Ottilie’s first in with a massive box in her hands. “Everyone is outside. We’re going to want a tour, but first we’ll eat. Where is your dining room or kitchen?”
“Here, let me take it.”
She shrugs back. “Pregnant women shouldn’t carry more than ten to fifteen pounds unless they were regularly training before they became pregnant. Did you suddenly take up working out as a hobby and forget to mention it?”
“Let me show you where the kitchen is.” I lead her through to the kitchen. We can stage everything there. Thankfully, I got the table set in time.
“Good choice. I didn’t bring my notepad because this doesn’t count as an official meeting, but would you like it noted in the next meeting that your ex-husband is a philanderer as well as an idiot?”
I mean, who wouldn’t want that noted? “Nah. He doesn’t deserve anymore space in our records.”
“Agreed, but I thought I’d offer.”
“Your place is amazing,” Winnie doesn’t shout—because Winnie doesn’t ever need to raise her voice to be heard—but we can clearly hear her from the front door. “I never pictured you in a place like this, but it’s wonderful.”
“This is exactly where I pictured her,” Cordelia says as the two of them enter the kitchen with boxes of their own. “Greer was always the dreamer.”
By the time they’re done, we’ll have enough food here to feed a small army.
“And the wild one.” Mindy plops a box on the bar. “Remember that time in Boca.”
“Or the Bahamas.” Ottilie starts scrubbing her hands.
“What about that time in the Alps?” Leonie dumps the bag of bagels on the barstool.
“The Alps wasn’t all me. Cordelia started it.”
“I was joking. Not one time did I really mean for us to go skiing in our bikinis.”
“But you have to say it was fun.” We laughed the whole way down the slopes.
“And cold. So cold.” Cordelia shivers. “If that sauna was even ten feet farther from the slopes, I might have frozen to death.”
“Don’t worry, I checked. Plus, we had a good ten minutes before hypothermia set in. There were three emergency response teams waiting in case something happened.” Ottilieadds more soap and keeps scrubbing. “Bungee jumping in South Korea was definitely the wildest.”
She’s probably right. The company doing the jumps seemed a little sketchy. But the view on the way down was amazing. Never in my life has it ever felt like I was flying through mist-covered floating mountains again. “We should go skydiving.”
“I’m pretty sure doctors don’t recommend that while pregnant.” Mindy nods at my belly.
Oops. How did I forget this little guy? I rub my abdomen.
“Are you sure you’re pregnant? Shouldn’t you be showing by now?” Mindy lifts a platter full of croissants out of the bakery box.
“Every woman’s pregnancy is different. Some women can make it all the way until birth without showing. They only gain a small amount of weight in their abdomen.” Ottilie glances at my belly as she keeps scrubbing. “Though you don’t look like you’ve gained more than a pound or two.”
Do I tell them? “That’s because I haven’t. Mother put me on a diet.”
Gasps fill the room.
“I should throttle her.” Winnie probably would have killed her by now if it weren’t for the fact that we all agreed that no matter what our parents do, they are off-limits.
This time, I kind of agree.
The doorbell rings.
“Were you expecting someone? A man, maybe?” Mindy grins.
“We aren’t all love-struck like you.” Leonie opens Ottilie’s box.
