Page 43 of Ruin Me Sweetly

“Cousins? Yes, from my dad’s side, but we seldom see one another.”

“Hmm.”

So there was little chance of this happening again, with my next child.

God. Zach and Amber.

December. January. February.

I counted the months back without meaning to, as though the timeline itself might explain something, might soften the shape of what I now knew.

“What if they’re—” I started, then stopped abruptly. I couldn’t make myself finish the thought out loud. Couldn’t give it that much weight.

She was eighteen. Falling for someone, possibly sleeping with someone, was bound to happen eventually. But Zach? The boy who used to shout at her through a locked bedroom door. The boy she’d once trailed after desperate for even a scrap of his attention.

I remembered the day they first met, all those years ago—the two of them shorter, rounder, still just children standing awkwardly in a doorway, sizing each other up. It felt impossible that the same two people could have become this.

“They’ll be fine. Poppet is a smart girl.”

I glanced at Luke. His calm, steady confidence reminded me I wasn’t facing this alone anymore. It always warmed my heart when he called her poppet.

“Thank you, Luke,” I murmured, and just like that, I could breathe a little easier.

Motherhood came in stages. After all, neither of them knew that they were about to gain another sibling later this year.

Chapter 22

Isabella

Luke came rushing around to help me out of the car, as if I were already in my final trimester. He shut the door for me, and I suspected he’d deemed me to be malfunctioning for the moment. He held my hand, and that’s how we walked into the house.

“Just think of all the things we got up to as teenagers. You’ve always said how mature she is. She’s never partied, never drunk to excess, and only recently became interested in dating. I don’t know why you’re worried, poppet’s a grown woman.”

His words made sense. Amber was far more rational than Rhea, and Rhea was thirty-six. But then again, there was no one else quite like Rhea.

There was everything happening with Sadie, and the wedding on top of it. Had I actually been there for Amber lately? Was that why she’d leaned on Zach instead of me? Was the lead-up to her exams simply too much for her? Or maybe—maybe they really were just friends.

“Why don’t I cook tonight? You can relax, have a little you-time,” he said, just as I began to spiral out of control again.

“I need to see her,” I said, shaking my head, trying to pull my hand free.

He wasn’t having it, so I dragged him toward the stairs instead.

“I just want to check on her. She’s been quiet lately. Then there’s this post. It has to be a joke.”

Yeah. That all sounded very plausible to my own ears.

He followed me upstairs, probably to ensure he was there to catch me in case I forgot how stairs worked. Ever since the baby announcement, he’d become my shadow.

I froze when I heard footsteps running across the wooden flooring. Luke bumped into me from behind and wrapped his arms around my waist. I turned to give him a scathing stare. He untangled himself and raised both hands in the air.

I reached the top stair. Luke was two steps below me. There was real tension in the air, and I glanced back, wondering if he should come with me. His sweet smile melted away any doubts. I took a breath and strode across the hallway.

The door swung open, and Zach stood there.

“Hey,” he said, nervously.

Zach was never nervous. Not even as a thirteen-year-old.