A Time in Heaven (16 page)

November passed slowly.  After the first week, storm after storm came
rolling
in from the Pacific.  Snow piled up until only half the windows could let in the dim, late autumn light.  It became a never ending job for Jesse and Katie to keep the door clear of snow.  They had to keep an area clea
ned off for Sadie, too.  She lo
ved the white stuff for th
e first few times that it came down
, but it was getting a little old now.  It took a good bit of persuasion to get her to go out.

MATTHEW

Toward the end of the month, Jesse was softly playing his guitar
in front of the fireplace
when he remembered about Thanksgiving coming in
less than a week. After Christmas, it was his favorite holiday
.  He
smiled remembering how he
would
usually
spend the day quietly with family and a few friends.
No matter where he was in the world, he always somehow managed to get back
home
for the
holi
day.
His mother
would make
sure it was an old fashioned holiday
. Friends and family shared in the
football, the parade and of course,
the
turkey.  He missed his mother and wondered how she was doing.  Does she really think he is dead? How would she deal with losing a husband of forty years and a son within such a short time?  A tear ran down his cheek for his mother.

On the Thanksgiving Day
, Katie wanted to make it a special day for Jesse.  She knew how he felt about
the importance of family. S
he wanted
this year, with his new family,
to be one to remember. T
here would be no football and no parade to watch.  But
,
there would be turkey! Be it canned turke
y meat, it would be
turkey.  On
the menu
for their feast,
she
also
included potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans and for dessert, pumpkin pie.  She realized it wouldn’t replace the Thanksgiving meals he was accustomed to, but she was a good cook and would make this a meal to remember. “
Mak
ing new family traditions this year
, Jesse with your new family,”
Katie said to herself
as she smiled
.
The secret she was keeping would make it all possible.

Katie asked Jesse to bring one of the small tables from the dining room and set it up in front of the fireplace.  He offered to set the table while Katie was cooking.  The first chore to be done was to build a roaring fire in the fi
replace.  With the flames
warming up the lobby, he found a fresh table cloth and all the dishes and flatware
he
needed to set a fine table for them.  It looked very elegant when he had finished.  One more thing was needed.  He went into the store and found some candles that he used to make a centerpiece for the table.

The lobby looked warm and inviting.  Jesse took his guitar and softly played to add to the ambience. Katie heard him in the kitchen.  She recognized the song and softly hummed along.  How many times had she wanted to be able to sing with Jesse Danvers?  Now she actually was doing it. The fan in her came out for just a second, and she
beame
d.  Another thing to be thankful for this year, she thought.

Dinner was ready.  Katie asked Jesse for some help carrying everything to the table.  Jesse commented on how good it smelled. “It makes me feel like I’m
back
home
at the family farm
.  Thank you, Love.” He put down his tray of food
on the coffee table that sat beside their dinner table.  “I love you,” he said as he kissed her cheek.   He took her tray and put it down besides his.  They put the dishes of food on their table and sat down to eat.  Ever the gentleman, Jesse pulled the chair out for Katie.
He took
her hand as she sat.  He gallantly kissed her hand and then sat down to the feast before him.

“Oh, wait!  I have a surprise,” Katie announced.  She quickly walked back to the dining room and returned with a bottle of wine.  “I found this in the store,” Katie said as she handed the bottle over to Jesse for him to open.

There was no cork, just a twist cap.  Neither of them cared much.  The wine was just the finishing touch to their meal.  Everything was perfect for their first Thanksgiving together.

Jesse poured the wine into the simple water glasses.  “A toast,” he said as he lifted his glass.  Katie lifted her glass to Jesse’s toast
, ‘To our very first Thanksgiving and to the many more we have to look forward to in our future together.”

“To our future,” Katie responded.

Jesse took a sip of the wine, but Katie just pretended to sip it.  She sat the glass on the table.  Sh
e wasn’t ready to tell Jesse her
news just yet.

They thoroughly enjoyed the evening together.  They told stories from their past.  Many of their memories were strangely similar, but in completely different settings.  Katie had grown up in western Pennsylvania where her blue-collar family
had
lived
for generations
.  Jesse came from a military family that
t
raveled.  He had even spent one Thanksgiving in Japan when he was a young boy. The memories came from how the family came together every year.

As Jesse finished
his meal
, he commented,
“
This Thanksgiving absolutely blew me away.  Thank you.” He filled his glass with wine, but noticed that Katie hadn’t touched hers.  “Didn’t you like the wine?” He asked.

“I didn’t even taste it.” Katie looked at Jesse like she was going to burst if she didn’t tell him her secret.  “I have a good reason, though.”  She smiled at him.  “Jesse
, I don’t know if you have notice, but I have not had a period since I got to the island.”

“I kind of wondered about that, but I thought maybe you, I don’t know what I thought. It was your business and sort of personal.  After all we were pretty much strangers.
Is there something wrong?” Jesse gave her
an
uncomfortable but
concerned look.

“Jesse, I think I’m pregnant.” She waited for a reaction.

“Whoa. Wait a minute. 
Are you saying that I am the father?
You said you were a fan of mine, then, you know that I was told
by the doctors
that I can’t father a child.  There must be something else going on – stress, food poisoning – but not a baby.”

It wasn’t quite the reaction Katie had wanted. 

“You have a biologi
cal daughter
.” Katie
sheepishly responded.  She
als
o knew about the rumors that she
was not really Jesse’s.

Jesse looke
d a little annoyed, “You must know the rumors too.  I’m not sure if she i
s my biological daughter. 
But,
o
nce I held her
in my arms
I didn’t care, so I never had a paternity test done.”

Katie felt he
rself get defensive, “Jesse, i
f I am pregnant, it is yours.  I have no doubt.  I hadn’t been with a man for six months before I came here.”

“I’m
sorry;
I didn’t mean to imply anything. It’s just that I didn’t think I could ever have a child.
” He could see how upset Katie had become.
 
“Can’t you understand my surprise?  Wait - you said you think you are pregnant.
How can we eve
n be sure you are
?” Jesse said
remorsefully
.

Katie held up an early pregnancy test
that she had in her pocket
.  “I found this in
the store.  It might be old, but should we give it a try?
”

Jesse took her by the hand and they went upstairs.  Katie went into the bathroom to do the test.  Jesse and Sadie waited in the bedroom.
  This had totally thrown Jesse.  How could it be that he had tried so hard to have children with his first wife and Katie would become pregnant, probably, that first night on the island?  He tried to figure the timeline.  If she had been pregnant when she came to the island then she would be showing by now.  He was familiar with her body enough to know that she showed no indication of being pregnant that long. 

Jesse put his arm around Sadie and hugged the dog.  He was feeling guilty even considering that Katie would lie to him.

A few minutes later, s
he came out of the bathroom and sat on the bed with Jesse.  About five
agonizing
minutes passed, when she asked Jesse to check the results.  He came back with the little stick in his hand. 
He was smiling, but Katie didn’t know why.  Was he happy that they were pregnant or was he happy that they weren’t?

She stood up.  He hugged and kissed her, “We’re going to have a baby!”
  H
e announced.

Jesse
trusted
that Katie
was telling him the truth about not being with another man
for a long time before she came to the island. 
Katie was relieved with Jesse’s reaction.  “It is yours, you know?”

“Oh, I kn
ow.” Jesse said as he beamed with excitement.

The next couple of weeks after they found out they were pregnant, Jesse was walking around with his head in the clouds. It was more than he could imagine having a child that he was sure was his own. 
He loved his other children and wouldn’t have missed his time with them, but this one was his.  This child would have Danvers blood.

He spent his time pampering Katie.  He’d bring her breakfast in bed. He insisted on doing all the housework.  Walking Sadie was out of the question for Katie.  The dog might pull too hard, or cause her to fall.

Although Katie was concerned about the medical complications that could happen, she was too excited to spend time dwelling on them.  She was going to be a mom.  She had thought it may never happen to her.  Now, she was having a baby with the man she planned on growing old with.  She imagined them as a family and it made her giggle.

Making love was out of the question as far as Jesse was concerned.  Katie assured him that it wouldn’t affect the pregnancy, but there was no convincing him.  Instead they would lay in bed
at night
secure in each other’s arms.  They would talk about their future and now a futu
r
e that would include a child.

They
even decided on names.  If the baby was a girl, her name would be Sarah. 
If it was a boy, and Jesse was sure it was, his name would be Matthew.
There was no real argument about the names.  When
Sarah and Matthew were mentioned
, Katie and Jesse both agreed without hesitation.
As if the child agreed, Katie felt movement in her abdomen for the first time.  She quickly had Jesse feel their child moving within her.

The week before Christmas,
Katie had felt a sensation that wasn’t right.  In the bathroom, she saw that she was spotting.
  It wasn’t much, just a few drop
s
of blood. She wasn’t overly concerned.  Some of her pregnant friends had experienced the same thing and their babies were fine.
She didn’t say anything about it to Jesse.

The next night brought pain and heart break to Katie and Jesse.  Katie woke sometime after midnight with severe cramping.  It hurt so much that she called out to Jesse.  She
realized,
by the intensity of the contraction, that
she was in labor.  Being only four months along, she knew the baby couldn’t survive if it was born now.

Jesse’s only thought was to help Katie.  He asked what he should do. She told him the only thing he could do was to hold her.  He did his best to console Katie through the pain and the sadness. They both knew that their child was not going to live.

At dawn the still-born baby
came into the world.  It would have been a boy.

Jesse wrapped the body of his tiny son in a towel.  He wasn’t much bigger than the palm of Jesse’s hand, but the baby’s face was fully
developed.
  Jesse could even imagine that his son looked like him.  A tear rolled down the grief stricken father’s face, but he quickly wiped it away before he turned to Katie.  She asked to see the baby.

Katie held out her arms. Jesse
laid
the baby beside her.  She cri
ed as she took her first look at
their child.  She thought of all their dreams that would never come true.  Jesse sat with her and they both sobbed.

They sat with their son
,
that they called Matthew, most of the morning.  Neither of them said anything until Jesse
painfully
said through his tears, “We will have to put Matthew to rest somewhere special.”