Winds of Salem by Melissa de La Cruz

Author:Melissa de La Cruz [Cruz, Melissa de La]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, fantasy, Fiction, contemporary, Fiction / Fantasy - Contemporary, Fiction / Romance - Fantasy, Fiction / Occult & Supernatural, Occult & Supernatural
ISBN: 9781401305017
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 2013-08-13T04:00:00+00:00

north hampton

the present

valentine’s day

chapter twenty-six

The Hammer Strikes

Hudson held up a tiny pink one-piece with a tulle tutu to show Ingrid. There was a decal of a piglet doing a pirouette in toe shoes on the chest.

“What do you think?” The light flashed against the lens of his tortoiseshell glasses.

“Um, Tabitha is having a baby boy?” she said.

They had snuck out on their lunch break at the library to shop for Tabitha’s baby shower at the nearby boutique Tater Tots.

“So?” Hudson looked at it sadly and put it away. “You’re right. Why isn’t she having a girl? This is so cute.”

Hudson was impeccably dressed as usual; only he could make a thick down jacket look slim and elegant, but something was different. A few months ago, he had finally come out to his mother, and while things had been frosty for a while, the grand Mrs. Rafferty had finally come around to the reality of the situation and had even agreed to meet his boyfriend. It turned out that as long as any discussion of politics was assiduously avoided, Hudson’s mother and Scott got along swimmingly—to such a degree that Hudson felt a bit left out at times. He occasionally brought up politics just to put a little wedge between them.

Ingrid grabbed the tutu. “Let’s get it! Why not? I mean babies are babies. Can’t you just dress them up however you want? They’re kind of like dolls, right?”

“Um, not really. Put it back, Ingrid,” Hudson instructed, being the voice of reason now. “If he wants to wear pink tutus that should be his decision when he’s ready to make it.”

She exhaled a sigh, putting the tutu back on the rack, then continued to flip through the pint-size clothes.

“I don’t know,” Hudson said wistfully, “doesn’t this make you feel like…”

She turned to him with a look of horror. “Like what? Like having a baby?”

“Yeah…”

She shrugged. She hadn’t ever really thought about it.

“Yeah, me neither!” He went back to searching through the rack, his fingers moving fast and adeptly. “Just testing you.” He held up what looked like miniature lederhosen but were made of soft green terry cloth. “You’ve got to admit these are extraordinarily cute, and it’s just fun shopping for baby clothes.”

She eyed him suspiciously but let it go. “I need to talk to you about something,” she said.

Hudson made a tsk-tsk sound. “I knew something was up and you were keeping me in the dark. You’ve been distracted today—and not a good distracted. I know that look. What’s up?”

“I ran into them at that new café, Matt, Maggie, and, um, Maggie’s mom, Mariza. His ex-girlfriend? They looked so perfect together, and perfectly happy. Mariza’s a knockout. She’s built like an Italian screen goddess and—”

“I know where this is going—stop right there!” warned Hudson, holding up a hand. “First of all, the M names? Totally dorky! And second of all, Matt chose you, not Sophia Loren. He could have married her by now if he wanted to make it work. He didn’t.

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