Climbing Heartbreak Hill

Chapter One

“Tara, I feel a bit off.”

Tara Mansfield replaced the phone in its cradle and swung her chair around. Leslie Schultz, her boss, pressed her palm against her back, forcing her growing belly to strain against her tailored maternity shirt. She had given up trying to button her suit jacket over her baby bump a month before. Leaning against the door to her office, she said, “Something at lunch didn’t agree with me.”

“You should go lie down. Your next appointment isn’t for another twenty minutes.” Tara double-checked the schedule for the accounting office. At the height of tax season, it was almost unheard of to have a twenty minute break. Luckily, they’d had a cancellation this morning. Leslie could use a rest.

Leslie nodded slowly, rubbing her fingertips along the bottom of her stomach. “If I didn’t know better I’d think I was having menstrual cramps.” She winced and hunched forward, clutching the door jamb with white knuckles. Tara dashed toward her, heels sliding on the tiled floor. She grabbed Leslie’s arm and steered her toward the break room where there was a futon. Leslie’s steps wavered until she sank onto the cushion. “At least it comes and goes. Maybe I will lie down for a few minutes.”

Color slowly infused Leslie’s cheeks and Tara breathed a sigh of relief. Leslie couldn’t be going into labor yet. She had more than a month  to go, not to mention the three busiest weeks of tax season. They didn’t have a contingency plan for the baby arriving this early. Leslie had to be having those fake contractions. What had Leslie’s husband, Mark, called them? Braxton-Hicks? “Rest for a bit. I’ll get you some water. It will pass.”

Tara opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. Leslie nodded and pulled her cell phone out of the pocket of her jacket. “I’ll catch up on some emails while I’m resting.”

“Uh-uh. Hand it over.” Tara offered the water with one hand and held the other out for the device. “It doesn’t count as resting if your eyes are open.”

Leslie reluctantly placed the slim, black device in Tara’s outstretched palm. “You’re worse than Minnie.”

Tara grinned. “If only I were that ballsy. Now put your feet up. At this pace, the Tenaples will be here before you close your eyes.”

Tara returned to her desk and placed the phone on a stack of files, a little surprised Leslie relinquished it so easily. She must be absolutely exhausted. Tara couldn’t imagine working all these hours and being pregnant, too. The phone had been glued to Leslie’s palm since mid-January. It had her appointment schedule, email, and to-do lists. Leslie needed it to keep up with all their appointments and IRS filings for the tax season.

“Let me know as soon as they arrive,” Leslie called from the break room. “No stalling like yesterday.”

Tara had been the receptionist at Knotts Accounting since Leslie purchased the building and started her own accounting firm. Tara had started out answering the phones, but with Leslie’s encouragement, she had taken the tax preparation courses last winter so she could help with the straightforward returns. Leslie was trying to talk her into returning to college for an accounting degree, but Tara hadn’t gotten past the gathering-information-about-programs stage yet. She couldn’t imagine herself going back to school. She had never been college material, not after high school and definitely not twelve years later. The tax seminar had been a breeze, but college with its lectures, exams, and hours of studying… she’d never survive.

“Sure thing.” Tara wiggled her mouse, and the tax return she was working on materialized on her computer screen. Leslie was the last person Tara would have ever expected to be friends with. Leslie was an accountant. She was smart, professional.