Echoes in the Bayou (39 page)

"You
don’t have to thank me honey, that's what friends are for and besides, Anth
ony isn’t much of a dancer anyway," he said and
the two glanced over at him. He was in deep conversation with his next door
neighbors. The Anderson's were an older couple who were having computer
problems. That was all it took, one mention of the words computer, and problem
and Anthony became intrigued, he liked to think of himself as the computer
whisperer.

 
"See, I knew the minute they mentioned computer,
it'd be all over," Sterling frowned. "But it's good for business
anyway," he said and whisked her carefully around the dance floor.

They were
dancing to Sarah Vaughn's rendition of "Moonlight In Vermont" and i
t sounded wonderful. Kelly hadn't seen such a content
look on Ava's face in quite a while and she was glad to see it.

The young
man at the service station had given Magnus directions to the Inn and they were
to a tee. He took several deep breaths as he pulled into the parking lot and
turned off the engine.  One glance around told him that the dinner party
was a sizable one and that the gas station attendant had been right; it looked
as if the entire town was there. He was glad that he'd worn a suit jacket with
his jeans and button down shirt.
I hope they let
me in looking like this
, he thought to
himself. It would be another ten minutes before he'd gather up the courage to
get out of the car and head into the Inn.

 
A sign outside the banquet room read: Welcome to the
Chamber of Commerce 26
^th
annual inductee dinner.  The doors to the
banquet room were open and he stood a moment before walking all the way in. He
couldn’t help but notice that the room was full as he scanned the tables in
search of his Ava.
Please let her be here
, he thought to himself.
And more importantly, please let her be here alone
. Even though the attendant had said that he saw Ava
in a car with her friends, he hoped that her friends were female. He hadn’t
thought about what he'd do if they weren't. He'd soon get the chance to find
out.

 
"Ava is having a great time out there,"
Kelly smiled and wrapped her arms around Adrian. "I'm so glad that she's
doing better, for a while I was very worried about her."

"Ava
is the reason we are together, I owe her a lot," Adrian smiled and kissed
her.

"We
both owe her a lot; in fact I think we shoul
d…
Holy Shit!" Kelly cursed. While she'd been talking to Adrian, she found
herself glancing around the large room and it took only a moment to recognize
Magnus.

"What
is it?" Adrian asked. He had followed her stare and was now looking at
Magnus.

"That's
him isn’t it?" He asked
.

Kelly
could only nod her head. She had to get to Sterling and Ava before Magnus
spotted them.

"Kelly,
you better go and get him because if Ava sees him she might go into labor right
here and now. She doesn’t need this
kind of
shock, not right here in front of everybody. I'll go get Sterling and you go
get Magnus.
Take him into one of the empty rooms, there's a
smaller banquet room on the other side, take him there and we'll bring in
Ava," he said and made his way over to Sterling.

"This better be good," Sterling said when
Adrian pulled him off to the side. Ava smiled and headed back to the table. She
was starting to get tired anyway, and she needed to sit down for a
bit. She quickly glanced around in search of Kelly.
She must have gone into the restroom
, she thought as she sat in the chair and lightly
fanned herself.

"Kelly? What the hell are you
doing here? Steve said that you'd left him and moved back to New York."

Magnus was surprised to s
ee Kelly there of course, but not that surprised.
Especially given what she'd been through with Steve.
Of course she would want to be near her close friend.
Kelly gets a divorce and comes to visit Ava; I tell her that I love her but
that I cannot move to Vermont with her because I'd rather go on a book tour.
Smart Magnus, real smart,
he scolded
himself.

"Magnus, they'll b
e plenty of time to talk about why I'm here. But what
I want to know is what the hell are you doing here?" She was trying to be
blasé in guiding him out of the large room; she needed a ruse to get him alone.

"I'm here because I need to see
Ava; I need to talk to her. Too much time has passed without either of us
communicating with one another. Look Kelly I canceled the book tour, I'm done
with all of it; I want to live my life here with Ava, if she'll have me."

Kelly thought it not her place to
tell him that Ava wanted nothing more than to have him. Nor was it her place to
tell h
im about the baby. She knew that his whole
world was going to change in a matter of minutes but she couldn’t think about
him right now, her main concern was Ava and how she was going to react. Yes she
would be surprised and hopefully ecstatic but she was also nearing her due date
and Kelly worried that the shock might drive her friend into early labor.

 
Please don’t let the sight of him be too
shocking
, she silently prayed.

"Magnus, she'll be here
any minute but please, please tread easy. Try not to
make this into a bigger thing than it is. She's very emotional right now; she's
got a lot on her plate and seeing you is just going to add to it."

"What is it that you aren’t
telling me Kelly? Is she alright? Is she seeing someone? Is that what you're
trying to tell me?
"

"No Magnus, she isn’t seeing
anyone."
Not unless you count her obgyn
,
Kelly silently made the sarcastic joke.

"Magnus she's fine, all I'm
asking you to do i
s be gentle with her, and
honest she deserves that."

"What's up?" Ava asked.
Once Adrian filled him in on who had arrived, Sterling went into protective
mode. He didn't want to prolong the meeting of the two but he did want Ava to
brace herself.

"Honey, I need you to come with
me for a minute, there's something you need to see," he said
and held his arm out for her.

"See what?" She asked her
intuition was at its peak. There was something going on and she couldn’t quite
put her finger on it. Adrian was scanning the room like he was desperately
searching for an escape and Sterling; well Ste
rling
kept reassuring her that she was fine and that everything was going to be okay.

"Alright guys what the hell is
going on? Why the hell are you two acting so strange? And where are we going?
They haven’t served dessert yet and I'm starving." She tried hard to get
an answer from them.

"All will be revealed in a
moment," Sterling said and held onto her as if his life depended on it
.

"Okay now you're starting to
freak me out," she said as they guided her into the small banquet room.
"Guys, co
me on what's …" the sight of
him was enough to make her want to run into his arms but then she remembered
the baby, he hadn’t known.

The surprise on his face turned into
one of shock and disbelief as he went to her. Sterling put his hands on her
shoulders and held her steady. She had never been so glad to have him by her
side than she was at that moment. Feelings that she had tried so desperately to
bury came flooding back and if Sterling hadn’t been holding her, she would have
fallen onto the floor.

"Magnus," was all that she
could muster.

 
"Ava?" He said the words and knew that it
was her but was it his Ava? This Ava was glowing and looked even more beautiful
than usual and this Ava was obviously pregnant.
The guy at the gas station left that
part out
,
he smirked to himself.

"Yes she's pregnant with your
child, do the math," Sterling blurted out
.

All eyes turned and looked at
Sterling. "What? I'm just saying what you're all thinking. Come on you
guys, I think she'll be alright."

The
n, while turning and taking her hands in his he said,
"Ava, we'll be right outside that door so if you need us holler. And
you," he said returning his glare towards Magnus. "She comes out of
here upset, you'll be leaving in a garbage bag and Adrian here knows just where
to bury you. And believe me when I tell you, no one will ever find you."

Chapter Twenty Eight

Sterling stared at him with daggers
as he backed up and slowly closed the double doors of the banquet room.

Magnus
 
went to her and held her in a warm embrace.
"Ava,
I've just one question for you,"
he said, his eyes tearing up.

She didn’t need to wait for him
to ask. "No Magnus, I had no idea when I left
that I was pregnant with your child," she said.

"If I had, I can guarantee you
that I would have shared it with you." She looked away for a moment.
"I would have thought you knew me better than that," she said
.

And he did know her better than
that. Before he even thought to ask, he knew the answer. But he'd asked it
anyway, he needed to know that her love was still just as strong, he'd gotten
his answer.

"Oh Ava,"
he said as he took possession of her mouth. His hands
were running up and down her back; then he gently placed them on her swollen
belly. "We're going to have a baby," he beamed.

"Yes we are," she smiled
up at him.

"Ava, how come you didn’t tell
me, I would have…
"

"Magnus I
tried, I sent emails, and I tried calling you but your
number was disconnected and then when Steve told me that you were going abroad
I thought that I'd lost you forever. But then you called and it was right after
the storm, and I didn’t know when I'd be hearing from you again so I blurted it
out but I was too late. The phone lines went down and well, I tried so hard
Magnus," she cried.

He held her at arm's length.
"Wait, what? What do you mean Steve told you I went abroad? Ava I never
left the country," h
e said. He could feel
the anger rising inside of him, if Steve was in front of him, he would have
broken his neck.

Now Ava was the one who looked
confused. "Magnus I don’t understand. I called and when Steve picked up he
said that you couldn’t come to the phone and that you were going to Europe to
continue your book tour. He also said that after that you were planning on
staying so that you could do some research for your new book. Magnus are you
telling me that after all this time; Steve has been the one keeping us
apart?" She asked. Her head was spinning now and she needed to sit down,
it was all starting to get a little too overwhelming.

"Hold that thought," he
said and went over to the other side of the room. He reached up and pulled down
one of the chairs that were stacked neatly in a corner. "Here, sit
down," he said and helped her into the seat.

"Yes, it would appear that
Steve has been the cause of our signals being crossed and mixed up. But I don’t
want to think about tha
t right now, I can't
think about that. I'm going to be a daddy," he grinned and stared at her
belly. Ava, it's been eight months and you've gone through this alone, I should
have been there for you and I wasn’t I am so, so sorry," he said.
 "Magnus,
I haven’t gone through it alone. Kelly lives with me now. And that guy who
threatened to kill you? His name is Sterling and he and Kelly are my work
associates, we've all gotten to be very close," she said. The dizzy
feeling in her head was getting stronger now and suddenly she was parched.

"Ava
? Ava are you alright?" He asked. A look of panic
on his face.

"I'm fine," she said.
  "But would you mind getting me a glass of
water or something? All of a sudden I'm very thirsty," she smiled up at
him. "Don’t worry, it'll pass," she reassured him.

"I'll
be right back; he said and took off towards the doors.

Sterling
and Kelly almost fell into the room when Magnus pulled open the doors.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Sterling asked. When Magnus told him that
she was in need of water he relaxed and immediately went to her. "Honey
how are you holding up?"

The
reality of seeing Magnus suddenly hit and she reached out for his hand as the
tears broke through.