Autumn twisted a curl of auburn hair around one finger, wondering how to word her next question, but feeling the need to ask. “Isn’t it driving you crazy? The way you’re being treated now, I mean? Like you’ve suddenly become a delicate, emotional creature that people have to tiptoe around. Mother hovered over you, Daddy kept patting your cheek, and Clay—Lord!”
Spring laughed. “Yes, it drives me crazy. But I guess that’s just part of it. I understand that, as I get bigger, all people will focus on is my belly. My attorney friend said it was terribly frustrating when the jury kept smiling at her stomach instead of frowning thoughtfully into her eyes as she wanted them to do. She had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously while she was pregnant. No one ever said it was going to be easy, Autumn. But becoming an optometrist wasn’t easy, either. I had to work for it. It was worth it.
“As for Clay…well, he’s just Clay. Part of his solicitude is teasing, the other part is his way of being involved in a phase of parenthood during which the father has very little to do. Fathers feel terribly left out during pregnancy. I plan to keep him very busy for the next seven months.”
Suddenly restless, Autumn sprang to her feet and began to pace around the impeccably decorated room. “You
and Summer make it look so easy. You have careers, goals, plans—and yet you still make time for your husbands and look forward to having children. How do you do it?”
“Autumn, it’s not easy. It’s not. But it’s what we want.”
“But how do you know?” Autumn turned to look at her sister, the frustration building inside her as she tried to understand the other woman’s serenity. “Neither you nor Summer seemed all that anxious to get married before you met Clay and Derek. You were busy with your practice, and Summer was having too much fun partying with her nutty San Francisco friends to care about settling down. Then you meet these guys, and suddenly you’re buying homes and making babies. Was it really that simple?”
“Simple?” Spring repeated incredulously, her eyes widening. “Autumn, it was terrifying! You’ve heard us talk about how insecure and uncertain we were in the early stages of our romances.”
She paused for a moment, her expression dreamy with her memories, then she smiled at her intently listening sister. “It wasn’t simple, Autumn. I don’t think it’s ever simple to suddenly have another person become such an important part of your life. I only know that I feel so fulfilled now. I’m still my own person with my own goals and career, but I always have Clay when I need someone to share my thoughts and dreams and disappointments, and he has me for the same type of moral support.”
She shot Autumn a sly glance, turning the conversation abruptly in a new direction. “I think that you would thrive within a happy marriage, just as Summer and I have. Maybe it’s the way we were raised, with our parents setting such a good example of two people whose lives are better for being shared with the ones they love.”
Autumn swallowed and started to pace again. “We weren’t talking about me,” she said gruffly.
“Weren’t we?” Spring inquired gently. “Then why is it suddenly so important for you to understand how Summer and I justified marriage?”
Autumn moistened her lips and avoided her sister’s knowing eyes. “I was just curious.”
“Want to tell me about him?”
“About who?”
“The man Clay asked you about the day you arrived, the man who made you blush,” Spring teased. “The man who has you asking yourself if marriage is such a terrible thing after all.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Autumn blustered, her arms crossing defensively over her chest. “You know how I feel about marriage. I came close once, remember? I thought I was in love with Steven, but I couldn’t marry him. Just the thought made me panic.”
“You thought you were in love with Steven,” Spring repeated. “You weren’t. You were infatuated with his good looks and football-hero image. And you were much too young five years ago to be thinking about marriage. You’ve made a life for yourself now, accomplished things that you couldn’t have done if you’d married then. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t have it all now.” She paused for only a moment before asking again, “So want to tell me about this new mam?”
“There’s nothing to tell,” Autumn answered, then had to be honest. “Well, not much. I’ve only known him for a couple of months, and we’ve only had two dates. But he’s…He makes me…He…Oh, hell, Spring, I don’t know. I seem to be obsessed with the man, but I don’t know if it’s something serious or if it’s just a bad case of lust.”
Spring laughed delightedly. “Oh, does this sound familiar!”
“So what am I supposed to do?” Autumn demanded, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jeans and glaring at her amused sister. “Jeff’s a very traditional kind of man. One who’s looking for permanence, commitment. I don’t know if that’s what I want. What if it isn’t?”
“What if it is?” Spring asked in return. “How will you know unless you give it a chance?”
“I don’t want to hurt him. And I don’t want to be hurt,” Autumn murmured, finally putting into words the fears that had plagued her for the past few weeks.
“There’s always that risk,” Spring agreed. “But you’ve never been a coward, Autumn. Far from it. You’ve always willingly taken on every challenge that faced you. I can’t give you advice because I don’t know Jeff or anything about him, but I do believe that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to—a career, a marriage, a family. I always knew that when you fell in love, you’d fall hard. You’ve never done anything halfway.”
In love? Was she in love with Jeff? Autumn frowned, going cold at the suggestion. Was this how her sisters had felt? If so, then “terrified” seemed suddenly too tame a word. Autumn was scared spitless.
Spring set Missy, her cat, onto the floor and rose to her feet, assuming the stance of a concerned older sister. “Would I approve of Jeff, Autumn?”
With a reluctant laugh Autumn grimaced. “You’d adore him. He’s almost too handsome to be real, he loves kids and animals, his manners are straight out of an old handbook for Southern gentlemen, and yet he’s modern enough to clean up after himself and not be threatened when a woman asks him out. I think he’d be a bit overprotective of the woman in his life, but he doesn’t seem to be bothered by the idea of being involved with a working woman. And he’s got a smile that could melt granite.”
Intrigued, Spring straightened her glasses and peered thoughtfully at her sister. “What does he do?”
“He’s a pediatrician.”
“Marry the man.”