If the Stick Turns Pink...

Chapter Two

The Foxrun Elementary School was a charming two-story brick building a block off Main Street. For nine months of the year Melanie taught second-graders on the second floor, and during that time the old brick building felt like home.

Her classroom welcomed her with bright colors on the bulletin boards and the familiar scent of chalk and children. As she slid into the chair behind her desk, she marveled that in less than a week’s time the school year would be over and the decorations on the bulletin boards would be taken down until next year.

The teachers held two parent-teacher conferences each year. The first was held just before Christmas to discuss what improvements needed to be made and any areas of weakness the child displayed. This conference at the end of the school year was to talk about what improvements had been made and what the parents might want to do to help the child prepare for their next year of school.

Melanie checked her watch, then pulled out the folder for Becky Altenburg. Becky’s parents would be here at any minute and they would be happy with Becky’s progress. She was a delightful little girl, both bright and cheerful.

With her paperwork ready before her, Melanie leaned back in her chair and tried not to think about Bailey. From the moment she’d left his place, she’d been kicking herself for speaking aloud the nutty idea that had momentarily taken possession of her brain.

The very last thing she would ever want was to do something that would destroy the precious friendship they shared. They’d even gone to the same college together in Kansas City. The only time they’d really been apart was when he’d met and married the beautiful Stephanie.

After college he’d returned to Foxrun with his bride. She’d lasted two months in the small town before hightailing it out of here. But the time Melanie had been apart from Bailey had been the most miserable time in her life.

Still, she couldn’t seem to get her idea out of her head. Was it really so crazy? There wasn’t a man in Foxrun she was even vaguely romantically interested in, and she hadn’t been lying when she’d told Bailey that she wanted children while her mother was still around to share the joy.

The more she thought about it, the more she thought it was a perfect solution for both of them. She trusted Bailey more than she trusted anyone, and she was absolutely confident their friendship could withstand an unconventional marriage of convenience.

She smiled and shoved away thoughts of Bailey and babies as Max and Betty Altenburg walked into the classroom. The conference lasted only fifteen minutes, then the Altenburgs left, smiling proudly with Melanie’s words of praise for Becky ringing in their ears.

Looking at her watch once again, she realized she had about fifteen minutes before the next set of parents arrived. She got up from her desk and left the classroom, heading for the gymnasium where coffee, punch and cookies were supposed to be served.

About two dozen people milled around a gaily decorated long table in the small gym. The air was rife with the scent of fresh coffee and sugary baked goods. Melanie grabbed a cookie and a cup of coffee, then started back in the direction of her classroom.

She’d nearly made it out of the gym when her good friend and fellow teacher, Kathy Milsap approached her. “I’ve been looking all over for you!” she exclaimed as she grabbed Melanie’s arm and guided her away from the gym. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought I was one of your best friends.”

“You are, and what didn’t I tell you?” Melanie asked curiously, then bit into the soft gooey cookie.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you and Bailey are engaged to be married.”

Melanie choked and nearly spit the bite of cookie out of her mouth. She took a sip of her coffee and stared at Kathy in astonishment. “Where did you hear that?” she finally managed to gasp out.

“I heard it from Teri who heard it from Krista, who heard it from SueEllen at the beauty shop.” Kathy’s blue eyes sparkled merrily. “So, when is the big day? I insist that I throw you a big shower. Oh, it will be such fun! Your mom and dad must be absolutely thrilled.”

Melanie’s head spun dizzily and she held up a hand in an attempt to halt Kathy’s exuberant chattering. “I’ve got a meeting in two minutes,” she said. “We’ll talk later about all this.”

She escaped to her room, where she sank down behind her desk in bewilderment. Why on earth would SueEllen Trexlor be telling people that Melanie and Bailey were engaged? Surely SueEllen had simply made a mistake…heard a piece of gossip and mistakenly twisted it into an engagement.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a false rumor had whirled in the air in the tiny town of Foxrun. In truth, with only two television channels available for viewing without a satellite and only one local movie theater that played really old movies to provide entertainment, the good people of Foxrun thrived on gossip and innuendo.

She needed to talk to Bailey. What if he heard the rumor and assumed she’d been the one to start it because of the conversation they’d had that afternoon?

She would be mortified if he thought she’d tried to push his hand by starting such a rumor. Surely he knew her well enough to know that if she were going to try to convince him to agree with her plan, she wouldn’t be underhanded but would come to him face-to-face.

She’d always been one of those people who thought cell phones were silly indulgences, but now she desperately wished she had one.

Maybe she’d have time to sneak into the office and use the phone, she thought. But at that moment her next set of parents arrived.

It was eight-thirty by the time she finished with the last of her meetings. She left the building and hurried toward her car, eager to get to Bailey’s and tell him the latest rumor making the rounds.

She unlocked her car door, then squealed in surprise as a hand touched her on the back. She whirled around to see Bailey. “You nearly scared me to death,” she exclaimed. “I was just getting ready to go to your place.”

“We need to talk,” he said. “How about we take a walk over to Millie’s and get a cup of coffee.” Millie’s Family Restaurant was the most popular place in Foxrun.

Melanie nodded her assent, and together the two of them started walking toward the restaurant on Main Street. As usual, Melanie had to lengthen her strides to match his, and as usual, he was clad in tight, worn jeans and a T-shirt.

She couldn’t help but notice how the worn denim hugged the length of his long, muscular legs and emphasized his trim waist.

“Have you heard the newest rumor making its way around town?” she asked tentatively.

“If it’s the one I think it is, I’m afraid I’m the one who started it.”

“What?” She stopped in her tracks and stared at him.

“Come on, I’ll explain everything over a cup of coffee.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the door of Millie’s.

A bell over the door tinkled as they entered into the warm, heavenly scented interior of the restaurant. It was late enough in the evening that there were few diners.

Bailey led her to the back booth, their regular spot for dining. Almost immediately Samantha, Foxrun’s sheriff’s teenage daughter, appeared to take their orders.

“Just coffee for me,” Bailey said.

“The same for me,” Melanie agreed. “Now, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” she asked when Samantha had departed.

He leaned back against the red plastic booth and raked a hand through his hair in distraction. “Remember our conversation this afternoon when I told you I was half afraid some Miss Dairy Cow contestant would show up naked in my bed?”

Astonishment swept through her. “Don’t tell me…who?”

“SueEllen Trexlor, but she wasn’t in my bed, she was in my shower.”

“Naked?”

“As a jaybird.”

They both stopped talking as Samantha returned to the booth with two cups of steaming coffee. When she left them once again, Melanie stifled a grin with one of her hands. “Tell me all.”

“It isn’t funny,” Bailey exclaimed with a scowl. “It was downright embarrassing.”

She tried to keep the grin from her lips. “So, how did things go from a naked SueEllen in your shower to the rumor that we’re engaged?”

Bailey frowned and wrapped his hands around his mug. “I guess your crazy idea was still going around in my head when I opened my shower door and saw her there waiting for me. I panicked and told her I was an engaged man.” The blue of his T-shirt intensified the blue of his eyes as he held her gaze. “Who did you hear it from?”

“Kathy Milsap. According to her, SueEllen told Teri, who told Krista who told Kathy.” She shrugged. “You know how things spread in Foxrun.”

“I know,” he replied, looking utterly miserable.

“Honestly, Bailey, it isn’t the end of the world,” she exclaimed. “The way I see it we have two choices. You can either tell everyone you’re a liar or we can get married and follow through on the plan I outlined this afternoon.”

His frown deepened and he stared down into his coffee mug. Melanie waited patiently, knowing that Bailey never did anything without thinking through his options.

She took a sip of her coffee and tried not to notice the length of his long dark lashes, the attractive structure of his facial features.

There had been a time in high school when raging hormones or something alien had made her yearn for Bailey in a way that had nothing to do with their friendship.

She had stayed awake nights wondering what it would be like if he kissed her passionately on her lips. She’d suddenly been intensely aware of his scent, his strong hands and his broad chest. She had hungered for the touch of his hands, to be crushed against his chest, to taste the heat of his kiss.

Then he’d started dating Marlie Walker, a girl with boobs bigger than her IQ and a reputation for being fast with the boys.

Melanie realized then she would never be the kind of girl to attract Bailey on anything more than a friendship level, and she’d studiously shoved aside thoughts of any other kind of relationship with him. And nothing since that time had made her believe any differently.

All she wanted from Bailey Jenkins was his undying friendship and a baby. She could almost smell the scent of baby powder in the air, and she realized how much she wanted him to agree with her plan.

“There’s a third option,” he said, pulling her back to the here and now. A smile curved the corners of his lips, letting her know he was pleased with whatever he’d come up with. “We could just be engaged until after the Miss Dairy Cow contest. That would keep the worst of the nutty contestants out of my hair. Then, when the pageant is over, we can break our engagement.”

“No way, Bailey Jenkins,” she exclaimed irritably. “There’s no way you get what you want unless I get what I want. If I’m going to protect you from the crown-crazy young women of this town, the least you can do is marry me temporarily and make me pregnant.”

She had that look in her eyes. Bailey recognized it well—the stubborn, determined gaze telling him that to argue with her would be futile. She’d had that same look in her bright-green eyes when they’d been juniors in high school and she’d told him she intended to run against Roger Wayfield, star quarterback, for student council president.

Bailey had tried to talk her out of running, believing there was no way she could win against Roger and wanting to spare her the hurt of a loss, but she’d dug into the campaign with a tenacity and determination that had carried her to a win.

“Mellie, be reasonable,” he said, deciding to ignore the fiery light of resolve in her eyes and talk some sense into her. “If we just pretend to be engaged for the next six weeks or so, then my life will be considerably less complicated, and at the end of the six weeks nobody gets hurt.”

“The same thing could be said if we get married,” she replied, obviously refusing to be swayed. “Bailey, you’re my best friend. A little thing like a divorce won’t do anything to change our friendship. Especially since we’re both going into it with our eyes wide open.”

“But you know I had no intention of ever marrying again,” Bailey reminded her. “And I certainly don’t want a child.”

She tucked a strand of her long, copper-hued hair behind her ear and sighed in obvious frustration. “But that’s what makes you so perfect. I know you don’t want to be a father. I wouldn’t expect you to be a hands-on kind of father. I’m perfectly capable of raising a child on my own. And I keep telling you this won’t be a real marriage. Nothing will be different between us except—” she looked down into her mug, her cheeks taking on a shade of pink “—we’ll have to be, you know, intimate in order for me to get pregnant.”

Bailey frowned, looked into his mug, then at her once again. “I know how badly you want a baby, Mellie, but this idea of yours isn’t the answer,” he said softly.

“Just think how happy your mother would be,” she said.

He shook his head ruefully. “Low blow,” he exclaimed. She knew how much his mother had been nagging him about remarrying and giving her a grandchild.

“Okay, you win. Forget about it.”

He eyed her suspiciously. “What do you mean forget about it?” She had capitulated far too easily.

“Just what I said, forget I mentioned the whole idea. We’ll tell everyone SueEllen got it wrong and we aren’t engaged, and I’ll figure out another way to get what I want.”

“What are you talking about?”

Her gaze darted to a point on the wall just over his head. “I want a baby, Bailey.” Her green eyes sought his once again. “I’m tired of playing the favorite aunt to my nieces and nephews. I’m financially stable and emotionally ready to become a mother. I’m sure I can find somebody here in Foxrun to be a sperm donor, so to speak.”

“Like who? I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation.”

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised. I’ve been talking about wanting a child for months now.”

“Yeah, but I thought it was kind of like me talking about wanting a Jaguar. You know, it would be nice if I got one, but right now it’s pretty much out of the question.”

“But me getting pregnant isn’t out of the question,” she protested. “It’s just a matter of picking which man in Foxrun I’m going to sleep with.”

“Like who? I know Fred Ketchum has a hot crush on you. Sleep with him and your kid will look like a werewolf.”

She laughed. “Fred is all right. He can’t help it that he’s unusually hairy. But you’re right, I’m not sure I’d want his DNA in any child of mine.” She took another sip of her coffee, then continued. “But, there is Buck Walton. I’m sure Buck wouldn’t mind a couple of rolls in the hay with me.”

“Oh, yeah, you’d definitely want his DNA,” Bailey said dryly. “If the kid takes after his father he’ll be swilling beer by the time he’s two and will have a vocabulary of four-letter words that will astound the world.”

“Why are you being so negative?” she asked impatiently.

“Why are you so set on doing this?” he countered. The whole discussion of who she would choose to sleep with was irritating him.

She twirled a strand of her shiny hair between two fingers, a familiar gesture that told him she was concentrating. “Bailey, you and I both know what it’s like to be raised by older parents. Goodness knows, we’ve talked about it often enough.”

He nodded. It was true. It had been one of their common complaints when growing up. Both Mellie’s and his parents had been older when they had been born and they had spent many hours complaining about the fact that their parents were so much older than their friends’ parents.

“If I wait for love and romance and eventually marriage and pregnancy, I’m going to be retired by the time my child is graduating from high school.”

“Is your sister pregnant again?”

The telltale blush that momentarily stole over her face gave him his answer. Mellie’s sister, Linda, was nothing short of a baby factory, producing a baby a year for the past four years.

“Yes, but that has nothing to do with my decision to get pregnant,” she replied tersely.

He knew better. He knew that each new baby born into the Watters family had increased Mellie’s desire for a child of her own.

Before he could reply, he spied MaryAnn Bartel entering the diner. She was dressed to kill in a pair of tight black jeans and a hot-pink midriff top the size of a bandage. Her eyes widened in delight at the sight of him, and he steeled himself for yet another encounter with a mad cow contestant.

“Bailey,” she squealed, her thick perfume reaching him before she did. Her smile faltered as she saw Melanie. “Oh, hi, Melanie. So, it’s true? The two of you are engaged?”

Bailey knew now was his chance to set the record straight, to explain to MaryAnn that the rumor about him and Melanie was false. But he saw the light of fanaticism in her bright blue eyes, the tiny sparkles in their depths appearing like tiny tiaras.

He had a sudden vision of his life in the next six weeks, a life inundated with stress because of the stupid Miss Dairy Cow Contest. He also thought of his mother, who had become an irritating broken record on the topic of wanting a grandchild.

A temporary marriage to Mellie would solve a host of problems. There would certainly be no surprises with Mellie. He knew her as well as he knew himself, and he couldn’t imagine anything ruining their friendship, not even a marriage, a pregnancy and a subsequent divorce.

“It’s true,” he said, and saw the surprise that lit Mellie’s eyes. He smiled at her, hoping that neither of them came to regret the split-second decision he’d made to follow through on her crazy scheme.

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