Perfect Contradiction by Peggy Martinez Page A

I can’t wait. I do love seeing your antique store finds.”
    “Well, I do find some great stuff,” I said with a chuckle. “Plus, I kind of, umm, have a lot of stuff to send home with you,” I added. There was a pause on the other end of the phone.
    “Oh, Jen. You baked all afternoon, didn’t you?”
    I tried not to sound too miffed. “Well, I did want to try out a new muffin recipe,” I countered.
    “What else did you make?” she asked. I could hear the smile in her voice.
    “Just a cobbler… and a few dozen cookies… and a couple batches of muffins,” I admitted. Beth was giggling on the other end.
    “Hey, well, at least you’re productive when you’re upset,” she said with a laugh.
    “You’re just happy you get to reap the benefits,” I accused.
    “Dang right!”
    I was laughing now. Beth was no stranger to my emotionally charged baking.
    “Beth….” She stopped laughing and waited. “I don’t want anyone to know that Hunter is the baby’s father. And I mean, like, ever .” Silence.
    “Beth?”
    “Okay, Jen. I’ll keep it a secret for you, but I’m letting you know now I don’t like it,” she answered. “This is gonna come back to bite you in the hiney; you mark my words.”
    I grinned at her use of the word “hiney”. She was trying to watch her language. “Thank you, Jen,” I said sincerely. “I knew I could count on you.”
    “Yeah, well, don’t think for a second that I don’t expect a lot of those muffins and cookies to be coming home with me tomorrow,” she said.
    “Done,” I answered quickly.
    “And you know, Elizabeth is an awfully nice name if you happen to have a girl…”
    I laughed. I thanked God every day for putting Beth in my life. “Noted.”
    “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jen,” Beth said. “And don’t worry, everything’s gonna turn out alright.”
    “Okay, I’ll see ya tomorrow,” I answered before hanging up the phone. I spent the rest of the evening cleaning my kitchen and reorganizing the cabinets and drawers.
    I sat on the edge of my bed a few hours later, tired, but in a good way. The gift bag I was going to give Hunter was sitting there. I opened it up and pulled out the things I’d bought to announce the pregnancy to him. A card, a DVD of Nine Months , a DVD of What to Expect When You’re Expecting , a DVD of the first show we watched on a date… Braveheart, a cigar, and the tiniest pair of cowboy boots I’d ever seen. I sighed, put everything back in the bag, and then shoved it under the baby quilt in my chest of drawers. When I finally made it to bed, I was exhausted. Exhausted enough to fall into a deep, carefree sleep.

 

    “Jen, everything looks amazing!” Beth gushed. I was grinning from ear to ear. The whole place did look great. We were standing in the living room. There were two sofas, two armchairs¸ the piano, and a small window seat in the room. It all fit together perfectly, and some of it was furniture I’d already had that just felt wrong to get rid of. I’d taken down most of the personal pictures of me growing up, but I did leave two pictures of my momma and me on the piano. One of us when I was a baby and one of us when I was grown. Those weren’t going anywhere.
    “Let’s take a tour,” I suggested excitedly. Beth hadn’t been by in a week, and a lot of the finishing touches were done in that time.
    “Ohh, look at the swinging door!” Beth squealed. I pushed through it lightly and held it open for her. That swinging door had once hung in a saloon from the late 1800s, but I wasn’t going to advertise that interesting little tidbit. The guys had sanded it down and painted it to fit the rest of the house. The door led right into the bakery portion of the house, which used to be my formal dining area. Now it held two small, round tea tables and chairs. It also had a long, glass counter display box that took up most of one wall with just enough room for someone to step behind it and sell the baked good. A tiny