Annette:What can I bring you?
Brooke:Just bring yourself. That's all I need.
* * *
The doorbanged shut behind Annette as she said, "Tell me everything."
I glanced up at her from my spot on the foyer rug. I'd plopped down here after Jed dropped me off and hadn't found a reason to get up since. I didn't know where to go. Every room of this house was colored with overwhelming memories of the past two weeks, the past two years, and everything before that. The foyer was better.
Annette dropped to her knees, reached for my hands. "Say something, honey."
"I don't want to be here anymore," I said.
She bobbed her head in agreement, her dark curls bouncing with the motion. "Okay, we'll go to my house. There's plenty of room and you can stay as long as you need. I'll get some of your things. Don't move."
When she pulled away from me, I squeezed her hands. Tugged her back. "I meant I don't want to behere. I don't want to be in Talbott's Cove anymore."
Her sympathetic smile fell and that response cracked my heart open. She brushed her hands down my cheeks, wiping away tears. Again, I hadn't realized I was crying. "Here's what we're doing, sweetie. I'm going to pack a bag for you and we're going to head over to my place. Is there anything specific you'd like me to pack?"
"You don't have to do this. I'm fine. You have a bookstore to run. I'm just—" I shook my head, glanced away. "We had an argument. Jed sees things one way. I see them differently. Neither of us are willing to adjust our positions, so it ended. It was always going to end and now it has." I blinked at the wall of floral arrangements and suddenly understood the cloyingly thick scent around me to be white lilies. Every breath was soaked with lily until I tasted their perfume in the back of my throat. I scrambled to my feet, charged toward the door. "I have to get out of here."
"Wait," Annette called, but it was too late.
I fell to the grass, braced on my hands and knees, and emptied my stomach. She approached, gathered my hair from my face, stroked my back. She didn't say anything while I gagged and sobbed. When it was over, she wrapped an arm around my shoulders and passed me a wad of tissues. "I'm sorry you had to witness that," I said, accepting the tissues.
"What are sisters for if not holding your hair when you vomit?" She brought my head to her shoulder.Goddamn. I had to tell her about the baby.”Sisters are also good for helping you put your life back together when it shatters."
Knowing she was right, I said, "We'll go to your place, but just for tonight." I took her hand in mine. "Thank you."
"Anytime." She smoothed her hand down my spine. "I'm much shorter and rounder than you are, so while I'm happy to share all of my clothes, that won't work out well. I'm going upstairs to get your things. Stay here. Think easy, non-pukey thoughts."
I wanted to laugh at the idea of easy thoughts, but my stomach wasn't having it. "I'm not going anywhere," I promised. "Could you pick up my laptop too? I need to handle a few things in the morning and I don't want to come back here to do it."
She pushed to her feet and brushed blades of grass from her knees. "Of course. I'll be right back."
I stood and wandered down the walkway, away from the house—and the mess I left on the grass. Turning my gaze to the bright sky, I wondered whether I was supposed to know what I was doing yet. If I was supposed to know what to do now.
Annette chattered all the way to her house, recounting some incredible news hitting the book world today. She parked me in the living room while she put together some little nibbles, as she called them. I sat there, my hands flat on the cushions beside me while my head and belly swirled. The only solution that made sense to me was returning to New York.
It was what I'd wanted all along. It was the reason I kept my townhouse in Brooklyn and refused to apply for a Maine driver's license. Why I hadn't changed a single thing in my childhood bedroom, even after more than two years of hating all the mint green and pink. Talbott's Cove wasn't home anymore. Loving a grouchy barkeep couldn't erase that truth.
"We have a bit of brie, some sharp cheddar, those great herby raisin crackers you turned me on to, and some dark chocolate because it's necessary for my health and well-being." She set the tray down on the coffee table along with two wineglasses, and retrieved a bottle and corkscrew from her apron pocket. "But first, wine."
I stared at the glasses as she treated them to generous pours. "So, I'm pregnant."
She clutched the bottle by the neck. "Whatdid you say?"
I scooped a handful of crackers off the tray and sagged into the sofa. "Yeah, that was my reaction too."
"Okay." She sat cross-legged on the floor, tucked into the coffee table. "Are you exercising your rights or investing in stretchy pants with a belly pouch?"
"No one boils it down quite like you, my dear," I said, laughing. "I don't know what I'm doing. I haven't decided anything." The video montage in my head played a constant loop of my father's house, Jed, New York, the obstetrician's office. Decisions waited for me at every turn. "I haven't decided anything, but you need to hold off on getting married this year. I love you to pieces, but I doubt my ability to host your bridal shower and bachelorette party without the aid of alcohol. And you know none of the male strippers will give a pregnant woman a lap dance."
She selected a chunk of cheddar from the tray. "How do you know this?"
I held up a hand. "Trust me. I know how it is with male strippers." I ate one cracker and immediately felt better. "And there shall not be a single photograph of me helping you into a dress or fixing your train while pregnant. I was angling for a Pippa Middleton-level maid of honor showing, but that's out of the question now." I rested my hand on my belly, even though I was annoyed at myself for doing it. There was nothing there yet. No kicking, no bump. Just an accident, a souvenir from the night Dad bashed his forehead on the nightstand and Jed threw me into his car like he was kidnapping me. "Assuming that, you know, I do this."
Annette poked at the dark chocolate, taking her time to find the perfect piece. "And JJ? What are his thoughts onthis?"
