They both blinked as if they didn’t recognize me. My grin widened and I patted Molly on the shoulder and tweaked Mary Grace’s turned-up nose. “Bridget upstairs?”
“Yeah,” said Molly, her brow furrowed. “Where were you?”
“At Joey’s,” I answered. My body felt lighter than the air around it. I’d nearly forgotten what it was like to tell the truth.
“All night?” Molly’s eyes were wide.
“Uh huh.”
“Tiny, guess what?” Mary Grace either wasn’t surprised at that or it didn’t faze her. “Molly’s teaching me to work the register and Bridget says she’ll pay me if I work some hours at the store each week!”
“That’s great, poppet. You’ll catch on in no time.” I ruffled her hair. “I’ll be down in a little bit.” Tossing them one last smile, I sailed back into the stock room and up the stairs to Bridget’s apartment, leaving Molly in open-mouthed stupor.
The back door was open and music drifted into the stairwell from her radio, a piano waltz that took me back to the night Joey and I sat on the roof.
Teach them about stars.
My belly whooshed, and I grabbed onto a chair back for balance. We would. We would teach our children about stars and planets and history and geography. We’d have a map of the world and show them where their Daddy was born, where their grandparents had immigrated from. Joey would teach them to cook meatballs and tomato sauce and arancine, and I’d teach them—
I frowned for a second. Well, I’d think of something to teach them.
And I didn’t want children yet, anyway. Quickly I put a hand to my stomach, closed my eyes and mumbled a prayer asking God to forgive Joey and me for throwing caution out the pantry door—and the bedroom door, and the bathroom door, and the kitchen door—and to grant us some time together before starting a family. Not that we deserved much pardon; we’d been completely reckless. And if it happened, it happened. I was stunned to realize I’d be all right either way.
“Bridge?” I called, fighting the maniacal grin that seemed to have taken up permanent residence on my face.
“In here,” she hollered from the boys’ bedroom. I wandered back and found her stripping the sheets from the beds. “Monday. Laundry,” she reminded me. “Although I don’t know how I’m going to get these sheets to dry, it’s so darn humid outside.” She was sweaty from the exertion of housework and wiped the back of her wrist across her forehead. Finally she eyed me curiously. “You look happy.”
“I am.”
“You’re positively glowing,” she observed, coming around the bed to examine me closer. “What happened with Joey?”
“I told him I was in love with him.”
She gasped. “You didn’t!”
I smiled even wider at the shock on her face and rocked back on my heels. “I did.”
“What did he say?” The grin on her face nearly matched mine.
“He said he loved me too.”
Bridget clapped her palms to her cheeks. “I don’t believe it.”
“And,” I went on, twirling around before backing up to the dresser and leaning back against it dramatically. “He proposed.”
She gasped again. “I don’t believe it!”
“Believe it.” I had no ring to show her, but I didn’t care. “I accepted.”
She sank onto the bed, her hands still splayed on her face. “Of course you did.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe it. Vince was right all along.”
“He must have seen something we didn’t.”
Finally she dropped her hands and lowered her chin to shoot me a look. “Everyone saw something you two didn’t. Mary Grace saw it, for cryin’ out loud.”
“She did?”
Bridget nodded. “Yes. You weren’t fooling anyone but yourselves.” She fanned her face. “Well. Well. I just can’t seem to think straight.”