More Bitter Than Death: An Emma Fielding Mystery - By Dana Cameron Page 0,88
decided to tell me any of this at all.
I tried to sneak off with a sandwich around lunchtime—I knew a donut wasn’t going to keep me—but Lissa and Jay found me. I was getting a little tired of seeing her bouncing all over the place, and although I knew it was just a matter of too much stress in too close quarters, I wished the snow would let up so Lissa could go hit the outlet malls.
“I hate being inside. This weather is for the birds. And why do Yankees leave their Christmas lights up to rot on their houses? I swear, we take ours down on New Year’s Day, and that’s that.”
“Maybe we need the extra light to get us through the long, dark winter,” I said. I knew for a fact our department administrator left his on his rented house all year long. He lit them every day too. Chuck liked the pretty colored lights and saw no reason that they should be restricted to Halloween or Christmas.
“Let’s tell secrets,” Lissa said. “Emma? Come on, spill it. What dirty dark secrets are you hiding?”
I looked at her. “Jesus. I’m not hiding anything. And I’m not in the mood for sleep-over party games. Piss off.”
“Oh, come on, Em. Everyone’s got something to hide,” she said.
“Except you; everyone knows all your dirty laundry,” I shot back.
“You’d be surprised at what you don’t know about me,” she said coyly. “You’ve been acting strange all weekend, confess, confess.”
“Lissa, cut it out. You’re being infantile.”
“Am not. Jay, you’ll play, won’t you? Tell us what dark secrets lurk in your past.”
“Lissa, for Christ’s sake, just grow up. Leave Emma alone!”
We watched with open mouths as Jay stood up and stormed off.
I looked at Lissa, and her eyes were brimming. Maybe it was something about her persistence, but it suddenly occurred to me that someone keeps asking you about something because they probably want you to ask them about it too. “Oh, don’t worry about him. Everyone is all screwed up this weekend. What’s your secret, Lissa?”
She took a minute to catch her breath and then she smiled. “I’m gonna be a mama.”
Of all the things I thought she was going to say, that was about the last. “Holy snappers! Congratulations!”
“Thank you! About a month or two now, I think.”
I didn’t bother trying to hide my glance at her stomach, which was nowhere near third trimester.
“Matt and I are adopting. We’re just really excited.”
“That’s wonderful! So tell me everything.”
And so I got all the details—girl, from China, they’d been trying for a while—and then I had to ask. “So, Lissa. Why couldn’t you just come out and say it?”
She shrugged and looked away. “Oh, you know.”
“I guess I don’t.”
“You know how people can be. They all still think of me as the same horny kid I was when we were all just starting out. Matt and I have been married for four years now.”
It was my turn to shrug. “You still talk a pretty good game. And you don’t mention him all that often.”
She ran a hand through her hair. “Hey, I might be on a strict diet, but that doesn’t mean I ain’t gonna at least look at the menu. And if I don’t mention him, it’s because none of you know him, and I’m out having fun and catching up with you guys. Shoot, no one but you and Chris ever ask after him. Sometimes Sue. But I’m here at the conference for me, I get to have a break too.” She threw her hands up. “Oh, I don’t know. I guess I’m still sneaking up on the idea of being a mother myself. Scary, you know? But we’re real happy. I just didn’t know how to bring it up, not with it happening all of a sudden and everything.”
Again I found myself about to open my mouth and let out all sorts of platitudes, but I caught myself. “I know what you mean. My life’s…been changing lately too. I’m feeling a million miles away from where we started out.”
She held up her hand, as if she was testifying in church. “That’s the understatement of the year.”
I shot a glance at her. “What do you mean?”
“Well, darn it, Emma. Everyone knows there was an “incident” with the window of the hospitality suite last night. Everyone knows, or thinks they know, that you’ve had some weird damn things happening to you recently—or did you not know that stories were getting around?”