Unprotected (14 page)

As she walked up to the front door, Amanda could hear laughing. Lucy’s Uncle Joel, Rosie’s brother, opened the door for Amanda and gave her a huge bear hug. He was smiling but looked like he had been crying.

“Lucy told us her beautiful news,” Uncle Joel said, pulling Amanda inside. “A baby and a wedding … beautiful!”

Lucy was sitting on the couch surrounded by her aunts and cousins, laughing and crying at the same time. Everyone had to touch her somehow, rub her arm, touch her hair, hold her hand. Lucy’s Aunt Mary was rubbing Lucy’s slightly mounded belly. The pale couch was barely big enough for three, but six adults had squeezed together to share Lucy’s news. Above them was a famous picture of Jesus rising from the dead. Two shelves that contained candles, statuettes, and palms surrounded it. A rosary hung from one of the shelves.

Amanda was weighed down with crudities, which she carried into the cramped kitchen. Despite the cold outside, the kitchen was well over eighty degrees. The windows had steamed. Stuffing ingredients were still on the table, along with casserole dishes waiting to go into the oven. Rosie was barking at Lucy’s fourteen-year-old sister, Marina, who was sulking at the table, the phone in her hand.

“Can’t you see how much there is to do?” she asked Marina. Rosie was hurriedly peeling potatoes and cutting them into a large pot of boiling water.

“Hey, Amanda,” Marina said sullenly.

Rosie spun around, a potato flying out of her hand. She wiped her hands on her apron and reached out to hug Amanda.

“Hello, chiquita.” Rosie squeezed longer than usual, and her voice was softer than Amanda had expected. Rosie had been crying too.

“I brought vegetables,” Amanda said.

“You know how I count on you,” Rosie said, smiling and holding Amanda’s face in her hands. Since the first time Amanda spent a holiday with the Ramirez family, it had been her job to bring vegetables, olives, and relishes for the table. Shortly after they met, Amanda had spent a fall weekend with Lucy at her home, and Rosie had learned Amanda didn’t have family. She insisted that Amanda come to their Thanksgiving and assigned her to bring relishes. Amanda realized later how much Rosie looked out for her from the beginning. To help her feel comfortable, she didn’t let her show up empty handed, but Rosie also knew that Amanda wouldn’t know how to cook. That first Thanksgiving, Amanda arrived with bags of carrots, pickles, olives, beets, celery, and everything else gathered together in a grocery store display labeled
for your relish tray
. Rosie displayed the tray proudly, and made sure everyone ate olives that day.

Amanda found the relish tray and began opening cans and arranging fresh celery and carrots.

“Marina, if you are going to sulk, why don’t you just go up to your room until dinner. Amanda can help me.” Rosie didn’t turn from her boiling water when she spoke.

Marina got up from the table with a flounce. “Gladly,” she said, and went up the back stairs to her room. Rosie’s shoulders dropped.

“She thinks she needs to invite her boyfriend,” Rosie said quietly. “She’s fourteen years old and thinks it is appropriate for her boyfriend to spend the holiday away from his family so he can be with ours.” She shook her head. “These girls think I am stupid.” She was peeling potatoes at lightning speed. “I make traditional dinner for them because they think they need turkey on Thanksgiving. They don’t like it when I make tamales.” Rosie rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. “They think I don’t know how it is to be a teenager in love. They think I don’t remember. But I would never cross my parents by losing my virginity.” Except that she had done exactly that when she got pregnant with Lucy as a teenager. Amanda saw beads of sweat on her forehead, and tears on her cheeks. “Now that their sister is having a baby out of marriage, they think the rest of our values don’t matter. Last night, I found Cynthia downstairs lying on the floor with her boyfriend under a blanket watching the television.
Never
would I hurt my family like that!” Rosie flinched at the sound of her own voice, and caught herself.

Amanda was frozen, heart pounding. It was Lucy’s biggest fear, to disappoint her family. Amanda had told her she had underestimated Rosie, but Lucy had been right. Rosie was heartbroken.

Aunt Mary swooped into the kitchen and began fussing over the sweet potatoes.

“Amanda brought her relishes!” Aunt Mary sang.

Rosie turned and smiled, their conversation forgotten for the moment. “You know how I count on my Amanda.”

* * *

Amanda helped with that meal more than she ever had before. Lucy was usually at her mother’s side during holidays, but she was so swept up with family that she never made it to the kitchen. Amanda forced herself to figure out what needed to be done, trying to be as helpful as possible. Rosie didn’t bring up the topic of Lucy’s baby again.

There were twenty-four all together for dinner. Amanda put herself in charge of the kids’ table in the living room, filling the little ones’ plates and making sure they all had milk to drink. She never actually sat down to eat, but was quite content to busy herself with the little cousins. When Uncle Joel lead them to pray from the dining room, Amanda joined hands with the two youngest cousins in the living room.

Dinner was uneventful, other than Anna dropping her jello on the floor. As the kids cleaned their plates, they started chanting “
Sopapillas! Sopapillas!
” They were Rosie’s traditional dessert, and Amanda loved them as much as everyone else.

“No no, little ones,” Rosie said, getting up from the table and beginning to clear dishes away. “Remember we are having pie with Lucy’s fiance’s family! Her special pumpkin pie!” Rosie’s tone was of forced cheer. Amanda looked over at Lucy and saw a sick smile stuck to her face. Lucy seemed to realize that this was a difficult day for Rosie too. Lucy’s aunts Marina, Clarice, and Mary shuffled around the table collecting dishes while the men retired to the living room. Lucy stood up from the table and grabbed Amanda’s hands, pulling her to the hallway leading to the stairs.

“What am I going to do, Amanda? She’s so angry with me!”

“Marina was being difficult, that’s all,” Amanda told her friend.

Lucy looked over at her Aunt Marina, who winked at her. “They are all so excited about the baby. My Uncle Joel said he has always liked William, and asked if he needed a job at the orchard. Everyone has been wonderful, but Mama’s hardly spoken to me.”

“It’s probably hard to see her oldest daughter growing up! Your mother is pretty young to be a grandmother,” Amanda said.

Lucy smiled. “If I have a girl, I hope Mama will teach her how to make her special blankets.” Then she dropped Amanda’s hands and looked down. “I hope she will
want
to teach my baby.”

“Hey, there, I think she could teach your sons too.” Amanda held Lucy’s bony shoulders. “It’s going to be fine.” Amanda tried to find more words of reassurance, but she wasn’t as sure as she once was that all would be fine between Rosie and Lucy.

* * *

They made a caravan to William’s parents’ home. Amanda drove Lucy and her sisters Cynthia and Marina. Cynthia, a senior in high school, had just received her ACT scores and was disappointed that she didn’t score as well as she had hoped.

“I’m going to be stuck at a state school,” Cynthia told Amanda.

“Watch it,” Lucy said. “We both went to the U and loved it.”

“The U is a good school,” Cynthia said resignedly, raking her long hair with her nails. “But I wanted to go to LA or Texas, some place that would give me a scholarship because Mama can’t afford the tuition, and I’ll never be able to come up with the money on my own.”

“At least you’re getting out of here!” Marina snapped. “I have four more years of Mama ragging on my ass.”

Lucy whipped around in her seat. “Marina! Don’t you dare talk like that about your mother!”

“Shut up, you little tart,” Marina shouted back. “Ever since you got knocked up, Mama has taken it all out on me.”

Amanda saw Lucy recoil back in her seat.

“She’s taking it out on you because you’re a mouthy little brat,” Cynthia told her. “And you better watch it, or I’ll tell her exactly how you’ve been spending your noon hours.”

“Shut
up
!”

In the rearview mirror, Amanda could see that Marina was about to slap Cynthia.

“Marina, put your hand down!” Amanda ordered. “Nobody’s smacking anyone in my car. You’d probably get me fired. I’m a freaking social worker, remember?” Lucy was crying again. Marina crossed her arms, swore under her breath and looked out the window. “Now, we’re almost there. You all need to stop this, get along, and eat the damn pie with smiles on your faces.”

Lucy found a tissue and blew her nose quietly. Cynthia leaned forward, hugged Lucy over the back of her seat and kissed her shoulder. Marina continued to stare out the window.

* * *

They entered the rich area of Riverton, if there was one. It was a new development, and it looked like the house had been built within the last ten years. Every home was the same earthy shade of taupe. The trees in the neighborhood were small enough that someone could reach around their trunkd with both hands. The homes they passed either had driveways full of cars of their Thanksgiving guests, or they looked deserted.

William’s parents, Desi and Elena Roberts, lived in the largest house at the end of a cul-de-sac. They parked on the street and walked slowly up to the house. The garage had three stalls, all of which were open to reveal two newer looking sedans and a row of well-equipped bikes. Amanda was suddenly hit with intense déjà vu, which was ridiculous because she had never been anywhere in Riverton except Lucy’s house.

William greeted them at the door and gave Lucy a kiss on the cheek. He was smiling and relaxed, and he put his arm around Lucy, sensing her anxiety. Amanda followed Lucy and William inside the chic, modern entryway to the sunken living room/dining room where most of the guests were gathered.

For the second time in a month, Amanda nearly fainted from shock. From across the room, there was a squeal, and before William had a chance to introduce his bride to be, Trix Mann shouted, “Amanda!”

* * *

The entire room, which had been bustling with happy energy, quieted as Trix squeezed through bodies to the entryway. Trix devoured Amanda with a hug. Amanda was speechless and awkwardly hugged the much shorter woman back.

William was smooth and unfazed. “While those two get reacquainted, let me introduce my fiancé, Lucy Ramirez.” While William’s family moved forward to greet Lucy, Trix moved Amanda to the stairs on the other side of the entryway and pulled her to sit down.

Trix held both of Amanda’s hands in hers and shook her head in disbelief.

“I can’t believe it’s you, Amanda! It’s so wonderful to see you! I guess you must be here with William’s fiancé …” Amanda nodded, still unable to speak. “We’ve known the Roberts for years … Desi is one of the first salesmen who worked for Michael. Now I daresay that Desi is more successful than Michael. He got the market in the Cities, and sales just took off.” Trix was positively beaming. “Oh, honey, Jacob is going to be so excited to see you. Just a minute, let me go grab him …” Before Amanda could protest or explain anything, Trix had hopped up to locate Jacob.

Amanda cupped her hand over her gaping mouth, trying to get her brain to catch up with what had just happened. Her best friend’s fiancé’s father worked for Jacob’s father. The chances seemed astronomical, although the logical part of her brain, the only part that could function at this point, recognized that the two towns were relatively small and close to each other.

Trix weaved her way back to the stairs holding Jacob’s hand. She stopped in front of Amanda, threw his hand down, and said with disgust, “You work together?!”

Amanda could only nod.

“Mom,” Jacob said, as gently as he could, though Amanda could see he was exasperated, “we just reconnected a couple of weeks ago. It’s not like I was hiding anything from you. It’s just that I thought you might get a little weird about it. Obviously I was wrong.” Jacob put his hands on his hips, his familiar gesture of frustration.

Michael walked up and stood behind Trix.

“Hey, Amanda,” Michael said, leaning forward and squeezing her shoulder. “It’s great to see you again.”

“They work together, Michael,” Trix said. Amanda couldn’t tell if her irritation was genuine or for show. “Jacob was hiding her from us.”

“Mom …”

At that point, the doorbell rang again. A man Amanda assumed was Desi came around the corner and greeted Rosie and two of her sisters, followed by several of the little cousins. Desi was exactly like his son—warm and gracious. He gently kissed Rosie on the cheek, and did the same to both of Rosie’s sisters. William was suddenly by his side and escorted Lucy’s aunts, while Rosie entered the living room on Desi’s arm. Amanda watched Rosie look up at the vaulted ceiling and the wall of windows overlooking the river valley.

“Which one is Lucy’s mother?” Trix asked.

“The one with Desi,” Amanda said. Michael, Trix, and Jacob all turned to look at Amanda, who finally pulled herself up from the stairs.

It was the first time she had spoken, and they all finally remembered why they were there.

“So, Amanda,” Jacob said, asking the question for all of them. “How did you end up here?”

Amanda, always the outsider, was relieved and proud to have a role. “I’m going to be Lucy’s maid of honor.”

Trix’s eyes twinkled, and she hooked her arm around Michael and gave him a squeeze.

“Of course you are, sweetie,” Trix said. “Because Jacob is the best man.”

* * *

After a tense Thanksgiving meal with the family, Lucy finally relaxed at William’s house, looking happy and at home. Trix talked Amanda’s ear off until Amanda finally broke away and headed for the bathrooms. Lucy found Amanda and slid her arm through Amanda’s, pulling her into the bathroom and locking the door.