“Thank you.” I look to Izzy. “And thank you, too. It feels like a weight off my shoulders now that the two of you are in onit.”
Misty takes a breath. “You mean we’re the first toknow?”
My stomach pinches with heat. A part of me wants to tell her that Seth knows, that he was the first to know, but I don’t dare. “Yup. I’d sort of like to tell everyone in my own time if you don’tmind.”
Misty leans in, her eyes so wide I’m sure they’re about to fall out and begin bouncing all around the table like those nefarious ping pongs that started this baby bowling ball brewing in my belly. “You mean the father doesn’t know?” She shakes her head as if this were an impossibility. “And may I ask who he mightbe?”
Izzy leans in as if she were dying to knowherself.
“You may ask, but that doesn’t mean I’ll have an answer for you.” I inch back as if they were about to strike. “I’m not one hundred percent certain myself. Okay, that’s not true, but I don’t really know him that well—at all. It was sort of a one-off.”
They both groan in unison, and I think that pretty much says itall.
They both quickly agree it’s best, and soon Misty excuses herself to meet up with Nolan now that the game isover.
But Izzy is kind enough to stay and chat, filling me on all things preggers, like the fact I’m not going insane. It turns out the need to pee every five seconds has nothing to do with the baby sitting on my bladder—at least not in the beginning—but everything to do with my pituitary gland. She also fills me in on the fact drinking ginger ale really does help with nausea and even takes off a pair of cloth bands from her wrists and gifts them to me. They’re some kind of pressure point seasickness bands that she swears will help stave my urge to puke up my spleen. She quickly gives me the doctor’s number and promises to help supply me with enough maternity clothes to outfit a shopping mallwith.
We wrap up our maternal meet and greet just the way we started, with an awkward hug between thefourof us before she takes off to have dinner with herhusband.
I’m about to take off myself just as Serena jets over and fills Izzy’s seat. “What’s up, cuz?” She tips her head to the side. “And don’t you tell me nothing because I saw the whole thing, waterworks and all. What’s happening? You look miserable.” Her head moves side-to-side as she openly inspects me. “And you look—I don’t know,different. Although maybe the reason I can’t quite recognize you might have something to do with the fact you’ve been playing the part of the invisible woman. Why have you been avoiding me? And don’t you dare say you haven’t. I call and you don’t answer. I text and you ghost me. You’ve all but unfriended me on Facebook.” Her eyes glisten with moisture. Serena is stunning all on her own, but you throw in glittering tears, and those green eyes of hers turn into lush verdant lawns so green you’d think God Himself colored them in with a crayon. She shakes her head. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?” A moment of silence bounces between us. “You’re my sister. I thought we’d always be close. I guess I waswrong.”
She speeds off, and I’m left alone to gauge how many relationships and lives I can ruin in a single semester. Once I finally pull myself together, I head for the exit just as an onslaught spills in through the doors. It’s wall-to-wall bodies again, and each one of them is decked out in orange and blue with enough Mustang paraphernalia to outfit the student store. A tall, beefy Eli Gates wanders in with a pack of man-hungry girls hanging on either side, and judging by that ear-to-ear grin he’s sporting, it looks as if we scored the win. Not to mention the fact he’ll be scoring a win later on with one of the aforementioned man-hungry girls—all of them for that matter. I can’t believe I slept withtheEli Gates, and I have no memory of the entire event. I couldn’t even get a one-night stand right. I’m pretty sure the entire purpose of the quasi-syphilis-riddled event is to enjoyyourself.
I glance down at my stomach, and I’d swear I see a little pouch forming already. It’s probably just my usual bloating, but still, there’s no stopping it from this point on. I’ll have to tell him eventually. In fact, I should probably reintroduce myself in general and maybe buy him some coffee before I fill him in on the fact he’s fathered achild.
I step to the left in order to traverse the throngs on my way out just as Seth walks in. An entire crowd of girls is chomping at his heels, and he too is grinning like a loon—one who clearly has his pick of the litter. I can’t help but frown at the gaggle of girls surrounding him. Seth is cute—okay, so he’s downright handsome, and he’s nice, and kind, and he’s been nothing but generous during this entire ordeal. I can’t stand the thought that one of these giggling snakes might snatch him. I could strangle my brothers for diverting me away from him. If nature would have taken its course, Seth and I might have had a sweet long-term relationship by now with enough breakups and makeups to make your head spin. But still, it would have been ours. I cringe at the thought of fanning the flame of any lingering attraction to him. For years I’ve masked it with sarcasm and outright disdain, but I’m tired of hiding my true feelings for him, for anyone. I tried to be someone else, and look where it got me? Right here in these knocked-up shoes—size 9 months with a width of eighteen years. A small hiccup of fear hitches in my throat at the thought of raising a baby on my own. I can’t keep a houseplant alive. How am I supposed to handle a helpless human being? Let alone raise it to the point it won’t want to hunt me down and kill me one day. I’m a hot mess, and if I impress myself on this innocent being, it might just turn out that way, too. I could always put it up for adoption. That would benoble.
A horrible feeling seeps through me like poison at the thought of handing my own baby over to some strange couple to raise. I’ve always been selfish by nature—heck, I won’t even give Rush a bite of my food and he asks pretty regularly. And if he does take it, I immediately resent it. I can’t help it. It’s the way I’m wired. I like keeping things and people to myself. Hoarding. It’s what I do best. Just ask that mess under mybed.
Serena pops out of the kitchen and makes a beeline for Seth before pulling him into thefoyer.
“What is that about?” I whisper, completely annoyed with my older, far prettier cousin who thinks she can systematically steal everything in my life. I thread my way through the crowd, trying my best to sneak up on them from behind like any good predator coming in for thekill.
She leans up. I watch as her mouth inches toward the side of his face, and I land between them like a bouncing bettyfirecracker.
“Hey, how’d the game go?” I’m breathless, and it has nothing to do with the fact I just performed an acrobatic feat—and much more to do with the fact I’m momentarily lost in Seth Baker’s brilliant blueeyes.
“They won.” Serena pulls me back a notch before nodding to Seth. “I’ll swing by sometime and we’ll get together.” She makes a face my way. “Thank God not everyone is evading me.” My heart breaks as I watch her dip back into thecrowd.
“You should tell her,” he whispers so low it’s a miracle I can hear him over the house band that just cuedup.
“Maybe I will tell her—when the time is right. So, what was that all about?” I try to sound innocent, not at all like the she-devil that is dying to projectile vomit from inside me. “I mean, you can do whatever you want with Serena. You don’t have to answer to me.” I shoot him a look that saysanswer to me and do it right now, SethBaker.
He gives a little chuckle. “You want to get out of here? Maybe see amovie?”
“Sure, if it’s at your place. Throw in an extra-large pizza with everything on it and I’min.”
His head inches back a notch. “Everything, huh? Does that includeanchovies?”
“That includes all the anchovies they’re willing to giveme.”
We head out into the icy air, and Seth wraps his arm around my waist and I lean my head over his shoulder. “I’ll make sure they give you an aquariumfull.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were gunning for a place in myheart.”
He belts out a laugh, and I can’t help but notice how gorgeous he is with the moon washing him a cool shade ofblue.
He glances down with his lids hooded low. “Honey, I already know I’ve gotit.”
