as if it were a matter of only the slightest interest. She knew otherwise.
"They had a boy," she said, fighting to keep the emotion out of her voice.
"So I see."
It should've been them, she wanted to scream. They should be the couple mailing out birth announcements. They were good people. They had a strong marriage and they'd be wonderful parents....
The infertility was a constant stress on their marriage. Doug had dealt with as much of the indignity as she had. The semen collection in a bathroom off Dr. Ford's waiting room, the post-coital examinations - all of this was dreadful for him.
People assured her that one day they'd laugh about it. Carol didn't think that was possible.
"I'm almost half done with the second baby blanket. I have another class tomorrow afternoon."
Her husband nodded and grabbed the newspaper, heading for his favorite chair in the living room.
Carol wanted to shout at him to talk to her. Instead she bit her tongue and began preparing dinner, a meal she had no appetite for.
CHAPTER 16
ALIX TOWNSEND
S itting at a window table in Starbucks, Alix concentrated on moving the stitches from one needle to the other and completing the row. No one else in class seemed to have a problem with this basic knitting concept. Carol was already working on her second blanket. Jacqueline was having a few difficulties, but not nearly as many as Alix. No matter how hard she concentrated, Alix would start out with a hundred and seventy-one stitches and by the time she finished the row, there'd be a hundred and eighty or more. Or less, depending on what she'd done wrong.
Lydia reassured her on a regular basis that this was a common problem and explained with limitless patience that Alix wasn't completing the stitch properly. Well, duh! Then she'd show her again. And Alix would make the same stupid mistake. She didn't care; she wasn't giving up until she learned to knit, even if it killed her. She already had thirty bucks invested in this project!
At the end of the row Alix paused, sipped her frappuccino, a rare treat, and counted the stitches. Damn! A hundred and eighty-three! She'd done it again and added stitches where she shouldn't. "Damn, damn, damn," she muttered, which was a tame version of what she was thinking. Apparently being around Jacqueline was rubbing off on her. She barely used the F-word anymore.
Shoving the knitting onto her lap, Alix closed her eyes, trying to ignore the frustration. This class was supposed to help her with anger management? That was a joke if she'd ever heard one.
Even more irritating, Laurel was at the apartment with John and had asked Alix to stay away for a couple of hours. She didn't know what was going on with those two, but Alix didn't think it could possibly be good. Things had gotten pretty intense between them recently. John had been making regular appearances at the video store, and Alix hated the way Laurel gushed all over the sleaze. As far as she was concerned, John was bad news.
Once her nerves were calm, Alix carefully unraveled the row, taking out one stitch at a time, which took more effort than it did to complete the frigging row in the first place. Two stitches from the end of the row, she lost her grip on the needle and dropped a stitch. A muttered curse escaped before she could stop herself.
Good thing Jacqueline wasn't there to hear it. She was offended each and every time the knitting got the better of Alix, which unfortunately was often. Still, she was improving.
Thus far, Alix had avoided a confrontation with the other woman, but she could feel one brewing. At best Jacqueline tolerated Alix, and Alix felt the same way about her.
Jacqueline had a twisted view of the world, in Alix's opinion. The only things that seemed important to her were pretense and prestige. At each class, she sat and chatted away, putting on airs as if anyone really cared who she saw at social events and club meetings. Most of the time, Alix didn't know who she was talking about, anyway. Jacqueline spent most of the lesson name-dropping or discussing some ritzy party she'd attended. Well, la-di-da!
Biting down on her lower lip, Alix managed to pick up the dropped stitch and then just before she could slip it onto the needle, she lost it and the whole thing unraveled another two rows.
She muttered an even more furious curse under her breath