Chapter 28
Clover
“Your ice cream is going to melt,” Meadow pointed out.
I stared down at my bowl of Rocky Road. I was definitely pregnant, no way to doubt that now. Hell, I was almost at viability. How the heck had my little bean managed to go undetected for so long? And worse, I had no fucking clue who the father was. I had slept with all four of the pack in such quick succession that it could be any of them.
“Clover, talk to me.” Meadow took my hand in hers, looking at me with her big brown puppy eyes.
“I think I’m in shock.”
“Shock is fair. Your baby was pretty sneaky.”
“This isbeyondsneaky. Four months and nothing? What am I even supposed to do now?”
“Maybe Yale will defer for a year?”
I had tentatively accepted enrollment there in a moment of panicked spite. Not because I thought it was the best choice for me, but because I’d been so overwhelmed and the thought of running away had been too tempting. I’d instantly regretted accepting, but I’d done it late at night a couple of months ago after a call with Meadow, when everyone was asleep and couldn’t talk me out of it.
“Yale might, but my scholarship won’t.”
Meadow frowned. “Call admissions and explain? Lots of places are flexible with omegas.”
“Lots of places aren’t Ivy League,” I countered. “It’s fine. I shouldn’t have accepted, anyway. It was a moment of weakness. I felt sick as soon as I hit the button, knowing I would be away from you and Forest for so long.”
“We would come visit.”
“That’s not the same and you know it. I feel like I’ve lost so much of my ambition.”
Meadow hummed, giving my hand a squeeze. “I don’t think that’s true. You’ve been grinding yourself down for a long time, and you got a taste of what it was like to live day to day. I totally get how it would be daunting to get all that freedom and then take it away from yourself. It’s not like lawyers have a lot of chill time, even after they’re out of school. It’s okay for dreams to change.”
“Is it?”
“The way I see it, you’re ridiculously smart. Taking more time off won’t change that. If you want to go back to school, there’s nothing stopping you.”
“Except childcare, mom guilt, relearning everything, and all the associated costs.”
“Well, for one, your little bean can hang out with me and Forest, and I bet you the dads would be involved. There’s four of them, and they’ve got a lot of money, so it’s not like you really have to worry about day care. Maybe they’d even cover you going to school too. Mom guilt, I can’t help you with, but I’m always down to quiz you on things I don’t understand when you start classes.”
I wanted to believe her about all of it.
Picking absently at my ice cream didn’t make me feel any better, but it would make Meadow less worried if I ate at least half.
After a moment, she spoke again. “And think about it this way, our babies can grow up together.”
I shook my head, a smile tugging at my lips. “Forest will be more than a year older than my baby, y?—”
“Oh, not Forest,” Meadow said brightly. “I’m talking about the one I’m cooking right now.”
Ice cream forgotten, I launched myself at my best friend, pulling her into a bruising hug.
“Another seedling?!” I squealed excitedly. “You’re going to have a whole-ass greenhouse, and I am here for it!”
“Your baby will be part of that.” Meadow snuggled into me with a happy sigh.
“They will!” I beamed. “Plus you make adorable babies, and the dads of my little nugget are cute as fuck, so they’re going to be the cutest pair of squishies we can love on!”
It was both easy and terrifying to think about picking up my phone and texting Logan the news. For some reason, he felt like the safest to tell first and would probably take the news best. If he didn’t, I might disappear into the night altogether.
