Page 67 of The Monster I Loved
“Thanks.”
“What’s up with you?” Screw this, I had to know.
Summer looked around at everyone staring at us. “What?”
“We just enjoyed a hayride without any bickering or threats, and now you gently take the donut. I thought pigs would fly before you ever accepted a damn thing from me.”
Summer sighed. “I’m tired. Aren’t you? Tired of fighting?”
Henry smiled, and so did the others. Was anything ever this easy? Could the person who wanted you dead just lose interest in such a short amount of time? I was at a loss for words.
“Uncle Thad, Aunty Summer asked you a question.”
Maybe it was the beer or the alcoholic cider, but I was definitely happier than I’d been in a long time.
“Yes. I’m tired too,” I answered.
Seconds passed, and we didn’t look away from one another. Maybe if I looked long enough, I could be convinced this was really happening.
Faintly, I heard Wylie ask, “What’s everyone tired of?”
16
PRACTICAL MAGIC
Summer
Bright and early,I drove to my doctor’s appointment. My period was two weeks late, and it was time to know for certain. According to Marni, a false positive pregnancy test was very rare, so she worked tirelessly to help me wrap my head around the most likely result.I’m carrying a baby.It was too overwhelming to imagine car seats and strollers and tiny fingers wrapped around mine. Would it be a boy or a girl? Would I be a good mother? I grazed my hand over my abdomen, but it was hard to let myself feel anything in my heart. I couldn’t let myself get attached to the idea, because it could still be ripped away from me. Everything else that mattered to me had been, after all.
In a small place like Tarrytown, there was only one women’s health doctor. I sat in Dr. Dorothy Brown’s waiting room with a million thoughts running through my head. Mostly about Thaddeus. We were getting along. Really well. Yesterday, at the Spooky Hayride, I sat with someone different, not the man who killed my dad. It was an older version of the Thad I used to know. The one who used to make me laugh and give me butterflies.
“Summer Cohen?”
“Yes.” I stood and followed the nurse, who held the door open.
“This way.”
I followed her, peed in a cup as directed, and sat back down in the waiting room to be called. Finally, after thirty grueling minutes, Dr. Brown called my name.
I sat down across from her.
“Well congratulations,” she said.
Oh God, the at-home test was right. I was going to be a mother. Instinctively, I wrapped a protective arm around my stomach. I’d do everything I could to protect this baby, unlike my mother.
“Summer, are you listening?”
I shook my head. “Not really.”
Dr. Brown patted my shoulder. “Let’s make you some follow-up appointments.”
Tears prickled my eyes, and I nodded. “I’ll do whatever you say.”
Suddenly, the tears overwhelmed me. I hadn’t wanted this to be true, mostly thanks to the baby being Thaddeus’s, but now...It feltright. On one hand, he’d taken away the most important person in my life, but with this, he’d given me another life—one I’d wanted for so long. I’dalwaysdreamed of being a mother, but being thirty-one and single, I didn’t know if it would ever happen.
Dr. Brown was sympathetic and asked a nurse to see me out of the room.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, then tried to wipe my face clean and compose myself before I exited into the waiting room.
