“Okay,” Marlee said. “I’ve gotta go inside.”
“I have your back,” Sadie said.
“Do you think there’s any chance Eli might come around on this?” Marlee asked, hopeful. Needing some kind of reassurance.
There were times in a girl’s life when she needed her friends to be straight with her. There were times when she needed them to blow hot air and assure her everything was going to be fine—even if fine was a relative term.
Right then? Marlee didn’t know exactly what she was looking for from Sadie.
Sadie didn’t respond right away. Which said everything that Marlee already knew.
“I’ll call you when I land tomorrow,” Sadie replied, not addressing Marlee’s actual question. The line went dead.
Marlee pressed the cell screen against her forehead.
Then she pulled herself up, scooped her dog into his purse, and marched to the door. She’d just put all this out of her mind until she absolutely had to face it.
That wasn’t this night.
She stepped inside. Eli sat on the sofa. He scowled at his phone. Then he glared at an open notebook in front of him. Then he scowled back at his phone as though willing it to ring.
“Hi.” Marlee put the purse down so Lothario could hop out and go snuggle with Eli’s shoes. Look at her, sounding perfectly normal even when things were not normal at all.
“Hey.” He didn’t pull his eyes from whatever weird ritual was going on with the cell. It looked like something she would’ve done when she was fifteen and really wanted Bobby Martino to call her back.
“I’m sorry I missed you tonight.” She sat next to him on the couch. Not super close, but not weird far either.
“Jase told us what happened.” He kept his focus on the phone.
No glance toward her.
Shit.
He knew.
She swallowed hard and cleared her throat, fidgeted with the hem of her dress.
“Kids are good.” He shrugged. “Glad it’s not me, but good for them.”
What?
He glared one final time at the cell before glancing at her, his stone face melting a bit with the movement. “Jase’ll be a great dad.”
“Jase told you he’s going to have a baby?”
“Jase told us Heather’s going to have his baby.”
Shocked silence was becoming a thing that night.
“Oh yeah?” she asked as nonchalantly as she could manage, what with the current night’s activities and now this.
“You ran into Babushka at Rite-Aid?” he asked.
“Uh-huh.” To put it mildly.
“Babushka spilled. She’s got the baby shower practically all planned to go along with her bridal shower.”
Damn. Damn. Damn.
