Only You (Stevens Book 12)

Chapter 7

Mave and Sam had spent a wonderful evening together on the couch, watching movies and eating pizza; yes, she had won on food choice in the end. After a few movies, they went to bed because Sam had an early start to his day, and Mave had been driving for three days.

While Sam went to bed, Mave took a long hot bath and crawled into a warm bed only to be pulled toward Sam, who snuggled her as she fell asleep. She had never felt so safe.

When Mave awoke the next morning, Sam was gone, and she had an entire day to fill with nothing to do.

It was almost lunchtime when the doorbell rang, and Mave approached it tentatively. Looking through the peephole, Mave saw her cousin, Agatha, or Aggie, peering back.

"Hurry up! I'm eight months pregnant and need to sit down." She banged on the door.

"I thought expectant mothers were supposed to glow?" Mave said as she opened the door to a frowning Aggie.

"We glow until the nausea starts, then we turn green for a bit, then we're always flushed because of the extra work it takes to move and hold in our pee at the same time." Aggie fell onto a chair by the door, dropping her purse on the floor. "I have no clue how Beth made this look so easy."

Aggie hadn't seen her cousin since before she was kidnapped, so she studied Mave and the scar on her face. "Could be worse," Aggie said as she leaned back, exhaling like a deflating ball.

"I could be dead?" Mave asked in a bored voice. She had heard it time and time again.

"Nope, you could be eight months pregnant with a whale." Agatha repositioned herself on the chair.

"You'll be back to normal in months; this scar," Mave traced it, "isn't going anywhere."

"Nope, my tummy might return to a smaller size, but I'll never laugh or sneeze again without peeing my pants, and this heartburn has probably caused permanent damage. Then I have to raise him or her for the next eighteen years. It's probably a girl with my luck, and she'll be just like her grandfather."

Mave smiled at the thought of her smart-mouthed Uncle Mason. "At least you'll never be bored."

"That's true." Aggie agreed. "It's all relative, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Mave leaned against the wall across from Aggie.

"You do realize we're sitting in the house's foyer and haven't made it into the primary sitting area yet?" Aggie sighed.

"One place is as good as another. At least it's not a pitch-black basement, and I'm not chained to a bed," Mave said in a bitter voice. Where it came from, she had no clue. Maybe it was because Aggie looked so happy, even if she pretended otherwise.

Aggie closed her eyes at her words and swallowed hard. "I remember when the enemy would get close to the base camp, and the bombing would start; you wondered every minute if the next one would kill you. The fear would almost choke you, but you had to keep going. You had to push through." Aggie had been a nurse in the Army and had done two tours overseas. It was where she had met her husband.

"You could always walk away," Mave choked as she remembered the feel of those chains biting into her skin as she tried to escape.

"There was the illusion of being free, but the reality was that if we left the hospital, we would most certainly be shot or court-martialed at the very least." Aggie tried to stand and gave up, falling back into her seat, and Mave couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her despite Aggie's attempts to compare her time in the Army with Mave's time in captivity.

Although, Mave had to admit that she had never known that her cousin had been in so much danger during her time overseas.

"I'm not saying your pain is less or even equal to mine. I guess what I'm trying to say with my foggy pregnancy brain is don't go down a rabbit hole of thinking that you're the only one who has had bad shit happen to them. The world is full of hurting people, and I've seen more than my fair share. Don't be one who thinks life has treated you unjustly, or that it owes you for your hardships, or worse, that it's punishing you for your poor choices." Aggie closed her eyes as if it had taken everything she had to say those words.

A heavy silence descended that lasted a few moments.

"So, Aggie, how have you been?" Mave asked casually as if she hadn't just been lectured.

Aggie smiled. "Did you hear? I'm going to have a baby!" Aggie crowed, playing along with the do-over.

"Congratulations!" Mave grinned, and this time, Aggie managed to pull herself out of the chair and hugged her cousin a little tighter than usual.

"I love you, Mave."

"I love you too, Aggie." Mave knew she had to say her piece, and keeping her from saying it would have caused stress between them. 

"Now, I'm here because Dr. Merrick and Dr. Evers have sent me on a mission to drag you to the hospital for a delightful lunch in the cafeteria." Aggie reached for her purse.

"Are you sure it wasn't just Dr. Evers requesting my presence?" Mave raised her eyebrow, even though she felt a little thrill at calling her Sammy, Dr. Evers. She rarely thought of him that way.

"Nope, Dr. Merrick would like to talk with you about your continued treatment, so go get ready before I have to sit down again." Agatha shooed.

"I don't think I'm ready to go out yet, and I don't need continued treatment," Mave hedged as her mind desperately thought of a way to get out of going.

"It'll be fine, and you have to start somewhere and sometime. I don't think anyone expects to see you in a hospital cafeteria, so pull back that lovely hair, put on a ball cap, and get some oversized sunglasses." Aggie insisted, ignoring her objection to continued treatment.

Mave stood rooted to the spot.

"Now, honey. You're keeping a very hungry pregnant woman waiting, and I don't want to get mean. In fact, why don't I get a snack for the road while you get ready." Aggie moved to the kitchen, throwing her purse on the counter as she opened the fridge door.

"Ugg, what's with all this healthy junk!" Aggie called as Mave moved back to the bedroom to get ready. Knowing she had to do it sometime and now was as good as any time.

A few minutes later, Aggie leaned against the door, looking at Mave as she placed the oversized sunglasses on her face while she stuffed hers with a banana.

"You still look every inch the movie star," Aggie sighed as she looked at her large belly. "I hate you for it!"

In women speak, it was the best compliment ever.

Aggie looked around the room, then back at Mave. "This is Sam's room?" This time, her eyebrow was raised. "You and Sam?"

"Yes," Mave nodded. "It's always been me and Sam."

"We've always known you loved Sam, but Sam...he played his cards pretty close to his chest."

"I asked him to," Mave told Aggie.    

"Why?" Aggie watched her cousin closely.

"The same reason you kept Roark to yourself for so long. The same reason everyone in our family keeps their relationships secret: privacy."

"Did you know Sam told me I was pregnant before I even knew myself? He said I smelled like cookies." Aggie smiled at the memory. "It ticked Roark all the way off."

Mave smiled, not at all surprised by Sam's special senses or Roark's frustration.

"It explains a lot. Are you ready to go?" Aggie said, leading the way to the door and picking up her purse.

"What explains a lot?" Mave asked, not following her cousin's jumbled thoughts.

"It explains why Sam's been single for so long. He has plenty of women chasing him, and he flirts with them, but he never takes them out. When you say, 'It's always been Sam,' what does that mean?" Aggie asked as she started down the steps.

"Since I was eighteen and he was twenty-one. Sixteen years." Mave locked the door behind her and followed Aggie to her car as memories of her and Sam in the past enveloped her. They were so much better than her more recent memories.

"You win the longest secret relationship award. Congratulations!" Aggie teased.

Mave shook her head. "I wish it weren't a contest that I won. Hindsight's twenty-twenty."

"Remember what I said about not beating yourself up about the past. Don't. Life happens the way it was meant to."

Aggie patted her hand and started the drive into town as Mave prepared her heart for being in public once more and seeing Sam at the hospital. She had never seen him at work before.