A Baby of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #1)(26)
Author: Brenda Novak

“Have you ever met Stephen Armstrong?” he asked.

“Who?”

“My uncle.”

“I told you I don’t know anything about your uncles. Where would I meet this Stephen? And what does he have to do with anything?”

“That’s what I want to know. And I’m wondering why Delaney didn’t tell me about the cancer.” He remembered her saying “Would you want to be a virgin at thirty?” That was the line that had finally hooked him. But she could’ve said “I have only a year to live” just as easily.

“Telling someone you’re dying is hardly an aphrodisiac,” Rebecca pointed out. “Besides, she didn’t want you to do it out of pity.”

She seemed to have an answer for everything. “So you’re not making this up,” he said.

“Why would I do that?”

Conner couldn’t imagine. He thought again of his uncles, but either he’d underestimated Rebecca’s lying ability or she really didn’t know them.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Conner torn between sadness and raging doubt. Then Rebecca started the car.

“Well, I have to get back or my hair’s gonna be fried.”

“That doesn’t make you sound as though you’re very worried about your friend,” he said.

“I’ve had longer to adjust.”

“I’m going to the library. I want to see her.”

She shook her head adamantly. “No, the doctors wouldn’t like that. Any kind of upset could take years off her life.”

“I thought she only had a year.”

“I mean months. It could take months off her life.”

“But I wouldn’t upset her.”

“There’s no reason to risk it,” she said. “What do you want with her, anyway?”

“Maybe I want a second date. Maybe I’m not a love-’em-and-leave-’em kind of guy.”

She rolled her eyes. “You are totally a love-’em-and-leave-’em kind of guy.”

Was it that obvious? “Okay, maybe I haven’t been Mr. Commitment in the past. But I’d really like to get to know Delaney. She was…different.”

“Why would you want to get to know someone who’s dying in a few months? What’s the point?”

Conner arched a brow at her. “What’s the point? How unfeeling is that?”

“It’s practical,” she said. “Practical is my nature.”

“And it’s my nature to support my friends through crises such as cancer.”

“Right.” She sounded even less persuaded by his excuses than he was by hers. “Well, Laney’s got lots of friends.” She turned onto the highway. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m sorry you probably had to drive quite a distance to find her. And I can’t believe she gave away enough details that you could find her,” she added under her breath. “But Boise wasn’t supposed to be a forever kind of thing, you know?”

“It’s not like I signed a no-contact clause,” he muttered.

“Stalking is sort of an unstated taboo.”

“I’m not stalking her!”

“Then, go back to wherever you live and leave her alone. She wants to spend her last days with the people she already loves, and you need to respect that.”

With an exaggerated sigh, Conner turned up his palms in surrender. “Okay, I’ll keep my distance,” he said. “I’m no stalker. But in a town this size, we’re bound to run into each other eventually.”

She lowered the volume on the tape deck. “Why?”

“Because I live here now.”

“Oh God,” she said, and Conner had to grab the wheel before she ran them off the road.

“WHY DO YOU keep staring at me?” Delaney asked, looking up from the pregnancy book she was reading in her recliner.

Rebecca returned her attention to the television program she’d been watching from the couch. “I’m not staring at you.”

Delaney went back to reading, but soon felt her friend’s gaze on her again. “What is it?” she asked impatiently.

“Nothing,” Rebecca said. “I was just wondering when you were going for your first doctor’s appointment.”

“Not for another ten days or so.”

“Oh. Right.” She nodded, then asked, “How have you been feeling?”

“Good.” Physically, anyway. “Why?”

Rebecca grimaced. “No reason. Just checking.”

Prickles swept up Delaney’s spine. Rebecca wasn’t acting like herself. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Something happen at work today?”

“What makes you think something happened at work? Did one of the other stylists call? Katie or someone?”

“I haven’t heard from anyone. You just seem…I don’t know…edgy.”

“If I’m edgy it’s only because I haven’t had a cigarette since I got home.” Rebecca flipped off the television, scooped her pack of Camels and her lighter off the coffee table and headed for the back porch, where she always did her smoking in deference to Delaney and the owner of the house, who’d asked her not to smoke inside. Now that Delaney was pregnant, she was doubly cautious about not smoking in her presence.

But Delaney doubted that one trip outside with Rebecca would hurt the baby. She grabbed their parkas from the pegs that lined the small, old-fashioned mudroom and followed her onto the porch. “Did you and Buddy have a fight?” she pressed.

“No.” Rebecca slipped into the coat Delaney handed her and shook a cigarette out of her pack.

“So what’s wrong?”

Her lighter momentarily illuminated her face, which bore a rather pensive expression. “What do you know about Clive Armstrong’s grandson?” she asked, sitting on the top step of the porch and holding her cigarette away from Delaney.

“Nothing, really. Have you met him?” Delaney donned her coat, then stared out over the leafless trees, buried stumps and snow-covered fence the moonlight revealed in their small backyard. Spring was going to be late this year. The weather was still snowy and cold, although it was nearing the end of March.

Rebecca paused. “No,” she said at last.

Delaney shoved her hands in her pockets for warmth. “Then, why did you bring him up?”

Rebecca’s cigarette glowed eerily in the darkness. “You sent him that pie. I was just wondering if he ever responded.”