We Used To Be Friends

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Barbara stood in front of her closet, searching through her clothes for the right dress. Absentmindedly rifling through her dresses, she thought back to the conversation she had a couple of hours ago.

She sat in the office, pulling her phonebook out of the top left drawer of her desk. She flipped the pages to the C's and scanned the pages for the name she was searching for. "A-ha! I knew I had it somewhere!" With a smile on her face, she picked up her phone and started dialing.

"Hello?" The female voice on the other end answered after three rings.

"Millicent Carter?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, who is this?" Millicent asked.

"It's Barbara Knight, Lucy's mother." Barbara replied.

"Oh Barbara! Hello! How are you? It's been quite a long time." Millicent asked, genuinely glad to hear from Barbara.

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"I can't really complain." Millicent replied. "If you don't mind me asking though, what's the reason for this call? Is Lucy alright?"

"Lucy's fine. Actually, she's better than fine." Barbara smiled.

"What do you mean?" Millicent asked.

"I'll get to that in a moment. I was just wondering if you have noticed any change in Carter and Lucy's relationship." Barbara asked.

"No, not really. As far as I can tell, they are still just friends. In fact, Carter has been dating a young woman named Abby who works at the hospital with him." Millicent replied, still baffled about why Barbara was calling her.

"Oh really? He's dating someone else?" Barbara asked. After her talk with Carter, she was beginning to like him again. But now after hearing that Carter was dating someone other than her now-pregnant daughter, she reverted back to her earlier impression of him. Maybe he was just like every other man in the worldselfish and stupid.

"Yes. I think they've been dating for a few months." Millicent replied. "Why?"

"I was just wondering." Barbara replied. Lucy never told me that Carter was dating someone, and neither of them mentioned that earlier. I wonder what's going on. "Lucy and Carter came by for a short visit today and dropped a bombshell on me. I was just trying to figure out some pieces of the puzzle, but it seems the puzzle has gotten more complicated."

"What kind of bombshell was it—if you don't mind me asking?" Millicent asked. She was always curious about what others considered 'gossip', but especially now when it seemed to include her grandson.

For a moment Barbara wondered if she should tell the woman about Lucy's pregnancy. It seemed like Carter and Lucy hadn't told her yet. Should she be the one to break the happy news? She finally concluded that it wouldn't really hurt anything if she did. "Lucy's pregnant, and it seems that Carter is the father."

Millicent was shocked. She hadn't been expecting that kind of news. "Wow." That's all that she could say. "I'm going to be a great-grandmother." Millicent stated, still amazed by the news. "They told you this?"

"Yes, they told me just a couple of hours ago."

"I've been trying to find a way to bring them together ever since they attended the Carter Foundation Fundraiser together." Millicent paused. "In case you haven't noticed, my grandson loves your daughter."

"And my daughter loves your grandson." Barbara pointed out. "But they won't admit it."

"We need to figure out a way to get them to admit it. Are you willing to help me?" Millicent asked.

Barbara wasn't sure if she was willing to help the woman. She wanted Lucy to be happy, but she still distrusted Carter and was sure that at some point he would hurt her again. But maybe she was wrong. Maybe Carter wouldn't hurt her. Hoping she wouldn't regret her decision, she agreed. "I'll help you."

Barbara stared at herself in the mirror. "I made the right decision, right?" she whispered to herself. After agreeing to help Millicent bring Carter and Lucy together, she started to have second thoughts. Something about this whole situation didn't sit well with her. Lucy wasn't telling her the whole truth. If Carter was seeing someone else for the past few months, then that means that he most likely cheated on his girlfriend with Lucy. Carter never seemed like the type of guy who would cheat on his girlfriend though. Perhaps that part of his personality had changed since his adolescence.

Lucy knocked on her mom's bedroom door. When she heard her mom say come in, she opened the door and closed it after she entered.

"Hi sweetie. What do you need?" Barbara asked as she fixed her hair. She took a look at her daughter and frowned. "Why aren't you dressed?"

"I didn't bring anything nice to wear. I didn't know that we would be going out to eat. All I have are jeans. I thought that I had left a couple of skirts behind, but there's nothing in my closet." Lucy replied.

"Say no more." Her mother nodded, getting up and heading to her own closet. She rummaged through her closet for a few moments before picking a couple of dresses. "Here. Why don't you try these on? We're about the same size."

"Yeah, for now." Lucy said, immediately realizing that she had said it out-loud. She hadn't meant to; she had meant for that to be a mental thought. She wasn't sure what her mom's reaction to her comment would be because she still wasn't sure how her mom felt about her pregnancy.

Her mom just smiled at her though. "How far along are you?"

"About two months." Lucy replied.

Her mom's smile got larger. "Yeah, you better enjoy your nice figure now because in a couple of months it will be gone."

Lucy smiled and in a sarcastic tone said, "great."

"Go try those on. One of them is bound to fit."

"Ok. Is it ok if I go ahead and use your bathroom as my dressing room?" Lucy asked.

"Of course." Her mom smiled.

Lucy took the five dresses and walked into the bathroom. She looked at the dresses and immediately ruled out wearing three of them. One was a pale green, another was orange, and then there was one that was pink. None of those colors would look good on her, so she placed them in a neat pile. The last two dresses were much better. She held the first one up to herself as she looked in the mirror. It was a dark blue with a fairly conservative neckline and was knee-length. It also had short sleeves that would easily cover up the stitches she still wore on her arm from Paul's attack. All in all, she liked it. She couldn't remember seeing her mother ever wear it though, so she concluded that it must be a fairly new dress. The second dress was a dark maroon color. This dress was not nearly as conservative as the blue on and Lucy knew that she wasn't comfortable wearing something so revealing. So the choice as a fairly easy one. She placed the maroon dress on top of the pile of discarded dresses and slipped the blue one on. A simple stroke of luck occurred because the dress fit perfectly. She took this opportunity to look at her reflection in the mirror. She hated lying to her mother about Carter's involvement with her pregnancy, and she hated the fact that her mother was giving Carter a hard time about it. Carter didn't deserve her mother's interrogation or hidden anger. He's just trying to help her out. She had considered telling her mom the whole truth, only to conclude that it wasn't necessary. Carter said he didn't mind her mother's interrogation so she wouldn't worry about it anymore. Putting on another smile, she picked up the dresses and came out of the bathroom. "What do you think?" She asked her mom, twirling around.

"You look wonderful." Barbara smiled. "Now I'm glad that I bought that dress last week."

"Thanks mom. I'm gonna go do something with my hair and then I'll be ready to go."

Barbara was already finished with her hair and simply smiled. "Don't take too long!" She called after her daughter. She grabbed her purse and headed downstairs to find Carter waiting in the living room. He was holding a picture of Lucy and staring intently at it. Clearing her throat got his attention quickly. She watched as he tried to quickly get rid of the picture he was staring at and pretend that he was just looking at the end table. She peaked over his shoulder and took a look at the picture he was staring at. It was the one of Lucy at her high school graduation. "That's one of my favorites too." Barbara confessed.

Carter, now feeling a little more relaxed, smiled. "She just looks so happy and carefree."

"Yeah, she does." Barbara replied. She thought about taking this time alone with Carter to interrogate him some more, but decided against it. "Lucy should be ready in a couple of minutes."

"Ok." Carter nodded. He wanted to ask her why she didn't seem to like him much, but that would have been a stupid question. Of course she wasn't going to like him right now. Even if she was alright with the fact that Lucy's pregnant, she still wasn't going to be happy with Carter for getting Lucy pregnant. He still wished that Lucy would tell her mother about the rape, but there was nothing he could do about that. He definitely couldn't go behind Lucy's back and tell her mother about it. That would completely ruin the trust that he had worked to build up since she forgave him for abruptly ending their friendship so many years ago. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Lucy, so he would keep quiet. Besides, Lucy's inability to tell her mother and close friends about the rape provided him with a wonderful opportunity to insert himself deeper into her life. While he felt guilty for thinking that, he didn't feel guilty about his feelings for her. He loved her; he was sure of it. The only thing standing in his way of telling her that was the fact that she was only just beginning to deal with the aftermath of New Year's Eve. She most likely wasn't ready to hear him tell her about his love for her. That would probably scare her off, so for now he was just going to be content with the knowledge that he was going to be able to be the father of her baby.

Barbara watched, as Carter seemed to be completely lost in his own thoughts. She briefly wondered what he was thinking about so intently, but soon realized that it was most likely about Lucy. She had serious reservations about him and his involvement with Lucy, especially after hearing from Millicent Carter about this Abby woman. She had wanted to ask him about her but decided not to ruin dinner. She would ask her questions later this evening. She did notice that he did seem to genuinely care about her daughter. Maybe everything would work out fine. She hoped so for Lucy's sake; however, if Carter hurt her daughter again he would have to answer to her.

"Hey, sorry for keeping you waiting." Lucy said as she came down the stairs.

Carter turned to look at her and his mouth flew open. She looked gorgeous in her blue dress and her hair casually pulled up in the back.

Barbara leaned closer to Carter. "You might want to close your mouth. You're gawking."

He immediately closed his mouth. "Oh." He was slightly embarrassed. "You look beautiful."

Lucy blushed slightly. "Thanks." She looked at his attire. "How come you have dress clothes? Did you somehow know that we would be going out to dinner?"

"No." He shook his head. "I just try to be prepared for everything."

She laughed. "Of course. I should've known." She turned to her mother. "So where are we going tonight?"

"The Eagles Nest." Barbara replied.

Lucy's eyes narrowed slightly at the name. "That's a fairly expensive restaurant."

"I know, but this is a special occasion. It's not everyday that my daughter announces she's pregnant." Barbara smiled. "Well I'm not sure about the two of you, but I am hungry. Why don't we go eat now?"

"Sounds good to me." Lucy smiled. She was surprised when Carter took her hand and held it in his, but relaxed quickly.

Carter knew it was a bold move to grab a hold of her hand like that, but he couldn't help it.

Barbara watched that interaction between Carter and her daughter, wondering what was really going on. Something wasn't right with this picture, and she was determined to figure out the truth.