Blessings Ch. 04

"He's your soulmate, and you're his." Mom slipped the ring back on her finger. "There isn't anything I or Cassie or anyone can do about that. You just have to make him see it."

Amanda nodded slowly. She would make him see. She would find him and make him see.

"Take Dad's truck. Use the four-wheel drive; the roads are getting bad."

Amanda nodded again. She cleared the tears from her crimson eyes.

"Use the GPS. Cassie's address is in there. And take your time; the roads are getting bad," she repeated.

Snow was collecting on the roads faster than the plows and salt trucks could handle. It took Amanda twice as long to reach Cassie's neighborhood as it should have. She parked two yards past the overflowing Zenk driveway.

The house was big, twice the size of her own. All of the Zenk's drove Volvos and Saabs, expensive, practical, and boring cars. Kevin's rusty Ford looked incredibly out of place. The front door was open. She peered through the glass storm door. She could see the end of a table in the distance. A rotund, gray-headed man was carving the drumstick off a turkey. When he laughed his belly quaked and his black mustache twitched. She could see the shadows cast by the Zenk family. They were tall, thin, and imposing. For a moment she was frightened to face so many strangers. Then she remembered that Kevin was in there with Cassie, and he had that damned ring in his pocket.

She stepped off the front porch, realizing that she hadn't thought of a plan. What would she do, run inside and scream that she was in love with her own brother? Oh God, that wouldn't do. She needed something to draw their sympathies. Something that would make their sweet little Zenk-in-training Kevin seem not so sweet. She saw a basketball goal in the driveway. Beneath it laid a half-frozen basketball. She brushed the snow off of the ball and stuffed it under her shirt. The ball was cold and wet; it felt like murder against the bare skin of her belly. But it did the trick. It made her belly bulge. The buttons of her purple cashmere cardigan threatened to pop, so she unbuttoned the bottom four.

The storm door was unlocked. They were expecting more guests, apparently. She took advantage of the situation and let herself in. She waddled through the Zenk's living room, stepping over discarded toys and clothes boxes. The rotund man with the mustache was the first to see her. He dropped the carving knife and fork. His eyes went to her belly. As she approached the happy table, she felt even more eyes.

The Zenks were nothing like she'd imagined. A few were tall and skinny, like Cassie, but the rest came in assorted shapes and sizes. They were all disgustingly blonde, though.

She spotted Kevin. He sat next to a shrunken old lady who wore an awful blonde wig. The seat to his right was empty. Cassie was missing. When Kevin spotted her his eyes almost doubled. He, too, looked at her belly.

"There you are!" she leveled an accusing finger at Kevin. "I spent all day cooking Christmas dinner, when you know the doctor said I shouldn't be on my feet," she cradled her back with both hands for emphasis. She hoped she made a convincing actor.

"Mandy, what—"

"Don't you Mandy me!" Again she leveled the finger. "You promised me you wouldn't see that woman anymore." She tried to force tears, but they wouldn't come.

The rotund man collapsed into his seat. He grabbed the closest thing he could find, a turkey leg, and waved it at Kevin. "What is this meaning of this, young man? You're married?"

"She's not my wife. She's—"

"Oh, I'm not your wife. And I suppose that the twins aren't yours either! And this one," she slapped her belly and winced, hoping that no one heard the ping of the basketball, "we just found out that it's going to be our first boy." The ancient woman next to Kevin warbled congratulation. "Thank you. We're going to call him Kevin Jr."

Kevin turned red at that. The eyes of the Zenk clan fell on him. The children at the kiddy table began an infectious giggle. Amanda wanted to giggle herself. She felt so wickedly alive.

"Amanda what are you doing here?" Cassie's appearance brought Amanda down to Earth.

"You know about her?" One of the Zenks, a snooty looking middle aged man, asked.

"Of course I know about her." They all gasped. "She's Kevin's sister." They gasped even louder, all except for the old woman, who repeated her congratulation. "I didn't know about that," Cassie said, thumping Amanda's make-believe belly with her long finger.

Her charade over, Amanda pulled the basketball from under her shirt. She dribbled it twice on the hardwood floor. It was Kevin who came to her rescue.

"December fools, ladies and gentlemen. It's sort of like April fools, but with more...snow." Kevin said. "It's a very old tradition in the Armstrong family, and my sister and I thought we'd share it with you all this year."

There was a nervous sprinkling of laughter amongst the Zenk clan. Amanda seized the opportunity to escape. He pushed his plate away and tried to follow, but someone stopped him. It sounded like Cassie, but Amanda was running too fast to be sure.

She fumbled through her pockets for the key to Dad's truck. It wasn't on her. She peered through the passenger window and saw it sticking in the ignition. She kicked the tire and cursed herself.

"Mandy, where's your coat. It's freezing out here."

She shrugged Kevin's hand from her shoulder. "Leave me alone," she grumbled. "Go inside with your new family. Have Christmas with them."

"They're not my family," he said, leaning against the truck. "Look at me." He touched her chin and forced her to look. "You're my family." The words didn't sound as comforting as they should have. He slowly exhaled. "I didn't—I mean I'm not going to marry her."

He touched her face. A very real tear was sliding down her cheek.

"Will you put this on," he said, handing her his black wool topcoat. "You've got to be freezing."

She put the coat on. It was far too big; the hem touched the snow. But it was warm. "I thought you loved her," Amanda said.

"I like her; I like her a lot. But she's not the one I want to spend my life with." He poked her belly. "She's not the one I want to have basketballs with."

A loud smack startled the siblings. The Zenks had slammed the front door shut.

"She didn't take it very well," he said. "But in my defense, I was going to wait until tomorrow to break it off with her. Who wants to get dumped on Christmas? You kind of pressed the issue."

"What if you had changed your mind again?" Amanda asked. "A lot can happen in a day." Especially a day like Christmas.

Kevin straightened the collar on the coat he'd lent her. "Look in the inside breast pocket," he said. Amanda dug into the pocket. She pulled out a bundle of leaves and berries. It was mistletoe. "I stole that from the foyer." He gestured towards the Zenk house. "I was taking no chances."

She put the mistletoe back. It would come in useful later.

"There's something else in that pocket," he said.

She dug past the mistletoe and felt a little velvet box. It was the ring he'd bought Cassie.

"Yeah, so I was really planning on making a commitment to the woman I love today. And seeing as how she's you..."

Amanda clutched the velvet box for a moment, then released it. She looked down and ground the toe of her boot in the snow. "We can't get married," she said. She hated it, but it was fact.

"No," he agreed, "but we could be married. Our business will be our business and no one else's. How does that sound, Mrs. Armstrong?"

"Mrs. Armstrong," she stuck out her tongue, "ick, that's Mom's name." She knew he was right, though. They could be married, even if they didn't have the license and the photographs and the carefully coordinated ceremony to prove it.

"I think I want to take you home, Mrs. Armstrong."

"I think I want to be home, Mr. Armstrong, but there's one little problem. She frowned and pointed through the window to the key in the ignition. His car was boxed in by Volvos and Saabs, so it too was pretty much out of commission.

"Well crap," she said. She motioned to the Zenk house. "Do you think one of them would give us a ride?"

His eyes brightened as if struck by inspiration. "There is a motel a few blocks from here, just off the highway. It'll be a cold walk, but we should be able to make it before the blizzard really starts."

"Or we could call Mom and Dad," Amanda said, fishing his cell phone out of the coat.

"Or we could try the motel."

She arched her eyebrow. "A motel, huh? And what would we be doing at this motel?"

He smiled slyly. She purred as his fingers reached inside the coat to stroke her belly. "We could practice basketball," he suggested, then kissed her.

"Oh yeah?" she asked, eyeing the Zenk's house for parted curtains. She saw none.

"You haven't said yes." He eyed her seriously.

She wanted to say yes, and she wanted to put on the ring that was at least a size too big. But something was holding her back. "Kevin?" she tried to make herself sound serious. "Are you my soulmate?" she asked.

"I think so," he answered. His eyes narrowed into slits as he thought for a moment. "No, I definitely am."

"Good," she said. "Then my answer is yes." She peered down the street, past all of the pretty houses strung with pretty lights. "How far did you say that motel was?"

The End