The Photographer - Mary Carter (best romance ebooks .txt) 📗

across the room. “You have no fucking concern for anyone but yourself.”

I inhaled and exhaled slowly, in an effort to quiet my nervous system.

“I lost my phone!” Amelia said. “It slipped out of my purse, I suppose.” She examined her leather bag, the interior pockets, as if she was trying to figure out how the phone could possibly have fallen out. “And when I arrived, it was a sensitive moment. Lucia’s mother was there, and I needed to show immense respect. They take this very seriously. They’re religious people. It would have been a big mistake to make it all about my lost phone,” she said. “I needed to communicate the right narrative.”

I interjected. “There’s not another chance to make a first impression.”

“Exactly,” Amelia said.

Fritz pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose.

“Fritz,” Amelia said, “you need to meet Lucia and the family. We need to go together tomorrow.”

“I don’t think so.” He wiped saliva from the sides of his mouth.

“What?” Amelia said.

“Maybe you should invite her to come here,” I said, digging the nails from my right hand into the palm of my left hand. “She would meet Natalie. And she would see the warmth and love in your family.”

“Good idea.” Amelia brightened. Strands of her hair were taken over by static and sticking straight up in the air.

“When is her baby due?” Fritz asked.

“It’s important for us to say ‘the baby,’ not ‘her baby.’ We have to send the right energy into the universe.” Amelia motioned up and out with both hands. “Language is powerful.”

“When is the baby due?” he repeated.

“May tenth.”

A timer was set on a ticking bomb. I had two months in which to shift the outcome. Long, slow, deep breaths.

“I don’t think she should come here,” Fritz said. “No one’s committed to anything.”

“Well, sweetheart…” Amelia paused.

I could see her mental calculations. How much should she pretend to take Fritz’s opinion into consideration? “I haven’t had any kind of clarity about any of this—for over a year. And I feel good about Lucia. You’re going to feel that way too. And if you don’t, then we’ll just let her know that we changed our mind.”

Fritz’s gaze wandered toward me. Was he thinking of our earlier conversation? He picked up his cell phone, apparently to read a text.

“Fritz, please.” Amelia was making a concentrated effort to soften her voice and her face.

“I won’t pretend that I’ve agreed to this,” he said. “I don’t know shit about her, or the father.”

“As long as you have an open mind.” Amelia crossed the room to put her arms around Fritz, who barely reciprocated. “I’ll invite her to come here tomorrow. But I’ll make it clear that you and she need to meet so everyone is fully on board.”

She walked into the kitchen, ostensibly to make the phone call. Fritz followed, as did I. Now that Amelia was safely home, I didn’t have a good reason to stay. I had chills and a headache behind my eyes, as if my body were depleted of oxygen.

Amelia sat down at the small desk in the kitchen, next to the only landline in the house. She seemed mildly oblivious to the anger in Fritz’s eyes.

I heard the sound of the front door opening and slamming shut.

“Natalie doesn’t know that you were missing,” he whispered to Amelia.

“I wasn’t.”

Natalie’s footsteps pattered down the hall. She appeared in the kitchen with her cello. “Hi, Mom.”

Amelia stood and wrapped her arms tightly around Natalie and held her. “I love you so much.”

“You’re back from Texas?”

“Honey, we’ve found our baby. The baby girl who will be your little sister.”

Natalie’s face whitened. Her lips pressed together tightly. She looked down and fumbled with the latch on her cello case, which had come partially open. “Where is she?”

“The woman I met today is pregnant with a baby girl. And I just have a feeling this could be so wonderful for us.”

Natalie tried again to close the latch on her cello case. “Why doesn’t she want her baby?”

“It’s not that she doesn’t want her,” Amelia said. “It’s that she can’t provide for her. And she’s not married.”

“You don’t need to be married to have a baby,” Natalie said.

“It’s hard.”

When Natalie finally succeeded in closing the case, she leaned it against the wall and sat on the floor to pet Itzhak. “I feel sorry for the baby,” she said.

“I’m going to be her mother.”

Fritz raised his voice. “That is not decided.”

Amelia and Fritz made eye contact. Silent communication passed between them. Each of them had a different way they wanted their daughter to view the situation. They mistakenly thought that Natalie didn’t register the entire exchange.

“Natalie,” I said. “How about one game of Scrabble before I take off?”

Natalie perked up at the suggestion. “OK.”

Her parents looked relieved. I’d figured out a way to serve a purpose and a reason to stay in the house. Natalie and I settled in at the dining table.

Amelia called Lucia several times without reaching her. I could hear her leaving messages. Several minutes into our game of Scrabble, I heard Amelia talking to someone. I missed the first few words of her conversation.

“You’re working tomorrow?” Amelia said, the disappointment in her voice impossible to disguise. “She’s working tomorrow,” she said to Fritz. “Tonight? Yes. Yes. Eight is perfect.” Amelia hung up the phone. “She’s coming over after dinner!”

I was relieved by this turn of events—and pleased at my own skill in directing us toward the desired outcome.

Natalie turned to see what the commotion was. “Who’s coming?”

“Lucia is coming to meet us, honey.” Amelia approached and leaned over to encircle Natalie in her arms.

I stood up. “I should go now. This is a time for your immediate family.” It was a calculated risk, because I wanted to stay.

“We just started our game,” Natalie said.

“We’ll play another time.” I spoke firmly so none of them would question my determination.

Fritz interjected. “No, it would be great for you to stay. Please.” Fritz gave me a meaningful look. Was he