“I just told you I worked last night.”
“But there’s more going on, isn’t there?” he pressed.
Blue sighed. “I haven’t told Mom, Dad, or Birdie yet.”
“Okay, well, you can do that later. Talk.”
So she did, explaining what happened at Cavanagh Sale.
“Do you want me to head there and beat the shit out of them? Lynx will help me,” he said, looking a little mean.
“No one is beating anyone up. I’m a big girl, and I handled it.”
“You walked away and let them off the hook. How is that handling it, Blue?” He passed her a mug and then reached for the baking jar.
Inside were peanut butter, banana, and chocolate chip oatmeal bars. Their mother was the best baker around, as far as Blue was concerned. They had grown up vegan, and she could honestly say the food was awesome… most of the time.
Her mother used to bake her these and add extra dark chocolate and honey when it was her and Birdie’s time of the month.
The thought had her going still. She was never regular, as she had polycystic ovary syndrome, but when was her last period?
“Why do you suddenly look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Finch asked, leaning in to study her face.
“Nothing. Sit,” she said, sounding breathless.
Don’t panic, Blue. This is just stress and your condition.She’d lost track, that was all. Surely she’d had a period since leaving New York?
“I’ll sit on you if you don’t tell me what’s going on,” Finch said.
“Nothing. I’m stressed. I don’t have a job, and I’m not sure what to do next.” She wasn’t exactly lying, but it was a near thing.
“I’ve known you since you were born, Blue Jay McAllister. You’re lying to me.”
Panic was the only word for what was running through her now. She couldn’t be pregnant—could she? No, no, no, she was just…what? They didn’t use a condom because like she’d told Jay she was on the pill.
“I, ah…. I need to go into town.”
“Talk to me, Blue.”
She turned and walked away from him.
“I’m driving you, then.” He went past her and out the door first.
Blue knew better than to argue with Finch. He was a second lieutenant and dealt with people far tougher than his little sister. Besides, she felt weak and shaky.
I’m imagining this.
Outside, the McAllister gardens were a riot of color, and all Blue could think wasthis can’t be happening to me.
“Why turquoise, though, Blue?” Finch said when they were walking to his car. “And the flowers on the end. I mean, like we don’t already stand out enough being the hippie McAllisters.”
Blue looked at the house behind her. Two months ago, her parents had painted it a bright turquoise. Not easy on the eyes, and definitely not subtle. Then, on the end of the front wall, they’d put a pink hibiscus flower.
“I’m not sure why that surprises you, Finch. You grew up here, right?”
He grunted at that and got in the car.
When the youngest McAllister, Birdie, married her grumpy, bearded husband, he brought a lot of money into the family. They’d told him they didn’t need his money. He’d ignored them and went about fixing the place up.
