PROLOGUE
32 seconds.
I squeeze my eyes shut and suck in a deep breath. It’s okay. It will be okay. It’s all going to be O-kay. In … I open an eye and peek again at my phone … in 26 seconds, I’ll know for sure. I’ll have my answer. Oh God. I’ll know whether or not my life is about to change forever.
18 seconds.
Gasp.
14.
I tilt my head back and stare at the ceiling, fighting the wetness pooling in the corners of my eyes.
Letting out a deep, exhausted sigh, I check my phone again.
7 seconds.
Calm, stay calm. You’re a strong, independent woman and you can do anything. Look at all you’ve achieved in this judgy little town. You don’t take shit from anybody. You handle your business. If … if … I gulp audibly.
If.
You’ll deal. You’ll make the hard choices and then you’ll follow through with whatever you decide. One hundred percent. You’ll do what you have to do and it’ll be okay.
3…
2…
1.
The alarm on my phone goes off, the grating, siren-like sound seemingly reverberating throughout my entire body.
Oh God.Oh God. All that anxiety and now I can’t even look. I can’t look! I cover my face, cringing to myself.
Nope! Nope. Shake it off and pull up your big girl panties. You can do this. My hand shakes when I reach out for the little plastic stick sitting on my counter.
This is it.
This is–
Before I can think any more about it, I grip the test and hold it up in front of my face. I squeeze my eyes shut, but it’s no use. No sense in putting this off. Steeling myself I peel one eye open … and then the other.
And there it is in black and white. Well, in little blue lines, technically. Two little blue lines.
Pregnant.
I’m pregnant.
My knees start to feel like jelly and my legs give out. I sink onto the tile floor, my back against the vanity cabinet as I try desperately not to hyperventilate.
Distantly I recognize that the alarm on my phone still bleats in the background, but the noise in my head is so much louder.
Holy shit.
CHAPTER 1
LUCY
Ibounce my knee incessantly under the table causing it in turn to jiggle with my nervous movements. The water sloshes in my glass and I force myself to stop, turning away from the patio where I’m seated lakeside, and glancing out over the water. I’m at Emery’s Dockside Grill waiting for my girlfriends, Piper and Steph. I’d popped in to visit them both at the library for lunch last week when Piper had returned from her honeymoon, but it was a short visit and things have changed since then. I’ve changed and I need my girls.
