Triplets Make Five

Mandy laughed. “You’re right again. Sorry to bother you.”

“No, bother at all. I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for all this.”

“Right. Thanks.”

I hung up, but I couldn’t shake the questions hanging in the air. I hadn’t seen Brady since Vegas. He never called. He never made any lame excuses to spend time with me or ambush me behind the mulberry tree. Maybe he changed his mind about us and everything.

Even if he got busy with work, what could be more important than this baby? So, what if we still had seven months before the baby came around came around? I still needed him. Didn’t he understand that? Didn’t he know I would start to worry if he went AWOL?

I could call him up, too. He wasn’t more than a phone call away from me, either, but he might as well be on another planet as far as I was concerned. What could he be doing? What could he be thinking?

A couple of seconds later, the phone rang. It was Mandy again. “Hey, girl. You were right. Charlie called him. He’s super busy with work, but he’s coming to the rehearsal dinner, so we’ll see him there.”

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“What did I tell you?”

Mandy laughed. “You’re always right, Vic. Hey, could you do me a favor?”

“Sure, babe. Name it.”

“I need you to come with me to the final fitting for my dress. I’ve got no one to go with me, and I need someone to...”

“What—no one?”

“Nope. You’re the only one around. My sister Teresa is out of town, Helena had to take Ricky to the doctor, and all the other bridesmaids are too busy with their own stuff. Will you come? I really need you.”

“You know I’ll come. When do you want to go?”

“This afternoon, three o’clock.”

“Sure. No problem.”

“After we leave the fitting, I need you to come with me to the florist. I have to make the final arrangements for the decorations for the hall, and I have to give them the last grand deposit for the flowers.”

“Okay. Since we’ll be out together anyway, I might as well.”

“Thank you so much. You don’t know what this means to me. You know I was never any good at doing this type of thing alone. I need someone holding my hand.”

I sighed. “Don’t we all.”

“Yeah. I’ll pick you up at two-thirty.”

I waited until I hung up again to let my heart sink into my shoes. So, Brady really was busy with work. That only made me feel worse. So, there I was at the bottom of his to-do list. That was just great, and me getting more and more pregnant all the time.

I could understand if he got run over by a bus and was laid up in intensive care for the last six weeks. I wouldn’t even have minded if he got some dread disease and got put into quarantine, as long as only the extreme circumstances kept him away from groveling at my feet.

Okay, so it wasn’t as bad as all that, but how about a little phone call? Even a text would do. What could be so important that he would leave me hanging like this?

I went through all the same agony of uncertainty and insecurity I went through when his grandmother died. What could cause him to avoid me like this? What could cast such an insurmountable rift between us? Was this the relationship I had to look forward to for the rest of this child’s life?

I fretted and worried myself into a state of high tension until Mandy pulled up at my door. I shoved every thought about Brady out of my mind and ran down the steps. I hopped into her car, and away we went.

Nothing was more important than making Mandy feel special on her wedding day. I had nine months to be pregnant and twenty more years after that to be a mother. Mandy had one day. I could put off whatever distress this caused me to focus on her.

She drove to the dress shop and parked in the parking lot. When I threw the door open, her hand fell on my arm. “Wait a second, Vic.”

My eyes popped. “What’s up?”