Free Waterfalls by Robin Jones Gunn Page B

with a deep breath.
Maybe she’s treating me like a child because I let her. I turn into a little girl whenever I’m around her. Why am I doing that? I didn’t used to
.
    Slipping into her nightshirt and heading for bed, Meredith noticed something on her pillow. She had taken out her contacts and couldn’t make out what it was. Greenish in color, itdefinitely wasn’t a mint. Was it a bug? She picked up the closest weapon, which was a book of poetry on the night stand. Cautiously she approached the intruder with the book in position, ready to smash at any moment. Meri squinted her eyes. Was it? It was!
    “A grape,” she said aloud. “How did one lonely grape get in here?” A smile spread across her face. She picked up the green grape and laughed. Even Meredith felt better when she heard her own laughter. Jake must have put it there when he came back to the house to make his phone calls.
    Crawling under the covers, she held the lone grape between her thumb and forefinger, rolling it back and forth. She smiled contentedly to herself.
So, the man has imagination
.

Chapter Nine

    A week later, Meredith was sitting at her cluttered desk in her home office when the phone rang. She jumped before picking it up on the second ring. The phone’s ringing in the middle of the day shouldn’t have surprised her. It rang all the time. But at the moment she was lost in a dream.
    “This is Meredith,” she said after she pushed the button on the speaker phone.
    “It’s me,” Shelly said. “You busy?”
    “Not really. What’s up?”
    “I started,” Shelly said.
    It took Meredith a moment to catch her meaning. “Oh. Are you okay?”
    “Sure. I’m fine. A little bloated, but you know how that goes. I think you were right. I got all messed up because of the crazy schedule and the stress. Things should even out now.”
    “Good. I hope they do,” Meri said. “What’s happening with you guys?”
    “Kyle and Jonathan are working on clearing the meadow today. It’s been so hot all week everything dried up, and Kyle thinks it could be a fire hazard. I hated to see all the wildflowers go.”
    “I can imagine,” Meredith agreed. “It’s a beautiful meadow.” She picked up a pen and began to doodle on her desk mat’s corner. Only a week ago she had compared herself to the wildflowers in that field: fresh and charming one day and plowed under the next. Her own prophecy had come true for herself. She had waited all week, but Jacob never called. He didn’t e-mail, and he didn’t write. All hope had dried up, drooped, and withered. Certainly any man with enough imagination to leave a grape on her pillow was capable of contacting her within a week’s time if he wanted to.
    “I talked to Jake last night.” Shelly said.
    Meredith didn’t respond.
    “I told him about the pregnancy test. I told him it was for me.”
    “I’m sure he was vastly relieved,” Meri said.
    “That sounded pretty sarcastic.”
    “Why did you feel the need to tell him?”
    “I wanted him to get a more accurate opinion of you.”
    “Oh, well, thank you very much, Shelly, but I think it’s too late for that. My brief encounter with that unsuspecting man was so much larger than life, you know? If he and I had met under other circumstances, in another lifetime, on another planet, there may have been some hope for your endeavors.”
    “He said he enjoyed meeting you,” Shelly divulged.
    “Are you sure he didn’t say it was ‘memorable’? If I were he, I would use other words than ‘enjoyed.’ ”
    “He said enjoyed.”
    “How gracious of him.”
    “Meri, don’t you even want to know what else he said?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    There was a pause. “I’m going to tell you anyway. Jake said he enjoyed meeting you because you’re so original.”
    “Original!” Meredith hooted. “Oh, that’s good. That’s terrific. I’m original. That ranks right up there with ‘She has a great personality.’ ” Meri shook her head and