The Girl in the Comfortable Quiet Read Free Page B

an arm’s
length away.
    “Do you want me to call her back? Tell her not to
come,” I ask.
    “Fuck, Chrissie, you can’t do that. It would hurt
her feelings. She’s a nice woman. You don’t want to do that.”
    I nod, even though he can’t see me. I hear
someone in the background calling for Neil.
    “I’ve got to go, Chrissie. Talk to you tomorrow,
baby. Try to miss me a little.”
    I roll my eyes. “I miss you a lot,” I say
earnestly.
    “I miss you more.”
    “That’s only because you haven’t seen me in a
month,” I tease.
    “Stop it, Chrissie. You don’t know how much I
wish you were lying in bed beside me every night.”
    “That’s about the limit of what I can do,” I
point out mockingly. “The doctor says we can have sex all the way up to my due
date. That it’s even a good thing to start labor, but it just doesn’t seem
feasible to me.”
    I hear what sounds like a growl through the phone
and I grin. “Don’t remind me. I like to pretend in my mind I’m going to get laid
when I get home.”
    “You better not be getting laid on the road,” I
taunt.
    “Nope. You can count the new calluses on my hands,”
Neil says, humorously exaggerated and frustrated. “I’ve got to run, baby. Talk
to you soon.”
    Click. I put the phone back in the receiver and
return to Kaley’s bedroom. An hour later the wall is done and it doesn’t look
half bad, if I do say so myself. I tidy up the mess from the painting supplies,
take them to the garage and then return to give the room one last check.
    Crib. Rocker. Dresser. Changing table. Curtain. I
tick off each item one by one. Perfect. I’m done. There is everything a newborn
could possibly need here.
    I switch off the light, go to the kitchen, reach
into the fridge for a Hansen’s Natural Soda and then grab the Diet Coke. Screw
it. A little caffeine won’t hurt anything. Not now. Kaley is almost ready to be
here. The doctor said I could even have an occasional glass of wine.
    My gaze slowly roams the interior of my kitchen.
The oven clock says 9 p.m. I should probably sleep since tomorrow is going to
be a long day for me with the party and I tire so quickly these days.
    I grimace, thinking of the baby shower. It was
sweet that Neil’s mother, Michelle, wanted to have something for me, but it’s
not really me. A herd of women doing girl things and gushing over baby
stuff. Mostly the Stanton relatives and Michelle’s friends since I’m
pathetically light in the girlfriend department. In fact, I only added two
names to Michelle’s invitation list. Rene and—my nose crinkles even more—Jack.
    A herd of women and Jack. Crap, there is a
definite downside to having only one living relative and having it be male.
    No one to ask to attend the Lamaze classes with.
It seemed too weird to ask Jack to stand in for Neil, so I just read a book and
skipped the whole damn thing.
    No one to call and ask if this is normal when my
pregnancy body does something weird. And there have been a few moments of
bizarre pregnancy body lately.
    Baby showers. Jack surrounded by women in the Stantons’
backyard. Definite downside.
    And nights like tonight, when I’m feeling keyed
up and restless again, thinking too much, and could really use a girlfriend to
talk to, even if only on the phone. Someone to chase away my thoughts and the
whispering sadness that visits too often these days.
    I should probably go to sleep. Instead, I head
toward the door in the living room and the recording studio one floor below.

 
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    At
a crawl, I drive up and down the narrow downtown street where the Stantons
live, rapidly scanning the long line of cars for a vacant spot. Nothing. Nada.
Nil. Jeez, what’s going on here? Why are there so many cars? The Stantons are a
large family, but this can’t all be them.
    Dread moves through me. I hate large parties, and
the only thing worse than too many people, is being the focal point of too many
people. Michelle couldn’t have possibly