Lily raised her eyebrows at me and I giggled.
"And now, table top position. Encourage your darlings to join in this magical journey."
We moved onto all fours and Poppy wobbled under me. I blew kisses at her and pulled faces while the instructor directed us through different positions. Finally, when the class was over, I picked up Poppy and snuggled my face into the crook of her neck.
"Who's broody?" asked Lily when I refused to hand over her baby.
"Maybe a little," I admitted. Poppy was soft and cuddly and she smelled so nice in her little, blue dress and white leggings. She was way beyond adorable. I wasn't so sure about the sneezy baby however.
The woman in front of me turned around. "I can recommend some great..." she started to say.
"Thanks, Janet!" said Lily. "We've already got that covered."
"It's so nice that you're sharing the baby-bearing burden," said Janet, beaming at me before she turned away.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Jord and I are thinking about having another baby," she said. "We're only planning to have two so it makes sense to have them close together. Oh! Oh!" She flapped her hands, her face looking excited.
"What? Is it your pelvic girdle?" I asked in alarm as Lily dropped to the floor and rolled up her mat, tucking it into a bag and slinging it, as well as Poppy's diaper bag, over her shoulder.
"No! I just had the best thought!" she said, springing upright and pushing her feet into sneakers. "Why don't we conceive our babies together!? It would be so exciting and fun! We could time it just right and have them at the same time and experience the whole process together."
"You've mentioned that before." I thought about it. "That would be kind of nice. Our babies could be best friends," I added. I followed Lily to the door and deposited my mat on the pile before looking around for any kind of sanitizer I could use on my face, but there wasn't any.
"We should go through our diaries and pick a date. We should set up a WhatsApp group: you and Solomon and Jord and me... we could work out the best dates to conceive our babies!"
I thought about that and had the strangest sense of déjà vu. I was sure I must’ve shot similar ideas before. "Ew!" I spat distastefully. "Jord is my brother! I don’t want to discuss that stuff with him."
"I don't mean all the gory details! Maybe we should just all go away together, relax, see what happens…"
The idea of attempting to conceive a baby within a few feet of my brother and my best friend doing the same thing sounded horrific. Maybe even bad enough to register for one of my mother's classes. "I think that's the most off-putting thing you've ever said to me," I told her. I held open the door and we filed out, leaving the mommy group to crowd the instructor with questions about yoga poses that didn't sound real.
"Do you think your mom would want to join us? Should I ask her?" asked Lily.
Scratch that. That was definitely horrific. "Yes, she would want to join us, and you must never, ever ask her," I warned her sternly as I restrained the urge to vomit.
Lily pulled a face. "I meant the WhatsApp group!"
Fortunately, I was spared the next horrendous idea Lily had when my phone started ringing. My sister-in-law's name flashed on the screen. Alice was delightful and one hundred percent sane, which was more than I could say for Lily at this moment. "I have to get this," I said, kissing Poppy's cheek first, then Lily's. "Love you both."
"See you soon! Poppy, say 'bye!'"
"M-m-m," said Poppy as she waved.
"Bye, Poppy! Hi, Alice," I said into the phone as I headed to my car, waving again when Poppy fluttered her chubby hand.
"Lexi, hi! I'm so glad you answered. Do you have a moment?"
"Sure!"
"I've come across something strange and I was hoping you could look into it."
"What do you mean?"
"I was speaking to the husband of one of my patients today. He was terribly upset about his wife's condition before he started to spill the strangest story, saying he thinks someone tried to murder her. Could you come by the hospital? Maybe just to talk to him? If nothing else, you might set his mind at rest. I just hate to see him so agitated."
I glanced at my watch. I had nothing else to do and Alice wouldn't have called if she weren't seriously worried. She was one of the best nurses I knew.
"Sure," I replied, "on my way."
Chapter Two
Alice might have been the sanest member of my extended family. She was pretty, athletic, dedicated to her job and she loved my middle brother, Daniel. They were raising two great kids. Currently working in the intensive care unit at Montgomery General, she said it was a nice change of pace from the ER since the patients were usually immobilized and quite often, unconscious too.
I found her seated alone at the nurse's station, sipping a coffee. She smiled as I approached her and stood, reaching over the divide to hug me. "Thank you so much for coming," she said. "I really couldn't think of anyone else to call."
"No problem at all," I assured her. "I'm not busy today and besides, it's not often you ask for my help. What can I do?"
"I'm not sure but perhaps you could speak to my patient's husband and try to give him some professional reassurance? If he's wrong about what he suspects, he might appreciate it. If he's right, he might need more serious help."
"You said he thought someone tried to kill his wife?"
Alice nodded. She set down the coffee, walked around the nurse's station and inclined her chin, indicating for me to follow her to the end of the corridor. "See the corner room? That's Sophie Takahashi. EMTs brought her into the ER a week ago after sustaining what I'm told was a nasty fall at her home. Apparently, they're in the process of renovating and Mrs. Takahashi took a tumble, crashing through the banister in the upstairs hallway and landing in a terribly bad position."
I winced. "Have you asked her if that's what really happened?"
"We can't. She hasn't regained consciousness. Her husband, Austen, says he fears she might have been targeted and attacked."
"Why haven't the police been notified?"
Alice shrugged. "After Mr. Takahashi — Austen — told me that earlier, I tracked down the EMTs who brought her in. They said they didn't see any signs of an attack, although they admitted they weren't looking for any clues. Their only concern was providing emergency treatment and getting her to the hospital as soon as possible but you can ask them yourself. I saw them earlier so I know they’re around. They did notice a broken section of the banister, which supports the accident theory. Austen said he took more time to think about it since that day, trying to clear up any discrepancies. They were right in the middle of the renovation, but no one was actually working on the balustrade, not just yet. Austen claims it wasn't loose or faulty and he can't think of any possible way she could have fallen through it."
"Who found her?" I asked.
"One of the guys on their work crew. He called 911. I don't know anymore than that."