looked back once, hoping Gabe might come to his senses and follow her.
He sat dejected where she'd left him, head bowed and tears tracing lines down his cheeks. It broke her heart to witness his grief, and she knew she'd hurt him with her words. She knew she should go to him and apologize, but she was so tired, and the heather beneath the willow was so soft. She pillowed her head on her arms and promised herself she would only doze for a minute or two.
A fleeting dream startled Hope out of sleep and she sat up, afraid that Paradise had disappeared while she slept, or that she had been left alone. But the willow remained over her, its leafy fronds shielding her from the burning, unmoving sun. Undead Elvis sat facing her, his legs crossed and wrists resting upon his knees. Gabe sat at the edge of the pond, whittling a stick with a pocketknife.
Before Hope could say anything to either of them, nausea took hold of her. She gasped, bent over, and vomited up the remains of her apples. "Christ," she mumbled as she wiped her mouth. "I better not be getting sick now, of all times."
"You all right, Li'l lady?" asked Undead Elvis.
"I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever be all right again." Hope went to the pond to splash more water on her face and rinse out her mouth.
"Sick to your stomach, señorita?" asked Gabe in a muted voice. "It will pass. It usually does, I'm told."
"Being sick? Yeah, I would hope so." Hope swallowed a mouthful of water and waited to see if it would come back up. When it didn't, she drank some more. "Listen, Gabe, I'm sorry about what I said. I was being selfish and it's not right for me to disrespect your vows. I'm sorry. Friends?" She extended a hand to him.
He took it. "Friends. You are an extraordinary young woman, Hope. I was told that when I was sent to find you."
Hope drew back her hand as if Gabe's had burned it. "You were told? You were sent? To find me? What do you mean?" Her heart started to pound as fear arose within it.
"Hope. Truly an apropos name, señorita. I was sent to find you to deliver you a message, because right now, in this time and place, you are the most important person in the world."
Chapter Seven
Hope and the Test
Hope blinked. "I'm what?"
"You're the most important person in the world. Or what's left of it, rather," said Gabe.
She laughed. "That's ridiculous. I'm nobody. Just another stripper." She bent to take another mouthful of the cool pond water.
"You're pregnant, Hope."
Hope choked on her water and coughed until she thought for sure she'd gag and vomit again.
Undead Elvis thumped her between her shoulder blades. "Put your arms over your head," he said. "That's what my momma always told me."
"That wasn't very funny, Gabe," said Hope, wheezing as she struggled to regain her breath. She discovered holding her arms up over her head really did help her recover quicker and she nodded to Undead Elvis in gratitude.
"It wasn't intended to be, señorita."
Hope glared at him. "I can't be pregnant. I'm still a virgin. I told you that." Her eyes narrowed. "Unless someone took advantage of me while I was sleeping."
"I wouldn't dream of such a thing," said Undead Elvis, "even if I had the ability to now that I'm a reanimated corpse. Huh. There's a good song in that somewhere. Pardon me while I work this out." He wandered along the pond's edge and hummed to himself.
"So what about you, Gabe? Did you just play modest with me before so you could get a little taste of Hope while I was sleeping?"
"No, señorita."
Hope looked him up and down, but could find no sign of any dishonesty. Something about Gabe made her want to believe whatever he said, even if it was ludicrous. Even if she was…
No, it was impossible.
Pregnant?
Ridiculous. He was having her on, playing a joke on her. "I don't like being made fun of."
"What would convince you?"
"I don't know."
"Not willing to just take it on faith?"
"Ha!" She'd seen far too much of the seedy underbelly of society working the strip clubs to have any faith in anything or anyone. "Any faith I might have had disappeared with the rest of the world."
Gabe sighed. "I see. I can't say I'm surprised. You picked up a pregnancy test from the Shepherds' luggage. Why not use it?"
Hope snorted. "You're