CHAPTER ONE
Edie Lancaster stared at the two pink lines—one slightly fainter than the other—with more than just words getting trapped in her throat. This was a lot to take in. Despite her best effort to process exactly what she was looking at, her brain lagged behind, not understanding. Like she could reboot herself, she shook her head. Clamped her eyes shut. Hard reset.
Her eyes popped back open again and to her surprise, those pink lines remained.
So, this was really happening. She sniffed softly in an attempt to keep her welling emotions at bay, but the threat of tears still flooded her eyes as a filmy blur. When she tried to swallow, the back of her tongue prickled.
She shook her head once more. Blinked again. Somehow managed a full gulp this time.
This couldn’t be.
She couldn’t be…
“Are you okay?” From across the wood-scarred table, Hannah analyzed her mom under a strained brow line, arms woven over her chest like a security blanket. Or possibly a shield.
“I’m…” Edie couldn’t process the word she had attempted and failed to utter twice now. “I’m…”
Hannah’s interlaced arms loosened, but only a fraction that would hardly be distinguishable to anyone but Edie. Mothers knew these sorts of things, though. They could read their child’s body language like a book. “You’re upset.” Hannah tensed right back up, ready to deflect. But Edie wasn’t upset by this surprising news, contrary to her shocked expression. Unfortunately, her daughter couldn’t read her quite as well.
“No, sweetheart. No. I’m not upset—”
“Because you and Dad were barely older than I am when you had me,” Hannah rallied, clearly prepared for the inevitable backlash with a speech of her own. “I’m aware you still think of me as your little girl, but I’m a grown woman and have been for some time. And I know I talked about taking time off of school to make music with Casey, but we’ve decided it’s best if I finish this last semester instead of deferring it. Once I have this baby, it’ll be that much harder to make myself go back and get my degree. It’s obviously not how we planned things, but we’re really excited about this—”
“So am I, sweetheart.” Edie slipped her hand across the kitchen table to free her daughter’s and take it into her own. “So very excited.”
Hannah froze. “You are?”
“Of course, I am. Surprised, but that doesn’t mean I’m not thrilled. If this is what you want, then it’s what I want for you, too. I’m just having a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I’m going to be agrandmother.”
She intentionally squeezed Hannah’s hand, a gesture of reassurance that instantly softened the worry lines bracketing her daughter’s eyes and mouth.
“There are so many variations on the word these days,” Hannah offered with the sweetest smile. “Gran. Grammy. Heck,I’ve even heard Glamma. You can take your pick. We aren’t choosy.”
It wasn’t the title that made Edie stop short. Grandma Edie would suit her just fine. But becoming a grandmother at forty-five hadn’t been in the envisioned timeline of her life. Neither had setting out as a professional photographer though, either.Orfinding herself smack-dab in the middle of a confusing love triangle with two men she could easily see a future with. She definitely did not have that on this year’s Bingo card.
Honestly, the news of this baby was the only thing to bring any sort of certainty into Edie’s currently chaotic life. Because when it came down to it, nothing was more important to Edie than her family. Absolutely nothing.
“How far along are you?”
“Almost thirteen weeks.”
“You’re already out of your first trimester?” How had Edie not known? She’d prided herself on her close relationship with her daughter. And to think Hannah had been pregnant for over three months without her knowledge. Had Edie really been that wrapped up in her own hectic schedule to miss such a monumental change in her grown daughter’s life?
“Yep. Turning the corner into my second trimester and thrilled about it. That morning sickness was no joke. I’m finally beginning to feel like I’m on the other side of it. I’ve kept down breakfast every day for the last week, which is a huge accomplishment.”
“So that food poisoning you had at Camille’s wedding…?”
“Not food poisoning at all.” Hannah made a face. “Honestly, I feel really bad that I blamed it on that since Morgan did such a beautiful job catering the event. But I needed an excuse, and it was the only believable one I could come up with.”
Edie made a mental note to stop by Sugar Blossom Bakery later to give her friend this information. The poor baker hadtwisted herself into knots over Hannah’s upset stomach that day. Worried others might come down with a similar bought of sickness that caused Hannah to miss the cake cutting, first dance, and even the bouquet toss. Which was too bad, really. Edie would have preferred her daughter catch that bundle of flowers rather than have it thrown into her own hands. She could still conjure up the confusing image of both Josh and Cal’s hopeful faces when the roses landed right in her open palms.
She shuddered, stowing away the memory. “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“Not yet, but the doctor said we could find out as early as later this week if we wanted to. But I’m not sure we will. Casey wants it to be a surprise.”
Oh, this wasdefinitelya surprise.
While Edie overcame her shock relatively quickly, she wondered if this conversation was going as smoothly one beach house over. She couldn’t be so sure. Tabitha had been noticeably less stressed since turning down the position as Chief of Surgery at Seascape Shores General, a decision she flipped back and forth on like a pancake on a hot griddle. Even though she’d ultimately declined the title she had worked her entire professional life to achieve, she was still the head trauma surgeon, a consuming job that had the tendency to occupy her thoughts even when she wasn’t in the OR.
