How could she have agreed to marry someone she didn’t know at all? Shouldn’t they have a plan to get to know each other? Of course, she was the same person who had blithely had her friend’s babies implanted into her body without considering the future.
She was going to be the mother of three children. She was going to have to raise them for the next eighteen years. Longer if housing prices kept going up. She could barely take care of herself. There was the whole humiliating relationship failure with Jake, the cat.
“I can’t do this,” she said.
“What’s wrong?” Crystal asked, sounding concerned.
Pia had to get out of there. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.
She glanced at her watch. “I have to go. I have…” Her mind went blank, then rebooted and provided her with the perfect excuse. “I have a city council meeting tomorrow. I need to get back to work and prepare.”
“Me, too,” Crystal told her. “We’re talking about the budget, which is a serious drag. Neither of us can have caffeine. How are we supposed to stay awake?”
Pia was amazed. She must still look and sound normal, when on the inside, she was seconds from a meltdown.
Somehow she made it back to her office. But instead of preparing for the meeting, she stood in her tiny bathroom, her arms braced against the sink.
The obvious question was what had she been thinking. But she knew the answer to that. She hadn’t been. She’d been reacting to the loss of a dear friend. And now that she was pregnant, was she doing her very best to be informed? Had she made even one change in her life to support the babies?
Okay, sure she’d given up alcohol and caffeine and she was taking the vitamins and eating lots of fruits and vegetables. But was that enough? She hadn’t known how many diapers a baby needed a day. She didn’t want to look at furniture or maternity clothes. If Crystal really knew what she was like, she would be horrified to know her future children would be in Pia’s custody. Because for the first time ever, the babies were finally real to her and she was terrified.
THE ENTIRE TOWN TURNED OUT for the auction. Pia stared at the huge crowd and found that being the object of so much male attention was kind of good for her emotionally fragile state.
Since arriving at the convention center, she’d been ogled, had her butt pinched twice and asked out more times than she could count.
There had to be at least three hundred guys milling around the open space and twice that many women. The concession stands were doing a brisk business, which meant plenty of income for the city. All good.
“Hey, pretty lady.”
Pia glanced up from her clipboard and saw a tall, slightly grizzled older man smiling at her. He was missing a couple of teeth and needed a shave.
“You gonna bid on me tonight?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Would that I could,” she said with a heavy sigh. “But I’m pregnant.”
His gaze dropped to her belly and he took a couple of steps back. “I’m not interested in no kids.”
“I hear that a lot.”
The man turned and nearly ran in the opposite direction. Montana hurried up to her.
“This is great. I can’t wait for the talent show. Some guy just felt me up. I should probably be mad, but it’s so strange, it’s almost funny.”
“Give it an hour,” Pia told her. “It’ll get annoying. I’m telling every guy who talks to me that I’m pregnant. It’s very effective.”
Dakota joined them. She had a soda in one hand and popcorn in the other. “The lady with the dancing dog is first up in the talent show. I can’t wait.”
Pia laughed. “This is a serious event, you two. Act accordingly.”
“It’s a woman dancing with her poodle,” Dakota said with a laugh. “I do love this town.”
Pia glanced around at the crowd filling the convention center. Despite the craziness, she loved it, too.
THE NEXT AFTERNOON, PIA managed to sit through the city council meeting without dozing off. Given her wild night at the auction, that was a serious accomplishment.
The performances had gone off on time, the bachelor auction had been nearly orderly. The more attractive men who claimed to have jobs had gone for the most money, and nothing really embarrassing had happened, which meant the media coverage should be relatively benign.
One crisis endured, forty-seven others waiting in the wings, she thought. At least the activities of last night had kept her from dwelling on her inadequacies as a potential mother.
She was trying and that should count, she told herself. As she got more pregnant, she would bond more with the babies. She promised herself she would read more and figure out what she was supposed to do next.
“We’re hoping revenue from the influx of tourists helps,” the city treasurer was saying.
“By tourists she means men,” Mayor Marsha said with a heavy sigh. “Pia, the auction went very smoothly last night. Thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome. I don’t have the money totals yet, but we made a lot. We’re taking costs out of the auction proceeds, and then all the profits go directly to the city.”