Until that moment, she hadn’t truly thought about the end result of having a child. She’d been too focused on her immediate future. On where she was going and what she was going to do. But right then, she thought that whoever this little baby inside her was, it was going to have a Duke for a best friend. With that realization came another question. Was Lyntacky the place she should raise it?
Chapter 24
She laughed, cried, and felt cloaked in a warm blanket of love from the outpouring of emotion in the Gnat.
Blue had spent time with all these women over the years, but since her move to New York, only fleetingly. But today she realized how wonderful they were. Friends who cared. People she thought she wasn’t close to, but due to their connection, she actually was.
Strange how she hadn’t understood that until now.
JD had changed champagne to coffee the second the emotions ran too high and the tears started. He’d then ordered food like the seasoned small-town crisis manager he was.
“Someone order pizza?”
“Bradford!” everyone chorused as the local lab tech, part-time Uber Eats driver, dog sitter, and general Lyntacky utility man wandered in, laden down with boxes.
Birdie—lightweight when it came to alcohol—cupped his cheeks and planted a loud kiss on him.
Bradford, used to the women of Lyntacky, rolled with it. “I accept payment in affection,” he said with a gentle smile.
“So, Blue,” her tall, lanky childhood friend then said while everyone else fell on the pizzas like crazed people who hadn’t eaten in days, “I hear congratulations are in order, seeing as we can officially talk about it now.”
“Thanks, Bradford.” Blue lunged for a slice of double-cheese pepperoni pizza before they vanished.
“And Jay—who knew?”
“Guy’s hot, though, Bradford, even you have to admit that, right?” Jonathan said, words muffled around a mouthful of crust. His slicked-back hair gleamed, and a patch of red skin between his brows marked where waxing had clearly taken place.
“Very,” Bradford agreed solemnly, taking the soda JD handed him and leaping onto one of the counters.
“I’m sure you just broke twenty health regulations doing that.” JD sighed.
Deidra leapt up and settled on Bradford’s lap.
“Cats always know the calmest people,” Nina said, working lotion into Leah’s foot. “She won’t sit on me.”
“That’s because you’re never still,” Cill said. “Have kids. You learn to be still when you get a moment. I can fall asleep in under five seconds now. Sitting upright.”
“Something to look forward to, then,” Zoe said dryly.
JD winked at her.
Love, Blue thought, watching the casual touches and familiar glances between them.
She’d never really thought of herself as a forever-after kind of girl. And that was possibly because she’d met no one who made her want to be one.
Blue wondered if the feelings stirring inside her for Jay were because she carried his child, or if there was something more genuine there. Something that had been growing quietly in thepast few days. Could you form a bond with someone that fast? But then again, she had known him for years.
Or would another man take her heart one day and raise their child as his own? The thought sat heavily on her.
“Hey, where did you go?” Leah asked.
They hadn’t been tight growing up. Leah Reynolds had always been closer to Birdie. Blue and Leah had circled each other more than connected—two strong personalities, both defensive in different ways.
“Just thinking,” Blue said. “I never got a chance to tell you how happy I am for you and Dan. And Hudson, of course.”
Leah smiled.
It wasn’t the old smile—the one that barely reached her eyes and matched her hard-ass exterior. This one was softer and exuded genuine happiness.
