“Just yesterday? I’m surprised you held out that long.” Tern smoothed out her gloves, placing them on her crossed knee.
Raven scowled. “Not helping.” She took a deep breath. “There’s more.”
“Hit me with it. I hope it’s worth my while, since I’m paying Sue overtime to watch the shop.”
Raven quickly filled Tern in with everything she’d been keeping secret all these years, plus Fox’s secret.
“Give me a minute.” Tern reached into her purse, pulled out her phone, and made a call. “Sue, I’m going to be gone the rest of the day. Sorry, it can’t be helped. All right, fine. You can have Saturday off.” She flipped her phone closed. “Hope you’re happy. I had a hot date that I’ll have to reschedule now.”
“You wanted it to be worth your while.”
“You sure as hell didn’t disappoint.” She pursed her dark red-painted lips. “First, forgive me, but I have to get this out of my system. I told you so! I knew Fox was Aidan’s son. All those lies about some guy you met in a bar. Right. You were never the type to fall into bed with someone. Unless it was Aidan Harte.”
“Really not helping.”
She scoffed. “Helping? How am I going to help you out of this mess?”
“Tern!”
“All right, let me think.” She rose and like a runway model walked the area in front of the windows, her stiletto boots clicking with each step over the hardwood. Turning on her heel, she regarded Raven with a raised brow. “How was the sex?”
“What?”
She made a ‘give me’ motion with her fingers. “It’s been twelve years. Did the sex measure up to what you remembered?”
“How is that going to help?”
“Probably won’t. But I want to know.” She raised her chin, and Raven knew there wouldn’t be anything more forthcoming until she answered.
“It was…” She swallowed. “Great, it was great, okay.” Making love with Aidan again had been so much better than great. And thinking of having sex with Aidan was not going to help her situation. Only muddle it further.
“Great, huh?” Tern tapped her chin with the tip of her finger, calculating. “Bet that’s an understatement.”
A blush fired in Raven’s cheeks.
Tern smiled. “Okay, so you had awesome sex with Aidan—” She stopped and narrowed her eyes. “It was awesome, protected sex, wasn’t it?”
Raven’s blush melted as realization dawned. “Oh, God.”
Tern fell back into her chair. “Have you learned nothing from your past mistakes?”
“Fox wasn’t a mistake,” Raven was quick to reply. He might not have been planned, but she couldn’t imagine life without him. From the first minute she’d found out she was pregnant, she’d wanted her child, never considered adoption or the other. However the situation turned out, Fox had been conceived in love, and she loved him more than her life.
Tern waved her hand. “Of course he isn’t a mistake. That wasn’t what I meant.” She leaned forward. “Raven is there a chance you could have gotten pregnant again?”
“Uh…I don’t know.” She felt sick.
“I’d do the math.” Tern reached into her purse and pulled out a small box. “Here, there’s this great invention called a condom.”
Raven raised her hands as though in defense against the small square box. “I don’t need them. I’m not having sex with him again.”
“Aidan still in the area?”
“Yeah.”
Tern tossed her the box. “Better keep them on you.” When Raven went to object again, Tern held up her hand. “Do you want to waste time discussing your track record when it comes to that man?”
“No,” she mumbled, taking the box, and putting it in the pocket of her overalls, if for no other reason than to shut her sister up. There was no way she and Aidan were going to sleep together again. Besides, he hated her.
“Okay,” Tern continued. “I wouldn’t worry too much about Fox. The little scamp loves you. But he’s got a Y chromosome so he’ll need to milk it for a while.”
“What about his secret?”
“You’re going to have to forgive him. Your secret was worse. Besides, you’re the adult, and he’s just a kid. Do you blame him for wanting any information he could find about his father?”
“No,” she whispered.
“Didn’t those parenting books you devoured teach you not to lie?”
“I only lied to protect him.”
“Doubt he sees it that way.” Tern shook her head. “If you want to make this right, you’ll have to admit you were wrong. And there’s no standing in the way of Fox having a relationship with Aidan. You try to roadblock that and you’ll lose him.”