Miles for Love Series Box Set, page 51
“About Aleks? About Brent?” she feigns irritation.
“Nope and nope.” A pause as I affix a post-it to a dress. “But then I don’t have to decide anything about Brent, because he hasn’t said anything.”
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” She warns.
“That only works for illness, stupid.”
“I mean being prepared will save you a whole lot of heartache.” She lifts a brow.
“I’ll know what to do when it happens.”
“Whatever you say.”
When I get home, Brent is waiting for me. “Mommy! Mommy! Look! Something came for me in the mail!” Henry squeals.
The look on Brent’s face is unreadable. “The return address says Riga, Latvia. Some Aleks something.” He says. “I assume this is from your…err…friend?”
“Yes. He said he was sending Henry something.” I explain, smiling at Henry. “We will open it later, when Aleks calls, okay?”
“Wait, he calls?” Brent asks, and by the look on his face, he regrets asking the question the second it comes out of his mouth. “Never mind.” He says, lifting a hand.
“Of course he calls.” I say, responding in kind. “He’s spoken to Henry several times, as a matter of fact.”
“Fine.” He forces a smile. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to react like that. It was just…unexpected.”
“That’s okay.” I say fairly. Henry is tugging on my arm, trying to see the little box. It looks like a Christmas ornament box in the way it’s shaped. “Henry, honey, why don’t you go get the car that didn’t want to work for you earlier. Did you tell daddy about that?”
Henry’s attention is switched immediately. “Daddy, my car doesn’t work.” He whines.
“Okay, buddy, go get it and I’ll have a look at it.” Brent pats him on the shoulder and he makes a run for it. “Can I have a word with you for a minute?” Brent asks.
“Look, it’s no big deal, Brent.” I say, stifling him. “He just sent an autographed baseball to Henry. He knows how much he’s loving the little league stuff.”
Brent lifts a hand defensively. “It’s not about that, Mal. Come sit.”
“Okay.” Suddenly my stomach flips. Here it comes.
When we sit down, Brent chooses his words carefully. “Colonel Parker is retiring in the fall. They’ve offered me his job. I won’t be in combat, I’ll just be assigned his Battalion. It’s perfect for me, and I hadn’t considered that this would become an option. Evidently Parker’s health is failing him. He doesn’t have much time left.”
My face lights up. “Oh my gosh, that’s great!” I take a step back. “Well, not for Colonel Parker, but for you.”
Brent smiles. “It’s certainly unexpected. I didn’t think they’d ever offer a one-eyed soldier the job, but I guess I’ve paid my dues and shown them my salt.”
“So, what, do you have to go to the base? What?” I can’t hide the excitement in my voice.
His smile slips. “Mal, it’s in Afghanistan. I’m going back.”
Suddenly I feel like the biggest fool. Why did I think for a second that Brent was actually considering staying here with us? I’m such an idiot. “That’s fine, Brent. You weren’t supposed to come back.” I bite my lip, even though I’m dying to spew out a few curse words to him, and punch his good eye, too. “When do you leave?”
“The flight’s booked for the end of next week. That way I can get clearance from both doctors.”
“That makes sense.”
Henry comes down the stairs, but surprisingly, he’s not running. His car is in his hand, and when he reaches the bottom of the stairs, we notice he’s looking awfully pale. “What’s wrong buddy?” we both ask simultaneously. A second later, a fountain of vomit comes from him. We both run to him and lend a hand. Hours later, he’s still throwing up and burning up with fever. Around midnight, when the vomiting finally subsides, I check my phone. Aleks has tried to call several times. I immediately text him and bring him up to speed.
Brent leaves just after midnight, when Henry is finally asleep. I lay next to him in bed, checking his fever intermittently. It breaks at around two o’clock in the morning. When I wake up at eight o’clock in the morning, I hear Henry playing with his car downstairs. Evidently, Brent fixed the broken one while I was tending to Henry. He’s as happy and as normal as he ever was. And he looks completely unscathed. “Mommy? Can I have cereal?” he asks when he sees me.
I look like a bag of shit, if you’re wondering. “No, buddy. Let’s start with toast and see where that takes us, okay?”
“Okay.” He says.
An hour later, I hear the doorbell, and then the knob turns. At first, I expect it to be Brent. But it’s my mom. “Hey, mom. I wish you’d called first.” I say, trying not to sound like she isn’t welcome. “Henry’s been throwing up all night.” I gesture to him. “Of course, you’d never know it now, but, I don’t want you to get sick if he’s contagious.”
She waves, as though he got bitten by a mosquito. “It’ll be fine, dear. I’ve thrown up before.”
“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I say, just as my phone rings. Looking at the display, I see that it’s my doctor. “Great.” I mutter. “Here it comes. My yearly ‘oh my god get in here before you die’ call.”
“Your doctor?” mom smirks.
“Yeah,” I pick up.
“Mallorie?” Jane, the receptionist, greets.
“Hi, Jane.” I say knowingly. “Let me guess, my B12 is low and so is my iron?”
“Mallorie, you know that I’m not at liberty to tell you that, dear. You’ll have to come in and see Dr. Kleinburg. He has an opening this morning if you’d like to slip in before we open at ten.”
“Sure. I can make it.”
“Okay, we’ll see you then.”
Mom smirks again. “Do you want me to stay and watch Henry?”
“If you don’t mind.”
“Where’s Brent?”
“At home.”
“Really.” Her tone is sarcastic. “You mean he doesn’t stay over?”
“No, mother. He doesn’t sleep here. Although with Henry sick last night, he almost did.”
“Did anything else almost happen?”
I cut her some slack. “Mom, he’s going back to Afghanistan. End of story. We were never going to happen, and nothing has changed.”
She grits her teeth and speaks low enough that Henry can’t hear. “That son of a bitch.”
“Mom. Please. Brent and I were through when he left the first time.”
“Well, at least he listened to me, I’ll give him that.” She’s irritated.
“What, did you try using your famous reverse psychology on him?”
“I told him to let you go.”
“And he did, mom. Now you let it go.”
“I just can’t believe…I can’t believe that he put up such a charade this past month. I really thought that he’d turned a new leaf.”
“Leopards don’t change their spots, mom.” I say, grabbing my purse. “I think you told me that once.”
She draws in a deep breath. “Fine. You go. I’ll take care of Henry.”
“Thanks, mom. I’m picking up Larissa, too.”
She scoffs. “Well, it’s tradition now. Maybe this time you’ll actually listen to your doctor and take your supplements. God knows how the military hasn’t rejected you all these years with your iron and B12 so low.”
I kiss her cheek. “Thanks. I’ll see you later. Call me if Henry starts barfing again, or if his temperature goes berserk.”
“Darling, I’m a doctor, or at least a retired one, so I know what to do with a sick child. Heaven knows I even raised a couple myself.”
“How quickly I forget.” I kiss her other cheek, and instantly have a deja vous from Latvia. Mom sees the smile and smirks. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Lie.”
“Go to the doctor, you stubborn fool.” She elbows me. I kiss her cheek again and she slaps my bottom like she used to when I was a kid.
I call Larissa on the way over and she’s dressed and ready to go.
“Are you ready for your brow beating?” Larissa teases.
“Not you too.”
She looks at me. “Your mom too?”
“Who else?”
“Way to go, Karen.” She’s impressed.
“Shut up or you’re paying for lunch.”
“Alright, you win.”
Chapter 30
Mallorie
Larissa and I are reading all the bogus posters in the doctor’s office. “Why they can’t just tell you over the phone that you need to up your vitamins is beyond me.” she comments.
“Protocol.”
She gives me a look. “You and your army talk.”
“Why are you so grumpy?”
“I’m not.” She whines. “I’m hungry. I can’t wait to go eat after this.” She looks at me. “He’s probably going to tear a strip out of you, you know that, right? There are only so many times a doctor can advise you to do things.” She bites her lip. “A shot. I hope he makes you take B12 shots. That’ll fix you.” She winks.
“You’re worse than my mother.” I mutter to her as my name is called.
“You’re gonna have to have a nee…dle!” she repeats in a singsong voice under her breath as we walk the walk of shame down the hallway to the exam room.
“Would you shut up!” I chide, giggling, swatting her with my hand as we sit down in the room.
The doctor walks in seconds later and gives a perfunctory smile to both of us. “Ladies.” He says in greeting. He is tall and stalky, about fifty or sixty, judging by the wrinkles around his eyes, which are behind thick bifocals.
“Nee…dle.” Larissa whispers, and I kick her.
The doctor turns to her and smiles. “Am I missing something?”
“I’m just teasing her because this is the fifth time she’s had to come to see you after her physical, because she refuses to take her iron and B12. Make her take a shot.” Larissa advises, and I’m waiting for her to add, ‘and an enema for good measure’.
He grins, bringing his computer screen to life by punching in a few keystrokes. The chart pulls up and he clicks on a link that I can’t decipher from the angle that I’m sitting at. Studying it, he makes annoying clucking noises with his tongue. Larissa is sticking her tongue out at me and I kick her again. “I’ll leave you home next year if you don’t cut it out.” I warn.
He turns to me. “Well, you’ll definitely need vitamin supplements.”
“Needle.” Larissa hisses quickly.
“There are no needles for this type of supplement.” He says.
“Jeez, doc, what’s low now?”
“Well, you’re right, your B12 and iron are pretty low, and we will have to address that promptly,”
Larissa sticks her tongue out, but I ignore it.
“But you’ll also need folic acid right away.”
“Folic acid? That’s what you take when you’re…” I trail off, but my eyes are on him. He nods, knowing that I’ve been through this once before. Six years ago.
“When you’re what?” Larissa barks, like she’s pissed that she missed out on something.
The doctor looks at her directly, since it seems as though I’ve lost my ability to speak. “Pregnant.”
Larissa’s eyes widen. Her hands go to her mouth. I hear her gasp. “Oh my God.” She whispers.
The doctor rises. “I’ll give you a moment, Mallorie.”
When the doctor leaves, Mallorie takes her hands off her face and leans towards me. “Are you okay?” she asks, and the tone in her voice speaks volumes. She understands how huge this is.
Looking at my hands, I nod. “Yeah, yeah I’m okay.” I say, trying to convince myself.
Larissa clears her throat. When she speaks, it comes in stammers. “Um, not to be at all rogue or sassy, but…this is…Aleks’s, right?” her tone is level, and I understand why she’s asking.
“Yes.” I clear my throat. “I had my period before we left for Latvia, and before that, Brent and I hadn’t had sex in well over a month.”
She’s satisfied. “Okay.” She nods once. We’re silent for a few moments. “Did you have any idea?”
“No.” I shake my head. “No, not really. I’ve been tired, but nothing unusual. My periods aren’t always on time, and I haven’t been as diligent with tracking them for the past year.”
“How come?”
“I think you know as well as I do that Brent didn’t want any more kids. It’s easier not to pay attention to your cycle when you don’t really have a reason to. Brent was like a drill sergeant in bed with birth control.”
“And Aleks was more lax I’m assuming.” she points out.
I put my head in my hands. “Oh, Lar. We were such idiots!”
She says nothing but rubs my back. Ten seconds later, the doctor knocks and reappears. I lift my head. I’m not crying. I’m numb. He takes a seat in his chair and sighs. “I assume that this pregnancy wasn’t planned.”
I shake my head. I can’t look at him.
“When was your last period?”
I tell him and he records it on the screen. “So you’re about seven weeks then. I’ll schedule you for an ultrasound right away and that will determine your due date.” He writes a script for my prenatal vitamins. “Mallorie, in all seriousness, you must take these.”
Larissa takes the prescription from him. “I’ll make sure she does.”
“I’ll send the requisition to the front desk.” the doctor says, and we both rise. Larissa thanks him but I say nothing. I’m so beyond numb I couldn’t recite the alphabet if asked. She gets my requisition for me and we leave.
“Give me your keys.” She asks, gesturing towards me. “You’re in no condition to drive.”
I don’t even hesitate. Walking is a challenge right now. As we drive to the little mom and pop restaurant up the street, where we always go, she looks at me. “You’re keeping it, right?”
Swallowing, I can’t even think. But that is one thing I know for sure. “Yes, of course. I couldn’t even give it up when I was pregnant with Henry. And Brent and I barely knew each other. That was six years ago. This could be my last chance to have a baby.”
“How do you think Aleks is going to react?”
I stare out the window at nothing. “I have no idea.”
“Does he want kids?”
I remember many conversations about this. “Yes.”
“So, he should be happy about it then.” She comments, but she frames it like she’s confirming this.
My hands scrape across my face. “Like I said, Lar, I have no idea. He lives on the other side of the world.” I sigh. “This is such a mess.”
“When are you going to tell him?” she asks levelly.
“He calls me every day. I suppose the sooner the better.”
She looks at me with that bewitching expression that tells me she has something quirky to say. It’s just the expression I need to wipe the sheer look of terror off my face. “What?” I ask, allowing the ghost of a smile to form.
“Can I please be there when you tell him?” she places her hands together under her chin, as if praying.
I elbow her. “Get bent.”
***
Henry is feeling worlds better when I get home from the doctor. I can’t tell my mother yet. Hell, I can’t even tell Aleks yet. Mom is in a rush to go home since unexpected company has arrived, so she leaves promptly without incident. “Call me later if you need me, dear.” Mom says as she walks out the door. I look at Henry and wonder how he would feel about having a sibling. For me, I love all my brothers to death. We’ve always been close. Here’s hoping Henry will be the same. Looking at him, he yawns. “Tired, buddy?” I ask. He did have a very late night last night. It isn’t often that he needs a nap, but today is an exception.
“I’m tired, mommy. Can I sleep on the couch?”
“Sure. I’ll put a movie on for you, and you can hang out there for a while.” I say, finding the most boring children’s movie for him. Once he’s settled on the couch, I take it upon myself to go upstairs to my room and close the door. Now would be the perfect time to call Aleks and tell him the news. It would be nice to surprise him for a change, and initiate the call. I go onto video chat and tap his profile. It takes a few moments, but he answers. He’s sitting on his couch. It’s about eight o’clock at night there.
“Hi, malishka. What a nice surprise.” He says. The smile on his face ignites one on me.
“Hi, Aleks. I thought I’d call you for a change.”
“You have perfect timing. I was going to try you as well.” He makes a kissing noise and I reciprocate.
“You’re not working too hard on a Saturday, are you?” I ask.
“Not really. I worked this morning and then I practiced, but I have been relaxing since after dinner. I was at mama and papa’s earlier.”
“How are they doing?”
“Good. Vlad says to say hi to you.” Aleks smiles. “He was here a little while ago doing an inspection of your car.”
I chuckle. “Really? How is she doing?”
He cranes his neck. “She?”
“Well, don’t you think it’s a she? She is white and beautiful. Far too elegant to be a he.”
A soft chuckle. “I suppose you are right.” He clears his throat. “Where is Henry? Is he feeling better?”
“Yes.” I nod. “He bounced back very quickly. He’s just taking a nap on the couch.”
“Oh, did he get his present?”
“Yes, but I haven’t let him open it yet. I told him that he can open it on camera with you. I’d go wake him, but it’s better to let him sleep.”
“Oh, yes, yes, please…let him sleep. He can open it tomorrow.”
I nod. Aleks is looking at me with such love in his eyes it makes my heart swell. “I miss you, malishka.” He says in a soft voice. Exactly how he would say it if I was there with him.
“I miss you, too, Aleks.” My chin starts to quiver. I can’t help it. The tears start falling down my cheeks almost instantly.
“Oh, no, no, malishka.” He says, but I put my hand up before he starts making his funny faces again.
