Dustin lapsed into miserable silence, knowing that if he spoke what was on his mind, Chantelle would gently or not so gently remind him that this baby was no concern of his. But next week, Dennis and Samantha would be gone, and so would any reason he’d have for staying. By the time she was having her test done, he’d be on a flight back home to the States.
He was going to miss it.
Chantelle’s hand shot out and grabbed his forearm. The other hand clapped over her belly as she gasped.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded. “Do you want me to call the doctor back?”
But on her face was a look of pure joy and delight, and a laugh escaped her lips. “I felt him! I felt him!”
It took a few seconds to fully comprehend what she was saying. “The baby? Kicking?”
She frowned a bit, thinking, and then said slowly, “Notkickingexactly. He’s too tiny to kick. It’s more like,” she struggled to find the words to explain. “More like gently clasping a butterfly between your cupped hands, and feeling it flutter there.”
Dustin tried to imagine the wonder of that feeling, but couldn’t. In months to come, when Chantelle began showing, and the baby was big enough, he knew that the kicks could be felt by someone placing their hand on her tummy. And they would be able to share the experience of connecting with that tiny miracle inside his haven. He wished to God that someone would be him.
When she squealed again, her eyes lit up, rippling as the frisson rolled through her, Dustin thought that she had never looked more beautiful.
Chapter 25
It was late afternoon, two days later, when Chantelle arrived at her home in France with Sienna in tow. As she watched the butler effortlessly collect Sienna’s bags to take upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms, she reflected that her house was certainly getting full.
Full but quiet. There was no sign of her siblings and Samantha, or of Dustin, either. “Anyone home?” she called softly. It was weird, that feeling of disappointment that came over her when she realized that she’d come home after a trip and there was nobody there to greet her.
You come home to an empty house every evening, back in the States,she reminded herself.You’re used to it. What’s the problem?
She heard Sienna squeal and turned to see the younger woman bend over to scoop Minerva into her arms. The huge cat was in a rare, talkative mood,yelping away at Sienna in happy welcome. Good friends reunited.
Sienna hefted the cat onto her shoulder as if it was a toddler, and led the way into the kitchen. “I think we need a drink after that flight.” She glanced at Chantelle’s tummy and laughed. “Well,Ineed a drink.Youcan have that God-awful flavored water you’re always raving about.”
Chantelle made her way to the kitchen, with Sienna following behind her, smiling. She handed Sienna a wine bottle and watched as her assistant poured a liberal glass of wine for herself, while she herself unscrewed the cap on a bottle of lemon water and poured it into a glass and took a big sip.
“Why would anyone drink plain, ordinary water?” she countered.
“Because that’s the way God intended?” Sienna retorted with spirit, plopping a floppy Minerva onto her lap.
The butler, having dropped off Sienna’s small bags, appeared in the kitchen, asking in French where he should put the rest of the packages. She pondered for a moment, not having thought that far ahead, and then decided the best place would be in the bedroom nearest her own, as that would most likely be the one she would convert into a nursery.
She grinned to herself as she figured that the man would need to make several trips to get all her bounty inside. Chantelle had spent two days in Paris, getting dragged around the city from baby store to baby store, shopping for items for her “little cabbage” as Naisha kept calling the baby.
To Chantelle, it was insane, buying so much stuff for a tiny person who wouldn’t be putting in an appearance for another six or seven months, and whose sex they didn’t even know yet.
But the trip had been a blast. She loved the fact that Naisha and Jacyn had embraced her so fully that they’d wanted to spend two days in her company, and watched with delight when Jacyn and Sienna, old friends since their youth, launched themselves wholeheartedly into the fun.
She’d even met Shaundra, the wife of one of William and Alex’s business associates, who turned out to be a live wire. After the baby shopping, the girls had insisted on going clubbing. Chantelle had been a bit reticent at first, because she’d never exactly thought of herself as a party girl, but at their insistence, bought a new dress, she’d let her hair down, and actually enjoyed the dancing and gossip.
She’d sat back and listened as the women gushed over their husbands and their babies, the new lives they’d built through passion, love and trust, and struggled to fight back a twinge of jealousy. Their lives were so rich.
The huge chasm between their lives and hers was made even wider by the fact that she had to lie about her own situation, to pretend that she was wildly in love, a newlywed who’d stumbled giddily into a whirlwind marriage to the man of her dreams.
And the only person who knew the truth was Sienna, who loyally supported her as she wove her web of fibs, even gleefully throwing in a few “details” that were so outrageous, only Sienna could have come up with them.
It had been a great weekend.
There was a clatter emanating from the interior of the house, and Chantelle lifted her head expectantly. Dustin appeared, followed by another tall, dark-haired man.
She locked eyes with Dustin, who gave her a wide grin. She surprised herself by grinning back, taken unawares by the ripple of delight that rolled through her at seeing him again.
It’s only been two days,she reminded herself.And, besides, for two nights you got to sleep on your own.