Elly closed the door tightly after him and walked quickly to the back room. She lay down on the crystal covered floor, ignoring the Swarovski jabbing into her butt cheek, and tried to calm her breathing. What just happened? Keith? KEITH?! WHAT?! She had never even thought of him in that way. Sure, he was attractive and kind and generous, but Keith? The sandwich guy? Oh, his sandwiches were so good….Did she have feelings for him? That day in the garden, she was sure that she had felt a warmth flowing from him, but she had figured it was just friendship. Elly shook her head, trying not to remember the feelings his touch had ignited within her. NO. She could not deal with this. Not this, on top of Aaron and Isaac and Lucia and Sunny. Most days it seemed that she was barely holding everything together – and if she loosened her hold on these strings, she would be completely undone. Elly could see her sanity dwindling away with each approaching hour, and she didn’t always feel the inner strength needed to summon it back.
And now this? Keith. A good friend, a good man. This complication, on top of everything else. For so long, it seemed that men might as well be in outer space they were so far from her. And now, she had Aaron’s emotional battalions blowing her to shreds, and Isaac scooping up what was left. And now there was Keith. Elly ran her hands through her hair. She knew what she had to do.
Lord, please help me deal with this, she pleaded silently, please don’t let me hurt Keith by pretending this didn’t happen. Elly paused, remembering Keith’s deep blue eyes, penetrating her thoughts so easily. NO, she screamed at herself. Elly palmed the cool floor and pushed herself up. I can’t think of this! I cannot deal with this! She closed her eyes and began building a mental block around what had just happened. She took a deep breath, and then another.
With each contracting of her lungs, with each exhale, she pushed Keith out from her, out from her mind, her thoughts.
It took an act of exhausting will, but by the time the sun had pushed though the October morning, Elly had completely pushed Keith’s advances from her mind. His confession emptied from her heart, thought by conscious thought. Like a sieve, she had let every thought and feeling slide away from her as the night wore on. The spark was blown out. It was done. She told herself that she would worry about it after the wedding. Covered in the dust of a thousand of crystals, Elly climbed the stairs towards her bedroom, and hoped that she would find the peace that came with an empty mind.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
Elly struggled to steer the mini-van while sipping a hot chocolate and texting Snarky Teenager with directions to a small wedding. Kim rode shotgun and was eying Elly angrily.
“Can you please look where you are going? You are going to kill me, you and my unborn child if you keep driving like a maniac.”
Elly threw her phone down and took a quick sip of her drink. “I’m sorry, I know. She says she doesn’t remember how to get to the Coronado. How do you forget how to get to the Coronado? We did, like, twenty weddings there last year!”
Kim fiddled with the radio stations until she found the country station. Elly curled her lip at the guitar twang coming through the speakers as Kim apologized. “Sorry...it’s all the baby likes. You’ll live.” She closed her eyes and rested against her seat. “You should cut her a break on getting lost. Maybe she’s just been overwhelmed with all this wedding stuff. There are so many little details, I’m not sure how you keep them all straight.”
Elly grimaced. “It’s been hard. I’ve made to make room in my head by erasing other things.” Like the other night with Keith, she thought sadly. “I am literally counting down the days until it’s over, and I never have to hear the name Lucia again.”
Kim looked over at her pensively. “How are you doing with that? Snarky Teenager was really upset after talking to her.”
Elly bit the inside of her cheek. She had forgotten that Kim and Snarky Teenager were email buddies. “I felt so bad after that. I had no idea that Lucia would be so cruel. She was so mean to her. I’ll never forgive myself for that.”
Kim clutched the seat angrily with her hands. “I swear, if I see that woman before then, I am going to rip her red hair out…” Her face flushed with anger. Elly looked over at Kim, eight months pregnant, sweaty and all riled up, and she couldn’t help but laugh gleefully.
“Calm down! You’re going burst your water over there!”
“I’m heated about that!” Kim huffed. “I’m defensive of you!! You are my Elly.”
Elly smirked “I think I handled myself pretty well.”
Kim looked over at her quizzically. “Didn’t you tell me that you almost fainted?”
“Well, there was that.” They both giggled until Kim yelped in pain and put her hand over her belly. Elly almost swerved the van into a storefront. “ARE you okay??”
Kim groaned and doubled over. “Yeah, it’s just Braxton Hicks, but they feel like they’re ripping my stomach apart!”
Elly tried to keep her eyes on the road. “Kim, I can take you home – I don’t need you to go the wholesaler with me, seriously!”
“No, I want to get out of the house. I’ve been looking forward to this all week – you know how I love the wholesaler. Plus, I really want to feel like I’m a part of this massive disaster.” She paused, lowering her voice. “And I miss you…you’ve been so busy.”
Elly looked over at her friend, radiating beauty, even now as she propped her feet up on either side of her belly. Her long blond hair hung down over her face, and her eyes were closed in a Zen like state.
“Um, are you going into labor right now?”