Baby Comes First (15 page)

“Are you all right?” he asked quietly.

She rubbed the side of her neck. “I have a
crick in my neck. I must have pulled something when I fell asleep
in the chair.”

“Sit up,” Luke said. “Let me see what I can
do.”

“But what about your sleep?”

“What about yours?” he countered.

Hannah obediently sat on the edge of the bed,
and he knelt behind her. He started massaging her neck and
shoulders with firm, slow stokes.

Hannah gave a deep, shuddering breath. “Mmm,
you’re good at this.”

“Glad to be of service.” He found a sore spot
and pressed it with the heel of his hand. “Does that hurt?”

“No. Yes. Don’t stop,” she gasped, as the
pain increased, then faded miraculously away. She sighed happily.
“If you ever decide to leave the legal profession, you could make a
living giving back rubs.”

“I doubt that. I have a very exclusive
clientele.” He leaned forward and brushing her hair out of the way,
kissed the back of her neck.

Hannah shivered with pleasure, then
stiffened, surprised by the touch, not certain how she should
react.

Luke, misreading her stillness as
disapproval, pulled back.

“No, I’m sorry,” she said quickly, turning
around to face him. “I don’t mean to freeze you out. I’m nervous.
This is all very new to me.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “New with me, or new
all together?”

Hannah blushed. “New all together,” she said
bravely, trying to read his reaction. Some men would be pleased to
find out that their wives were virgins, and others might be
irritated by her naivety. “As much as I like the attention, I’m not
used to half dressed men kissing me in the middle of the
night.”

He smiled. “They usually kiss you in the
daytime?”

Hannah laughed. Trust a lawyer to find a way
to twist her words. She joked, “What else did you think I was doing
during my lunch breaks?”

Whatever he was going to say in response was
drowned out by Rachel’s sudden cry. Hannah sighed and climbed off
the bed.

Duty calls
.

#

Luke sat with Rachel on his lap, watching
football with his brother-in-law and nephews, while Hannah helped
her sister in law with the last minute Thanksgiving preparations.
She arranged celery and carrots sticks on a large relish tray, then
reached in the refrigerator for a can of black olives.

“So what do you think of Gloria’s villa?”
Margaret asked. She stood at the stove, stirring the turkey gravy
with a wire whip.

“Villa?” Hannah repeated.

“That monster of a house she made Luke buy.
The villa.”

“It’s very nice,” Hannah said carefully.

“Nice?” Margaret scoffed. “That’s damning it
with faint praise. Gloria would be rolling in her grave to hear it
called that. Dramatic, exquisite, even gaudy would be better than
nice.”

Hannah smiled. She thought ostentatious was a
better description than gaudy, but she wasn’t going to admit it out
loud. Sometimes Luke and his family were more blunt than she liked
to be. “I plan to make a few changes,” she began, “But right now
I’m focusing on Rachel and recovering from the birth.”

“Well, you look great,” Margaret said, giving
her a sideways glance. “I can’t believe it’s only been a little
more than three weeks since you had the baby. You must be one of
those lucky women who lose their weight quickly.”

Hannah didn’t correct her. At five foot nine,
she hid the extra weight well. She had lost some of her pregnancy
weight, but she was still two sizes larger than normal. On a
positive note, she’d been skinny to begin with, and her bosom had
never been as full as it was now -- that was a nice development,
even if it wouldn’t last. But she looked forward to the time when
Dr. Armanzo said it was safe to start exercising again.

Margaret laughed. “I still looked like a
beached whale after six months.” She pointed across the kitchen.
“Hand me the gravy boat, would you?”

Hannah looked around, found the china gravy
boat on a counter, and gave it to her.

“Thanks.” Margaret said, as she poured gravy
from a large pan into the boat. “It’s strange to have help in the
kitchen on Thanksgiving. I made the mistake of having all boys. All
they want to do is watch football.”

Someone must have made a good play, for the
men in the living room cheered. Hannah looked at Margaret and they
both smiled.

#

Luke pushed the stroller up the ramp to the
front doors of the nursing home. Aldwick Senior Center read the
sign on the front door. He walked inside and spoke to a
receptionist. “My wife is teaching a painting class. Where would I
find her?”

“Oh, so this is Hannah’s baby,” the woman
said, hurrying around the desk to see her. She peered into the
stroller. “Isn’t she precious?”

Rachel lay sleeping, oblivious to the praise
and adulation. She looked like a princess in a knitted pink cap
with white pom- poms.

“How old is she?” the woman asked.

“Five weeks.”

“She’s darling.”

Luke smiled. He thought so, too. “The
painting class?” he prompted.

“Down the hall, turn right and it’s the
second door on the left. You can’t miss it. It’s our arts
room.”

“Thank you.” Luke wheeled the stroller down
the carpeted hallways.

He found the room. Through large plate glass
windows, he could see Hannah. She looked cute in her slim black
pants and bright yellow painting smock. Her beautiful red hair was
pulled back into a pony tail. She had set up an easel in the front
of the room that held her sample painting. Today she was teaching
them how to paint a bowl of fruit.

He had never seen her so animated. He could
tell that she loved painting, and she was a natural teacher. He
watched as she walked through the class, stopping and talking to
each student, giving encouragement, pointing out something in their
work to compliment.

She hesitated before approaching one elderly
woman. Hannah visibly straightened her shoulders and fixed a smile
on her face. Was that her mother? Luke wondered. Hannah had told
him that her mother didn’t recognize her, and didn’t like to talk
to her.

The woman waved her away with an impatient
gesture.

Hannah said something, briefly, and continued
on to the next student.

Luke waited outside in the hall for a few
more minutes, until the class ended. Hannah started gathering her
supplies. He wheeled the stroller into the room. She smiled, happy
to see them. “How did it go?” he asked.

“Not bad,” she said lightly. “Everyone’s a
little rusty after a two month break, but I think they’re having
fun.” She smiled down at Rachel. “How did you do?”

“We had a great time. She slept most of the
time.”

“And she took the bottle?”

Hannah had recently started pumping breast
milk so Rachel would have something to drink when she was away from
home. Luke was amazed by her dedication. He would have given her
formula and not worried about it, but Hannah wanted to keep her
totally breast fed for the first six months. Luke said, “She didn’t
like it, but eventually she took it.”

Hannah nodded. “Good.”

“Is that your baby?” a woman asked. Luke
turned to see one of the elderly patients, bending down closer to
see Rachel. He stiffened. He didn’t want everyone breathing their
germs on her.

“Yes.”

Hannah cleared her throat. “Luke, I’d like
you to meet Mrs. Hansen,” she said carefully. “Mrs. Hansen, this is
my husband Luke Jamison.”

“Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand in
greeting, but the woman ignored him.

“She looks a little like my daughter,” Mrs.
Hansen announced. Her words were slightly slurred, but he could
understand them.

“How old is your daughter now?” Luke
asked.

She frowned, as if confused, then said
clearly, “Twenty. She’s going to college.” She smiled. “She calls
me every week.”

Luke said, “You must be very proud of
her.”

“I am,” she said, then collected her painting
supplies and left. She limped slightly as she walked.

“Thank you for that,” Hannah said quietly,
after she’d gone.

He knew it must be difficult for Hannah to be
around her mother, being rejected on a weekly basis. “Is she always
like that?”

Hannah shrugged. “Some days are better than
others. Sometimes she’s annoyed and doesn’t want me around. I think
at a subconscious level she recognizes me, and she doesn’t want to
accept the truth, that her husband is dead, that she’s grown old. I
don’t know. I try not to think about it. I just come every week, to
teach painting and to make sure she’s all right. So many of the
people here don’t have any family. The administrative staff does
what they can, but I know it’s important to show up regularly, so
she gets the care she needs.”

“We have enough room at the house, if you
wanted her to live with us,” he offered. “We could hire everything
she needs.”

Tears glistened in Hannah’s eyes. She shook
her head. “No. Thank you for offering, but she would be miserable.
She’d feel as if she had been kidnapped. She needs a group home
with a cafeteria and classes and things to do.”

“Whatever you want,” he said.

She smiled. “I appreciate that.”

#

Bing Crosby’s melodic voice filled the living
room, while Hannah hung tinsel on the ten foot tall artificial
Christmas tree. Rachel had gone to sleep earlier, and Luke was
working late at the office, getting ready for his trial in January,
so she had the house to herself.

She stood back to survey the effect. Too much
tinsel in front, she decided, and shifted some of the strands to
the back of the tree.

She had used Gloria’s artificial tree,
because it was the perfect size for the living room - hers would
have been dwarfed by the room’s grand proportions - but she used
her own decorations. The tree was covered with white fairy lights
and hand painted wooden ornaments she had designed and made over
the years. In previous years, she had made and given ornaments to
her friends, but this year, she hadn’t had the time or energy. They
had to be satisfied with a Christmas card with a photograph of her,
Luke, and Rachel and her new address.

Hannah smiled wryly. She could tell when
those cards had been delivered because her friends started calling,
wanting to know the story. She kept it vague, letting them know she
had started working for Luke that year, and that they’d married in
November, right before Rachel was born.

“You sound happy,” her friends said, and it
was true. She was happy. She and Luke had settled into a
comfortable routine. They usually ate breakfast together, then he
went off to work. Several nights a week he worked late and ate
dinner at the office, but he tried to keep the weekends free so he
could spend time with her and Rachel.

Rachel had learned to stay awake more during
the day, and now she only woke for one feeding in the night,
usually around two or three a.m. Hannah felt like a new person. As
long as she could sleep in two four-hour blocks of time, she didn’t
feel so dead tired during the day.

Her energy levels were improving. She tried
to eat healthy, and her weight was coming down, gradually. She
could fit in her pre-pregnancy jeans, but she couldn’t zip them up,
yet. But she was feeling stronger every day. She hoped that in
another month she’d be back to the size she’d been when she
started.

Fortunately, Luke seemed to find her
attractive as she was. He kissed her several times a day, and found
excuses to touch her -- resting his arm around her when they sat on
the couch, brushing past her if he wanted something from the
bathroom when she was putting on her make-up, sleeping with his leg
over hers. Hannah was a little skittish at first, afraid she’d seem
too needy if she responded the way she wanted to, but gradually she
was relaxing, trusting him more. She looked forward to the time
when they could consummate their marriage.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like
Christmas,” Luke said as he walked into the living room. He smiled
at her, but he looked tired.

“Tough day?” Hannah asked as she climbed down
from the step ladder she was using to decorate the tree.

He walked over to kiss her hello. Hannah
would have liked to prolong the greeting, but he was anxious to
talk about work. “Not bad,” he said as he pulled away. “One of the
paralegals mislabeled some documents.”

“And you chewed her out.”

“Actually, I was quite reasonable about it.
I’m just glad we discovered the error before it went to opposing
counsel.”

Hannah nodded, pleased. “Are you hungry?”

“What’s available?”

Together they walked to the kitchen, where
Hannah found the ingredients to make him a sandwich. She sat on one
of the bar stools and watched him eat. “Don’t you want anything?”
he asked.

“No, I’m not hungry.”

“How’s Rachel? Did she do anything new
today?”

“I think she rolled over, but not on purpose.
I put her on her stomach and she flipped herself over onto her
back. She was so startled, she cried.”

He smiled. “Anything else?”

“I took her to the mall to have a picture
taken with Santa.”

“Isn’t she a little young for that?”

“It wasn’t for her benefit – it was for me. I
wanted the photo opportunity.”

“At least you’re honest about it,” Luke said,
amused.

“Speaking of Santa, what do you want for
Christmas?” Hannah asked. “You’re a very difficult man to shop for,
because it looks like you have everything you need, and if you want
something, you go out and buy it.”

His eyes glinted. “What I want can’t be put
in a box.”

“If you want world peace, so do I, but I
don’t think we’ll get it this year.”

“Actually, I was thinking of something a
little more personal.”