Smart Girls Think Twice (4 page)

“No, that’s not it at all,” Leena said.

“Then what’s the problem?” Maxie turned to Emma. “Do you know what this is about?”

“I, uh . . .” Emma tried to think fast. “I believe what Leena means is that she doesn’t feel the need to have anyone give her away because she’s her own woman.”

Leena nodded. “That’s right. I’m my own woman. A successful businesswoman. Since our website was picked out and featured on
Oprah
a few months ago we’ve gotten half a million hits per month. Advertisers are clamoring for our attention.”

“You know about Leena’s website, right?” Emma said to their mom. “She and her partner started it last fall as a place for women to learn how to increase their self-esteem. They offer all kinds of help—from blogs to message boards to tips from guest speakers. They have sections for all age groups and ethnic groups. The website has really become a big deal in a short period of time.”

Leena grinned. “Who knew empowering women would be so popular?”

Maxie wasn’t impressed. “I don’t see what any of that has to do with your wedding. At least I can count on Sue Ellen to do the right thing? Right, honey?”

“Huh?” Sue Ellen looked up from the pair of sundresses she had in her hands. “Which color do you like better? This one?” She held a cherry red one in front of her. “Or this.” She switched to a lemon yellow one.

“The yellow,” Maxie said. “And I was just telling your sisters how you’ll do the right thing and have your father give you away.”

“I, uh . . .” Sue Ellen looked around as if searching for an escape route. “I think I’m gonna barf.”

She ran for the bathroom.

“Maybe you shouldn’t pressure Sue Ellen right now,” Emma told her mom. “She’s already under a lot of stress.”

“Is she okay? I’m supposed to leave now to meet Donny’s mother so we can go over some last-minute things about the wedding and bridal shower,” Maxie said.

“Then you’d better go.”

“Okay.” Maxie grabbed her seashell-covered purse. “But we’ll continue this conversation when I get back.”

“Not if I can help it,” Leena muttered as their mom left.

“I won’t be here when Mom gets back,” Emma said. “I’m moving into a studio apartment in town tonight.”

“Chicken.”

“Absolutely,” Emma readily admitted. “Do you think Sue Ellen is really okay?” The sounds coming from the bathroom were not pleasant ones.

“She’s fine. She’s just pregnant.”

“
Pregnant?
” Sue Ellen a mother? Emma couldn’t quite wrap her mind around that image.

Her big sister had never even taken care of a pet let alone an infant. “Does Mom know?”

“No, and you’re not gonna tell her.”

“Of course not. You’re sure Sue Ellen is okay?”

“She’s just peachy.”

“Why didn’t she tell me?”

“She had to tell her fiance first.”

“How’s he taking the news?”

“The same way Sue Ellen is. They’re both totally, almost obnoxiously thrilled.”

“Who’s obnoxious?” a pale Sue Ellen asked as she plopped onto the living room couch.

“Emma knows you’ve got a bun in the oven,” Leena replied.

Sue Ellen frowned. “You know I can’t bake. Except for cupcakes. Donny taught me. Ohhh.”

Emma could almost see the lightbulb go on over her oldest sister’s head. “You mean she knows I’m pregnant. Why did you tell her?” Sue Ellen smacked Leena’s arm. “I wanted to do that myself.”

“I told Emma because she was worried about you puking in the john.”

“It’s morning sickness. The doctor says it will pass. Otherwise I’m healthy and so is the baby,” Sue Ellen said.

“How far along are you?” Emma asked.

“Four months. I was afraid that I’d already reached my expiration date. Or that my eggs had.

You know, you two aren’t getting any younger either. Neither are your eggs.”

Emma ignored that comment. “When are you going to tell Mom?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Maybe after Donny and I have left on our honeymoon. I could leave her a letter. Or a card. A ‘Congrats, you’re gonna be a granny’ card. Do they sell those?”

“I have no idea,” Emma said, still struggling to picture her oldest sister raising a baby.

“They should. Maybe I should design one. I could probably make a bundle on it.”

“The only bundle you should be focusing on is the one you’re gonna be delivering in five more months,” Leena said.

“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Emma knew she was asking a lot of questions but she couldn’t help herself.

Sue Ellen shook her head slightly. “No. Donny and I want to be surprised.”

“You realize what this means, don’t you?” Emma said to Leena. “We’re going to be aunts.”

Sue Ellen grinned. “Auntie Leena and Auntie Emma. Sounds cute.”

“If it’s a girl, I can dress her in cute outfits,” Leena said.

Sue Ellen’s smile turned dreamy. “They do have the cutest outfits for little girls. But there are some adorable ones for little boys too—like onesies with the Steelers logo. Donny is a big football fan.”

“So Donny wants a son?” Emma asked.

“He says he’ll be happy with either a son or a daughter.”

“How do you think Mom is going to take this news?” was Emma’s next question. Her older sisters both eyed her suspiciously. “I’m not going to tell her,” she assured them.

“You better not. Or Dad either. Oh no, what if I barf on my way down the aisle?” Sue Ellen demanded. She tipped over until she was semireclining on the couch, her hand dramatically draped over her forehead like a Victorian heroine.

Leena wasn’t impressed. “I told you that you should have eloped like your friend Skye did with her fiance, Nathan.”

Sue Ellen glared at her. “You only said that because you didn’t want me taking your spotlight.”

“You were originally supposed to get married in the fall, not right before I get married,”

Leena said.

“Pregnancy issues changed that,” Sue Ellen said,

“Pregnant!” Maxie stood in the doorway to the trailer. “Who’s pregnant? And before you answer, it better not be any of you!”

Chapter Three

Uh-oh.
Emma hurriedly stood up and headed straight for her suitcases. Time for her to leave. The faster the better.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Maxie demanded.

“I told you I was moving out,” Emma reminded her.

“Not until we get this settled.” Maxie pointed to the couch. “Go sit down.”

Emma wanted to rebel. She also wanted peace and an end to global warming, but it didn’t appear that any of those things were about to happen anytime soon.

The sad truth was that she had very few rebel genes in her. Her older sisters had gotten them all.

She sat on the couch.

“What are you doing back here, Mom?” Leena asked. “I thought you were meeting somebody to pick out a dress.”

“I forgot my cell phone. I left it here on the charger.” Maxie calmly unplugged the phone and put it in her large seashell purse. “What’s going on, girls?”

“We’re not girls anymore,” Leena said. “Sue Ellen is thirty-six, and your baby Emma here is nearly thirty.”

Stung, Emma said, “I’m only twenty-seven.”

Leena shrugged. “Like I said, nearly thirty.”

“You will always be girls to me,” Maxie stated firmly. “Now tell me what’s going on, and one of you had better start talking pronto.” She glared at Leena, who glared right back.

Emma felt the situation slipping away from her and it drove her crazy. It was like waiting for a train wreck to happen. “Perhaps I should moderate this discussion,” she suggested.

“Why do you do that?” Leena’s glare shifted from their mom to Emma. “You never use a little word when a big word will do. Is it to prove how smart you are? There’s no need. We already know you’re the one with the fancy degree. The one Mom likes best. The one who never messes up.”

“Which means she’s not the one who’s pregnant,” Maxie said.

“Hold on a second.” Emma held up her hand like a traffic cop. “I never said I don’t mess up.”

Leena waved her words away. “You don’t have to say it. Mom says it all the time.”

“Then get angry at her, not me,” Emma said.

“If anyone has a right be angry around here, it’s me,” Maxie said. “My own daughter didn’t tell me she’s pregnant.”

“You just said two seconds ago that none of us had better be pregnant,” Emma replied.

“I was upset. In shock. What mother wouldn’t be?” Maxie took a moment to compose herself. “So it’s Sue Ellen, right? That’s why she tossed her cookies.”

Emma avoided her mom’s eagle eye. She certainly didn’t want to be accused of revealing secrets because she blinked at the wrong time or something. She already felt guilty that her mom had overheard them all talking.

Maxie stomped her foot, a sure sign she was losing her patience and her temper. “Who’s pregnant?”

“We both are,” Leena said.

“
What?
” Emma’s mouth dropped open. So did Maxine’s and Sue Ellen’s.

Sue Ellen recovered first to say, “You can’t be pregnant. I’m pregnant.”

Leena shrugged. “You haven’t cornered the market on being pregnant.”

Sue Ellen pointed an accusatory finger at Leena. “You’re only doing this because I’m pregnant and you have to do everything I do!”

“Hardly,” Leena retorted.

Emma edged closer to her suitcases once again. Her sisters and mom were the drama queens.

Emma liked things calm and orderly. “I, um, think I’ll let you three work things out.”

“What, you’re not part of this family now that we’re pregnant?” Sue Ellen said. “Nice to know where your loyalties lie.”

Emma resented that accusation. “Hey, I’m wearing that Pepto-Bismol pink bridesmaid’s dress with the dumb-looking butt bow and stupid puffy sleeves to your wedding. I think that proves my loyalty.”

Leena nodded her agreement. “My bridesmaids’ dresses are much better than Sue Ellen’s.”

“See, that’s what I mean.” Sue Ellen glared at Leena. “This is just a competition to you.

The weddings, having a baby. All a competition.”

“Hey, I’ve had my wedding date set for ages,” Leena said.

“Yeah, well my proposal was more romantic than yours,” Sue Ellen retorted. “And Donny makes more money than Cole the veterinarian does. Smiley’s Septic Service is a gold mine.”

“You know the concept of sibling competition is an interesting one,” Emma began, hoping to stave off any further escalation in their argument. “So is the part that birth order plays in character development . . .”

Her attempt at playing peacemaker was not greeted with appreciation. Instead both her sisters turned to her and shouted, “Shut up!”

“You shut up,” Emma shot back. “I can be as messed up as you both are.”

“Are you going to tell me that you’re pregnant too, Emma?” Sue Ellen demanded.

“No, but—”

“Having a baby trumps everything else,” Sue Ellen stated.

No surprise there. Her sisters had always demanded their place in the spotlight, leaving Emma standing on the sidelines. A mixed metaphor maybe, but an apt one. Their crisis du jour had always been more dramatic than anything Emma could come up with.

Not that Emma was vying for that kind of attention. She wasn’t. She never had. Even as a kid, she’d always been the observer. The one quietly in the corner with her head in a book, off in another world.

Her mom patted her shoulder. “Ignore them, honey. They’re just jealous that you are an important professor.”

“Your daughters tell you they’re pregnant and all you do is think of Emma.” Sue Ellen’s voice held more than a tinge of bitterness. “Figures. No surprise there.”

Maxie turned to her oldest daughter. “Now what are you talking about?”

“The fact that Emma has always been your favorite.”

“She’s a good girl.” Maxie gave Emma another approving pat on the shoulder.

We’re all good girls
, Emma wanted to say but somehow couldn’t. She wasn’t sure her older sisters would appreciate her attempt to stick up for them. Maybe they didn’t want to be good. Maybe they liked being nonconformists.

Emma’s uncertainty underlined the fact that she didn’t know her sisters all that well anymore.

She’d always felt closer to Leena, who was only two years older. But now . . . Emma didn’t know what to think.

And that wasn’t like her. Emma usually had her thoughts in order. Under control. Sure, she sometimes brainstormed and random ideas would hit her when she least expected it—like when she was in the shower or right before she fell asleep. Lately those ideas had all revolved around her project about Rock Creek’s revival. Had she been deliberately avoiding thinking about her family’s dynamics and the impending weddings? Probably.

She’d certainly walked into a hornet’s nest here. Emma had no idea that both her sisters seemed to think that their mom favored Emma as the baby in the family. Yes, her mom seemed proud of Emma’s academic accomplishments, but she’d seemed equally proud of Leena’s modeling successes as well.

As for Sue Ellen, well she had lead a colorful life and their mom had worried about some of Sue Ellen’s choices. Sue Ellen had married right out of high school against their parents’

wishes. And gotten divorced soon afterward. Emma had barely been in middle school then, so her memories of that time weren’t exactly fresh.

But Sue Ellen seemed to have chosen a good guy this time around. Emma had met Donny the first evening she’d been in town. He’d seemed really nice and he clearly adored Sue Ellen.

Your sisters have their lives mapped out before them and where are you? Lost in your own
underachieved goals. Unsure of your choices. Still searching in vain for your own place in
the world.

“Yeah, we all know Emma’s a good girl. Yada, yada, yada,” Sue Ellen was saying.

“I love all my daughters,” Maxie said defensively.

“Sure you do,” Sue Ellen said before adding the kicker, “just not equally.”

“You’re pregnant.” This time Maxie patted Sue Ellen’s shoulder. “Your hormones are talking, not you.”

“How typical,” Leena muttered. “This family never talks about anything. You’re all in total denial.”