I swiped at the moisture on my cheek.“What if I lose him?”
Laurent didn’t hesitate.“You won’t.”
I laughed through the tears that pressed against my eyes.“But what if I do?”
“Rose, that man worships the ground you walk on.He would do anything for you.Which is exactly what he’s doing.He went home—a place he has avoided for as long as I have known him.He’d only do that if he felt it necessary.”
“What if it just reinforces his fear of becoming his father?”
“Have more faith in him.I do.”
“Rose!”Sutton’s voice rang out across the street.She and Rhone stood at the edge of the crowd, looked both ways, and hurried over.
“Oh my God, you look so much better,” Sutton said, lifting my spirits slightly.I wondered if she was blind to the tears that had threatened to fall only moments ago.
“Thanks, Sutt.I feel better.”
“Good.”Sutton crouched, eyes scanning over me as if she were inspecting a patient.“I almost brought you a bag filled with bland carbs and electrolyte powder last night, but Rhone told me you were well stocked.
“She was trying to spend money on things she didn’t need to be spending it on.”
Sutton was a nurturer at heart, but her bank account was nowhere near as large as her heart.Rhone always tried to help her out, but she was also proud and would rather work three jobs than take a handout.
Sutton elbowed him.“If Rose needed it, then it would have been money well spent.”
“Thanks, but he’s right.I’m well-stocked.”
Rhone grinned at her in that ‘see, I told you’ way.He dropped on the curb next to Laurent.“Prime location,” he said.“Espresso Yourself.Front row.Not bad.”
“Turns out when the town finds out you're pregnant, they part the way like Moses and let you through.”
No one knows how the news got out, but that was small-town life.I imagine one of my siblings mentioned something to another sibling in earshot of a town gossiper, and the rumor mill went wild.I was sick of lying, so I didn’t deny it.I embraced it.
“Speaking of,” Laurent said, pushing to his feet.“I’m going to grab a coffee before the parade starts.Does anyone want anything?”
“I do,” Sutton said, raising her hand.
“Of course you do,” Rhone muttered, standing too.
“You don’t have to come,” Sutton said.
“I have to make sure you don’t accidentally order something that tastes like potpourri again.”
“That happened one time.”
“Yet the complaining has clung to my memory for a lifetime,” he joked.They followed Laurent, shoulders bumping.
A whistle blew down the street.The crowd shifted, leaning forward, kids scrambling for better views.Someone clapped, and it rippled through the audience as everyone joined in.
The distance thrum of drums echoed between the buildings.
I straightened in my chair, a smile spreading across my face as the first banner rounded the corner at the far end of Main Street.It was my baby’s first parade.
I pressed a hand to my stomach.
I wish your daddy were here.
What in the bloody hell?I eased my car to a dead stop at the row of traffic in front of me.Didn’t these people realize I had to get to my girl?I beeped my horn—something I never did, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
