Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“I think this is what your aunt Marty was always complaining about, little one,” Darla told her stomach as she looked at how it strained against a shirt that had fit her perfectly only the week prior. “I’m very excited to meet you, but this ‘nothing ever fits’ stuff is for the birds.”

The baby gave a hearty kick as if to say they agreed. Like Monica and Braden, Darla and Rick had decided to wait to find out the gender… but she suspected they might break their resolve on the matter before her due date.

It was now mid-summer, and Darla was far enough along that she could feel the baby kicking, little jabs that got harder by the day, but Rick could not yet perceive them, no matter how perfectly he positioned his hand on her belly.

Being able to tangibly feel the baby had made Darla far more curious about the baby’s sex, and she had a sense that Rick would join her on “Team Let’s Find Out” once he too could feel the little feet that seemed determined to pummel her at the exact moment that she almost fell asleep.

“Hey, baby, you ready to go?” Rick said, coming into the bedroom. Then he paused, putting a hand to his forehead. “Whoops,” he said exaggeratedly. “I mean baby and Darla.”

Darla pursed her lips at him, fighting a laugh. “That joke wasn’t funny the first time you said it and it isn’t funny the hundredth time either.”

“Aw, you know that’s not true,” he said, kissing her cheek. “Besides, I have to start practicing my dad jokes now. I don’t want Wyatt and Braden to be better than me just because they had a head start.”

“Yes, yes,” she said, giving in to the urge to chuckle. “I have heard your argument on the matter. I’m not ready though, since somebody keeps growing and now nothing fits… again.”

Her husband gave her a sympathetic squeeze. “Does it help if I say that I think you look beautiful no matter what you’re wearing… and no matter how well it fits?”

“A little, yeah,” she agreed, rifling through her closet. She had been blessed with an overabundance of hand-me-downs from both Monica and Marty’s pregnancies, although the timing meant that most of their third trimester clothes had been too warm for the summer in Whale Harbor. She pulled out a shirt she’d recently purchased with a little cry of triumph. It had been a little too big when she’d put it on in the store about a month ago, but now it was just right.

She looked in the mirror again, this time satisfied. “Okay, great. Now I’m ready.”

“Perfect,” Rick said, coming to rest a loving hand briefly on her bump. His gaze traveled up to meet his wife’s, and they shared a long, sweet kiss. “As much as I’d like to do this all day,” he murmured against her mouth as he pulled back ever so slightly, “if we don’t head out now, we’re going to be late.”

“Oh, shoot,” she said. “I just have to put on my shoes… not that that is a quick activity anymore.”

“Take your time,” he reassured her. “I’ll grab our stuff and meet you in the car, baby.” He paused and Darla rolled her eyes playfully, knowing what was coming. “Baby and Darla, I mean.”

“Okay, comedian, I’ll meet you down there,” she groused, even if she was privately tickled by Rick’s palpable excitement about his impending fatherhood.

After only minor difficulty, she managed to get on a pair of flat, comfy tennis shoes. Cute shoes, she’d quickly learned, were not made for pregnant people. She joined Rick in the car and they headed to the park where, so many months prior, her mother and Hudson had gotten engaged.

Today, however, the park was no quiet idyll. Instead, it hummed with life as the Whale Harbor Fire Department Summer Barbeque drew in most of the locals. The event was great fun and the ticket sales went to support one of the fire department’s charitable endeavors. This year, it was supporting a family in Blueberry Bay who had lost most of their belongings to an electrical fire.

Despite the seriousness of the cause, the event itself was anything but somber. A group of firefighters, all wearing WHFD t-shirts, manned the grill, producing a steady stream of chicken, hamburgers, and hot dogs. The smell was already making Darla’s stomach grumble. She was thrilled that she’d made it past the part of her pregnancy where she felt nauseous all the time and was now in the much more enjoyable part where she was hungry all the time.

“Oh, look! There they are,” Rick said, pointing. Darla followed his gesture to a picnic table at the back of the gathering. Her mother’s bright red hair made her easily visible.

They headed in that direction.

“Oh, hey! Darla and Rick are here!” Wyatt was the first to see them, as he was carrying baby Trevor, who was now at an age where he wanted to see everything but was still dependent on his parents to carry him around to see things. The little boy let out an excited coo as his aunt and uncle approached and waved his chubby arms from the baby carrier he was strapped into, narrowly missing whacking his father in the face.

“Watch it there, slugger. I need that face,” Wyatt told his son teasingly as he tickled the baby’s dangling legs, which made Trevor shriek happily.

“Hey, sweetie,” Lori said, standing to kiss her daughter’s cheek. “You look great!”

Darla returned her mother’s embrace. “You say that every time I see you.”

“It’s always true,” Lori countered. “Goodness, maternity wear has gotten so much better from my day. I basically just wore sacks the whole time.” She sounded still wounded by the memory, which, given how stylish she now preferred to dress, Darla supposed was fair.

“How’s the move going?” she asked. “All unpacked yet?” Lori and Hudson had moved into their new house a few weeks prior and were having a grand time decorating their new, shared home.

“Not quite,” Hudson replied, coming up behind his soon-to-be wife. Their wedding was scheduled for the end of summer and would be taking place on the expansive lawn of the house where they’d first reconnected. The buyer had stayed in touch and had been tickled by the idea that her new home had led to new love, and she had offered her yard, which overlooked the ocean, for the ceremony. Hudson and Lori had been thrilled to agree.

“We’ve reached an impasse over the upstairs bedroom,” Lori said with a look of fond exasperation. “Hudson here does not agree that my vision for how to stage it is correct.”

“That’s because we’re not staging it, woman! We’re living in it ,” Hudson countered. The two turned to one another to bicker merrily. Darla grinned. Lori and Hudson might have given up much of their rivalry, but they did still enjoy the occasional sparring match. And what better way to get them going than setting up a house?

Behind them, at the picnic table, Claire was bouncing baby Rhea on her knee gently. The movement caused the engagement ring on her left hand to sparkle in the sunlight. Darla saw Liam stealing glances at it, a little smile playing about his lips. He and Claire had both gotten engaged and moved in together earlier in the summer. Darla had offered to help with the move, but she’d found herself a mere witness as Liam’s fellow firefighters moved all his belongings with so much efficiency that Darla felt she’d barely gotten herself settled onto Claire’s couch before the whole thing was over.

“Do you think you’ll have another one?” Claire asked Charity, inclining her head toward Rhea.

Charity gave a dreamy smile. “We haven’t decided yet… but I think we’re leaning toward yes,” she admitted. “One of Addie’s classmates has a new baby sister, so now the two of them are obsessed with the idea that we might have a new baby too. They think it’s what happens as soon as you get married,” she added with a laugh.

“Nice to know you have their support,” Liam said jokingly.

“Yeah, we have to keep reminding them that they don’t actually get to decide,” Charity said. “But I do love that baby stage.” She bent her head toward Rhea and cooed. “And you’re just too cute, huh? You’re like a pro-baby campaign all on your own.”

“Darla! Come sit!”

Darla’s attention followed her sister’s voice. Marty and Monica had set up chairs under a nearby tree, looking as though they were getting a well-deserved break from mom duties. A third chair sat empty. Darla, whose back was starting to protest the size of her stomach, made a beeline for the spot. As soon as she sank into the foldable chair, however, she worried she’d made a mistake.

“Uh oh,” she said. “I might never be able to get out of this thing.”

Marty laughed and waved an arm. “We’re at a fire department picnic. I bet these guys have gotten people out of more precarious situations than yours.”

“Good point,” Darla said with a chuckle. “How are you two doing?”

“Oh, you know,” Monica said. “So tired I fall asleep every time I blink.” Despite her words, she looked completely thrilled with the way her life had turned out. “Rhea was fussy last night and decided that Dada was not allowed to soothe her. Mama only .”

“Aww, poor Braden,” Darla said, looking over where Braden was looking like he was waiting to scoop Rhea from Claire’s arms at any moment. “He looks like he needs some baby snuggles.”

“Yeah, poor Braden, getting to stay in bed while I walked seventy-four miles back and forth across my house,” Monica teased back.

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask about that,” Marty said. “Why am I not in better shape? I am constantly lifting this kid, who keeps getting heavier, and I walk, walk, walk every minute to get him to settle down. Why am I not basically an Olympian by now?”

They all laughed, then graciously accepted when one of the junior firefighters came by with a plate piled high with foods.

“Hello, ma’ams,” he said politely. “I know you’re friends with Hiller’s girlfriend, there, and he said you’ve got babies. My mama and sisters would never forgive me if they knew I made new moms or moms-to-be get out of their chairs.”

“You’re our new favorite,” Marty told him seriously. “Liam, you’re out. This guy is in,” she called out.

The young fireman blushed bright red. “Uh, he’s my senior officer, ma’am,” he stammered.

“At ease, Fairwin,” Liam joked, slinging an arm around the younger man’s shoulders as he approached. “They’re just teasing you. Don’t scare him off,” he told the women.

“At least not before he leaves the food,” Monica joked. The young man laughed too… but he did leave as soon as Liam dropped his arm.

Marty looked a little abashed. “Whoops, did I traumatize him?”

“Oh, that’s the whole point of this event, apparently,” Claire said, looping her arm through her fiancé’s. “The old guys tease the young guys and get their families in on it.”

“I’m one of the old guys now?” Liam asked, feigning horror.

The food was delicious and, as Darla was thrilled to note, plentiful. The barbeque sauce that coated the ribs was so perfect that she barely stopped herself from licking her fingers. She was just debating the merits of getting out of her low-seated chair to get seconds when Emily and Xavier arrived, hand-in-hand.

“Oh, hi!” Darla exclaimed, food momentarily forgotten. “I’m so glad you both made it.”

Over the past several months, she and Emily had become increasingly close, and Rick had pulled Xavier into the group of guys, as well. Darla had blushed to the roots of her hair when she’d seen that Emily had one of her paintings hanging, which had made Emily roar with laughter. It had been a blessing to see her new friend come gradually out of her shell. These days, Emily was vivacious and shared easily.

Now, as she swooped down to give Darla a hug of greeting, Darla saw another telltale sparkle. She halted her friend’s embrace and seized her hand, instead.

“Oh my gosh!” she said, looking at the ring. “Did you…?”

“Last night,” Xavier said with a grin, looking extremely proud of himself. “It might be a tiny bit soon, but when you know, you know. And I wasn’t about to let the best person I’ve ever met slip away from me, not without giving it my all.”

Emily practically glowed under the warm words. “I’m not going anyway, you goof,” she told him. “But yes, he totally surprised me! He came over, cooked dinner, and then got down on one knee.”

“We both cried,” Xavier admitted, not looking embarrassed by this in the least.

In fact, Emily looked a little misty-eyed even now as she pressed a quick kiss to Xavier’s cheek and then looked at Darla.

“I also wanted to ask you something,” she began, sounding slightly nervous. “And before I do, I just wanted to say that I know you’re busy and will be even busier soon with the baby, so it’s totally okay if you say no?—”

“Just ask!” Darla urged with a laugh.

Emily’s nervous expression didn’t abate. “Well, if you didn’t push me to open my heart, I never would have had the courage to go out and embrace how wonderful life can be. So with that in mind, I was wondering if you wanted to be my maid of honor?”

Now it was Darla’s turn to feel tears prick at her eyes. “Oh my gosh, of course I do!” she exclaimed. “Okay, help me up, help me up! I want to hug you.”

Both women laughed and cried a little as Emily helped Darla out of the chair, a little boost from Xavier helping the end of the process. Then, the women embraced.

“I’m so glad you’re my friend,” Darla said as she held on tight.

“Me too,” Emily said.

The celebration went on. Everyone cooed over the babies, exclaimed their excitement for Darla and Rick, and congratulated the two newly engaged couples… though the firefighters added a healthy dose of teasing to Liam’s congratulations, joking that he must have some kind of luck to convince a woman as beautiful and smart as Claire to marry him.

“I like these guys,” Hudson said, nodding in approval of the praise of his daughters.

As the afternoon wore on, Darla found herself snuggling her nephew, who dozed against her shoulder. She sat on a bench swing, the gentle rocking comfortable both for her and for Trevor.

Marty approached, looking at her son. “Need a reprieve?” she asked, whispering so as not to disturb him.

Darla shook her head. “No, I’m soaking it in. I’ll take company though, if you’re offering,” she said, nodding to the space beside her on the swing. Marty sat, the sisters swinging in silence for a few minutes. Then, Darla laughed suddenly.

“What?” Marty asked.

“I was just thinking how much I love this town,” Darla admitted, shaking her head ruefully. “And then I was thinking about how much I thought I never wanted to live here again, back when I was in New York.”

“I admit, I like this attitude better,” Marty said, squeezing her sister’s hand. “I like the part where I get to see you, like, three times a week instead of three times a year.”

“Me too,” Darla agreed. “I don’t even like to imagine how it would have felt not getting to see this little guy grow up with as much attention as I can when I live nearby,” she said, pressing a kiss to Trevor’s downy head.

“He loves his aunt Darla,” Marty said, looking fondly at her sister holding her son. “As do I. And I love that we’re getting to do this whole next stage together.”

Marty looked out at the park. Two of the firemen were teaching Lucas how to throw a football, while the young boy basked under their praise. Claire was putting intricate braids into Addie’s dark curls, while Charity and Dominic watched idly, their arms wrapped around one another.

Liam, Wyatt, and Rick were all chatting, while Braden and Xavier stood to one side, the two men making faces at Rhea to make her laugh. Emily was listening to Lori and Hudson, the amused look on her face suggesting that they were regaling her with their competing theories on interior design.

And behind all their friends, the rest of the town celebrated summer, laughter and cheers echoing across the big green space.

“Me too,” Darla said again, resting her head on her sister’s shoulder just for a minute. “It’s going to be a pretty great adventure.”

Thank you for reading the Saltwater Sunsets series! If you’re looking for more uplifting women’s fiction with a dash of sweet romance, you’ll love my cozy holiday novel, The Inn at Evergreen Hollow ! Get it HERE !