Danielle Steel - Happy Birthday: A Novel

“You almost had the baby last night.” Her hand went instinctively to her belly as he said it. “You were having contractions every ten minutes. They stopped it,” he reassured her, but he wasn’t letting her out of his sight again until she had the baby. “I told them a lie last night,” he said then, “and I want you to make an honest man of me.”

“What did you tell them?” She still looked woozy, but a lot better than she had the night before. She had color in her face again, and she said her arms and hands weren’t too painful. The burns weren’t as bad as they’d feared when she came in. She’d been very lucky, and so had he. He could have lost her.

“I told them I was your husband. I want us to make that true,” he said gently, and then kissed her. Her hair reeked of smoke, but he didn’t care. “Will you marry me, April? Let’s do it before the baby’s born. It would be a nice thing to do for him.”

“Her,” she corrected him with a grin, and then grew serious as she looked at him. “You don’t have to marry me because I’m pregnant.”

“I want to marry you because you’re a menace and I want to keep an eye on you. The next time you try to put out a kitchen fire yourself, I’m going to kick your ass, April Wyatt. So will you do it?”

“What?” She was smiling at him. He was right. They were both crazy. But they always had been, right from the very first night. “Yeah actually, that sounds nice. Can I wait till I’m skinny so I can wear a pretty dress? I only plan to do this once.”

“Me too. But I don’t care if you wear your bedspread. Let’s do it before your due date, if that’s okay with you.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a June bride.” She was smiling broadly and still couldn’t believe he had asked her. It felt like a dream.

“You’re a nutcase. Maybe that’s why I love you. But I’ll say one thing, you’ve got more balls than a Christmas tree,” Mike commented about her attempt to fight the fire. A part of him admired her for what she did, and another part of him wanted to yell at her for doing it.

“Can I call my mom?” she asked in the same hoarse croak, but she was beaming. He dialed the number at the Ritz again and handed her his cell phone. He was relieved that she looked so happy. The night before she had looked half dead. And their baby could have died too.

April asked for her mother’s room, and Valerie answered the phone immediately, afraid of more bad news. She was relieved to hear April’s voice.

“Hi, Mom,” she said hoarsely. “I’m engaged.”

“Are you on drugs, for heaven’s sake?” Valerie asked her, still deeply upset by the news of the fire, only moments before.

“I don’t know,” April said honestly. No one had told her what was in the IV, and she felt giddy. “We’re getting married.”

“When?”

“In June, before the baby.” She was holding Mike’s hand as she said it, and he smiled.

“Could you please calm down until we get home?” Valerie said, her nerves frayed. “First you try to put out a fire, then you get engaged. Just sit tight and don’t do anything till we get home. Sleep or something.” She smiled then. At least it was good news this time. And she thought it was the right decision. She liked Mike, even if he had gotten off to a bad start. But she had always hoped he’d pull through, and he had. “Can I give the wedding?” her mother asked her, and April laughed.

“Of course.”

Jack was gesticulating as she asked April about the wedding, and Valerie nodded at him. “Jack says we can give it at his apartment, it’s bigger,” her mother told her, beaming.

“Whatever,” April said vaguely, it was hard to talk. “We only want a few people. We can do something bigger later, after the baby. When I can wear a decent dress.” And then she wiped tears from her eyes. What had happened had been so scary, and she was worried about the baby too. “I love you, Mommy. I’m sorry I did something so stupid. I won’t do it again.” She sounded like a little girl as she said it, and looked up at Mike from her bed.

“I know you won’t, sweetheart,” her mother said kindly, with tears in her eyes too as Jack held her hand. “I hope nothing like that ever happens again.” She knew how distraught April was going to be when she realized the condition the restaurant was in. She was still pretty dazed. It had been an enormous shock for her. “Just be a good girl now and take it easy. You have a wedding to get ready for, and a baby. Get some rest.”

“I will,” she said, and hung up, and handed Mike his phone back. And after he kissed her again, she smiled and went to sleep.

They let April go home the next day. The baby was fine, and she wasn’t having any contractions. And her oxygenation was back up to normal levels. She was still hoarse from the smoke, but other than the bandages on her arms, she was fine. Everyone kept telling her how lucky she was, and she knew it too, except for the restaurant.

They went to Mike’s apartment, and he wouldn’t let her go to view the damage on the way. But two days later he couldn’t keep her from it. She stood and sobbed as she surveyed the debris. There was broken glass and water everywhere. They had knocked the plate-glass windows out to get in the hoses. The water had done far more damage than the fire. She didn’t even know where to start fixing the place up. But Ellen’s husband, Larry, came over and met with her. He assessed the damage and promised to line up subcontractors for her. He offered to do the job, and said he was sure they could complete it in three or four months. That meant August 1, or Labor Day, worst case. She said she could live with that, and the insurance money would pay for it. It had been an honest kitchen fire, there was no question of arson. Now she just had to sit it out for the next three months, or four at worst.

She was depressed when she went back to Mike’s apartment, but he kept reminding her that it could have been a lot worse. And with Larry taking care of everything, she knew her restaurant was in good hands. She didn’t know what to do with the employees, but offered to keep them all on. The only one who decided to go back to his old job was Jean-Pierre, but she thought it was the right decision and accepted his resignation with relief. His feelings for her made it too difficult for him, and for her. She was in love with Mike, not Jean-Pierre, no matter what his hopes had been about her. He was a great sommelier, and she was sad to see him go, but it was better that way. She had felt him watching her all the time with longing, and hostility whenever Mike was around.

Mike stayed home with her as much as possible. Her obstetrician had told her to take it easy for a week, so the contractions didn’t start again. And she had nothing to do now anyway. She knew that Larry was meeting with subcontractors for her. And the restaurant had to be cleared of the debris. They weren’t sure yet, but it looked like nothing could be saved.

She was lying in bed, thinking about it one afternoon, aware that Larry was seeing an electrician at the restaurant at three. Mike was at the paper, and she was feeling fine. It seemed stupid to just lie around. She put on jeans and a T-shirt, braided her hair, and left Mike’s apartment. He called her on her cell phone, and she told him she was in bed. She stopped on Third Avenue at a Walgreens to buy some gardening boots, and ten minutes later she got to the restaurant just as Larry and the electrician drove up. She was standing outside, looking mournful. She had brought her keys and unlocked the door. She’d given Larry a second set and he was surprised to see her there. He knew she was supposed to be resting.

“I thought you were home in bed,” he said suspiciously, and then introduced her to the electrician. The three of them walked inside together, and the acrid smell was enough to make all three of them choke. They were standing in eight inches of water. “We’ve got to get this place dried up,” Larry said. The basement, with all her wines, was flooded too. None of the bottles were actually on the ground, but in racks, so presumably they were okay. April made her way down the basement stairs to check, while Larry showed the electrician around. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that the wines were safe, and lumbered back up the stairs.

They were standing in the kitchen when her cell phone rang again. It was Mike.

“What are you doing?” he asked casually.

“Nothing,” she said innocently. And just as she said it, there was a tremendous crash in the kitchen, as the electrician pulled some boards away.

“What was that?” Mike asked, sounding worried.

“The TV,” she answered rapidly, as she walked away from the others, so he couldn’t hear their voices.

“There’s something I’ve got to do. I’ll be home a little late,” he said mysteriously.

“That’s fine. I’m just taking it easy here,” she said, climbing over a pile of debris.

“Why do I have the impression that you’re lying to me?” he said, as another board came down. This one made only slightly less noise than the first one. She almost told him the truth about where she was, but didn’t dare.

“Don’t worry so much. Honest, Mike, I’m fine.”

“I don’t trust you,” he said, and she laughed. He was right.

“I love you. See you tonight” was all she answered. He had been wonderful to her since the fire, but he couldn’t be with her all the time. He had to go to work, and he said he had a review to write that night. He still had to go back to the restaurant from where he’d bolted the night of the fire, but he hadn’t had time to set it up yet, and he hated leaving her alone at night.

“See you later. Take it easy. Is there anything you want?” He was trying to be helpful, and had been really sweet to her. Now that he had decided to get on board, he was fussing over her all the time. The fire had scared him to death. He knew in an instant how much she, and the baby, meant to him. Every minute with her seemed like a precious gift to him now.