It isn’t going to happen, Mother, no matter how badly you’d like it to.”
“You’re surely not going to pretend you’re over him already?”
Could it possibly be? Was that why her thoughts turned so often to Edmund Delaney? “I still think about him occasionally,” she admitted.
Her mother beamed with satisfaction. “You miss him!”
The guy’s pure pond scum, sweet pea…!
“I’m angry with him.”
… sent someone else to do his dirty work? He’s not fit to be called a man…
“And disgusted at the way he’s behaved.”
“You’re overwrought because you’re in denial, dear.”
“I’m tired because I’ve spent hours sending back wedding gifts to people, well over half of whom I don’t know. On top of that, his mother wrote asking me to return my engagement ring—as if I had any use for it, or would dream of keeping an heirloom belonging to another family!”
“Anger and denial are part of the grieving process,” Valerie said soothingly. “They’ll pass, and then you’ll feel like your old self again and see things differently.”
Was not menstruating and being unable to keep her breakfast down also part of the grieving process, Jenna wondered, staring at her pallid reflection in the bathroom mirror, one morning five weeks later. And would they, too, pass and leave her feeling like her old self?
Or should she just face the fact that nothing was ever going to be the same again. Because while contraception might not have been an issue with Mark, unless she was sadly mistaken, it definitely should have been with Edmund Delaney!
“I think I’m pregnant,” she blurted out wretchedly, when Irene, her partner at the day-care center, stopped by that same evening to see how she was coping with the summer cold she’d claimed had prevented her from showing up at work the last couple of days.
It took a lot to rattle Irene. Tantrums, toilet training, finding herself splattered with paint and food—she took them all in stride. “That’s the way kids are,” she always said. “They spit up on your best blouse and wait till they’re sitting on your lap before they wet their pants. It’s the nature of the little beasts, but we love them anyway.”
Her reaction to Jenna’s announcement would have been no less pragmatic had it not been for the spark of curiosity she couldn’t quite hide. “Well, it’s not Mark’s because we both know he was shooting blanks,” she said, fixing Jenna in a beady-eyed stare. “So who’s the lucky daddy?”
“Someone I…met.”
“Well, I didn’t think you’d received an anonymous donation in the mail, Jenna! What’s his name?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m no longer involved with him.”
“ Were you at the time you were supposed to be getting married? Is that why Mark called off the wedding?”
“Of course not!” she exclaimed, stung. “How could you even ask such a question?”
“It’s been known to happen. One last fling before settling down, and all that sort of thing, you know. Men do it all the time, so why not women?”
“Well, not this woman,” Jenna said, afraid she was about to lose the dry toast and scrambled egg she’d forced down earlier.
Irene subjected her to another inspection. “You do look a bit off-color, I must admit, but it doesn’t have to mean you’re pregnant.”
“To what else would you attribute two missed periods and morning sickness which lasts all day?”
“Stress, for one thing. What you’ve been through in the last couple of months is enough to put any woman’s cycle out of kilter,” Irene replied, a shade more sympathetically. “But if you’re right, you’ve got to know I’m not the only person who’ll wonder if this is the reason Mark backed out at the last minute. People are going to have a field day with this one, sweet child!”
“I’m past caring what other people think,” Jenna said wearily. “I’ve got a life that I thought was sorting itself out rather well. Now
“You’re surely not going to pretend you’re over him already?”
Could it possibly be? Was that why her thoughts turned so often to Edmund Delaney? “I still think about him occasionally,” she admitted.
Her mother beamed with satisfaction. “You miss him!”
The guy’s pure pond scum, sweet pea…!
“I’m angry with him.”
… sent someone else to do his dirty work? He’s not fit to be called a man…
“And disgusted at the way he’s behaved.”
“You’re overwrought because you’re in denial, dear.”
“I’m tired because I’ve spent hours sending back wedding gifts to people, well over half of whom I don’t know. On top of that, his mother wrote asking me to return my engagement ring—as if I had any use for it, or would dream of keeping an heirloom belonging to another family!”
“Anger and denial are part of the grieving process,” Valerie said soothingly. “They’ll pass, and then you’ll feel like your old self again and see things differently.”
Was not menstruating and being unable to keep her breakfast down also part of the grieving process, Jenna wondered, staring at her pallid reflection in the bathroom mirror, one morning five weeks later. And would they, too, pass and leave her feeling like her old self?
Or should she just face the fact that nothing was ever going to be the same again. Because while contraception might not have been an issue with Mark, unless she was sadly mistaken, it definitely should have been with Edmund Delaney!
“I think I’m pregnant,” she blurted out wretchedly, when Irene, her partner at the day-care center, stopped by that same evening to see how she was coping with the summer cold she’d claimed had prevented her from showing up at work the last couple of days.
It took a lot to rattle Irene. Tantrums, toilet training, finding herself splattered with paint and food—she took them all in stride. “That’s the way kids are,” she always said. “They spit up on your best blouse and wait till they’re sitting on your lap before they wet their pants. It’s the nature of the little beasts, but we love them anyway.”
Her reaction to Jenna’s announcement would have been no less pragmatic had it not been for the spark of curiosity she couldn’t quite hide. “Well, it’s not Mark’s because we both know he was shooting blanks,” she said, fixing Jenna in a beady-eyed stare. “So who’s the lucky daddy?”
“Someone I…met.”
“Well, I didn’t think you’d received an anonymous donation in the mail, Jenna! What’s his name?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m no longer involved with him.”
“ Were you at the time you were supposed to be getting married? Is that why Mark called off the wedding?”
“Of course not!” she exclaimed, stung. “How could you even ask such a question?”
“It’s been known to happen. One last fling before settling down, and all that sort of thing, you know. Men do it all the time, so why not women?”
“Well, not this woman,” Jenna said, afraid she was about to lose the dry toast and scrambled egg she’d forced down earlier.
Irene subjected her to another inspection. “You do look a bit off-color, I must admit, but it doesn’t have to mean you’re pregnant.”
“To what else would you attribute two missed periods and morning sickness which lasts all day?”
“Stress, for one thing. What you’ve been through in the last couple of months is enough to put any woman’s cycle out of kilter,” Irene replied, a shade more sympathetically. “But if you’re right, you’ve got to know I’m not the only person who’ll wonder if this is the reason Mark backed out at the last minute. People are going to have a field day with this one, sweet child!”
“I’m past caring what other people think,” Jenna said wearily. “I’ve got a life that I thought was sorting itself out rather well. Now
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