First Impressions Read online

  “So what’s wrong?” Eden repeated. “And quit lying to me. I’m your mother, remember? I know you.”

  At that, Melissa burst into tears and began pouring out a long list of complaints. It seemed that Stuart was working late and Melissa was by herself three nights a week. When he came home, he was too tired to even be interested in the baby’s kicking. And then there was the kitchen. Stuart had said that they couldn’t afford to eat out every night or even have delivery, so Melissa was supposed to cook dinner for them. “I have no idea how to cook,” Melissa said.

  Not that I didn’t try to teach you, Eden wanted to say. “There are cookbooks in the cabinet over the refrig—”

  “I know where the cookbooks are,” Melissa said tightly. “Mother, is this going to be one of those fix-it conversations? I need some help here, not a pep talk.”

  Eden looked at the pile of manuscripts on the floor and knew she should have set her alarm for six. On the table was the sapphire necklace, and she picked it up. Was this why some man had swallowed her name? “I’m sorry,” Eden said. “I know that starting a new life alone with your husband is difficult, but—”

  “I want to be with you.”

  “Hmmm,” Eden said, holding the necklace up to the light.

  “Mother, are you listening to me?”

  “Yes, of course I am. It’s just that—” Frowning, Eden held the phone to her shoulder, got out of bed, and went to the window. She pulled back the curtain, then raised the blind. Sunlight threatened to pierce her eyesight. “Damn you, McBride!” she muttered.

  “Bride?” Melissa said. “Yes, I know I’m Stuart’s bride, but I still have a mother and I want to be with you when the baby comes.”

  Eden looked at the necklace in the sunlight, turning it over in her hand. She’d once worked in a jewelry store and she’d seen some nice jewels. There was something wrong with this necklace. Was it just the old setting, or was it something else?

  “Mother, did you hear what I said? If I get there tomorrow will you meet me at the train station?”

  “Train?” Eden said distractedly. “Honey, there’s no train here, except for freight trains, that is.” She put the necklace down on the windowsill, took a breath, and gave her attention to her daughter. “Listen, sweetheart, I know that being pregnant is difficult, but you have Stuart now, and I think—”

  “You don’t have to tell me what you think,” Melissa said quickly. “I know that your pregnancy was hell and I know that you were alone. And I know that having me has ruined your life.”

  “Melissa! What a thing to say! You’ve always been the best part of my life, and I’ve told you that often.”

  “Then why did you abandon me now when I need you so very much?”

  Eden ran her hand over her eyes. “I didn’t abandon you. You and Stuart were very excited to be on your own, remember? When I left, you were planning all the redecorating you were going to do.”

  “That’s what I thought was going to happen, but it didn’t. Stuart said we can’t afford to do any decorating now that he has to pay for the whole apartment. You know what he said to me?”

  Eden could smell food. The delightful aroma was wafting up the stairs and coming in under her door. She walked across the room, opened the door, and inhaled deeply. What in the world was McBride cooking this morning? “What did Stuart say to you?”

  “He said that I should go downtown to one of those ragtag flea markets and get old, used furniture and refinish it. Like you did! Can you imagine that? Here I am, pregnant with his child, and he wants me to drive downtown, waddle through a bunch of dirty flea markets, and haul furniture back on top of your old station wagon. Have you ever heard of anything so impossible? Is that how a pregnant woman should be treated?”

  Eden had a flash of her own pregnancy. Before she’d met Mrs. Farrington she’d gone without food for days at a time. After she met Mrs. Farrington, she’d been so scared she’d lose the job that she’d hauled huge boxes down from the attic by herself. She remembered one time when the dust made her sneeze eleven times in a row. “No, that’s not how a pregnant woman should be treated,” Eden said dutifully.

  “Mother, am I boring you?”

  “No, of course not.” She heard McBride on the stairs; she knew his step.

  “Food’s on,” he called. “You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted my strawberry muffins.”

  “Be right there,” Eden called back, her hand over the phone. She put it back to her ear.

  “Mother, was that a man?” Melissa’s voice was a combination of disbelief and disapproval.

  “Yes, it was, but—”

  “What is a man doing in your house at this hour of the morning?”

  “Melissa, please don’t sound like a prude, and besides, it’s nearly time for lunch, remember?”

  “I remember that when I called you this morning, I woke you up. Mother, did you spend the night with that man?”

  Eden grit her teeth. “Melissa, darling, my dearest daughter, that is none of your business. Now, if you can’t talk to me in a civil manner, I suggest we cut this off. I also suggest that you make up to your husband and stop putting me between the two of you. And as for your visiting, might I remind you that you’re a bit far along in your pregnancy to be taking long trips. Now, why don’t you take a nice hot bath, then look through those cookbooks and make your husband a nice dinner? I’ll call you when I can.”

  With that, Eden hung up. For about thirty seconds she felt great, like something out of a self-help book about standing up to your children. When Eden said she was leaving New York, Melissa had turned against her mother and chosen her husband’s side—which she should have done. Eden again felt the hurt of it all, how her daughter and Stuart had been so glad when Eden told them she was moving out.

  But her elation, her self-righteousness, and her did-the-right-thing vibes didn’t survive a full minute. The next second Eden slumped down onto the chair, put her hands over her eyes, and started crying. She’d just told off her child, her daughter who she’d been with since she was born. Her daughter was now having her own child and was alone with a man Eden didn’t like, and her mother had abandoned her. Should she have told Melissa to come here to Arundel? And get mixed up in some mistake with the FBI?

  “Anything I can do to help?” came a soft voice from the doorway.

  As Eden wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, Jared handed her a tissue. “Thanks,” she murmured.

  “That was your kid on the phone?”

  “Yes,” Eden said, blowing her nose. “My grown-up child now thinks I have abandoned her. And oh, yes, I’m a slut.”

  “You? You make nuns look promiscuous.”

  “I do not!” Eden said, sniffing.

  “Sure you do. Last night I gave you my best seduction drink. If you knew how many women that drink has worked on…Well, maybe I shouldn’t tell the total number, but I can tell you that it works. But not on you.”

  In spite of herself, Eden laughed. But in the next moment she looked down at her hands and her smile left her. “This isn’t serious, is it? I mean, about the argument with my daughter.”

  “I don’t have kids, but my guess is that it’s not. And I think that what you said to her was the right thing. Okay, so maybe I was eavesdropping a little bit. Professional habit. But I think you were right on the money. If she runs home to Mom every time she has a fight with Hubby, she’ll never learn.”

  “But Stuart, her husband…I can’t stand him.”

  “He was a new husband and living with a mother-in-law who’d made a success of herself in spite of all that life had done to her. Do you know what usually happens to girls who get pregnant at seventeen?”

  “Yes, of course I do, but I had help. I had Mrs. Farrington.”

  “Do you think she would have kept you if you hadn’t worked yourself to the bone for her?”

  Eden smiled. “No. She hated lazy people. She never did a lick of work herself, but she expected others to work from