* * *
Catie rode Ladybird to Annie and Dallas’s house. Later, sitting with Annie over herb tea, Catie spilled her guts.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said, after pouring out the story of her and Chad, the baby, and the bedroom situation. “He seems to want me, but yet he doesn’t. This whole baby thing—” She patted her belly. “I want this child. More than anything. But as much as I love Chad, I never wanted it to be like this. It really was an accident, Annie.”
“I know it was,” Annie said, consoling. “And so does Chad.”
“Does he really?”
“Yeah. He does. Don’t you worry about that.” Annie freshened Catie’s tea.
“This isn’t the kind of marriage I wanted.”
“I know, hon.”
Catie sighed. “But it’s what I got. Do you think he might ever love me?”
“Oh, Catie.” Annie reached out and touched Catie’s forearm. “I think he already does. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
Catie jerked backward. “You can’t be serious.”
“I sure am. Do you think, for one minute, that Chad McCray is the kind of guy to do anything he doesn’t want to do?”
“Well…no.”
“So you think he married you when he didn’t want to, out of sole obligation?”
“Well, I think he’s concerned about his child. He wanted him or her to have his name. And the advantage of being a McCray.”
Annie shook her head and chuckled. “You’ve known Chad lots longer than I have, Catie, but you sure can be blind when it comes to him.”
“Love is blind, as they say,” Catie said.
“Blind, yes. But deaf and dumb, too? Do you really think Chad would have dragged you down the aisle just to give his kid a name? I’m not sure you know him at all.”
“Of course I know him.”
“I didn’t mean that as an insult, hon. That’s just the truth of it. You had him on a pedestal all those star-crossed teen years, and then you left for four years. Things change, Catie. People change. But Chad didn’t change. You did.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Chad was always a womanizer. You know that. Never serious. Do you think you’re the first woman to ever claim she was having his child?”
“But—”
“But nothing. He’s gorgeous, he’s rich, and women have been falling all over him for damn near fifteen years. A few have come out of the woodwork, claiming to be pregnant.”
“They have?”
“Only a few, but yeah. And you’re his first wife. What do you think of that?”
“What about the others?”
“None of them were telling the truth.”
“But I am.”
“I know you are. And so does Chad.”