She fell in step beside me. Her lips were twisted to one side, like she was thinking. “Have you talked to Darion?”
That was out of the blue. “Sure,” I said. “I text him once or twice a day. He’s been willing to give me some time to figure things out.”
She nodded. “How do you think he’ll take the news?”
I had no clue what she was getting at. “What news? That I’m having Peanut cremated? I don’t think it matters to him.”
She stopped walking. I halted too and turned around. “Stella, what is it?”
“Are you trying to hide it from me or do you just not know?” she asked.
I was getting annoyed. “What are you talking about?”
Her kind eyes stayed on me. “Tina, maybe it’s just obvious to me because I’ve seen so many mothers who have suffered a loss avoid acknowledging their condition until they are able to handle it. But it is clear as day.”
She stepped closer and shifted her purse and the food bag to one hand so she could use the other to close around my fingers.
I had a feeling I knew what she was about to say. The awareness of it had been just under the surface. I had purposefully turned it aside, pretended it wasn’t true. But her words were going to confirm it.
Her face was kind, as if she knew everything I was thinking. “It’s all right to be afraid, Tina. But you will have to face it. You’re pregnant.”
Chapter 20: Corabelle
A lady with a toddler stood six inches from me, her baby boy on her shoulder. He had sandy blond hair and big blue eyes. His mouth right now was a huge toothy smile, unlike for most of the flight, where he wailed his heart out.
Now that we were on the ground and standing to get off the plane, he had decided to be adorable. I squashed my anxiety about what I would have to do to find Tina and tried to enjoy the moment, the cute little thing now making crazy faces at me. I wondered what Finn would have been like at his age, and my heart staggered again.
Focus on your mission, Corabelle.
We moved forward finally, and I struggled to keep from banging the man behind me with my overstuffed duffel bag. I had traveled as light as I could and checked nothing, unsure of where I’d be going or how I would be getting there.
The only thing I knew for sure was that the school for pregnant teens Tina had attended, one of my few clues, had closed years ago. But the principal back then was Emmalou Banks, and she was now the principal at a private high school. I had the address, and I could either spring for a taxi or attempt to follow the labyrinthine bus schedule to get me there.
Probably I would take a bus partway, then hop in a taxi when it would be half the cost. Otherwise, I risked not making it before school let out. It would be close anyway, since it was already after noon.
We arrived at the front of the plane and the pilot waved as we passed. He gave the toddler a high five. Once free of the tight confines, I moved quickly. I could only hope the principal was there today. Thankfully my California college spring break had not aligned with the week off students got in Texas, or this would never have worked. I would have had to follow some other clue.
Searching for Tina’s parents hadn’t worked. I didn’t know their first names and Schwartz was pretty common. Tina wasn’t big on social media, and even studying her few Facebook friends yielded no family members or even friends from the Houston area. Her past was a blank.
But I did have the pregnancy loss group too. The woman in charge was named Stella, and I had left her a message. I was almost positive I’d heard her name before, so this had to be the one. If the principal didn’t pan out for at least a parent name, I would try her again in hopes that Tina might have contacted her since she was back. Or might have records from back then where Tina’s parents lived.
I’d never been on a goose chase quite this wild.
Of course, now that I was here, maybe Tina would relent and meet me. She had responded with a simple “What!” when I told her I had bought a plane ticket to Houston.
The airport was bustling with travelers. I followed the signs to the ground transportation. If I didn’t see the bus I needed within fifteen minutes, then I’d just hop in a taxi. I wasn’t broke or anything, not after Albert’s gift, but the frugal college student in me wouldn’t let me waste money when it wasn’t necessary.
The doors slid open to the bright, chilly afternoon. The sidewalk was crazy with people, suitcases, taxis, and shuttles.