Savvie huffed, unimpressed, and tugged Rush’s hand. “Wanna play Barbies?” she asked. “You can be Ken,” she added generously, tugging Rush toward Theo’s expensive ottoman, where a Barbie house currently sat.
And just like that, the sheriff of Northfield planted himself on the rug with a plastic Ken doll in his big hand and impressed them both with his Ken voice.
His sisters had taught him well.
Lily stood rooted to the spot, watching them. He wasn’t hers. She couldn’t fix him. But she couldn’t seem to stop the hope blooming almost painfully in her chest because there, sitting on the rug next to her niece, he was exactly what she wanted.
Annette appeared by her side and followed her gaze. “Well,” she said, “would you look at that?”
A rustle in the doorway—the aunts had arrived. Giulia, Sophia, and Rosa, all looking festive, and all holding wineglasses, eyes fixed on Rush.
“So,” Giulia said thoughtfully, “explain something to us. When you left the church that day with Sheriff Callahan, you said he dropped you off at the Pine Cone Lodge to wait out the storm.”
Oh, hell. She knew that little detail would come up again.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly like that,” Lily mumbled.
“I knew it.” Aunt Sophia snorted. “No woman climbs into the truck of a man who looks like that and gets out at a motel alone.”
“Unless it’s the honeymoon suite,” Amber said, rounding the corner, rubbing her belly with a wicked grin.
The aunts cackled, but Lily mentally shrugged. She was an adult woman, and it had all turned out for the best.
“So what did happen, Lily?” Annette asked.
Fine, she’d come clean. Lying, even a small white lie, wasn’t in her nature anyway. She’d been shocked her family had believed her at all. “It wasn’t a motel. We spent the weekend at his cabin in Autumn Ridge and then reconnected back at home.”
Heat rushed to Lily’s cheeks as the room erupted in talk. Rush caught her gaze, and Lily smiled shyly.
Then Aunt Sophia gasped, her eyes going to Lily’s flat stomach. “I knew it! Lily, you’re pregnant?”
“What—?” Lily choked. “No?—”
But like her whole life, everyone talked and fussed over her.
Rush looked up at her then, and she knew he’d heard by his wolfish grin. The aunts zeroed in on it, of course.
“I had a feeling he was the one,” Aunt Rosa said, serenely sipping her wine.
Allie and Amber both gasped, staring at her red-silk-covered stomach. “You didn’t tell us?”
“I’m not pregnant!” Lily protested, but Aunt Giulia was already beaming as she swept the wineglass out of Lily’s hand.
“Lily, darling, why didn’t you just say so? A bun in the oven explains everything.”
“Lillian,” Annette said quietly, “is this true?”
Before she could answer, Sophia dinged a fork against her glass. “A toast! To the happy couple—and their little blessing on the way!”
A glass shattered, and everyone’s heads whipped around to find Tucker swaying near the bar cart, a broken glass athis feet, and red wine dripping down his knuckles. His eyes were bloodshot and furious and locked on Lily.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he slurred. “You’re pregnant?” His gaze shot toward Rush on the floor next to Savvie. “Christ, Lil. Playing house already?”
Rush’s eyes went gray and flat, and he rose to his feet instantly, setting the toy down carefully on the ottoman before standing to his full height.
The sheriff of Northfield once again.
“You need to leave, Tucker,” Lily said quickly. “You’ve had too much to drink.”
