Worth the Drive (23 page)

“Okay, you take suitcase, I’ll take the golf bag,” Katie said.

Darío
shook his head in disbelief. “You can’t tak
e that either. You shouldn’t
lift anything so heavy.”

Katie sighed and sat on the bed, holding her hands up in surrender. “Okay, fine, you haul
them both. I’ll just sit here and be pregnant.”

Darío
smiled, the warmth returned to his face. “Thank you. If you want to he
lp, I hadn’t gotten to my carry-
on bag, yet. My shaving kit from the bathroom, those papers over there,” he pointed to a sheaf of papers on the credenza, “and anything else you see laying around.”

Darío
picked up the suitcase and went out the door. Katie went to the bathroom. His shaving kit was mostly packed. Only a canister of deodorant, his toothbrush, toothpaste, and aftershave were left on the counter. Katie was shocked by the overwhelming sense of intimacy she felt as she packed his toothbrush in the travel case she found in the kit. Her fingers gently stroked the bottle as she brought the aftershave to her nose, breathing deep.
Darío
always smelled so good, and now she knew why. The label was in Spanish and looked expensive. Not something she’d be able to pick up for him at Wal-Mart.

She stepped o
ut of the bathroom, put the now-
complete shaving kit into the carry on bag and collected the papers off the credenza, adding them. She looked around for anything that wasn’t hotel issue. There was a stack of magazines on the bedside table. Not sure if he’d read them or not, she scooped them up to take.

Covered by the magazines, at the bottom of the pile were two books
.

Always interested in what other people were reading, Katie sat on the bed to look them over. She heard
Darío
behind her come in for his golf bag, then leave again. The first book was a thriller currently on the bestseller list. It had a price sticker on it from an airport bookstore. She guessed that’s where
Darío
bought most of his books, not getting a chance to actually go to bookstores and browse for hours as she loved to do.

She tossed the book into the carry on bag, on top of the magazines. Her breath caught as she looked at the second book.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

She knew the book well. She’d read it once all the way through, years ago. And had read the first few
Chapter
s again and again every time she and Ron would await either the news of pregnancy, or the inevitable onset of her period.

It seemed
Darío
had read the beginning several times himself. The pages in the front of the book were somewhat ragged and dog-eared and Katie saw that some pages were actually turned down to mark certain spots.

She flipped to the first marked page.
Nutrition in the first trimester
.
Surely
Darío
would find no fault with her there. She’d been religious about her diet from the moment she’d found out she was pregnant. In all honesty, she ate pretty healthily before that as well. The hangover in Texas had mentally stayed with her long enough that she hadn’t even had a beer at the Commodore during Friday night pizza with the girls before she’d found out she was pregnant. She was even drinking milk for goodness sake, and she hated milk.

She flipped a few pages until the next bent down page stopped her.
Mood Swings
. Ah, she’d had those all right. But they’d been from deliriously happy to euphoria. Having struggled with infertility so long, there were none of the doubts that could wiggle their way into a snit. No thoughts about the changes to her body. No second-guessing about the kind of mother she’d make
.

The only swing her psyche had taken was in respect to
Darío
. But then, Katie had the sneaking suspicion that
Darío
could wreak havoc with her mood regardless of pregnancy. His physical presence anywhere in her vicinity did funny things to her body. Things not pregnancy-induced.

She thumbed through the well-read pages and stopped at the next marked page.
Sex in Early Pregnancy
. She chuckled to herself. It was nice to know that
Darío
still thought of her in that way. After another chaste good night kiss at her door last night after the visit
to
her parents’, she was beginning to wonder.

She didn’t need to read the pages. She knew what they said. In some cases, women would become sexually hu
ngry during the first trimester
. In other cases, some women would display a decrease in their libido during the first trimester, then a sexual awakening of sorts would take place and desire would return.

Katie didn’t know if she fell into the later category or if the timing of
Darío
’s appearance played a part, she only knew the last two days she’d felt a “sexual hunger” like she hadn’t experienced in years.

She heard
Darío
coming down the hallway and threw the book
into the carry-
on bag, zipped it up and headed to the door to meet him. To take him away from the hotel and to her home.

“What a difference a year makes, eh?” Alison said.

The three women were seated at a long banqu
et table, one of at least fifty
at the Annie Aid dinner dance in the Hancock Rec Center, a hockey arena used for weddings and banquets in the summer when the ice was taken out. The table was strewn with the remnants of a delicious dinner catered by an old high school friend.

Darío
was across the hall, sitting at a table amon
gst several professional hockey
and football players graciously signing autographs for anyone who wished. Occasionally he’d glance up, and give her a questioning, “you okay?” look, to which she’d smile and nod.

Annie Aid was a rousing success, as Katie knew it would be. The sun had shone bright and strong on the Copper Country for the
well-
attended golf outing earlier in the day. The dinner dance was going great. The only event left was the celebrity memorabilia auction. Lizzie had scheduled that for last, figuring with a good dinner and a few drinks, people would feel like opening their checkbooks a little wider.

Katie figured if
that’s what Lizzie planned, the
n it was surely a good strategy. Anything Lizzie planned seemed to come off with a hitch. But now, with Alison’s remark, she remembered the same night a year ago, and was reminded of one of Lizzie’s plans that had blown up in her face.

Remembering her own entrance to the dinner dance a year ago – in the brand new Hummer that Ron had just purchased – Katie shivered.

“Worst
night of my life, easily,” Lizzie said. Katie thought maybe Lizzie shivered as well.

“Not one of my best, either,” Katie said. The other women looked at her. They all knew why Lizzie had hated that night – it was the night she and
Finn
had broken up – albeit temporarily. Their questioning glances wondered why Katie felt so strongly.

Explaining, Katie said, “Ron had just come home with the monstrosity that day. It was the beginning of the end, even though I didn’t know it at the time.” But that wasn’t the entire truth. Looking back, she could remember the way her stomach contracted as he smooth talked his way out of spending their invitro fund on a ye
llow school bus. Though she ha
dn’t put it into a conscious thought, she’d known that day there’d be no baby.

She rubbed her tummy, looked across the civic center and saw
Darío
once again watching her, a small smile on his face. She patted her non-existent belly and raised her glass of milk to him in a toast. He laughed. She couldn’t hear the sound way over here, but she knew it by heart.

The girls had their concerns about her going off with
Darío
, and her parents had voiced theirs. But Katie didn’t want to think too much about her decision to travel with
Darío
, didn’t want to make plans for anything beyond the next Tour stop.

Lizzie was the one
who
was the plan maker, and this smoothly-run night was a testament to that fact. Life just seemed to happen to Katie. Sure, she had plans, but things seemed to always turn in a different direction for her.

She’d met Ron her freshman year at State and it had seemed so right, so natural to marry after graduation, even though Lizzie and Alison were starting exciting new careers.

Moving back to Hancock just sort of happened to them as well. They’d thought they’d spend the first five or six years of their marriage with Ron playing in the NHL and Katie traveling to games. Ron had wanted her with him and Katie, her experiences limited to the Copper Country and East Lansing, wanted to see the country.

A dirty crosscheck by a University of Michigan player left Ron’s NHL dreams in the dust. Katie lamented the lost opportunity to travel, but when Ron said he thought they should move to Katie’s hometown, she’d agreed. After all, Ron had been so devastated at his career-ending injury that Katie felt ashamed to express her disappointment at not being able to travel a little before settling down.

They’d settled in easily, Katie getting on at the
Ingot
– which was ecstatic to actually have someone with a journalism degree
in
their midst. Ron became a math teacher at Katie’s alma mater, Hancock High School. Three years later when the hockey coach retired, Ron took that on as well.

Their lives were smooth, envied, blessed.

Until they’d decided it was time to start a family.

Katie’d wanted to start after three years of marriage, Ron after five, so they’d compromised and began trying right after their fourth anniversary.

She’d never imagined there’d be any problems. Her mother had borne five children with no problems. Her brothers had already begun their families. Having her nieces and nephews around her made her yearn for a child of her own.

She hadn’t been concerned until a year had gone by. They hadn’t done any temperature taking or any hormone charting, but they’d made love nearly every night, and not just for the sole purpose of conception. There were certainly no problems in the bedroom which could be attributed to her infertility.

Katie remembered the following years, the tests that never concluded anything, the stress, the shame she felt that her outwardly perfect body was failing her.

She took a sip of milk and pulled herself back. It didn’t matter now. She was pregnant. She would have a child. She’d never really given up her dream, even in those times when she’d turned away from Ron, ashamed at her own feelings of inadequacy.

She’d just never thought her dream would contain
Darío
Luna
.

And that it wouldn’t contain Ron.

As if conjured up from her reminiscing, Ron stepped into her line of vision, his large, hulking frame completely blocking out
Darío
. He walked toward her table, his eyes set on Katie. She looked at him with a dispassionate eye for the first time since she was eighteen years old. She didn’t feel the sharp intake of breath that she’d always felt when looking at Ron. Her heart didn’t leap at the sight of his sheer masculinity. Her knees were strong, solid, not weak.

Even three days ago, when she’d seen him at the grocery store with his baby daughter, Katie
had felt that strange rush of excitement that just seeing Ron had always brought her.

A
lot had happened in those three days.

He sat down at the table, next to Lizzie, across from her and Alison. Katie had to put a hand on Alison’s arm that was slowly stretching toward her drink. Katie didn’t know if Al was going for a guzzle or for ammunition, but she didn’t want any drinks thrown at Ron. Well, not tonight, anyway.

“I know, I know, I’ll play nice. Besides, it’d be a waste of perfectly good vodka,” Alison said, reading Katie’s thoughts, and the squeeze to Alison’s arm.

“Ladies,” Ron said in greeting. “Great success Lizzie, you should be very proud.”

Lizzie, always the peacemaker, replied, “Thanks, Ron, it’s been a great day. Did you have a good time golfing?”

He snorted. “Good time? It was amazing. I got paired with Steve Yzerman! Can you imagine playing golf with Steve Yzerman?” The women all shook their heads. “I mean, the only way this could have been any better was if I’d been paired with
Darío
Luna
.”

Alison choked on her drink. Lizzie looked away, as if checking out the enormous party she was giving, but in reality
she
was trying to hide a smile.

Katie swallowed loudly, uncomfortably. “But you
’ve always
love
d
Steve Yzerman. That would have been your dream pairing. You’re not
that
big of a fan of
Darío
’s.” She hoped the proprietary way in which she said
Darío
’s name was evident only to herself.