She caught herself constantly checking her phone for a missed message, each time frowning in disappointment and putting the phone back down. When her phone did ring, it was people she didn’t want to talk to. Her father was too stubborn to reach out, but her mother had called three times and left messages. Still, Cecelia wasn’t quite ready to speak to them. They had sold her out to get back in the Ashfords’ good graces, and it would be a long time before Cecelia would be calm enough to sit down with them and have an adult conversation about how she planned to live her life from now on. If they ever wanted to see their grandchild, they’d adjust to the new Cecelia pretty quickly.
She was even ignoring calls from Naomi and Simone. She knew if she spoke to them she would spill the news about the baby, and Deacon needed to be the first to know, no question.
She was starting to get desperate. With the job at The Bellamy complete, Cecelia had moved back into her business offices. Now was the time that she was supposed to leverage her high-profile job at The Bellamy and launch her adult furniture line, but she found her heart just wasn’t in it. It required a level of dedication and focus that she simply didn’t have at the moment. Perhaps it was pregnancy brain. She’d heard that it could cause difficulty concentrating.
Or maybe it was simply the fact that Chip had potentially ruined the future she’d always wanted with Deacon. That made everything, including the success of Luna Fine Furnishings, seem insignificant in comparison.
Sitting back in her office chair, Cecelia gently stroked her flat belly. Her doctor, Janine Fetter, had calculated her to be four weeks along, but she would be showing before she knew it. How was it that her life had changed so drastically in such a short period of time? It seemed like only yesterday that she was getting ready to pitch her designs for The Bellamy to Shane, planning her wedding with Chip and paying off Maverick with blackmail money.
Now the job at the hotel was over, her engagement was broken, her secrets were public knowledge and she was pregnant with the child of a man who seemingly didn’t want her any longer. She supposed she could blame the entire situation on Maverick. If he hadn’t started meddling in her life, she wouldn’t have had to confess to Chip and break their engagement. She wouldn’t have thrown herself at Deacon because he was the only one who knew the truth and wouldn’t judge her. She wouldn’t have hopped on a flight to France with him to avoid the backlash of her secret being exposed to the entire town. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with him again in a lavender field.
She also wouldn’t be pregnant. It was a little ironic that the one thing she’d always wanted, the baby she’d dreamed of since she was a teenager, had come to be through the complicated machinations of the town blackmailer. If she ever found out who was behind it all, she supposed she should send him an invitation to the baby shower.
Cecelia’s stomach started to sour. She reached for the roll of antacids in her desk drawer only to find she’d chewed the last one an hour ago. She didn’t know whether it was thinking about Maverick or the latest in her constant bouts of morning sickness, but the Rolaids and saltine crackers she’d been eating lately weren’t cutting it. At this rate, she’d be the first pregnant woman in history to lose weight.
With a sigh, she slammed the drawer shut and eyed the clock on her computer monitor. It was almost lunchtime. Time to run a few errands. She needed to go in search of something nausea friendly like chicken noodle soup and maybe a big glass of ginger ale to go with it. Her next stop would be the drugstore to restock her medicinal supplies before heading back to the office.
Pushing away from her desk, Cecelia picked up her purse and swung it over her shoulder. The offices of To the Moon were fairly close to downtown Royal, so she was able to walk the two blocks to the Royal Diner.
The Royal Diner was one of the few places in the town proper to eat, or at least it had been before The Bellamy opened with their high-class offerings. The diner was far more informal, complete with a retro ’50s style. As Cecelia stepped in, the sheriff’s wife and owner, Amanda Battle, waved at her from behind the counter. She opted for one of the unoccupied red leather booths. Sitting at the counter would invite too much conversation, and her heart just wasn’t in it today.
There was chicken and wild rice soup on the menu. She ordered a bowl of that with crackers and a ginger ale. Amanda wrote down the order and eyed her critically, but didn’t ask whatever questions were on the tip of her tongue.
Amanda returned with a tray a few minutes later and started unloading everything. “I brought extra crackers,” she said, her tone pointed. “You look like you need them.”
Cecelia looked up at her, wondering if she looked that awful. “Thank you.”
“When I was pregnant,” Amanda began, “I had the worst morning sickness you can imagine. Do you know what helped?”
Cecelia tried not to stiffen in her seat. Why was Amanda telling her this? It was one thing for her to look green around the gills, another for the woman to know she was pregnant.
“Those bracelets they give you when you go on a cruise. It puts pressure on some part of your wrist that makes the nausea go away. You can get them at the drugstore. If it wasn’t for those and ginger ale, I might’ve never made it to the second trimester. That one is a lot more fun.”
“Thank you,” Cecelia repeated. “I’ll look into that.”
Amanda smiled, seemingly content to help and not at all concerned about the juiciness of the information she had inadvertently unearthed. “I’m glad you’ve got some new joy coming into your life. I felt so bad over those posts about your birth mother. That stupid Maverick can’t ruin everything, no matter how hard he might try.”
At that, Amanda turned and walked away, leaving Cecelia with her soup and her thoughts. She was right. Everything was a mess at the moment, but she knew things would work out.
Perking up in her seat, Cecelia had a thought. Maverick had managed to spread gossip to damn near everyone in town with hardly any effort at all. Maybe she could use his tricks to get Deacon back, as well. The power of social media had worked well for him, so why wouldn’t it work for her?
Cecelia quickly finished her lunch, left money for the tab on the table and headed down the street to the drugstore. The morning sickness that had dominated her thoughts faded to the back of her mind as she formulated her plan with each step. She quickly restocked her supply of antacids, grabbed a bottle of prenatal vitamins and, on Amanda’s recommendation, picked up a special nausea wristband designed for pregnant women.
After checking out, she rushed back to the office and immediately started drafting a message. She kept it short and sweet, using Maverick’s hashtag. Plenty of people in town were following it, so the news should spread like wildfire. And, if Maverick himself was a little perturbed that he hadn’t managed to ruin her life by exposing her latest tidbit of gossip, all the better.
She started with Snapchat and a photo of her bare ring finger. She followed it up with Instagram and Twitter. Finally, she posted to Facebook. Everyone in town, including her parents, the Ashfords and Deacon himself, should be using one or more of those platforms.
“Despite
persistent rumors to the contrary, I am not, and never will be, engaged to Chip Ashford ever again. I would much rather be Mrs. Deacon Chase, and I hope that after everything that has happened between us, he will believe that and know how much I love him.”
That done, she sat back in her chair and hoped for the best. There was a new flutter of butterflies in her stomach, but this time it had nothing to do with morning sickness and everything to do with putting her heart on the line. Every word of the post was true. Even if Deacon never looked in her direction after what happened, she wasn’t about to go back to the life she’d escaped with the Ashfords. Being with Deacon had helped her to realize that there was more to a relationship than arm candy and photo ops.
She wanted a real, loving relationship with a man who respected and appreciated her no matter what. And she knew now, more than ever, that she wanted that relationship with Deacon. Their baby would be the icing on the cake, completing the family she’d always wanted.
Surely Deacon didn’t really believe that she would take Chip back after everything he had done to her? He’d torn off, taking Chip at his word. She couldn’t imagine what Chip had said to him to send him into hiding without even asking her first. If she knew, Chip would probably be earning a well-deserved black eye. Let Maverick tweet about that.
Cecelia had done her part to put things right between them. The message was traveling through the interwebs, hopefully on its way to Deacon’s inbox. She could already hear her cell phone buzzing in her purse, so the message was spreading at the speed of Royal gossip. Her father was probably having a heart attack on the imported living room rug at that exact moment, and her mother was calling to chastise and disown her. That was fine by her. She was more interested in being a Chase than a Morgan anyway.