I meet Holly’s worried gaze, and I nod. I'll deal with her. I pull her to the side, leaving the kids to carry on dancing.
“Are you okay?”
Collecting her breath, she assures me, “Yeah, I’m fine. Why? Are you not okay?”
“Darling, you seem out of sorts. When I gave you your meds this morning, you did take them, didn’t you?”
She looks away and I have my answer. “Harper,” I warn. “You did swallow them, yes?”
“I can’t,” she says and I sigh. “Why?” I ask.
“Because I'm pregnant.”
Normally I would be excited to hear such news, but all I feel is dread. She stopped taking her meds when she was pregnant with Gunner, but she had regular check-ups with her doctor. They kept a close eye on her. Who knows how long we’re going to be here on lockdown.
“How far along are you?” I ask hoping to catch her in a lie.
“About seven weeks. That’s why I haven’t said anything.”
“Does JJ know?”
“No, and now he’s gone, he might never know.”
Mania dances in her eyes, her shuffling from foot to foot, she crosses her arms over her chest and then unfolds them. She can’t stand still, and I think carefully how to approach this. I can’t scare her off. Who knows what she will do.
“Well, congratulations,” I say planting a smile on my face. “Another baby on the way, how exciting.”
“Yeah, exciting,” she murmurs more interested in the music and the kids still dancing away.
“Go join them, I’ll be over by the bar if you need me.”
She twirls away and takes hold of Gunner and Rayna’s hands as she spins them both around. They’ll certainly sleep well tonight. Holly meets me by the bar and asks, “Are you worried?”
“Yes. She hasn’t been swallowing her meds. She says she’s seven weeks pregnant.”
Holly mouth drops open, and her eyes widen.
“She was adamant she only wanted Gunner.”
“I don’t think we should trust it until she takes a test, or we get a doctor’s confirmation.”
“She wouldn’t lie, would she?”
“She’s not thinking straight. In her mind, being pregnant gets us off of her back about her medication. Between us, we need to watch her closely. If she gets much worse, we’ll get her help rather than wait for JJ to get home.”
“Okay, but what constitutes as worse? She held a club full of brothers at gun point not that long ago.”
“That could have been anger and grief. One of us will have to be around her at all times. She gets worse, we’ll notice.”
She nods and goes on to say, “I should tell you something, I might need an ally when Leo gets home.”
Frowning, I ask, “Why?”
“I’m adopting Wolf, and when my husband is here, he needs to sign the paperwork too.”
I wish for five minutes there was nothing exploding into our lives. Sighing, I say, “Okay, start from the beginning.”
She tells me about Annie’s uncle and how he won’t put her in contact with Annie and how he showed up and that Cas was there. He never mentioned this to me before he left.
