Predictions are difficult, especially about the future.
— Yogi Berra
Suzanna and Tim arrived at the hospital, Aunt Sadie and Mrs. B. in tow, within an hour after South Pacific ended to a standing ovation, and some raucous cheering when Bruno took his individual bow.
“Excuse me,” Tim said, approaching a nurse on the Maternity floor. “I’m looking for Jack Trehan?”
The young nurse looked at him quizzically. “Aren’t you Jack Trehan? Where’s your greens? I gave you greens. You can’t go back in there, you know, until you’re in your greens.”
“Greens? What the hell are—oh, no. Wait. I’m not Jack Trehan. I’m his twin brother. Where is he?”
“Tim? Hey, bro, I thought that was you,” Jack said, walking down the hallway. “How was our star? Where’s your roses? We bought you roses,” he asked, kissing Aunt Sadie’s cheek.
“Never you mind about me, and the roses are in the car,” Aunt Sadie said. “How is Keely?”
“You mean, other than driving everyone in here nuts?” Jack asked, grinning.
Suzanna stood to one side, the newest member of this family, and let them all talk. Besides, she had seen the nursery as they had passed, and was longing to go back, take a good hard look at all the babies.
“What’s she doing?” Tim asked as Jack led the way to the waiting room.
“Oh, nothing much. Just telling everybody she thinks her labor stopped, so she wants to go home.”
“Her labor stopped?” Tim looked at Suzanna. “Can it do that?”
Suzanna shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“It can,” Jack said, holding up a pair of green wrinkled cotton pants with a drawstring waist “Man, these are weird. Anyway, the doctor’s here, and she says Keely should please shut up and let the experts decide. In this case, the expert is a big monitor they’ve got strapped around her belly, and it’s recording contractions. It’s terrific. We can hear the baby’s heartbeat, everything.”
“So she stays put?”
“Oh, yeah. Even if the labor stops, she stays put. They already broke her water.”
Tim sat down, and Suzanna thought he looked a little green himself. “Broke her what?”
Jack stripped off his shirt and pulled the green scrubs top over his head. “It’s the damndest thing, Tim. I read about this stuff, and we talked about it in parents class, but to see the doctor walking in there with this big... this big hook? Let me tell you, I was pretty happy when the nurse said I had to leave, to get these scrubs on.”
Suzanna sat down next to Tim. “Are you all right?”
He rubbed a hand across his mouth. “Sure, I’m fine. So you’re going back in, Jack? They’re going to let you stay?”
“Because I took the classes, yeah. I’m her coach.”
“Do you know what he’s talking about?” Tim asked Suzanna.
“Jack and Keely took classes, Tim. On how to breathe, when to push, that sort of thing. Jack helps Keely time her breathing, cheers her up, wipes her forehead, everything. Right, Jack?”
“That’s it. Head cheerleader. And she concentrates on her focal point. For Keely, it’s Candy’s rubber duck,” he said, then slipped into the bathroom to put on his scrubs pants.
“Keely is hoping to try natural childbirth,” Suzanna explained to Tim, longing to touch a hand to his forehead, because he looked as if he might have a fever. “She’s also investigated all the different drugs, and may use some, if it gets too difficult.”
Tim nodded, took two deep breaths. “Okay. So how long? She’s already been here for at least three hours, right?”
Aunt Sadie sat down on Tim’s left, and told him, “Oh, honey, this is a first baby. We could be here until morning, even longer.”
“Isn’t that a long time?”
“No, Tim,” Mrs. B. said from her chair across the small room. “Keely has to dilate, and that takes time. There are three stages to labor. The cervix has to—”
“That’s okay, Mrs. B. I’ll just wait,” Tim interrupted quickly.
Suzanna found all of this fascinating, a sort of rehearsal for the day she’d have her own baby. Tim, on the other hand, looked as if he was rehearsing his trip to the guillotine, poor thing.
Jack came back into the room, looking rather adorable in his greens, and Suzanna thought about how Tim would look when his time came. Probably as green as the scrubs, if he didn’t stop having all these male pregnancy symptoms.
“Why don’t you guys go get some coffee or something?” Jack said. “I’m going to go stay with Keely.”
Tim was the first on his feet. “Good idea,” he said, taking Suzanna’s hand. “Come on, my treat.”
They all followed Jack to the door, then stopped behind him as he put his hands on either side of the doorjamb. “Wasn’t that—Keely? What the hell? Keely!”
“Mr. Trehan?” the nurse who had been behind the rapidly moving litter asked, looking at Jack, then Tim, then at Jack again.
“Me,” Jack said, poking himself in the chest “I’m Mr. Trehan. See? Scrubs? What’s going on? I thought Keely would give birth in the room she’s—she was already in?”
“There’s been a complication, Mr. Trehan,” the nurse said; then Tim grabbed Jack with both arms as his brother moved to run down the hallway after his wife. “Don’t worry, Dr. Phillips is very good.”
Mrs. B. stepped past the twins and confronted the nurse. “Susan? Remember me?”
“Mrs. Butterworth? Hello!”
“Yes, dear, hello. Nice to see you again, even if you never got more than a C in my class. I suppose your talents lay elsewhere. Now, what’s going on?”
The nurse looked from Mrs. B. to Jack, who was still struggling to get out of Tim’s grip. “Ah... the placenta, Mrs. B. It started separating all of a sudden, and the baby’s heart rate dropped.”
“What does that mean?” Jack asked, his voice tight as Tim finally let him go.
“It’s called placenta previa. It means, sir, that Mrs. Trehan has started to hemorrhage, and we have to take the baby now. Dr. Phillips may have to do a C-section, but she’s hoping not, because the cervix dilates all the way when the placenta separates. We just have to get that baby out now, and the doctor wanted your wife in the operating room. I’m sorry, but you can’t go in there.”
“Oh, God,” Jack said, slipping down in a crouch, his back against the wall, putting his head back and looking up at the ceiling. “Oh, my God... Keely.”
Suzanna pressed both hands to her mouth as she looked at Jack, who was rapidly falling apart.
And that was when Tim stepped up to the plate. “Have you seen this before, Susan?” he asked, his voice calm. “How serious is this? To Keely? To the baby?”
The nurse looked to Mrs. B.
“Tell him, Susan,” she said in her teacher voice. “We’re all adults here.” She bent down, put a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “This man has a right to know everything.”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s not without its risks, sir, to both mother and child,” Susan answered, “but I’ve seen more good results than bad. Please, let me go check and see how things are progressing. Whatever happens, happens very quickly.”
“Sweet Jesus,” Jack said, burying his head in his hands as Tim half lifted his brother to his feet and clumsily gathered him into his arms. “We were going to have a baby, Timmy. That’s all. People have babies every damn day. This isn’t supposed to happen....”
Suzanna brushed back tears as she walked down the hallway, toward the operating room. Jack needed a private moment, with family, and she had this overwhelming need to be closer to Keely, as if she might be able to will everything to be all right.
The nursery was ready back at the house. She and Keely had put it together while Jack and Tim were gone. Knowing the baby would be a boy, Keely had done it up in blue and green, with a wallpaper border of baseballs, mitts, and bats.
The diaper holder was stacked and ready. All the little shirts and kimonos were neatly in their assigned drawers.
There was a huge teddy bear sitting in the crib.
Just no baby. All they needed now was the baby, and the baby’s mother.
Suzanna approached the double doors and tried to look through the glass, but she couldn’t see anything but people in greens, so many people, all with their backs to her.
She pressed her hands against the glass, closed her eyes, willed Keely to be strong.
“You’re a fighter, Keel,” she whispered. “A real fighter. You won’t let anything bad happen, I know it.”
How long she stood there she didn’t know. Hours, minutes. The longest minutes of her life.
And then she heard it. She heard the cry. A baby’s cry. The most beautiful sound in the world.
“Jack!” she called out, running back down the hall and into the waiting room.
Jack got to his feet, brushing away his brother’s hands. “What? What is it?”
Before Suzanna could say anything, Susan was there, and she was smiling. “Mr. Trehan? You can come with me now. It may look a little messy in there, but everybody’s just fine. Your wife, your son.”
Jack just stood there, his shoulders heaving, so Tim gave him a small push. “Go on, Daddy. Go see your wife and baby.”
Jack nodded, just nodded, then slowly walked toward the door. He stopped, looked back. “It’s all right,” he said, tears streaming down his face, the look of joy still edged by fear on his face difficult to witness. “Keely’s all right.”
And then he was gone, and Suzanna walked into Tim’s outstretched arms, to cry against his shoulder.
* * *
Three days later, Keely and John Joseph Trehan, Jr., were home in Whitehall, with Keely holding court from the den couch as the baby napped in his bassinet beside her.
“Me, me,” Candy said, holding out her arms to her mother, and Keely helped the child climb up onto the couch to get a better look at her little brother.
“Are you sure you can hold her?” Suzanna asked. “She’s all elbows and knees, Keel, and you’re still pretty sore.”
“I’m okay, Suzanna,” Keely told her, kissing her daughter’s curly blond head. “Candy has to know that she hasn’t been replaced. Don’t you, sweetheart?” she asked, nuzzling the child’s neck.
“Me, me,” Candy said, which was pretty much her answer to most anything; her question for most everything. In fact, Aunt Sadie had been rechristened Me-Me by the child, and seemed to revel in the name.
“Can I get you anything? Tea? Some of those sugar cookies I baked the other day?”
Keely looked at Suzanna quizzically. “And here I thought you liked me,” she said, then grinned.
“Oh, come on, they’re not so bad; you said so yourself. Although they’re certainly not my mother’s, even if I used her recipe.”
“Not unless your mother was into baking sugar-coated hockey pucks, and I’m pretty sure she wasn’t. We’ll get back to your lessons in the next week or two, I promise. In the meantime, though, Suzanna, I think you’re going to have to do some studying. You know, like learning that a capital T means tablespoonful, and a lower case t means teaspoonful. Just the basics.”
“Got ya,” Suzanna said, walking over to the bassinet as little Johnny began to stir. “Do you think he’s hungry?” she asked, wishing she didn’t feel so nervous around the baby. But he was so small, and his entrance into this world had been so traumatic.
“No, I don’t think so. He ate only an hour ago. Maybe he’ll settle down again.”
As if his mother’s suggestion was an order from on high, Johnny closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
“Oh, he’s so adorable,” Suzanna said, blinking back tears. It was silly, but she’d been crying on and off for three days now, and her emotions showed no signs of calming down. “He’s the most beautiful baby I ever saw.”
“Sure. That’s because he came flying out in such a rush when Dr. Phillips grabbed him. He didn’t have time for his little head to go all cone-shaped or anything. But he is cute. I think he has Jack’s mouth.”
Suzanna grinned. “When he’s sleeping, or when he’s crying?”
“Both,” Keely answered, rubbing Candy’s back, as the child had now stretched herself belly to belly with her mother and was noisily sucking her thumb. “And I think he’s going to have that same blond streak Jack and Tim have. Not that he has much hair right now, but I think I can see the different shade near his temple.”
“I wonder if our...” Suzanna began, still leaning over the bassinet, then quickly stopped when Jack and Tim walked into the den. “Hi, guys,” she said, standing up straight once more. “Did you find the right kind?”
Jack lifted a small plastic bag “Do you people have any idea how many different kinds of pacifiers are out there? I know what you said, Keely, but when we got there, and saw them all, my mind sort of went blank.”
“So he bought one of each,” Tim said, giving his brother’s shoulder a playful punch. “Johnny’s going to have his pick. Suze? Ready to go home? Aunt Sadie’s on duty in ten minutes, but maybe we could give Keely and Jack some time alone?”
“How considerate,” Keely said. “Thank you, Tim. God bless Aunt Sadie, and Mrs. B., and everyone, but I was never alone in the hospital, and now I’m never alone here, at home. Not that I’m not happy for all the help.”
Suzanna looked at Tim. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I can take a hint. Come on, Tim, let’s go.”
That had sounded good, she thought as she and Tim exited the front door for their walk back to their own house. She’d sounded light, and upbeat, and all that good stuff. She didn’t think anyone would even come close to guessing that the last thing she wanted was to be alone with her husband.
“Keely looks good,” Tim said as they cut across the grass rather than walk down the curving drive to the road. “And Johnny’s a lot better.”
“He still has to take sun baths,” Keely said, talking about the child’s elevated bilirubin that had kept mother and baby in the hospital an extra day so that Johnny could be put under special lights in the nursery. “But his little nose isn’t so orange anymore, is it?”
“I don’t know; I didn’t look,” Tim said, guiding Suzanna so that she walked at the edge of the road, where macadam met lawns, and he took the outside position. Very mannerly and correct, just as his mother probably taught him, even if there were seldom any cars on this private road that led nowhere but to the houses built there.
“No, you haven’t, have you?” Suzanna said, frowning. “Why is that?”
“I don’t know. I look at Johnny, and all I can think about is holding Jack, feeling him tremble and shake, listening to him cry. My brother, crying? I don’t think I’ve heard that since we were kids. Not even when Mom and Dad died—or if he did, he did it in private. He just fell apart in that waiting room, Suze, like his whole world was ending. Is it worth it? He could have lost Keely.”
“But he didn’t. Keely’s fine, Johnny’s fine, and they’re all happy as pigs in mud. Tim, you can’t stop living just because sometimes things don’t work out the way you think they’re supposed to. Why, if everyone thought like that, nobody’d have babies. Or get married, for that matter.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” Tim said, then sighed. “I just... I just didn’t realize how complicated it all could get, I guess.”
She wanted to tell him, longed to tell him. I’ll be all right, Tim, please don’t worry. Please.
“At least Margo had an uncomplicated birth, and the kittens are so adorable. I shouldn’t like the one that looks just like Lucky, but I have to admit that he’s my favorite.”
“Candy gets one, right?” Tim asked, taking her hand in his. “And Sadie wants one, but I’d like to keep the other two, if you don’t mind. One mini-Margo, one mini-Lucky.”
“Four cats? You want us to own four cats?”
“Hey, why not?” he said, grinning.
They turned into their own property, crossing the bridge that ran above the Coplay Creek, and she stopped there, walked over to the railing.
“It’s so pretty here,” she said, looking at the tall, nearly bare trees, the red and gold leaves swirling in the water as it tumbled over smooth rocks. “So quiet, so peaceful. Oh, look, Tim—geese.”
Tim rested his arms beside hers on the railing. “They’ll be heading south soon, for the winter. Then the seagulls will be here.”
“Seagulls?” she repeated, turning away from the railing and heading up the long, curved drive. “In Pennsylvania? You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope. It started a few years ago, I don’t know why. Used to be you only saw seagulls at the shore, when we’d go to Jersey to the beach house Jack has there. But, a couple of years ago, we started seeing them in the wintertime, in the parking lots of the local malls. Now we even get them up here. Aunt Sadie feeds them, which could be one reason. Then, in the spring, they’re gone again. I guess they decided all birds should have a winter home.”
“They probably come here for the food, once all the tourists leave the shore,” Suzanna said as she waited for Tim to open the door, turn off the alarm in the kitchen hallway. “I mean, think of all the restaurant dumpsters around here.”
“Possible,” Tim said, looking through the mail Suzanna had placed on the kitchen table before heading over to Keely’s. “So, Suzanna—when are you going to tell me you’re pregnant?”
“Wha—what?”
He put down the mail and turned, looked straight at her. “I said, when are you going to tell me you’re—”
“I heard you,” she said, pulling out a chair and sitting down before she fell down.
“Heard, but haven’t answered,” he pointed out, walking over to the counter and lifting the lid on the cookie jar. “I like these,” he said, holding up one of her hockey puck sugar cookies. “If we’re ever attacked by marauding seagulls, we can use them as weapons.”
Suzanna heard him. She saw him. She just didn’t understand him.
“Tim, I—”
“Do you want to know how long I’ve known?” he asked, his tone still light, although his eyes seemed to have gone cold. “Do you, Suze? I’ve known since Aunt Sadie’s birthday party. Nearly two months, Suze. I’ve known for almost two months. I even know your due date, April fourteenth. It’s November, Suze. So I’ll ask you again, when were you going to tell me?”
This wasn’t going right. When Suzanna thought about this moment, she thought about him coming to her, telling her he loved her desperately, with or without a baby, with or without the Trehan curse, with or without anything but the fact that he loved her. Her.
Didn’t he understand that? First he would tell her he loved her, and then she would tell him about the baby.
But he hadn’t said a word. He still slept in the back bedroom. He rarely even tried to kiss her. She still went to work each day, and he still spent most of his free time with Jack, the rest of it overseeing his bowling alley and the irrigation project at his golf course. They were living together, but they were living separate lives.
“I... I was working my way up to it,” she said at last, knowing he was waiting for her answer, knowing that answer sounded lame, so very lame.
“Uh-huh. Why?”
“Why?” She looked at him, her eyes wide. “What do you mean, why?”
“I mean, why were you working your way up to it? You’re pregnant. I’m the father. I am the father, right?”
Suzanna felt the blood drain out of her cheeks. “You... you bastard!”
“That’s what I thought. Relax. I know I’m the father, Suze. I always knew that. But you’d be surprised at the insane thoughts that can dig into your mind when you know your wife’s pregnant and she won’t tell you.”
“I... I never thought of that...” she said quietly.
“No, I know you didn’t. I’ll bet you also didn’t think about what it was like to call here from the road and wonder if you were still here, or if you’d decided to leave, have our baby somewhere, send me divorce papers.”
“I wouldn’t have—oh, Tim. I... I never looked at any of this from your side, did I?”
“No, babe, you didn’t. I’m in a pennant race, and I’m going nuts every moment, wondering where my wife is, why she’s hiding things from me. If she’ll even be there when I get home. Not a lot of fun Suze.”
She nodded, embarrassed, and sorry, and—wait a minute. He was pushing all the old buttons, and she was still responding in all the old ways.
“Excuse me, Tim, but when did this all become about you?” she asked, getting up from her chair. “What about me?”
“Come again?”
“Me, Tim. Your wife. You know, the woman you married because she was the lesser of three evils?”
“I explained that,” he said, putting down his half-eaten cookie.”
“Sure, you explained that. Right after Dusty spilled the beans, you explained that. Was that supposed to make it all better? Tell me, Tim, what would have happened if you’d gotten hurt? Couldn’t play anymore? Had to retire, like Jack? Would that have meant that good old Suze had failed to come through for you this time? Would I have been expendable then? You don’t want this baby. We never even talked about babies, except when you got all weird about birth control.”
He made a face. “That’s nuts. We’re married, and we’re going to stay married. And I want this baby.”
“Oh, really? And I’m supposed to believe this?”
“Yes, damn it, you’re supposed to believe this.”
“Why? Because you say so? Let’s replay this, from my side. I’m pregnant because my husband doesn’t even speak to me enough about the real things in life to tell me he doesn’t want a baby right now, and I’m going nuts every moment, wondering why my husband married me, what else he’s not telling me. Because he lies to me. Lies about why he married me, lies about a damn cat. Lies, or hides, or just plain ignores. You knew I was pregnant? Well, Tim, I knew you knew I was pregnant. I even know you’re feeling so damn guilty you’re having male pregnancy symptoms. But did you say anything? Ever? No, you didn’t. Because we don’t talk, and when we do, you lie to me. Like you said, Tim. Not a lot of fun.”
“Damn it,” Tim said, leaning against the counter. “What happened, Suze? We used to be able to talk to each other. Why has getting married ruined such a great friendship?”
“I... I don’t know, Tim,” Suzanna said, heading toward the back stairs to the bedrooms. “Maybe it wasn’t such a great friendship in the first place. Maybe it was all me, giving, and all you, taking. Did you ever think about that?”
He didn’t follow her when she climbed the stairs, and a few seconds later she heard the back door slam.
* * *
Tim cut around the house to the front and headed for the bridge, and maybe Jack’s house. Because Coplay Creek was just that, a creek, and not deep enough to drown himself in.
He walked along, his hands dug deep into his pockets, replaying his and Suzanna’s fight in his head.
She was right. Damn it, she was right.
Good old Suze.
God, how he hated that. How he hated himself for ever thinking that, ever saying that.
Suzanna was right. He was a bastard. Selfish. No good. Immature.
Nauseous.
But he loved her. He did, damn it.
At the hospital, when everything started going south with Keely and little Johnny, he’d held his brother, but all he could think about was Suzanna. What would he do if something ever happened to Suzanna?
He couldn’t live without her. He didn’t want to live without her.
And yet today, after three days of near agony, when he’d decided it was time, way past time, for him to let her know he knew she was carrying his child, everything had gone from bad to worse.
He needed to talk to somebody. He needed to talk to Jack.
No, not Jack. Jack was busy being a happy father, he and Keely playing happy family. He couldn’t rain on that parade.
So who was left? Not Mort, not this time, because he had to be the one who had told Suzanna about his pregnancy symptoms. Not even Jack knew about those.
Not Aunt Sadie, because she was at Jack’s house, and not Mrs. B., because she was substitute teaching all this week.
There was nobody. Nobody. He was all alone.
“Hey, Tim—bo!”
“Oh, shit,” Tim muttered under his breath. “Is the whole world out to get me?” he asked as Joey pulled up beside him in his humongous four-by-four.
“Hey, thought that was you. I was just going to see the kid; but when I saw you, I let Bruno out, and I kept coming. We came to see the baby, ya know, but that can wait. What ya doin’, walking around out here?”
“Trying to be alone?” he answered, knowing there was little hope that suggestion wouldn’t just go zinging right over his cousin’s head.
“You look pretty bad, Tim, like you just lost your last friend,” Joey called out as Tim kept on walking. “Just let me park this thing, and I’ll walk with you, okay?”
“Why not,” Tim grumbled. “God’s punishing me, and I deserve it.” More loudly he said, “Sure, Joey, and then you can help me with my troubles, right?”
Joey hopped down out of his vehicle, hit a button on his key chain that activated the security system, and jogged over to Tim. “Me? Help you? There’s a switch. Okay, let’s try it. How can I help you?”
Tim looked around, and his gaze landed on some boulders the builders had bulldozed into a pile on the lot where a three-story Georgian colonial was almost under roof. He’d have new neighbors soon after Christmas. “Let’s sit down,” he said, motioning toward the boulders.
“Hey, sure,” Joey said, bounding toward the boulders and hopping up on one of them, like a kid just offered a treat. “Man, this is cool. We never talked, ya know that? Never.”
“Yeah,” Tim said, selecting another boulder for himself. “There’s a lot of my not talking going around.”
“Huh?” Joey asked, shaking his head. “You been, ya know, tippling?” He lifted an imaginary bottle to his lips.
“No, but it was going to be my next choice,” Tim said. “Joey? Do you know that Suzanna’s pregnant?”
“Me? Naw, I don’t know—oh, okay, sure. I knew. Everybody knows. Why?”
For the next twenty minutes, maybe longer, Tim talked, and Joey listened. He told his cousin everything: about the curse, about meeting up with Suzanna in Pittsburgh, about the birth control—or lack of it—even about Lucky and Margo. And when Joey just sat there, looking almost pontifical, he went for broke and told him about the male pregnancy symptoms, and the fight he and Suzanna had just had.
“You screwed up, Tim-bo,” Joey said at last, nodding sagely. “Big time.”
Tim slapped his hands on his knees and stood up. “Leave it to you, Joey, to tell me the obvious. Hey, never mind. Thanks for listening. I think I needed to say it all out loud, you know?”
He started walking away, but Joey clambered down from his boulder and followed him. “Hey, wait. You want help? I’ll help you.”
“You?” Tim shook his head. “Thanks, but—”
“No, really. I’ll help you. I’m taking this psych course at the community college, and—what? Why’re you rolling your eyes like that?”
“No reason. Go on, Joey. Let me have it. Tell me how I’ve got to court her and take things slow, and prove that I love her. I don’t know how to do any of that, now that she hates me this much, but you can tell me anyway.”
“I’m not telling you anything like that, Tim-bo. She’s just as in the wrong as you are.”
Jack stopped, tipped his head to one side. “She’s in the wrong?”
“Heck, yeah. You’re tossing your cookies. Your nose is bleeding—you might want to dab at it there with something, Tim-bo. You’ve got headaches, and cramps, and you’re telling me you have a toothache? You’re telling me you read about all these symptoms, and you’re having all of them? Sounds to me like you’re already suffering plenty, ya know? So what’s she doing? Except maybe busting your chops.”
Tim chewed on this for a few moments, after getting over the idea that he was actually listening to his cousin. “So, what you’re saying is, we’re both at fault? Not just me?”
“Hey, mostly you, definitely. But she’s not being any walk in the park, now, is she?”
“No, she’s not,” Tim said, thinking about his lonely bedroom.
“You wanna know what’s lacking here, Tim-bo? I’ll tell you what’s lacking here. Trust. T-r-u-s-t-t, trust. You can’t have anything else if you don’t have trust. I know that, because we’re studying it.”
“Only two Ts, Joey,” Tim said absently, as the gears in his head had begun to spin. His wacky cousin had a point, a real point. Hadn’t he and Suzanna just been yelling at each other about how he couldn’t trust her to be there when he came home, and she couldn’t trust him to stay with her for any reason except that she was pregnant? Trust. Yeah. That was it. There was no damn trust.
“You’re nodding your head, Tim-bo. That means you think I’m right, right?”
“Right, Joey,” Tim said, putting his arm around his cousin’s shoulder. “Now, what do we do about it?”
“Well,” Joey said, hitching up his pants, then swiping a finger under his nose. “First, you prove to her how much you want this baby, but you want her even more, right? She needs to know that, right?”
Tim nodded, wiping at his own nose, his handkerchief coming away with a few spots of blood on it. “Right.”
“And no pressure, okay? None of this chasing her around the table, stuff like that. Women don’t want sex so much as they want holding hands, and intimate dinners, shit like that.”
“You learned this in psych class?”
“Naw, my mom told me, years ago, back in high school. Right after she found the condom pack in my wallet on prom night. So, you gonna listen to me? It’s going to take time, because you two really screwed up, but I think you can do it. Trust her. Give her time to trust you.”
“Okay. I’ll try it,” Tim said, looking over his shoulder, in the direction of his house. His and Suzanna’s house. “What have I got to lose?”
“What have you got to lose? You’re asking me? Okay. Everything, Tim-bo. You’ve got everything to lose,” Joey said with a shrug, and Tim looked at his cousin with new respect.