"Got allergies," Lulu announced in a strangled voice. "Go on. " She waved a hand at Nell. "Go tell your man he's going to be a daddy. "
"A daddy!" Nell danced around the counter, threw her arms around Lulu's neck, then around Mia's.
"Oh, I can't wait to see his face. Oh, oh, and Ripley's! I won't be long. I'll be back. " She raced for the stairs, then spun around with her face glowing. "I'm having a baby. "
"You'd think no one ever managed to get knocked up before. " After a last sniff, Lulu stuffed the tissue
back in her pocket. "Guess I'll have to knit some booties. A blanket. " She shrugged. "Somebody has to step in and play grandma. "
Mia slid her arm around Lulu's waist, rested her cheek on the older woman's hair. "Let's sit down a minute and have a good cry. "
"Yeah. " Lulu dragged the tissue back out. "Good idea. "
Nothing, Mia was determined, was going to smear this window of joy. Not a three-hundred-year curse, not the inconvenience and confusion brought on by the early stages of expansion. And most certainly not her own prickles of envy.
Whatever had to be done, Nell would have these thrilling days of happiness and discovery. Because of the hammering and the blocked view from what had been the cafe windows, the lunch crowd had dwindle
d down to the adventurous ones and the diehards. To Mia's way of thinking, the timing couldn't have been better. The smaller crowds allowed Nell a few more hours off a week and the luxury of being distracted.
By the solstice, the bulk of the job would be done. And if the cafe wasn't yet picture perfect, her customers would be able to dine alfresco on her new little terrace. From the sidewalk outside the bookstore, Mia measured the progress. The cantilevered overhang would, when all was said and done, blend well with the rest of her building. She intended to hang baskets of flowers from either end. She'd already ordered the curving ironwork for the banister and had selected the slate for the terrace floor.
She could visualize it completed, decked with cafe tables, pots of summer flowers. And paying customers.
"Coming right along. " Zack stopped beside her.
"Better than I could have hoped. We'll try it out during solstice week and be a hundred percent by the July Fourth holiday. " She let out a deep, satisfied breath. "How are you, Sheriff Daddy?"
"Couldn't be better. It's been the best year of my life. "
"You'll be a good father. "
"I'm going to work hard to be. "
"You will," she agreed. "But the core of it will just be there. Do you remember when we were kids and I used to come to your house?"
"Sure, if you weren't there with Rip, she was up at your place. "
"I always loved coming there, watching your family. Sometimes I'd pretend they were mine. " She leaned into him when he stroked her hair. "Just wondering what it would be like to have that kind of focus, I suppose, from my parents. That interest and amusement and pride. All those things that were so much a part of your house. "
"I guess they were. "
"Oh, Zack, sometimes I'd see your mother look over at you, or Ripley, and just grin. I could hear her thinking, just look at those kids. Aren't they great? And they're mine. Your parents didn't just tend you, didn't just love you. They enjoyed you. "
"We were lucky. We enjoyed them right back. "
"I know. Lulu gave me that, so much of that. So did my grandmother when she was alive. So I understood what it was. And because I did, my parents' innate disinterest in me was such a puzzle. In some ways it still is. "
"Well. " Because he thought she needed it, he pressed a kiss to her hair. "There were times growing up when I'd think you were lucky because you could get away with more than I could. You just had Lu running herd on you, and I had two people. "
"She did the work of two people," Mia said dryly. "Two sneaky people. She would always let me run right to the end of the tether, then, when I thought I'd get away with it, she'd yank me right back. "
"She's still running herd on you. "
"Don't I know it. Anyway, to circle back to where we were before this ramble turned around to be about me, I wanted to say you're going to be a terrific father. You come by it naturally. "
"There's nothing I won't do to protect Nell and the baby. I need to ask you straight out if anything the three of you plan to do can hurt the baby. "
"No. " She framed his face with her hands. "No, I promise you. And I'll give you my word, my vow, that I'll protect her child, your child, as I would my own. "
"Okay, then. Now I'm going to ask you one more thing. You trust me. "
"Zack, I already do. "
"No. " He curled his fingers around her wrists, surprising her with the sudden intensity. "You trust me to do my job, and that job is to protect the people on my island. You trust me to care about you, to stand for you the same way I would my sister. You trust me to help you when it comes time to finish this. You trust me enough for that. "
"For all of that," she told him. "And more. I love you. "