Falling into a Second Chance by Alie Garnett

Chapter Seven

The house was packed,and yet still more people continued to arrive. When Sera had walked her through the house months before, Agatha had thought that it was roomy and spacious. Not anymore. Now it was crowded and loud. It didn’t help that Harrison and Jonas were fighting with each other over something. She didn’t even care what it was about; they were just loud.

“If you’re just going to argue, go out on the deck,” Harper told the pair from the kitchen in frustration. And she wasn’t even married to one of them.

Sera, with a baby in her arms, pushed her husband outside. “So you don’t wake the babies.” Lucy and Leo had twin boys who were a couple months old, and if Sera was in a room with them, she was carrying one. Agatha didn’t know what was going to happen when she had her own baby in a month.

“I’ll join them,” Kaine said after kissing his wife on the cheek as he walked by. Harper even stopped for a moment and let him do it. Then she turned her attention back to cutting buns, busy as ever.

“How are Louisa and Frankie?” Lucy asked Buzz as she mixed a dip.

Louisa and Frankie were not only Buzz’s husband, Jonas’s, half-sisters, but also half-sisters to the Lovely sisters. Buzz had found that out when she had accidentally-on-purpose worked a week for the woman who had given them life. In that time, she had fallen for Jonas and met and befriended the sisters. Though so far, they were only in contact with Buzz and Jonas.

“Good, in Chicago still. We had hoped that Louisa would start school here, but Frankie got a job there, so they’re staying put. I like that they’re together, but I wish they were here. Jonas found them a great apartment, so they at least have that. I wish I had that apartment when I was single,” Buzz said from the couch as she tried to adjust the sleeping baby in her arms around her own protruding stomach. She had over a month left on her pregnancy, but Buzz Raiden was done with it. So far, she had not taken to pregnancy, and it seemed holding babies was now defeating her as well.

She set Luke down on the couch between herself and Agatha, not wanting to give him over to anyone but unable to hold him.

“Tell them hi next time, Buzz,” Sera said, sitting down with Owen still in her arms, her belly not getting in her way. Fifteen years ago, she had chosen to raise five girls that she didn’t have to, and now she was willing to take on more by trying to take Louisa and Frankie under her wing. Though the women, both over twenty, weren’t looking for a new mom, Sera still tried.

Agatha looked at the bald baby beside her. He looked just like his twin brother. They were a few months old, and their mother was already tossing them aside to make some fancy meal for Violet’s birthday. Not that her sister didn’t love the babies, but cooking was her first love.

“Sit down, Lucy, you just had babies. What can I do?” Agatha pushed herself away from the couch and away from the babies.

“No, Ag. It is mostly ready,” Harper answered for her sister and business partner. For a couple of months now, she had been trying to let Lucy do more, but talking didn’t seem to be one of those things today.

Ignoring her oldest sister, Agatha grabbed Lucy’s hand and pulled her from the kitchen. “Stop, Lucy. Sit down.”

Sighing, Lucy let Agatha pull her away from her favorite room. Sitting on the couch where Agatha had been, Lucy touched her son’s head and then picked him up and hugged him to her.

Smiling at the scene, Agatha pushed from her mind how close Lucy had come to putting the boys up for adoption. At the time, she thought that she couldn’t be a good mom and would put them in danger. It had taken the entire family and her now-husband to talk her down from that ledge. Agatha couldn’t see her as anything but a mommy now.

Lucy looked up from her baby and said, “So Sera, only a month to go.”

“I had forgotten how bad the last month was,” Sera replied, but she didn’t sound like it was bad. Sera was always upbeat. “I can’t believe it’s a boy this time!”

“We’re waiting to find out,” Buzz said, looking up. The redhead was also due in a little over a month, and Agatha hoped that she would have a redhead. Even though she had gotten C’s in science, she knew that thanks to her dark-haired husband, that might not happen.

“So, Harper, when are you and Kaine going to start trying to have kids?” Sera asked.

“They haven’t been married that long, Sera,” Buzz answered for her even though the couple had been married for months longer than Buzz herself.

“Why do pregnant people always want more people to get pregnant?” Agatha asked. Her eyes strayed to the kitchen where Harper was busily ignoring the conversation. Lately when asked, Harper didn’t have the snarky comments about babies she usually did.

“Because we love to share the misery,” Buzz answered with a laugh.

“It’s 6 p.m. I better get the meal going so Violet won’t say I wrecked her birthday,” Harper said from the kitchen.

Buzz shimmied off the couch. “I'll help.” Buzz shared Agatha’s shortness, which made pregnancy miserable for her baby sister.

“Me too.” Lucy jumped up and handed the baby she was holding to Agatha.

With the baby now in her arms, Agatha sat down where Buzz had been and pulled her legs under her and looked at the baby. He was so different than how Violet and Emma had been. They had hair when they were born.

Sera changed seats to sit next to her, which made Agatha smile. “It’s different than the girls, right?”

“Different, so much could’ve been different.” Sera’s voice was shaky.

Agatha turned to her and saw tears in her eyes. Quietly she hissed, “Don’t.”

“Sorry, just too many hormones. Nine years today, Ag.” Sera let the tears fall.

“Stop it, Mom. It happened for a reason. It turned out for the best.” Agatha put her arm around her mom. It was odd that she was comforting the other woman today.

“But it still hurts, Ag. I know you still think about it. Wonder what could have been,” Sera said.

“Not every day, not anymore,” Agatha admitted and stood up before she started crying too.

Carrying the baby into the kitchen, she handed him over to Maby, who had just arrived. As the group chatted, she excused herself to the bathroom on the first floor. Closing the door behind her, she let the tears fall, not for the first time that day.

Today, she had to see Chris today of all days: Violet’s ninth birthday. He showed up on her front step nine years too late. What would he have found if he had been there nine years earlier, when she had needed him?

The evening Violet had been born, Sera and Agatha had already been at the hospital all day. Since 2 a.m. actually, because that was the time Agatha had woken up to bad cramps. Sera had rushed her to the hospital. She had no idea what was happening or why Agatha was in pain. By midmorning, Agatha had lost the baby she had been carrying for four months, Chris’s baby. A baby she had been hiding from her family, not knowing how to tell anyone about. All the excitement caused Sera to go into labor, and by evening, Violet had been born. Violet was only two weeks early, and Sera’s delivery had been quick and had made Agatha’s pain of losing her own baby lighter.

Sera had let Agatha name the tiny girl Violet because Agatha had been in a deep purple mood that evening. Hours before, she had named her lost baby Jet, to match her own black mood. Her sisters had never known about her baby, and Sera had promised not to tell. So far, she had kept that promise. There were just some things she didn’t want to share with everyone.

In the weeks following the births, the two had become closer than before. Since only Buzz was living at home still, it had been easy not to tell everyone about Agatha’s issues. Sera just told everyone she was sick. No details were given, and nobody asked for more.

With them both at home recovering, they bonded over each’s situation and the baby they both could love. Sera had told her who the father was and that he was also Emma’s father. Agatha had told her some of her obsession with Christopher, but not all. It had still been too painful then.

What she would have done with her own child all these years, Agatha didn’t know. She knew her sisters would have loved him and helped with his care, and Agatha wouldn’t have been able to let her life slide for years without any ambition or motivation. But deep down, she knew she wasn’t mom material. Sure, she was good with kids and loved them, but being a mom was different. She had always felt she was more like her own mother, who had walked away from her own children before Agatha was even in school.

She had told Sera she didn’t think of the baby everyday anymore, and she didn’t. But some days, she could almost see him. It had been a boy; even if the doctor wouldn’t say, Agatha knew. Today was one of those days she had seen him walking with Violet from the bus. Jet. Blond hair and brown eyes. He was not bubbly and talkative but let Violet talk for him. He always had.

Washing her face with cold water, she pushed the memory of what could have been down deep and went out to celebrate her baby sister’s birthday. It was a special day for her. Agatha had always made sure that there was no sadness on this day.

By the time she made it out of the bathroom, people had started to eat. Nobody noticed when she came into the room, which she was happy for because she didn’t know how long she had been gone.

“Nice shirt, Agatha,” Lucy said, rolling her eyes.

Agatha loved her shirt. It was her go-to birthday shirt. Years ago, Lucy had started a screen-printing business. It had been short-lived but had supplied the family with shirts until the end of time because they had kept the rejects. Habby B=dya should have read Happy B-day, and the large quantity of mistakes should have been a sign to everyone that something was wrong with the twin, but at the time, they had laughed it off and teased Lucy about it. But last year, Cliff had realized that she had undiagnosed dyslexia, and she wasn’t as ditzy as she let everyone believe.

“I love this one,” Agatha argued. “And the one that says ‘Pins.’ And, of course, ‘Grand Cannon,’ but we all have that one.”

“We should all go to the Grand Canyon and wear our Grand Cannon shirts,” Maby said with a laugh as she dished up a salad.

“How many ‘Cuymun Islunb’s’ do we have? I like that one.” Sera chuckled.

“Not enough for a vacation,” Lucy grumbled. Talk about the shirts always made Lucy self-conscious because they reminded her of her disability.

“We are not making fun of you, Lucy. I love the shirts. People stop and ask where I got my shirt. They’re funny,” Maby reassured her twin.

“I think if you still have the stuff, you should make all the girls a shirt that says their long name, the entire thing,” Leo said, kissing a frowning Lucy on the neck.

“Oh, now you’re bringing out the long name,” Maby replied in her teacher voice.

Leo laughed. “Yes, I am. And I would proudly wear Lucy Maude’s name on my chest.”

Each of the five older sisters had a hideously long name. Most had been named after authors, including Agatha Christie Lovely, Nelle Harper Lee Lovely, Lucy Maud Montgomery Lovely, and Beatrix Potter Lovely, known as Buzz. Only Mabel Lucie Attwell Lovely had been named for an illustrator, but Buzz’s namesake technically was one too.

So, using someone’s long name meant business in this house. Maby and Lucy had the longest, and when they came out, that meant the twins were really fighting.

“How about just the portrait of the person we’re named after? Then nobody would really know who they were,” Agatha suggested, her mood brightening.

“We should!” Lucy nodded enthusiastically.

“We shouldn’t,” Buzz said, stabbing at her salad.

“Really, Buzz? Agatha is on board but not you?” Maby said, and all eyes turned to the redhead.

“I’m not feeling up for anything right now.” Buzz was not Buzz when she was miserably pregnant.

“Maybe next summer,” Maby replied. Then added, “Has anyone seen the star of Harry Truman High School?”

“Who?” Lucy asked.

“Christopher Lowell. He’s back and bought a place on this street. Don’t know which one exactly.” Where Maby got her information, Agatha had no idea.

“Are you still hung up on him? Aren’t you married?” Harper said.

“I am not hung up on him; I just hear things,” she said in defense.

Agatha chuckled at her sister. She had always wanted to be one of the popular kids in high school, making a point of knowing what was happening at school.

“Who is this guy trying to steal my woman?” Cliff said, pulling his wife closer to him.

“Football star. You can’t compete with him, Cliff,” Lucy answered, teasing her friend. They had been best friends before Cliff fell for Maby.

“I’ll fight him to the death,” Cliff told the room and pretended to bite Maby on the neck? Either way, it made her giggle.

Lucy laughed. “He would have no idea why you’re poking him with your weak little arms, Cliff. He had no idea who Maby was in high school. We didn’t run in the same circles.”

“I think he bought Hilda’s house. It’s been for sale for a while,” Sera said, moving the conversation away from Cliff’s wife.

Around a mouthful of BBQ, Violet said, “We met the new neighbor after school. He was a big, tall guy.”

“Is it him, Agatha?” Sera asked. Sera was the only one who knew anything about her infatuation with Chris.

“I think so, but it’s hard to tell. He’s changed since I last saw him.” Agatha shrugged.

“He looked pretty good at that press thing we catered a few years ago. Were you there, Agatha?” Lucy asked.

“I don’t remember,” Agatha lied.

Every moment had been seared into her memory.

“Then you must not have been there, wow,” Buzz said and was rewarded by Jonas sliding his hand over her mouth and whispering in her ear, making her blush.

“That’s not really my type anyway. I’m not into sports guys.” Agatha grabbed a plate and started to fill it since everyone else had already been through the line.

“I have a friend I think you would like,” Jonas said from the table.

“He is pretty cute,” Buzz added and pulled her head from her husband’s hand before he could cover her mouth.

“I know a guy at the college who would love you,” Maby said, getting into the matching game.

“Me?” Agatha questioned, leaning against the wall to eat since the table was packed. “I don’t need to be loved.”

“And then she makes me cry,” Sera said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Harrison rushed to put an arm around his wife and pointed his fork at Agatha. “Tell your mother you need love, Agatha. You made her cry.”

“Sorry, Mom. Didn’t think it would make you cry,” Agatha said, regretting saying the words out loud, even if she believed them completely.

“It’s just the day, the hormones,” Sera said, and Agatha stiffened at her words. But by then, conversation had started around the table again, mostly about Agatha and her dating life, filling in the new men in the family to what life was like in a house full of adult women. Agatha made sure that they each knew that their new loves were not as innocent as they pretended to be.

One story led to another, and before long, Agatha wasn’t even being mentioned anymore. Looking around the table, she was happy for each of her sisters and their mother; they all deserved to be as happy as they were. Not her, though. She made her own happiness, and soon she would own her house and finish her latest book. They might have needed a man to be happy, but not her.