Falling into a Second Chance by Alie Garnett
Chapter Thirty-Five
Saturday morning dawnedlike any other, except they had gathered at Harper’s, they were not eating leftovers, and nobody was in their pajamas. Oh, and the fact that there were three husbands in the living room.
Sadly, all combined, the breakfast felt completely different and completely off. Today there were four babies present, three of which were in the living room; only Poppy was welcome in the kitchen. Agatha assumed it was because she was a girl and not because they were treating Agatha differently because her baby’s father was not there.
Tearing a muffin apart and putting it on the highchair for Poppy, Agatha let the conversation flow around her. Her daughter was trying to grab the chunks from her as fast as she could put them down, stopping only when her cheeks were packed full. Agatha put the muffin down and proceeded to pull muffin chunks from her mouth. Her kid had a lot of her daddy in her.
“I’ve got you down for Saturday night, Agatha. We need you,” Lucy said from the table.
“I can’t; I have a kid.” Agatha pointed out. Maybe they would even be home by then. Chrisless, but at least home. His house had to be done soon.
“Buzz will watch her. She needs the practice and she is useless to us. You, on the other hand, we need.” Lucy tried to ignore her own son crying in the living room with his father but was failing.
“Do you realize how many times I worked for you two when I was pregnant? Not once did I complain. Not once,” Agatha argued.
“Bull! You were constantly complaining. You complained at every event, pregnant or not. Actually, you probably complained less when you were pregnant. I’m putting you on the schedule,” Harper said.
“I don’t want to.”
“Too bad, you’re needed. Wear something pretty.” Harper smirked as they didn’t have a dress code for their employees.
“I will not. And I want to be the first to leave,” Agatha demanded, knowing there was no way out of this.
“I will put you down for clean-up,” Lucy said with a grin until her baby cried again, which tore her attention away from the kitchen.
“Where’s the event at?”
“The J,” Harper answered for the distracted Lucy.
“Swanky,” Agatha said, getting enough out of Poppy’s cheeks for her baby to start filling them again. One of Harper’s goals had been to become the in-house caterer at The J, but they had found it was too much work when they had finally gotten the contract. Now she and Lucy could work there anytime they wanted to. It was a high-end establishment.
“Oh, it is,” Lucy agreed as she went to check on her baby.
“So, are husbands now invited if you have a baby, forcing us who don’t have a baby to find one so we can bring our husbands?” Mabel asked.
Sera patted her hand. “Yes, honey. Baby first, and then you can bring Cliff.”
“Totally unfair,” Mabel grumbled.
“I agree with. Maby. It is unfair,” Harper stated. Her man wouldn’t be there if they weren’t eating at her house.
“Pop out a spawn, and you too can bring your husband,” Buzz said, patting her huge belly.
“Not ready yet. Cliff is enough of a kid.” Mabel laughed.
“I’m just not ready yet, period. I like sex and sleep too much,” Harper stated nonchalantly, then looked at her mom and blushed.
Agatha loved that every once in a while, it snuck up on her sister that she was married to Sera’s twin brother.
“Sex is how you get kids, Harper, so you better watch out,” Sera replied, not noticing Harper’s reaction to the words.
Lucy brought in the sad baby boy, and Agatha watched her sit back down. As she arranged the baby on her lap, Lucy nodded in agreement. He was still in a gray pajama set and looked very upset with the crowd. Agatha couldn’t tell Lucy’s twins apart yet. In time she would, but until then, she was just calling them both baby. Not Luke and Owen.
“Not if you are careful.” Maby took her nephew’s hand in hers and shook it.
“I think there are a few ‘carefuls’ that went awry in this room,” Sera answered with a grin.
“Harsh, Mom,” Agatha said, once again pulling muffin from Poppy’s mouth.
“I was thinking more about me.” Sera shrugged and ran a hand over Violet’s hair.
“I think that means me too,” Emma suddenly said from the corner of the room where she had been hiding since getting there. Standing up in anger, she left for the safety of the living room.
“My first mistakes are always my best mistakes,” Sera called after her oldest.
Harper leaned back in her chair and asked, “Violet, do you have an invisible friend?”
The little girl looked up at her oldest sister and said, “Not anymore.”
“Did Mom chase him away?” Lucy asked once she had started to nurse the baby under a cover.
Violet looked from Harper to Lucy and then to her mom. “Yes.”
Two sets of eyes turned on Agatha, who in turn, glared back at them. Neither said anything, but both wanted to. Ignoring them, she let herself be consumed by taking care of her baby, letting herself enjoy the task she had never thought she would get to do, but one she found herself enjoying more every day.
“Why haven’t you ever said anything about her?” Mabel asked in interest.
“Because they are my friend!” Violet stated and crossed her arms in anger at her sister.
“Sorry for asking.” Mabel let it drop.
Agatha wondered what all the talk about invisible friends was about. It wasn’t like Violet had ever told her about one, but she wasn’t quizzing the kid about it. With Violet, you had let her tell you when she wanted to tell. It wasn’t like she didn’t talk about almost everything all the time.
Within an hour, Sera and Harrison had taken their now three kids home, and Lucy had bundled up her two. Mabel and Buzz had left quickly because they still could with no kids in the world yet.
Harper was cleaning the kitchen as Agatha wiped down the highchair that Harper had purchased for Poppy and all the other babies who would need it in the family. Finding the broom, she started sweeping up the crumbs from the floor. Kaine had taken Poppy to show her the toy selection in the living room.
“You don’t have to sweep, Ag. Kaine can do that later.” Harper giggled, Kaine paid people to do his sweeping. And Harper was in charge of them as mistress of the house, which was what she called herself.
“Poppy made the mess, so I can clean it for you,” Agatha argued.
“Go ahead then, clean it all.” Harper dropped her dishrag and went and sat at the still messy table.
“I will since you’re now a lazy socialite,” Agatha teased.
“Can I ask you a serious question and not have you just answer with ‘fuck off’?” Harper asked as she crossed her arms.
“I really like to say fuck off.” Agatha grinned, stopping her sweeping.
“You do. But seriously, can I?” Harper never talked like this. Agatha figured she must want to talk about Chris. She knew her sisters had spoken to him.
Leaning the broom against the counter, Agatha sat down near her sister. “Go ahead.”
From out of nowhere, Harper asked, “Did you miscarry a baby the day Violet was born?”
She knew her face went pale. She could hear the blood rushing away from her body. Swallowing, she had no answer for the question—none that she wanted her sister to know about. It had been nine years and had never come up. There was no reason for Harper to bring it up now. How would Harper even have found out about it?
She tried to dodge. “Why do you ask?”
“I heard something about it.”
“From who?” Agatha asked.
“Violet,” Harper admitted.
Agatha let out her breath. Violet didn’t know what had happened. Violet was just a kid, barely born as it had unfolded.
“She’s just a kid making stuff up,” Agatha assured her sister.
“She said her invisible friend is your lost baby,” Harper pressed, eyes glued to her face.
If there had been any blood left in her body, it was gone now, replaced by ice and cold. It took everything in her to not shake at the chill.
“Kids,” she said lamely.
“She said he was born the same day she was and that his name is Jet,” Harper said very slowly, letting each word sink in.
The shaking was uncontrollable. Her sister had to see it, but she didn’t comment. She just took Agatha’s hand in hers and held it tight. Agatha knew that Harper knew the answer was yes, but Agatha couldn’t say the words.
“I am not going to ask why you didn’t tell anyone, because you keep a lot inside. But I want you to let someone in there. You can’t do it all by yourself. I think we know now that if you hadn’t gotten pregnant with Poppy, you might have died by now. You needed to have her, and that changed everything for you. When she was gone, you didn’t go back to being out-of-control Agatha. You just stayed the Agatha we love. Maybe you and Chris were meant to be apart for a while. He had to do the football thing, fail, and then find out he was more than a football player. And you needed to find yourself with your art.”
Harper didn’t let go of her hand, but Agatha couldn’t bring herself to look up. Her words were settling in Agatha’s mind. Was she right that they were different people than they were eighteen months before or even in high school? Was it unfair of her to judge him on his actions from back then and not by who he had been when they were together now?
“And then when Poppy was conceived, neither of you were ready for that. But now you are. You two are so ready to do this together, but the past is getting in the way. He is lost without you, and you are lost without him.” Harper let their hands go and pushed her chair back, leaving her little sister alone to think.
Was her sister right? That they hadn’t been ready to be together, that they didn’t know what they wanted, much less who they wanted to be? Each of them had a road to walk down before they could meet up again and make it work.
