“Anyway,” I say before Jo can utter another word. “As I was sayingbefore, it’s just Ireland. And it’s not forever. We’ll visit you. Andyouwill visit me.”
“Nina,” Jo says again. I’m fairly certain she’s gone into shock.
“I was thinking early December might be a good time,” I say.
“Nina!” Jo says. She’s practically shouting now. She gets to her feet, but it’s awkward since she’s in the booth still, so she sits down again. She takes a sip from my margarita and makes a face when she realizes it isn’t hers.
Ollie can’t hold in his laughter anymore. He’s practically doubled over on the table, laughing so hard tears stream down his face.
Alex, Lord bless him, looks at all three of us in turn, completely bewildered. He turns to Jo. “What’s going on?” But when she doesn’t answer and shouts my name again instead, he turns to me. “Did you break her? What’s going on?”
I roll my eyes. “My God, Alex, it’s like you’ve never even had a baby,” I say.
“A...” He stares at me, then Jo, then Ollie. “You didn’t.”
“I most certainly did,” Ollie says.
The two of them laugh when Alex holds out his hand and Ollie shakes it.
“You two disgust me,” I say. “I’m nauseous enough as it is.”
“Nina!” Jo shouts again.
“Josephine!” I shout back.
She stares at me for a moment, then says, in a disturbingly calm voice. “How far along are you?”
“Twelve weeks.”
Jo squints as if doing math in her head. “Did you get knocked up when I came to visit you?”
I take a sip of my drink. “It’s possible.”
“Was Iliterallyin thenext roomwhen you made that baby?” she says,pointing at my stomach. “Actually, don’t answer that. I’d rather not know. To tell you the truth, I’m torn over whether I ought to be weirded out or honored.”
“Weirded out,” Alex says at the same time Ollie and I say, “Honored.”
Jo takes her straw from her glass and points it at me. “And to thinkyouaccusedmeof having a secret fetus!”
I look down into my drink and stir my mock margarita with my straw. “And how do you feel about this secret fetus?”
“How do I feel about it?” Jo says. “How do I feel aboutyou, my best friend,having a secret fetus?”
“Technically, it’s not a secret anymore,” Alex says. Jo and I look away from each other to glare at him, and he holds up his hands in surrender.
“Nina,” Jo says, stretching her hand across the table to take hold of mine. “How could I feel anything but really fucking happy?”
“Thank God,” I say. I give her hand a squeeze. “I have a feeling it would be really awkward to have a baby you hate named after you.”
After we talk about the baby and life in Ireland so much that we’ve run out of things to say, I catch sight of the photo of me, Ollie, and Jo stapled to the wall.
“Still here.” I sigh.
Jo follows my gaze to the photo and laughs. “I thought you stole it!”
“I did. But I put it back before we set sail for charter season. Didn’t replace the money, though. Figure Mitch has enough grimy old dollars.”
“What money?” Jo says, but then she holds up a hand. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
