Close to Her Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

good eye for color.
    “And did it?”
    “No. But I told her it did, because I knew they were running late. Dad was already out in the car, revving the engine the way he always did when Mom kept him waiting.”
    If only he’d told his mother the truth. Then his mom would have gone to her room to select a different scarf and his parents would have departed for their party a few minutes later. They wouldn’t have been in the intersection when the teenage driver paying more attention to text messages than the road, ran the red light.
    *
    When it came to shopping, Miriam knew what she was doing. She navigated while Dani drove, taking them first to Sugarlump where Dani purchased gray slacks, a plum-colored skirt and two dresses for work. Currently her tops and blazers still fit and she thought they still would for at least a month. She also bought underwear. “Bras. I need bigger bras.”
    Her breasts, actually, were what had first tipped her off she was pregnant. They’d tingled and become super-sensitive. Now her pretty B cups had expanded into C.
    She allowed Miriam into the change room to see. “If this keeps up I’ll be into triple G by the time I give birth.”
    Miriam winced. “Wonder what will happen when you shrink back to normal?”
    “Yeah.” Dani stared at her image in the mirror. Was this the end? Was she now on a downward slope that would whisk her into middle-aged frumpiness?
    “On the bright side, you look pretty hot right now. Buy the bra. It’s perfect.”
    On the way out of the store, another purchase added to her canvas shopping bag, Dani reminded herself that her sister Mattie, five years older than her, had delivered twins, and still looked great. Yes, Dani’s body was about to be invaded, stretched and re-shaped. But it would snap back. Eventually.
    But would her life be equally elastic?
    What were her days going to be like once she had a baby? How would she juggle work, time with friends, her running and social life?
    Truth was, she couldn’t imagine any of it. She was holding on to a slim hope that somehow Adrian was going to provide the solution to all her problems. Her stomach tightened—Nerves? Excitement?—as she anticipated their lunch tomorrow. Less than twenty-four hours now.
    “Hungry?” Miriam asked.
    “Starved,” she admitted. Even though she’d eaten every crumb of the breakfast sandwich Eliot had bought for her.
    “Well, you can’t eat until you’ve bought some jeans. I checked online and Village Maternity carries Citizens of Humanity. We’ll go there next. I don’t ever want to see you in those yoga pants again.”
    Dani smiled. “What if I’m doing yoga?”
    “Well. Maybe then. But just maybe.”
    *
    The next day Dani was grateful to Miriam for taking her shopping. She wore her new maternity jeans with a pink linen blouse and wedge sandals. Her hair was long, in soft curls, and she’d put on her usual make-up trio—eye liner, mascara and lip gloss. She turned this way and that in front of her mirror. You had to look closely to see the baby bump.
    But it was there.
    She took a cab to the restaurant, purposefully arriving ten minutes late because she wanted this meeting to be different. Usually, she was the on-time one, with no six-year-old daughter to serve as an excuse. But today, she wanted Adrian to have his eyes on her as she walked toward his table. She pictured him smiling, rising from his chair and opening his arms. She had it all worked out and so it was disappointing to discover that he still hadn’t arrived, wasn’t waiting at all.
    She was escorted to their reserved table by the window. First thing, she checked her phone, but there was no message warning her he was running late.
    “Would you like something to drink, Miss?” The waiter, a young male whose appreciative gaze told her that she was, indeed, looking good, set down two menus.
    “Water is fine for now.” She thought back to when she’d first met Adrian, at a meeting shortly after he’d