Page 46 of The Glass Dolphin

“I’m sure you will, Chief.” She didn’t smile, but she turned to her nurse and said, “Let’s change those vitamins to be for our older moms, and let’s put Eloise on an anti-nausea pill too.” She smiled back over to El. “No reason you should be more uncomfortable than necessary.” She straightened and sighed. “Protein drinks are great in the morning. So are vitamin waters and those sports drinks. You need to stay hydrated, and you need to give this baby every chance you can.”

El nodded, her world shrinking down to only this office for a moment. When it expanded again, her mind burst with all the other things she had going on in her life—the girls, her friends, the inn, her employees.

“I can do it,” she told the doctor, but mostly, she needed to remind herself. “I’ve already been taking steps to slow down at work, and this’ll just be extra motivation.”

“All right,” Dr. Grishal grinned at them both again, then turned to leave. “The girls will check you out up front.” They left El and Aaron alone in the room, and neither of them moved.

“I can do this,” Eloise repeated, this time in a fierce whisper only for her husband. She looked up and met his steady, strong, cop gaze.

“Yeah,” he said. “You can, and Iwilltake care of you.”

“Starting with lunch?” she teased.

He stood and offered her his hand. “Yeah, starting with lunch for my sexy wife.” He grinned at her, and El took it from him and hid it away in her heart. Sure, the odds might be against her, but she’d already watched two of her friends—three, if she counted Jean—get their babily-ever-after, and she would work hard for hers too.

ChapterSeventeen

Kristen secured her hair at the nape of her neck, then bent to pull on her shoes. The winter weather had taken a turn in the past couple of days, but she still went out walking with Theo most mornings. Sometimes, she went with Laurel, AJ, and Jean, the three of them pushing their children in strollers.

The wind rattled her window, and Kristen glanced over to Sweetie, who liked to perch on the edge of the dining room table and watch the passersby as they moved past the sliding glass door. She had a tiny patio where she kept a big potted plant and not much else. There wasn’t room for much else, though Sweetie did have a cat toy there she liked to scratch on in the spring, summer, and fall.

She shrugged into her coat and opened the door to her condo, thinking she’d meet Theo down the sidewalk toward his place. She’d only been there a few times, as they spent the majority of their time together at her house, with her friends, at a restaurant, or walking around their senior community.

“Oh.” She nearly plowed into the man, who was in the motion of reaching to ring her doorbell. That alone struck her as odd, because Theo just came in, calling, “I’m here, Kris,” when he arrived to go walking in the morning.

A gust of wind shot down the stairwell between the buildings, but Theo smiled anyway. “Good morning,” he said.

“Morning,” fell from Kristen’s lips, because Theo wasn’t alone. Another woman in her sixties or seventies stood a half-step behind him, her pasted-on smile as bright as the noon-day sun at mid-summer.

“Ready?” Theo offered no explanation. He didn’t introduce the woman. Kristen looked for similarities between them, thinking her a cousin or sister, but Theo hadn’t said any of his relations would be in town. Kristen couldn’t see anything the same about them either—other than their snowy white hair.

“Yes,” she said, continuing the movement she’d started to leave her condo. She smiled at the other woman. “I’m Kristen Shields.”

“Gladys Carrole,” the woman said. She extended her hand for Kristen to shake, which she did.

She also cut a glance over to Theo, who seemed to wake up in that moment. He started to walk out of the stairwell, and Gladys followed him, with Kristen bring up the rear. “Gladys is the historian for the Cove Fisherman’s Coalition.”

Kristen’s feet came to a complete standstill, then grew roots. “She is?”

“Was,” Gladys said with a playful laugh. “My husband was a fisherman here in the cove for, oh, at least sixty years. Just retired a few years ago.”

Kristen’s heartbeat bounced through her body, and if she’d been hooked up to a monitor, she was sure the blips would be rapid and close together. A whoosh moved through her, leaving her lightheaded and pressing one palm to her chest.

“Are you okay?” Theo asked from several paces down the sidewalk. He’d left the shadows of the building, and the weak February sunlight lit him up.

“I…” Kristen didn’t know how to answer. Why would he bring Gladys on their walk? He hadn’t mentioned doing anything of the sort. She didn’t even know he’d contacted someone from the Coalition.

She hadn’t asked him to do that, and in fact, Kristen didn’t want to alert anyone there of the fact that their organization might own the lighthouse. She had Alice—a trained, professional lawyer—working on the case.

Theo’s face stayed blank, and Kristen wished she had such leisure. “Do you and your husband live here?” she asked as Gladys turned around.

“Oh, Rodney died last year,” she said, her smile sticking in its spot. “Theo and I have become good friends since I moved in next door to him.” She glanced over to him, and he smiled fondly at her too. She definitely had eyes for him, and she laughed as she patted his arm.

Funny how Kristen had never heard of Gladys until today. She wasn’t sure what emotions stormed through her, but she knew she didn’t want to go on this walk. “I don’t feel well now that I’m up and about,” she said. “You two enjoy your walk.”

She opened her door and went back inside the condo, a bit surprised when the door didn’t close behind her. Theo had caught it with his hand, and he entered after her. The door did spring closed then, sealing them inside together.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked. “Do I need to call Clara or Jean? One of the girls?”

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