Butterfly Lane (20 page)

Chapter Thirty-Six

J
ohn’s anger was still simmering close to the surface on Friday. He hadn’t heard from Zanny, and that was fine by him. But he wanted to see his sons, so he called her Friday morning. He didn’t waste time on preliminaries.

“I’d like to have the boys this weekend.”

“I thought you might. I’ll get a bag put together for them. Do you want to pick them up after work?”

“No. I’d rather not come by the house. You’ll have to bring them to the library. Mom will be expecting you around four.”

“Oh, okay. John, I—”

“I have another call. Let Mom know what time you expect them back on Sunday.” He hung up as quietly as he could, which was only a half-slam. Just hearing her voice had set off his temper, and he had to get up and walk outside to cool down.

He hated to use his mother as an intermediary, but until he was calm enough to not rage at Zanny, it was the safest way to go. He had the feeling it might be a good while before that happened.

Zanny stood in the kitchen, staring at the phone in her hand as though it had turned into a serpent. The incessant buzzing of the dial tone finally broke through her surprise, and she hung up.

“John?”

“Yes.” She turned to Emma and Amelia, stunned. “He’s a little angry still.”

“More than a little, from the look on your face. Zan, don’t tell me that surprises you.”

Zanny frowned. “It does. It surprises the hell out of me.”

“Why?”

Zanny was too ashamed to admit the reason, even to her best friend. “It just does. Come on, let’s go meet Susan.” Susan was the real estate lady, and she had several houses as well as some commercial properties picked out for Emma to look at. “Amelia, do you need anything?”

“Nope, we’re good.” The teenager was on spring break, and Zanny was paying her to babysit while they were out. “You two have fun.”

Once they were in Emma’s car, Zanny asked something she’d been curious about for several days. “You never did explain what you meant, about it being complicated, you buying a house.”

“I’ll explain that if you tell me why you think John shouldn’t be angry.”

Zanny scowled. “That isn’t fair.”

Emma snorted. “Life isn’t fair.”

With a sigh, Zanny agreed. “Things would be a whole lot easier if it was.”

“And things would be so boring, humans would have died off eons ago.”

They both laughed. “I could do with some boring, thank you very much,” Zanny teased. The real estate agent’s office was on the other side of town, so they had a few minutes to talk. “I will answer your question if you answer mine.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Emma stopped for a red light, and Zanny watched as her cheeks flushed. “This does not reflect well on me. I know that. And you may decide you don’t want to be my friend after I tell you this.”

Truly intrigued, Zanny shifted so that she was facing Emma. “Talk.”

“The baby’s father, he comes from money. Big money, Zanny. Money like you wouldn’t believe. And I didn’t know that when we met. Honestly, if I had, I probably would have run the other way. So when I discovered that I was pregnant and told him, he wasn’t pleased. That’s when I found out he was engaged to another woman. Had been for almost two years.”

“Oh, Emma.”

Her friend’s smile was bitter. “Yeah. The resulting confrontation was pretty unpleasant. I realized then that he’d been using me. I was a fling, a distraction. Nothing more. I was in it for the big picture, and he was in it for a good lay.” She downshifted as they got on the main highway and passed a slow-moving truck as though it were sitting still. “So I was ready to walk away to begin with and had already started packing. About a week before I left, he shows up with his lawyer.”

“Oh, boy.”

“Yeah. That’s what I said.” She glanced at Zanny and grimaced. “He had an agreement, all written out. The terms were pretty straightforward. He wasn’t willing to risk his future with the woman he married. And he was willing to pay for some security.” Nervously, she picked at the leather wrap covering the steering wheel as they waited for another light to change. “He offered me an ungodly sum of money to walk away. To sign this document that absolved him of any and all responsibility for the baby.”

“And you took it.”

Emma’s face was bright red, but she nodded. “I negotiated first. Made the son of a bitch double his offer. After taxes.”

Zanny whistled. “Do I want to know how much money we’re talking?”

Emma told her, and Zanny felt her eyes just about pop out of her head. “Seriously?”

“Yes. When I told you he was rich, that’s just a drop in the bucket. Practically pocket change. Seriously.” She shrugged. “That’s enough that if something happens, if the baby needs medical care, I won’t have to worry about it. College is taken care of. And I’ll be able to buy a nice house in a good neighborhood and not worry about putting food on the table. I won’t use the money for myself, but only for the baby. Whatever he or she needs. I think I’m probably one of the worst people in the world for doing it, but I knew I’d never see another dime from him. I didn’t want to look back and regret not getting my child enough for care, if it came to that. I didn’t want to punish the baby for my own pride and stupidity.”

They’d reached the business park where the real estate office was located, and Emma parked while Zanny struggled to find words.

“Damn. How the hell did you keep your cool long enough to negotiate?” she finally asked.

That startled a laugh from Emma. “What, you aren’t going to condemn me for being a gold digger? For being a greedy bitch who used her unborn child to get money from a man who was, by that time, married to someone else?”

“No, I’m not. Because I get why you did it. I know you, Em. You’re very talented and perfectly capable of supporting yourself. You have an independent streak a mile wide. All you did was buy some insurance for your child. If I were in your shoes, I’d probably do the same. Well, I might not have had him double the offer,” she admitted, “but only because it wouldn’t have occurred to me. I admire what you did.”

Emma was facing away from her, but Zanny heard her sniffing back tears. She dug around in the backseat and pulled some tissues from the box. “Here.”

“Thanks.” She blew her nose. “I can’t believe you don’t think I’m horrible. And you’re one of the only people I can tell about this. I don’t ever want to tell Mom and Dad. I probably will at some point. They’re going to wonder where the money to buy a house came from. But I’m planning to keep that to myself as long as possible.”

“Well, I don’t think you’re horrible. But I might ask for a little more money if I do decide to take you up on your job offer, now that I know you’re rolling in it.” When Emma finally turned to her with a startled expression, Zanny laughed.

“You little—Zanny, you’re devious. You absolutely have to come work with me. Between the two of us, we can conquer this town.”

Zanny patted her hand. “I probably will. But if we don’t get in here to meet with Susan, we’re not going to have anywhere to work from.”

They locked the doors and hurried across the parking lot. Emma stopped Zanny before they went inside. “I’ve not forgotten your half of the bargain. After we finish looking at places, it’s your turn to fess up.”

“I know. And I will. But right now, we need to find you someplace to live.”

“Yes, we do.”

They ended up looking at houses longer than they’d expected and had to delay the commercial aspect of things. But Emma found a house she loved in an upscale neighborhood not far from where Zanny and John lived in Lothair.

“This is lovely, Em,” Zanny said as they walked through. “Look at those arches, this floor.”

“It needs work, but I don’t care. It’s worth it.” Hacienda-style architecture set it apart from the typical houses in the area. “It reminds me of my first apartment in Savannah, only it’s one heck of a lot nicer. I love it.”

“And the yard is nice. The baby will have a great safe place to play.”

“There is that.”

“The couple who owns it have already moved,” Susan told them. “Most of this stuff is what they left here so the place wouldn’t feel so empty. Once they close with a buyer, they’ll have it out within a week.”

Emma dropped Zanny off at her house, then went back to the real estate office to make an offer. She still hadn’t heard back when she picked up Zanny the next day.

“I’m so nervous. None of the other houses we looked at came close to that one. What if they don’t take the offer?”

Zanny smiled. “You’re bringing cash to the table, making a full-price offer. Why wouldn’t they take it?”

“What if they ask Susan who the buyer is, they find out I’m a single mother, and they won’t sell to me? Did you see the crosses and the paintings of Jesus? They’re religious. They’ll take one look at me and turn me down on principle. Oh, I can’t stand this.”

Zanny’s heart broke a little over seeing the usually confident Emma so worried. She realized then just how significant the impact of finding herself pregnant and unwed had been on her sister-in-law.

“It’s almost nineteen-ninety, Em. Even if they do find out, they probably won’t care.”

“It is almost nineteen-ninety. But this is still Hazard. I’m not only unmarried and pregnant, I have the audacity to try and buy a house and build a business in the community. I’m practically flaunting what I’ve done. When I have this baby and put ‘unknown’ in place of the father’s name on the birth certificate, I might as well brand a scarlet
A
on my chest.”

“Pull over.” To Zanny’s relief, she did. “Switch places with me. You’re too upset to drive.”

“I’m being ridiculous.” Emma didn’t move.

“You are. But you’re entitled. You just need to let me drive so you can fall apart a little more safely.”

They changed places, and Emma slumped back in the passenger seat with a groan. “I hate being so…uncertain. Is this what you go through when you’re pregnant?” Her eyes widened, and a horrified gasp escaped. She covered her mouth, and her eyes sparkled with tears. “Oh, God. Zanny, I’m sorry.”

Zanny rubbed at her chest. The words stung. She had no way around it. But though she’d felt them like a slap, Emma was in tears, deeply distressed. “It’s okay, Em. I know you didn’t mean to…It’s okay.” She patted Emma’s shoulder awkwardly. “And yes, sometimes. You go from being angry to happy to tearful and back again, all within a few minutes. For a while, you’ll be so muddled, you can’t think straight to save your life. You’re on top of the world and swirling around in it at the same time. Your back hurts, your boobs feel like they’re going to explode, and all you can do is burp and fart. Usually at random, unexpectedly, and at the same time. Add in everything else, and if babies weren’t so damned wonderful, no sane woman would ever go through pregnancy.”

By the time she finished her recitation, Emma was laughing.

“Better now?”

“Yes. Thank you. And I really am sorry.”

Zanny nodded. “I know. Let’s get this show back on the road.”

They spent the next couple of hours looking at properties, and Emma found two that she liked. One was on Main Street, but it was close to the courthouse, and the parking situation wasn’t great. The other location was a little further away, up on North Main Street, just past the state police post. Its traffic flow would not be as heavy as the Main Street location’s, but it was located next to a small bakery and was across from an established florist.

“A lot of the clientele you’ll be hoping to attract are already going to be in the neighborhood. Plus, there’s off-street parking,” Zanny mused.