minutes. I’d better get going!”

She bid Xavier a quick goodbye and gathered her things so she could head to Seastar Espresso. It was a little strange, being at the coffee shop without Charity, but she was still on her road trip vacation with her family.

Darla squeaked with delight when she saw that Monica and Marty had already arrived, each with their babies strapped to their chests. Trevor was snoozing against his mother, but Rhea was blinking curiously at the world around her.

“Oh my gosh—babies, babies. babies!” Darla gushed in an excited whisper-shout so that she didn’t wake up Trevor.

“You don’t need to whisper,” Marty said in her regular voice. “If he’s in this thing, he is out .” She gestured to the baby carrier. “It’s only when it’s the middle of the night that he doesn’t want to sleep.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Monica asked, accepting Darla’s kiss on the cheek, since hugging wasn’t possible with Rhea between them. “Is there some sort of secret baby signal that goes out at two in the morning?”

Darla took a seat and waggled her fingers for Rhea, who watched the motion with avid interest. Claire arrived a moment later and greeted everyone.

“Practicing for your future, Darla?” she asked when Darla’s attention quickly returned to baby Rhea. Darla had told her friends about her pregnancy the week prior, which had led to many, many exclamation points in the group chat as everyone had sent her their hearty congratulations.

“Oh, yeah,” Darla agreed, stretching her fingers in a display. “I have to get the muscles ready for full-time baby attention.”

“Yeah, I wanted to tell you that you can’t start rehearsing your ‘Itsy-Bitsy Spider’ too early,” Marty joked. “How was your doctor’s appointment? That was today, right?”

Darla assured them of her positive feedback and played the little audio clip of baby’s heart beating. Everyone cooed. Even baby Rhea made a little sound of approval.

The last member of their little group to arrive was Emily, who entered the coffee shop a bit hesitantly, clutching at the strap of her purse like a lifeline. Claire was the first to notice Emily’s entrance. She immediately stood, eagerly waving over the new member of their circle of friends.

“Hi!” she said. “Emily, right? Come on, we’ve got another seat. Darla’s told us so much about you. We’re so mad that she’s been hogging you all to herself.”

Some of the tension in Emily’s shoulders dropped at Claire’s eager welcome.

“I’m Marty,” Darla’s sister said. “And your welcome wagon is Claire.”

“Oh, yes, shoot, right,” Claire said, laughing at herself. “Got ahead of myself.”

“I’m Monica, and this is Rhea,” Monica added, gesturing to herself and the baby.

“And I’m Darla,” Darla joked, “and Claire is lying, and nobody is mad at me, they’re actually super glad I brought you here. Right? ” she added pointedly, looking at Claire. Her soon-to-be stepsister just poked out her tongue teasingly.

This whole scene had been sufficiently silly and chaotic that Emily was laughing as she dropped into her chair, nerves forgotten. “Okay, well, I guess you all know that I’m Emily. I live next door to Darla and Rick.”

“And,” Claire added, “I think I sold some very nice flowers to your new beau recently? Did those make their way to you?”

Emily’s smile brightened. “The daffodils!” she exclaimed. “Yes, I loved them. You work at the flower shop?”

“She owns it,” Marty said. “But that’s old news… no offense, Claire. We’re all boring and attached, so we want to hear the news about your new romance.”

Emily blushed, feeling butterflies in her stomach… not just from the mention of Xavier, but also from the kindness and openness with which these women had greeted her.

“Oh my goodness, that’s the exact way Xavier looked when he talked about Emily this morning,” Darla said with a laugh when she saw Emily’s face. “You two are the cutest .”

Emily slapped her hands to her cheeks, although she wasn’t truly embarrassed. There was just something… emotionally generous about these people. It made her feel like it was easier to be brave.

With that thought, that she was brave, even when it was hard instead of easy, Emily felt something click into place inside her. Some piece of herself that she’d thought was gone forever after what Simone had done. She didn’t know how to name the peace, not yet. She knew that healing would be a process, something that would happen over time and with emotional distance from the events that had reshaped her entire life. But she finally felt like that healing was possible, like she could be defined by more than that trauma.

So instead of redirecting the conversation to one of the other women, she let herself be playful, returning Darla’s mischievous grin with one of her own.

“Oh, yeah?” she challenged. “Please don’t tell me about what makes us so cute. I wouldn’t enjoy hearing that at all . ”

“Oh, of course,” Darla said, nodding solemnly. “Then I definitely won’t mention that he got this very cute, starry-eyed look when he was talking about how great you are. I’ll keep my lips sealed on that one.”

“Keep your lips sealed,” Claire groused with a halfhearted eye roll. “You didn’t keep your lips sealed when it was my romance you were poking your nose into.” The way her mouth twitched into a smile showed that she didn’t mean the criticism in the least.

“I don’t know if Darla told you,” Marty said to Emily in an aside, “but our mom is marrying Claire’s dad soon, so we won’t just be acting like siblings, we’ll actually be sisters.”

“That’s so nice!” Emily said.

“We’ll catch you up on the whole ‘Lori and Hudson feud to romance’ in due time,” Monica chimed in while Claire and Darla continued to jokingly bicker. “You’re a Whale Harbor girl now.”

Emily knew her grin was lighting up her face. A Whale Harbor girl . She liked that. She liked the idea of being a part of this group of women who slipped so seamlessly from support to teasing to sharing pastries, as Darla and Claire were now doing. She wanted to be part of a community where friends said, with mock impatience, “Okay, I’ve waited long enough. Somebody hand me a baby, now!” as Claire did. Marty put her son, Trevor, who had just woken up, into her friend’s arms, and Claire had cooed then yelped in surprise as the baby got a firm grab on her long, red hair.

Emily sat back and soaked it all in. She’d let her life become so empty, she realized now. She’d needed it at the time, had needed space to rest and recover, but now? Now she was ready to open her heart again, open her life again.

Which was why, as their coffee date ended, she didn’t second-guess herself and she didn’t hesitate. Instead, she walked directly from Seastar Espresso to Xavier’s office, stopping only long enough to purchase him a green tea, which she knew he preferred to drink in the afternoons.

A pretty, middle-aged receptionist looked up as soon as Emily walked through the doors to the small medical practice. “Hello,” she said, tucking a salt-and-pepper lock behind her ear. “How can I help you?”

“Hi,” Emily said. “I’m Emily Harper, here to see Xav—Doctor Lofton. It’s not urgent, I just… brought him tea,” she ended, hefting the cup, fighting back the thought that she was being silly, or rude, by interrupting Xavier’s workday.

I’m brave , she reminded herself.

The receptionist made it easy for her too. As soon as Emily said her name, the woman’s face lit up.

“Oh my goodness, you’re Emily? Hi! We are so happy to finally meet the woman that’s had Doctor Lofton practically walking on air recently. And who can blame him? You’re gorgeous. And sweet too, to drop by with a tea for him. Let me go grab him for you.” She started to bustle off.

“It’s really not urgent!” Emily called after her, bashful in the wake of such exuberance.

“Nonsense,” the woman scoffed. “The tea will get cold. And I bet he’ll think seeing you is pretty urgent, indeed.” She winked and disappeared.

A moment later, the woman returned, Xavier behind her, a broad smile on his face.

“Hey!” he greeted. “What a wonderful surprise!”

“I’m not interrupting?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, no. I have an appointment in about an hour, but I was just catching up on paperwork, and I’m actually in good shape with that for once.” He grinned at her, the expression just a touch shy. “I’ve been highly motivated to get out of here at the end of the day recently,” he confessed. “Want to come back to my office for a few minutes?”

She followed, handing him the tea she’d brought with her, and feeling very pleased with herself when he gave an appreciative hum.

“You remembered! This is my favorite blend,” he said. “Thank you.”

“Well,” she said, gathering her courage, “that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”

He frowned, confused. “Tea?”

She let out a huff of laughter. “No, sorry, that wasn’t clear. I just meant—I remember everything you tell me, Xavier. And I like that! I like you . And maybe this is already where things are heading and maybe I’m acting like a total teenager, but I’ve spent too long guarding my feelings, so I want to be extra clear.” She took a deep breath. “I want to do this thing with you. For real. It’s real for me. And I know it’s soon and all that but… you’re important to me. I like you a lot. And I just wanted to be clear that I take our relationship seriously. I’m not going to run away from you, and I want to keep seeing you.”

She said all this on a rush, barely pausing to take a breath. As she spoke, Xavier’s smile grew and grew.

“Emily,” he said, lightly teasing but clearly happy. “Are you asking if I want to be your boyfriend?”

She cringed. “Oh my gosh, that does make me sound like a teenager, doesn’t it? I swear, I’m normally smoother than?—”

“Because I’d love to be your boyfriend,” he said, putting her out of her misery. “But only if you want to be my official girlfriend.”

Her shoulders slumped in relief. “Yeah,” she said, laughing mostly at herself, “I’ll give you my class ring.”

“It’s been almost twenty years since I graduated high school, so I don’t feel confident that I can find my class ring, but I still accept,” he said, his smile so wide she worried it would hurt his cheeks.

When he stood up and set his tea aside so that he could give her a warm, affectionate kiss, however, she sensed that he wasn’t feeling anything like pain at all. And neither was she. All she could feel, after all, was the excited, shivery flutters of her heart as she experienced what she sincerely hoped would be her future for a very long time to come.