“Wow, I just realized you’re going to be a DeLaura and I’m not,” Angie Harper said.
“Maybe.” Melanie Cooper opened the door for her friend as they exited their co-owned bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, and walked to Mel’s car.
Well, Mel walked, Angie waddled. At thirty-two weeks pregnant and being slight in stature, Angie carried her baby high and tight, looking like she’d strapped a basketball to her midsection.
“You’re not going to take the DeLaura family name?” Angie asked. She sounded shocked. Mel was marrying Angie’s older brother Joe DeLaura, who was smack in the middle of her seven older brothers.
“I haven’t decided,” Mel said. “We’re a few weeks out yet, so I have time.”
“Not if the brothers find out,” Angie said. “You know they’ll have something to say about it. What about Joe, what does he think?”
“He said I can do whatever I want,” Mel said.
“Good,” Angie said.
“What made you decide to take Tate’s name?” Mel asked. She was genuinely curious as to why her normally independent minded friend had gone traditional on the name thing.
Angie hugged her belly. “I surprised myself with that one, too, but I wanted to become part of something new. Also, Tate offered to become a DeLaura so I felt like if it wasn’t a big deal for him, it didn’t need to be one for me. Also, there are enough DeLauras already, besides, we’ve agreed that all of our kids will have DeLaura as a middle name, so that was enough for me.”
“I imagine Joe and I will come up with something similar,” Mel said. She opened the passenger side door so Angie could slide into the front seat. “Maybe we—”
“Haven’t you had that baby yet, Harper?”
Uh oh. Mel glanced up and saw Olivia Puckett bearing down on them with her usual no nonsense stride. A rival bakery owner, Olivia, always wore a blue chef’s coat and contained her curly gray hair in an unruly topknot. She was not known for her tact or her diplomacy and when she and Angie bumped into each other it was usually with the force of two similarly charged magnets. They repelled each other.
“Not yet,” Angie replied. She smiled at Olivia. “And how are you today?”
Olivia stumbled. She blinked. She frowned. “You look like you’re having twins.”
Mel hissed a breath. Didn’t Olivia know not to comment on a pregnant woman’s belly? This was going to get ugly. She glanced around the street, looking for help. There was no one. It was still early in the day for any tourists to be roaming Old Town Scottsdale. She reached for the phone in her purse. Marty Zelaznik, their main employee, was actually dating Olivia and Mel figured it was his responsibility to rein her in. Not that Mel was afraid of Olivia. She glanced at the other woman’s muscled forearms. Okay, she was a little afraid.
“Not twins,” Angie said. She continued smiling and shrugged. “Just a big, bouncing healthy baby.”
Mel gave her side eye. Was Angie okay? Had she spiked a fever? Usually, about now, the insults would be volleying back and forth between these women like a badminton birdie. Mel glanced at her friend’s eyes. Were her pupils dilated?
Olivia’s mouth twisted up as tight as her topknot. “Well, you should be grateful. Elephants gestate for twenty-three months.”
“Twenty-two months, actually,” Angie said. Then she leaned in and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “You wouldn’t believe the number of people who have shared that factoid with me.”
“Yeah, well…” Olivia looked flummoxed. “It’s almost two years.”
“Crazy, right?” Angie shook her head in wonder.
Olivia turned to Mel. “What’s wrong with her?”
Mel shrugged. “Search me.”
Angie reached over and patted Olivia’s arm. “Have I ever told you how flattering that shade of blue is on you? You’re really very pretty, you know.”
Olivia started to back away. She glanced at Mel with wide eyes. “You should take her to the emergency room.”
Then she hurried down the sidewalk as if she was afraid that Angie’s sudden bout of niceness might be contagious. As soon as she was out of earshot, Mel burst out laughing. She turned to Angie and asked, “Is that your new way to drive her bananas?”
Angie looked puzzled. “I have no idea what you mean. I adore Olivia.”
With that, she slid into the passenger seat, moving her legs so that Mel could shut the door after her. They were on their way to visit their former employee and friend Oscar Ruiz, known to all as Oz, at the Sun Dial Resort where he was the master pastry chef. Mel and Joe were having their small wedding reception there, and Oz was baking the cupcakes, naturally, but now she wondered if perhaps Olivia wasn’t right. Maybe she should take Angie to see her obstetrician on the way. Of all the symptoms she’d read about pregnancy, a personality transplant wasn’t one of them.
Mel circled the car and got into the driver’s seat. She glanced at Angie and said, “Feeling dehydrated at all?”
“No, I had a huge glass of water before we left the bakery.”
“And you’ve been taking your vitamins.”
“Faithfully.”
“Huh.”
Angie glanced at her as Mel started the car and left her parking spot to merge onto the street.
“What?” Angie asked.
“Nothing.”
“Nope, I know you like I know my own eyebrows,” Angie said. “That “huh” wasn’t nothing.”
“I’m just surprised, that’s all,” Mel said.
“Surprised by what?”
“Your reaction to Olivia,” Mel said. “You know she was trying to insult you.”
Angie shrugged. She hugged her belly and said, “Whatever. I don’t have time for that. Besides, I don’t want to injure the baby’s psyche by thinking bad thoughts.”
“Is that possible?” Mel asked. This was a level of motherhood she wasn’t sure she could handle.
“I don’t want to take any chances,” Angie said. “You know, some people say I have a temper.”
“Really?” Mel asked. She wondered if she managed to feign surprise successfully. “You don’t say.”
“I know, shocked me, too,” Angie said. “But I’ve read every pregnancy book out there and I just don’t want to goof this up, so I’ve been doing a lot of meditation over the passed few weeks and really trying to find my mama Zen.”
Mel paused at a red light and turned to look at her friend. Angie had her long dark curls held in a band at the nape of her neck. Her maternity dress was a loosely fitting swing dress in a pretty shade of pink. She looked about as angelic as Mel had ever seen her. She reached across the console and squeezed Angie’s hand.
“That is one lucky baby to have you for a mom,” she said.
In an instant Angie’s eyes filled with tears and she gulped. “You think so? I just want to be the best mom ever.”
“You’ve got this,” Mel said. “No doubt.”
She handed Angie a tissue from the pack in the glove box and Angie blew her nose. It sounded like someone stepped on a goose. Mel turned her head to hide her smile. At least, that hadn’t changed.
“All right, enough sentiment,” Angie said. She waved her tissue at the window. “Aren’t there cupcakes waiting for us? Onward!”
Relieved Mel put the Mini Cooper in gear and headed for the resort.
