“Hello?” His voice was hoarse from just lying there, thinking of the emotions of the day, but he smiled as soon as he heard her voice. It was Adrian, calling from the hospital. She had woken up, and wondered where he was, and she was missing him, just as he was missing her. A whole new bond had formed between them since that morning.
“Where are you?”
“Here in your bed,” he said, smiling, “wishing you were here with me.” Given the chastity of their relationship, it seemed a rather forward thing to say, but he suspected she wouldn't mind after everything they'd been through. He almost felt as though they were married and she had just told him they were having a baby.
“Can you hear any bears?” she teased, she still sounded croaky, but a lot stronger.
“No bears and no coyotes.” Given the price he had paid for the suite, with the view they had of the lake, there should only have been the sounds of minks and Rolls-Royces. “But it's lonely without you,” he told her.
“It's lonely here too.” She hated being in the hospital and she really missed him. “How are the boys?”
“Asleep, I hope. I put them to bed an hour ago. And if they aren't asleep, I don't want to know it.” He was almost as tired as she was. And then, with a tender smile, “How's the baby?”
“Okay, I guess.” It embarrassed her a little bit talking to him about it. It was all so new to her. For all these months, she had pointedly ignored it, and now it was suddenly the focus of their attention. “It's all so strange. I'm not used to it yet.”
“You will be eventually. When's it due, by the way?”
“The beginning of January. The tenth.”
“Just in time for my fortieth birthday. My birthday is actually New Year's Day.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“So does the baby,” he said softly. “It's been so long since I've even thought of little ones. It makes me think of when Adam and Tommy were small. They were so cute. And this one will be, too, if it looks like you.” She couldn't believe what she was hearing. The man who had fathered it had left her in a fury, and this man, this almost total stranger, whom she had known for a mere three months, was excited about her baby. It made her feel so protected suddenly, and so happy and so much less lonely.
“Why are you being so good to me?” What did he want? And when was he going to hurt her? It just wasn't possible that he was this kind. Or was it?
“Because you deserve it.”
And then suddenly, she laughed. “You're just using me as research for the show.” And she laughed, too, remembering the absurdity of the parallel between the illegitimate pregnancy on the show, and her own baby.
“You certainly do keep things lively, Mrs. Town-send. Or should I call you by a different name?” He wasn't sure if she was going to change it.
“My maiden name is Adrian Thompson.” And eventually she would have to go back to that, since the baby couldn't use Townsend anyway, but that was all a long way off. “I can't wait until tomorrow. It's so depressing here.”
“Wait till you see our hotel room.”
“I can't wait.” She felt as though she were about to leave on her honeymoon, except that she still had an IV tube in her arm, and they were still giving her oxygen through two tiny tubes just beneath her nose, and her face and hands and arms looked as though she had been in a cat fight, and she still remembered that some of the scratches had been inflicted by Tommy. It had been an incredible day, a miracle that had touched all of them, and they all felt more than a little awed by the happy outcome. And some good had come of it after all. Bill had found out about the baby.And he hadn't sent her away …and …she smiled to herself … he had even told her he loved her.
“I'll see you tomorrow. Now get some rest,” he told her in a gentle whisper. It was late, and it seemed as though the whole world had gone quiet. “I'll miss you….”
“I'll miss you too, darling, good night,” she whispered from her hospital room in Truckee.
“And don't forget,” he reminded her with a smile, “how much I love you.”
BILL PICKED ADRIAN UP AT THE HOSPITAL THE NEXT day, and he brought the boys with him. They brought flowers and balloons and a big THANK YOU sign that Tommy insisted on carrying himself, and as they helped her to the car, it looked like a jackpot at the casino. She was still pretty shaky when she was discharged, and they went straight to the hotel so she could rest. And Bill set her up with pillows in a chaise longue on their terrace. She was impressed by how fancy their quarters were, and she admitted to Bill confidentially that it was a lot nicer than camping. He laughed in answer and told her that some people would do anything to avoid sleeping in a tent, and she certainly had. In one day, she had managed to almost lose her life, save Tommy's, and admit to the fact that she was pregnant.
They ordered room service for lunch, and then Bill went out fishing with the boys. And they caught three and brought them back to the hotel kitchen to have them cleaned and cooked. It was the perfect arrangement.
“I love this kind of camping,” Adrian announced as the trays came up eventually, supposedly with their fish, in delicate lemon butter sauces. Bill and the boys were convinced that they really were their fish, even though Adrian suspected that they weren't. They watched old movies on TV after that, and they all went to bed early. And all through the night, Adrian would wake up, thinking she heard sounds in her room, and it was always Bill, peering down at her, making sure she was all right and asking her if she needed anything. And she thanked him for it the next morning over breakfast.
“You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine.”
“I just want to be sure. You just got out of the hospital yesterday.” He was like a mother hen, but she thought it was terrific and she loved it.
“I feel great.” But he noticed that when she wandered around the room, she still didn't have her old zip, and she didn't seem anxious to go out. In the end, it took four days for her to seem like herself again, and by then the vacation was almost over. But they had a lovely time, going for walks around the lake. They stayed away from the river, and the rapids, and the boys never repeated their request to go rafting.
They visited the state park at Sugar Pine Point instead, and were fascinated by it. And they went for a drive to Squaw Valley and took the ski lift to the top and then back again. And it was beautiful, and by the last night, Adrian and the boys were fast friends. It was as though they had always known her. They had called their mother long since, and told her all about Tommy's accident, and Adrian's heroics. And she had insisted on speaking to her and thanking Adrian herself. She sounded nice on the phone and she had cried copiously, just thinking of what might have happened.
“She sounds like a sweet person,” Adrian said to Bill later. “And she sounds like she still likes you.”
“I think she still does. I like her, too, even though we irritate the hell out of each other sometimes, when we don't agree about the boys. And her husband is kind of an uptight pain in the ass. He thinks that California is uncivilized, and devoid of culture, and he thinks pretty much the same thing about me because of the show. But I don't think Leslie lets him say much about it. At least that's what the boys say. But apparently the other two children are very, very proper. They're both girls and they're four and five and he has them playing concert piano and violin. I figure that can wait a few years.” He grinned. “What do you think?”
“I agree with you.” She smiled. “But Leslie sounds nice anyway.”
“I think she was looking for someone completely different from me … or from what I was then …she wanted someone who spent a lot of time at home, who was very controlled, and not so compulsive, and maybe not so exuberant. And I think she got it.”