“She certainly completes our family, and we want her to know that,” Weston said.
“How long does that whole process take?” Locke asked as Lena released me. She gave me a funny look as she sat back down.
“Nine months to a year,” Weston said, “so we’ve got a while to go. We haven’t talked to her about it yet because it’s quite an involved process?—”
“And there’s always hoops to jump through,” Lena said. “You know how these things are.”
“All the best things in life require hoop jumping,” Locke said. He caught my eye, and I wondered if he was talking about the distillery and our fake relationship or the baby. I caught my lip between my teeth, and his eyes fell to it. A hot flush crept across my chest, and my pulse started to race again. He couldn’t look at me like that! Outside of the baby, we were business partners. None of the rest of this was real…right?
“We just don’t want her to get discouraged if things move slower than she’d like,” Weston said. “She’s been disappointed so many times in her short life, and we want this to be a happy experience. We figure we’ll start having the conversations in a couple months, once all the legal wheels have started turning.”
“Just tell us the moment she knows, and we’ll be there to celebrate,” Locke promised.
“You can have a manicure party,” I joked, patting his leg. I turned back to Weston and Lena. “Sounds like you guys are going to have another busy year with the adoption and camp and the wind farm.”
“And this guy wants to expand the camp!” Lena said, perking up. “He just told me yesterday.”
Weston pinched his fingers together. “Just a little expansion. I saw this amazing wildlife activity center online, and I mean, we’ve got the room.”
“You know, whenwewere campers, we entertained ourselves by climbing trees and flinging mud at each other,” Locke reminded him. “We didn’t need any fancy activity centers.”
“Oh, they’ll still be climbing trees,” Lena said. “Don’t worry. We can’t keep the current batch off of them. The nurse is going through Band-Aids like crazy for all the bumps and scuffs.”
“It’s a Highland camp rite of passage,” Weston said. “Except for when you get banned from tree climbing.”
I snorted. “Banned?”
Weston nodded, gesturing to Locke. “That summer when we were eleven. Don’t you remember?”
Locke pursed his lips, shaking his head. “Not ringing a bell.”
“Now I know you’re lying,” Weston said, huffing a laugh. “There’s no way you’ve forgotten getting yourself stuck in a tree. The firefighters turned up with lights and sirens.”
“Christ!” Locke rubbed his face. “I do remember that.” He bit his lip. “But I only got stuck because the branch broke.”
“So you kept saying.”
I grinned at Locke. “In my defense,” he said, playing down his embarrassment. “The entire camp loved getting to hang out in the firetruck all afternoon, blaring the sirens. So I actually did everyone a favor.”
“At the expense of being banned from climbing trees for the rest of the summer.”
Locke scoffed. “From what I remember, Alistair and I used to have to boost you into half the trees because you had zero upper body strength. Having an excuse to skip out on that was probably a relief.”
“I was a footy player!” Weston cried. “Not a gymnast!”
Lena rolled her eyes, and I laughed at Weston’s indignant look before nudging Locke. “Sounds to me like you three got up to all sorts of trouble.”
“We could be bad,” he agreed, lips pursed as his shoulders shook with laughter. “Hopefully, our kid is better behaved.”
My eyes went wide the moment the wordkidleft his mouth. It took Locke a second to register what he’d just said, then he winced, shooting me an apologetic look.
“What did you…” Lena began, almost jumping out of her seat. She latched onto Weston’s arm. “Did you just…”
I waited for Locke to say something. There was really no backtracking now, but he’d started this, so he needed to finish it. He shook his head, huffing in disbelief. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag.”
“Yeah, we’re having a baby,” I said, giving an awkward, halfhearted wave of my hands, unsure of how the news would be received.
Lena gaped at Weston. Weston gaped at Locke. Everyone was speechless for a beat.
