Susan Phillips - Nobody’s Baby But Mine

A security alarm shrieked.

“Cal! Have you gone crazy?”

“Pretty much.” Grabbing her arm, he pulled her inside. What was he doing?

He manacled her wrist with his fingers and drew her past lawn chairs and lighting fixtures to the paint section. The alarm continued its disconcerting wail. “The police are going to come!” she exclaimed.

“Don’t you worry about the police; Odell Hatcher and I have been friends for years. You just worry about whether or not we can find the right wallpaper for that kitchen of ours.”

“Wallpaper?You brought me here to pick out wallpaper?”

He looked at her as if she were dull-witted. “How else am I supposed to prove my feelings for you?”

“But…”

“Here we are.” He settled her, not ungently, onto one of the stools that lined the counter in the wallpaper department, then turned to regard the shelves, which were stocked with dozens of wallpaper books. “Damn, I didn’t know it was going to be this complicated.” He began reading off the shelf labels. “Bathrooms. Dining rooms. Vinyls. Flocks. What the hell is a flock? Don’t they have something with-I don’t know-horses or something? Do you see a horse category?”

“Horses?”

For the first time, a shadow of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, as if he were beginning to realize just how ridiculous this was. “You could help out a little bit here instead of just saying things back to me.”

The wail of a police siren joined the security alarm, and tires screeched in front of the store. “Stay right here,” he ordered. “I’ll take care of this. On second thought, maybe you’d better crouch down behind the counter just in case Odell has his gun out.”

“Gun! I swear, Calvin Bonner… when this is over, I’m going to-”

Her threat died on her lips as he pulled her from the stool and pushed her to her knees on the carpet behind the counter.

“Odell, it’s me!” he called out. “Cal Bonner.”

“Get out of the way, Cal!” a rough voice replied. “We got a robbery goin’ on here. Don’t tell me they took you hostage!”

“There’s no robbery. I kicked in the door because I have to pick out some wallpaper. My wife’s here, too, so if you’ve got any ideas about firing that gun you’ve got in your hand, forget it. Tell Harley I’ll settle up with him tomorrow. And help me turn off this damned alarm.”

It took Cal a good fifteen minutes, along with the appearance of Harley Crisp, the hardware store owner, before the alarm was turned off and things set straight.

While Cal was talking his way out of a breaking and entering charge, Jane got up from behind the counter and sat on the stool so she could ponder how, in Cal’s mind, picking out wallpaper constituted proof of his love. She couldn’t see even the smallest link. He’d been angry with her for stripping off the wallpaper, but what did replacing it have to do with love? There was certainly a link in his mind, however, and if she forced him to explain his logic, he’d give her that incredulous look that called into question the results of all the IQ tests she’d ever taken.

As confusing as this was, she did understand one thing. To Cal’s way of thinking, this late-night shopping expedition proved his love, and that was that. A traitorous warmth began to sneak through her.

Harley Crisp finally closed the door behind him, taking along a sizable chunk of Cal’s cash. They were left alone in the store.

Cal looked down at her with an expression that was suddenly uncertain. “You don’t think all this is stupid, do you? You do understand about the wallpaper?”

She didn’t have a clue, but nothing would make her admit it, not while he was gazing at her with his heart in his eyes and a forever kind of love softening his voice.

“What I really wanted to do for you, sweetheart, was win a football game,” he said huskily. “Dan Calebow did that for Phoebe once, and I wanted to do it for you, except the season hasn’t started yet, and winning a game wouldn’t count with you. Besides, compared to this, that’d be so easy it wouldn’t prove anything. I wanted to do something hard. Really hard.” He waited, an expectant look on his face.

“Pick out wallpaper?” she offered tentatively.

His eyes came alive, as if she’d just given him the keys to the universe. “You do understand.” With a groan, he pulled her off the stool and into his arms. “I was scared to death you wouldn’t. I promise I’ll figure out the work thing just as soon as I can.”

“Oh, Cal…” Her words caught on a happy sob. She didn’t have the faintest idea how he’d sorted all this out in his mind. She didn’t understand about breaking into the hardware store or picking out wallpaper, but she knew this was real. Cal’s feelings for her weren’t about the challenge she presented to him. He was giving her his warrior’s heart, and she wouldn’t let those old wounds from her childhood keep her from taking it.

They gazed deeply into each other’s eyes and saw a pathway into their own souls.

“It’s a real marriage now, sweetheart,” he whispered. “Forever and ever.”

And then, right there in the hardware store, he pulled her down onto the carpet behind the counter and began making love to her. Naturally, he didn’t want her wearing even a single stitch of clothes, and she felt the same about him.

When they were naked, he surprised her by reaching for his jeans. She propped herself up on one elbow and watched him withdraw a bedraggled pink bow from the pocket, its pom pom loops flattened almost, but not quite, beyond recognition.

“You kept it,” she said.

He leaned forward to nuzzle her breast. “At first I had the idea of making you eat it, then I was going to tie you up with it while I let those rats nibble on you.”

“Uhmm.”She lay back and did some nibbling of her own. “What are you going to do with it now?”

He muttered something that sounded like, “You’ll think it’s stupid.”

“I will not.”

He drew back and gazed at her. “Promise you won’t laugh.”

She nodded solemnly.

“You were the best birthday present I ever got.”

“Thank you.”

“I wanted to give you something back, but I’ve got to warn you that it’s not half as good as my present. Even so, you have to keep it.”

“All right.”

He draped the pink bow around his neck and grinned. “Happy birthday, Rosebud.”

“I swear, Jane, this is the craziest thing I ever let you talk me into. I don’t know why I listened.”

Cal had listened because he’d been jumping through hoops this past month trying to please her as she grew bigger than a house and grouchier than a bear. Even now, she wanted to bash him over the head, just on general principles. But she loved him too much. So she settled for snuggling into his big arms instead.

They sat in the back of a black stretch limousine heading for Heartache Mountain. The trees that lined the road were splashed with October’s colors: yellows, oranges, and reds. This would be her first mountain autumn, and she’d been aching to see it, as well as get reacquainted with the friends she’d made before they’d had to leave Salvation. Cal and his family had dragged her to every important function, and it hadn’t been long before the townspeople’s resentment toward her had disappeared.

As the limo neared Salvation her anticipation grew. Cal had ordered the car because the hamstring injury that had him sidelined for the next few weeks also kept him from driving, and he wouldn’t let her behind the wheel until after the baby was born. It was probably just as well. Her back was killing her from those awful airline seats, and she felt too crummy to concentrate on the mountain roads. She’d been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for several weeks, those practice contractions that lead up to the real thing, but they’d been worse than normal this afternoon.

He kissed the top of her head. She sighed and snuggled closer. If she’d needed anything more to convince her of Cal’s love, these past few weeks had done it. As her pregnancy had advanced to its final week, she’d become demanding, moody, and generally bitchy. In response, he’d been unendingly affectionate and obnoxiously good-humored. Several times she’d tried to prick his temper just for the challenge of it, but instead of rising to the bait, he’d laughed at her.

Easy for him to be so happy, she thought sourly. He wasn’t the one carrying around a thousand pounds of future Olympic athlete and Nobel laureate. He wasn’t stuck in this oversize tent of a dress with a stupid Peter Pan collar; an aching back; nagging, unproductive contractions; and a pair of feet she hadn’t seen in weeks! On the other hand, he was sidelined for the next few games, so he wasn’t exactly on top of the world. Still, his injury was the reason they were able to fly home to Salvation in the middle of the season.

She reached down to rub his thigh. It wasn’t his hamstring, but it was the closest thing she could comfort. Her eyes filled with ever-ready tears as she thought of the pain he’d been in on Sunday when that ignorant cretin who played for the Bears had sacked him on fourth and two. Cal had been playing a glorious game up until then, and if Jane could have gotten her hands on that Neanderthal after the game, she would have taken him apart.