His Ordinary Kiss (His Kiss Book 2) Read online

  Mom stroked my cheek. “Why keep going when you’ve finally achieved perfection?”

  “I’m going to tell Cole you said that,” I teased.

  “Don’t you dare tell your brother I said that.”

  “I don’t know what to do,” I murmured, leaning into her palm. “I guess first I need a doctor?”

  “Already taken care of. You have an appointment at three. Also, your Grandma Linh wants you to come see her afterward.”

  I groaned, rolling over on my side. “Why?”

  Mom didn’t bother hiding her smile. “She has some things to teach you about being Vietnamese pregnant.”

  “I’m not Vietnamese pregnant.”

  “You sure are, baby. You can’t hide it.” Mom pinched my cheek. “I’ll make you some lunch.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The gynecologist my mother picked out for me was conveniently next door to Dr. Forth. Convenient because I wasn’t entirely sure baby appointments wouldn’t send me straight to see my therapist.

  I tried calling Boston since she’d offered to go with me, but she didn’t answer. I assumed she was sleeping; I knew she had to work tonight at the bar. Mom had to go back to work, and my only other options were Grandma Linh, my brother, and Trevor. None of which were going to happen.

  Dr. Calvin wasn’t the man I assumed by his name. Dr. Calvin was a tall, leggy blonde with brilliant blue eyeshadow. Instead of the usual white lab coat singular to doctors and laboratory technicians, Dr. Calvin wore a tie-dyed muumuu over black leggings.

  “Namaste, Vespers Malone. I welcome you today in great blessings,” she said, putting her palms together and bowing her head.

  I sat on the cushioned table, naked but for a scratchy hospital gown. I raised an eyebrow. “Um. Thanks.”

  “I hear there may be a baby. Congratulations.” Dr. Calvin consulted her clipboard. “Lovely. I see you’ve answered all the family history questions. What a lucky girl. I see nothing here that would be cause for alarm.”

  “Good genes?” I offered.

  “Good genes, Miss Vespers.” She slapped the clipboard to the counter and rolled closer on her stool. “Lovely. So what we will do today is go ahead and get a blood sample to verify the pregnancy.”

  “Don’t I just pee in a cup?” I asked.

  She smiled demurely. “No, my lovely. A blood test is much more accurate. And we will also run a full panel blood work on you just to ensure all is well.”

  “Well? What wouldn’t be well?” The vise-like grip of a panic attack knocked at my door. I had a hard enough time dealing with the fact I was pregnant; I couldn’t even comprehend that something could be wrong with the baby. I mentally began buying up all the gaba gaba Tory had to offer, and then had another mini panic attack at the thought that gaba might not be healthy while pregnant.

  Dr. Calvin made a lowering motion with her palms. “Breathe in and out, Miss Vespers. We don’t want to cause any undue stress on the child. I’m sure all is well.”

  I wanted to take her “all is well” and shove it up her namaste ass. Instead, I nodded. “Yes, doctor.”

  An hour passed of drawing blood, answering more questions, and awaiting word from the lab. Finally, Dr. Calvin returned smiling.

  “It is official, my lovely. You are fated to be a mama.”

  I hadn’t disbelieved the home pregnancy test, but this was the real deal. This was a medical doctor—as strange as she was—verifying without a doubt that I was going to have a baby. Trevor’s baby.

  I flushed with heat and my head spun. I felt myself tilting as darkness closed in on the edges of my vision.

  “Vespers?” Dr. Calvin leapt to her feet and reached for me.

  I fainted.

  * * *

  WHEN I CAME TO, Dr. Calvin stood beside my bed poking buttons on a machine.

  “Ah, our lovely awakes,” she said as she noticed my movements. She returned her gaze back to the machine.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “You fainted, Miss Vespers.”

  I groaned. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, no. No need to apologize, my lovely. It happens all the time. Especially with young, unmarried girls such as yourself. It is hard to be told you’re to be a single mother.”

  I put a hand over my eyes and focused on taking deep breaths. “Yeah. It is.”

  “Your blood work looks lovely. I’d like to do an internal ultrasound to verify how far along you are. Would that be okay?”

  I dropped my hand and eyed her distrustfully. “I don’t like the sound of ‘internal’ ultrasound.”

  Dr. Calvin smiled and brandished a long gray wand. “It’s no different than how you became pregnant in the first place.”

  “That is wrong on so many levels,” I said, unable to stop the giggles that followed.

  I liked this bizarre hippie woman who made inappropriate jokes. How on earth did my mother find her?

  “I know the conception date,” I told her. “Why do we have to do this?”

  “Right. We’ve got it here on your sheet. We simply like to verify.”

  “Or you simply like to torture?”

  Dr. Calvin grinned and wagged the wand at me. “Oh, you.”

  The ultrasound was uncomfortable but over quickly. It was most definitely not like how I got pregnant; it was like shoving a hard piece of plastic against my internal organs. The doctor disappeared again for a time and came back with her inevitable clipboard.

  “Are you ready to know the due date?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “April 17th. You’ll have a spring baby. I’ve heard that spring babies are the best. Particularly those born in April.” She winked at me.

  “Were you born in April?”

  “Sure was.” She sat on her stool and moved closer, until her knees were almost touching my legs. “I want you to go ahead and start on prenatal vitamins. I’ve written down my preferred brand for you. All natural; a reputable company.” She handed me a prescription, and then put her hand on top of mine. “I’m going to be with you every step of the way, okay? Don’t be afraid.”

  I nodded but didn’t tell her it was too late. I was already terrified.

  * * *

  GRANDMA LINH MET ME AT the door as if she sensed me coming up the walk. I could blame it on the bee-like sound of my moped. Even though that explanation made sense, I was more likely to say my Grandma had psychic abilities.

  “Heard you got knocked up,” Grandma Linh said in greeting. She spoke perfect English with a thick Vietnamese accent. A tiny woman at barely five feet tall, Grandma Linh had black hair peppered with gray that she kept in a perpetual bun at the nape of her neck. A lifetime’s worth of laugh lines gathered at the corner of her wise eyes. My grandma was weird as she could get, but I adored her.

  “I mighta got knocked up,” I agreed, stepping past her into the condo. The foyer was painted eggshell white and smelled of heady incense and cooked meat.

  Grandma shut the door and motioned with two fingers for me to follow her. She wore a hideously black-and-white striped dress that hit just above her knees, and her skinny-chicken legs ended in sneakers too big for her feet.

  “I made pho. Beef. You want some?” Grandma asked, sidling up to a steaming pot on the stove. The sliding glass patio door was open to the sunshine, and a ceiling fan spun lazily.

  “You want me to throw it up?” I asked, sitting at the table.

  Grandma pursed her lips. “Don’t be crude.”

  “May I have some herbal tea instead?”

  Grandma whirled on me, the soup ladle in hand. As drops of pho hit the linoleum, she snarled, “You cannot drink herbal tea, you silly girl!”

  Eyes wide, I squeaked, “Why?”

  “Herbal tea can cause miscarriage.” Grandma turned back to her soup.

  I stared at her back. “Um. I’ve never heard that before.”

  Grandma ladled some broth in a bowl and set it before me on the table. “Obviously, I have much to teach you a
bout birthing a Vietnamese baby.”

  “Grandma, my baby isn’t Vietnamese.”

  “You are Vietnamese. Your baby is therefore Vietnamese.”

  “I’m like one-eighth Vietnamese,” I argued, feeling as if we couldn’t say the word ‘Vietnamese’ anymore times.

  “Your baby is Vietnamese.” She opened a drawer and extracted a spool of thread.

  I raised an eyebrow at the thread, but shrugged and looked at my pho. It did look good. And she’d only given me broth. Nothing chunky. I picked up my spoon.

  “Now let’s see if it’s a boy or a girl.”

  I managed one bite of broth, which was astonishingly good, before Grandma grabbed my arm. My spoon clunked in the bowl.

  I struggled against her iron-like grasp as she hung a ring on a piece of thread over the inside of my right wrist.

  “What are you doing, Grandma?”

  “Sexing your child, Vespers. Now, shush.”

  “Is that your wedding ring?” I thought I recognized the delicate gold band.

  “Yes, now hush, girl.”

  I obeyed and watched as the ring dangled from the length of thread. After an interminable moment in which I was sure Grandma Linh’s claws were bruising my arm, the ring began to move.

  Grandma Linh smiled. “Ah. A girl. I am pleased.”

  She let go of me so abruptly my arm hit the table. I rubbed the bone at my wrist as pain shot up my nerves. “How do you know?”

  “The ring moves in a circle, it is a boy. Back and forth in a straight line, it is a girl. Yours is a girl.”

  I wasn’t sure I really trusted Grandma Linh’s method of guessing the baby’s gender, but I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of a little girl. A mini me.

  “I made a list.” Grandma returned to the table with her own bowl of pho and a red binder. She shoved the binder across the tabletop. “Everything you must do and must not do for the duration of your pregnancy and in the ensuing months after the birth.”

  I ladled another spoonful in my mouth and swallowed it before I said, “What are you talking about, Grandma?”

  “Vietnamese traditions, girl. Your mother.” She shook her head and clucked. “Your mother did not raise you like I raised her.”

  “For that, we are both grateful,” I joked.

  Grandma Linh slapped the back of my hand with her spoon. “Don’t sass me, girl.”

  “Yes, ba gnoai,” I said, using the Vietnamese for ‘grandmother’ to appease her.

  “I have already called to the florist for a cactus.” Grandma leaned close to slurp an overflowing spoonful of pho.

  “A cactus?”

  “Yes. We must hang the cactus with salt and rice in front of your house.”

  “Dare I ask why?”

  Grandma leveled her deep black gaze on me. “To keep the demons away, of course.”

  Of course.

  Grandma shifted the conversation. “Your mother tells me Boston is engaged?”

  “Yes.” I beamed. I was an insanely proud maid of honor.

  “Good for her. You know I very much like Boston.”

  I braced myself; Grandma Linh didn’t mince words. Though some of the things she said would sound benign and conversational to outsiders, I knew better. If Grandma said something, she said it with an end purpose in mind.

  “You cannot go to the wedding.”

  I put down my spoon and rolled my eyes. “Why is that, ba gnoai?”

  “If you attend a wedding, it will make you too attentive of a mother. Too watchful. That is a sin against the child. The child must have freedom.”

  “Grandma, I’m not missing Boston’s wedding. I’m the maid of honor.”

  “Surely Annabelle Brooks can take your place?”

  I sighed, worried for my supposed baby “girl.” How was I ever gonna explain Grandma Linh’s craziness to her?

  CHAPTER SIX

  “‘Do not sit near thresholds or the baby will be naughty,’” I read from Grandma Linh’s red binder.

  Boston, Annabelle, and I sat around a table at the Tory Grand Hotel’s Tapas Bar the day after my visit with Grandma Linh. There wasn’t a whole lot of fine dining in Tory, but the Tapas Bar was a favorite of ours. We liked the exotic setting with its earth tones and sturdy wooden furniture, not to mention the staff was full of good looking men who were quick to flirt.

  We’d spent the morning looking at dresses at the local wedding boutique, All in the Veil. Boston found a couple she liked, but nothing that screamed THIS IS THE DRESS. Tory was such a small town, if we wanted more options, we were going to have to drive into the city. That would have to wait for another day when I wasn’t nauseated.

  Anna shook her head, her long chestnut hair swishing around her pale shoulders. She was average size and average height, with emerald eyes that always seemed to be smiling and a face that seemed almost too beautiful to be anything but otherworldly. “Don’t sit near thresholds, huh? Don’t you live in a shotgun house?”

  I nodded. “Gonna make things difficult, isn’t it?”

  Boston chuckled, shoving a fork in her salad. “That kid’s gonna be naughty anyway. Look who her parents are.”

  I punched her arm and continued reading. “ ‘You must be happy and positive at all times, or the baby will be negative.’”

  Anna twirled her straw in her iced tea with an amused grin. “Does pretend happy count?”

  “Hey! I’m happy,” I argued.

  Boston raised an eyebrow at me. “Ves, you’re freaked out about being pregnant, and you still haven’t told Trevor.”

  Anna gasped. “Vespers! You have to tell him. He has a right to know.”

  “I know, I know.” I sighed. “I’m not ready.”

  Anna reached across the table and laid a hand on mine. “You are going to tell him, right?”

  I shrugged.

  Anna closed her eyes briefly before speaking. “Ves, I just lost my dad. We may not have been close, but he was my dad. I’d give anything to have him back so we can nag each other all over again. Don’t deprive the baby of his dad.”

  Boston put a hand on Anna’s shoulder, and we sat silently for a moment as Anna composed herself. He had died less than two months ago, so I knew the pain was fresh for her.

  “I wish I’d had a dad who cared enough to nag at me instead of abuse me,” I finally said.

  Boston put her other hand on my shoulder, as if she were trying to give both Anna and me strength by osmosis.

  “All of what you’re thinking and feeling goes back to your dad,” Boston told me.

  I nodded. “Trust me, Dr. Forth and I have talked circles around the subject.”

  “I think you and Trevor would be a great couple,” Anna offered, returning to her burger.

  Boston nodded. “He’d treat you like a queen. And I know you like him, too.”

  I could have told her I was pretty much in love with him, but I wasn’t ready to reveal that yet. Instead, I put to voice the fears that had been plaguing me.

  “Trevor is so ordinary,” I said. “If I get in a relationship with him, and we have this baby, life is going to be ordinary. We’ll buy a house, get married, and be boring, old, married parents. That isn’t the life I want for myself. I want to travel. Experience incredible things. I want that for my daughter, too.”

  “Daughter?” Boston wrinkled her nose. “I thought it was too early to know that.”

  I laughed. “Grandma Linh used her wedding ring as a pendulum and deduced that it was a girl.”

  Anna laughed. “Who needs a medical degree?”

  “You could be with Trevor and do all of that together. With the kid,” Boston said.

  “Would Trevor want to, though? He’s such a homebody. He’s got all his friends here—”

  “What Trevor do you know?” Boston cut in with a laugh. “He was in the Marines for four years. He’s traveled to like six different countries. The only reason he came back home after being injured in Germany was you.”

  Anna lif
ted her eyebrows and gave Boston a pointed look.

  Boston slapped a hand over her mouth.

  “Me?” I asked. “He came home because of me?”

  “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.” Boston exchanged looks with Anna.

  My heart fluttered a tiny bit, enough to tell me I rather liked the idea that Trevor had come back to Tory for me. I’d spent the past six months wondering why on earth anyone would come back after getting the hell out. I’d thought Trevor was a boring Southern guy desperate to remain true to his roots. I also thought I knew everything there was to know about him. Was I wrong?

  “Anna, thanks for putting me in touch with Scarlett,” Boston said to change the subject. “She’s been a dream to work with.”

  “I’m so glad!”

  “Is that the ghostwriter?” I asked, reaching for my water. Boston had been working closely with a ghostwriter to put her story into a fiction novel, complete with everything she’d learned about being an Earthbound spirit.

  Boston nodded. “Scarlett Cassell. She’s a phenomenal writer. We’re in final rewrites now. The publisher is aiming for a January release.”

  “She’s also my closest friend,” Anna said.

  “I thought we were your closest friends?” I joked.

  Anna pinched my arm. “And thank you guys for supporting my ‘rash and irresponsible’ decision to spend six weeks in Ireland.” She crooked her fingers as she quoted her mother.

  “Spending six weeks in Ireland is brave and amazing. Your mother is the kind of person I don’t ever want to be,” I said, twirling my spoon in my water.

  “Ditto,” Anna agreed.

  “You promise you’ll be back in time for my wedding?” Boston asked with a pout.

  “Of course I will. I will be back in plenty of time to don whatever silly dress you pick out and stand by your side while you marry that hunk of man.”

  “Speaking of wedding,” I spoke up. “Grandma Linh says I can’t go.”

  “But your grandma loves me,” Boston said, confused.

  I grinned. “If I attend a wedding while pregnant, I will be ‘too attentive’ as a mother.”