“You’re making excuses.”
“I’m thinking objectively.”
“No, you’re hiding it. Please, tell me you’ve been to a doctor.”
“Of course I have—”
“Then why? Why haven’t you told anyone?”
“Because I’m terrified!”
I said it too loud and covered my mouth with my hands. I blinked away tears and cradled my belly instead, something I hadn’t really done, a simple comfort I couldn’t believe I denied myself.
“I’m scared, Rick.” My voice wavered. The rest of my body trembled too. “I’m really scared. I don’t know what Nate is going to say. I don’t know how my family is going to react. I don’t know what will happen because I…I want the baby. It’s scary, and I have no clue what I’m doing, but it’s like…me and the baby are in it together. I have this little buddy who is keeping me calm because I know I can’t get upset and risk hurting her. Or him. I have to be strong, and I’m doing the best I can.”
Rick rubbed his face. He took my good hand and nodded.
“Okay. I understand. It’s only three weeks until the wedding. You really want to keep it quiet until then?”
“Yes.”
“All right. We will.” He shook his head. “But Nate can handle it. He should hear it.”
“I know.” I nibbled on my lip. “I don’t want to keep it from him anymore. We’ve been getting…closer. Very close. I feel like there’s something between us—and don’t say I’m imagining it, and don’t say it’s because I’m pregnant and want there to be a spark. It’s real.” I lowered my gaze. “I’m afraid I’ll screw it up if I tell him about the baby.”
“He has a right to know.”
I nodded.
Rick exhaled. “Nate’s a commitment-phobe, but he’s not a total asshole. He’ll step up.”
But I didn’t want him to step-up. I wanted him to be there with me, every step of the way.
But Rick was right. He deserved to know. The only way I could make anything happen between us, to even have a chance at making something work, was if I revealed the truth.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll talk to him.”
“When?”
I wasn’t working on anyone’s schedule but my own…or the baby’s. That little bugger woke me up every night at three AM to go to the bathroom and had me throw up at noon on the dot.
“I’ll tell him soon,” I said. “But I need you to keep quiet. You’re the only one who knows.”
He sighed, cleaning up and donning his gloves to start my stitches.
“You better name me godfather,” he said.
“You got it.”
I offered my hand and looked away as he got close with the needle. My cell rang the instant he pricked my skin. I glanced at the screen.
“It’s Lindsey,” I said. “If I don’t take this, she’ll freak.”
He shrugged. “Put it on speakerphone. I don’t want you moving. I haven’t done a stitch in years.”
“What?”
“Answer your sister.”
I didn’t get a chance to say hello. Lindsey freaked out, yelling so shrilly the tiny speakers popped.
“Mandy, you are not going to believe this! Great Aunt Mildred died! We’re so totally screwed!”
16
Nate
The emergency wedding meeting began the instant Mandy and Lindsey returned from the hospital at eleven at night.
They hadn’t scrubbed the blood out of the living room carpet yet…or told me why it looked like the set of a slasher movie.
Why the fuck were they at the hospital?
“So, I busted my ass to get over here…” I tried to catch up. “I had to call my bartender on his day off to cover the pub because your great aunt died, and that means the wedding is…?”
“Ruined!” Lindsey curled into a ball on the couch. Bryce cradled her to his chest, and her mom stroked her hand. “It’s all ruined.”
It was the first time Lindsey cried any legitimate tears for her wedding. She wasn’t mourning any mis-printed invitations or off-beat dance moves. This crisis actually seemed to worry her.
And the family.
And Mandy.
Mandy shuffled from the couch and tried to put on a smile. “Tell you what. I’ll go make us some coffee, and we’ll brainstorm. We’ll figure it out.”
Lindsey sobbed into Bryce’s shoulder. Even he looked distressed.
What the hell was going on?
I followed Mandy to the kitchen, but I had forgotten how damn awkward she got around me when her family was close. She bumbled making the coffee and avoided looking directly at me.