10
“What do you mean, he kissed you?” Rose squealed. Rose was not the sort of woman who squealed or became all girly over a simple kiss, which pretty much confirmed Marguerite’s opinion that the natural order of things had been turned upside down.
Marguerite, Rose and Iris were neck deep in thermal hot spring water, supposedly soaking their cares away. Rose had decreed that the Chance women would have a spa day today, but Paisley had to study, Daphne had left early to look after the post-fair administration. Evan and Caitlyn and Holly and Prescott had left after a late brunch.
There were three levels to the hot pool: warm, hot, and hottest. Iris was always the one who wanted to go into the hottest of the pools but not today. She insisted they stay in the warm pool. Marguerite knew why, of course, but so far, Iris hadn’t told Rose her news. Which was why Marguerite, feeling the atmosphere grow awkward between the three of them, had suddenly blurted out the incident that was obsessing her at the moment. That kiss had been so swift that all she could remember was the fleeting heat and press of his lips against hers. If she could time travel, she’d go back to that moment to live in it for an hour, or maybe a few days.
“He likes you. Anyone can see he likes you,” Iris joined in, sounding a lot less shocked than Rose.
“Well, of course he likes her, but, you know, kissing?” Then Rose shifted in the water and focused on Marguerite. “Did you like it? I wasn’t sure if you felt that way about Alexei. I thought maybe you were seeing someone?”
She wondered if her sister had wormed out of Iris that she was Internet dating, or whether the 60 Minutes act was Rose’s way of caring. She said, “Alexei’s great. And I’m not really seeing anyone. I’ve had a couple of dates recently, but nothing serious.”
Rose continued, “So, do you like Alex?”
The pool seemed to rise a few degrees in temperature. “Of course, I like him. Everyone likes him.”
“You know what I mean, do you like him, like him. Did you like kissing him?”
“You know Iris’s double chocolate fudge brownies?”
Rose nodded.
“Kissing him was better.”
“Oh, come on. He is human.” Rose glanced from one to the other. “Isn’t he?”
Iris contemplated the question as though it were serious. “A man that good looking? Kisses like an angel. And he cooks? I don't know.”
“Oh, stop it,” Marguerite said, trying not to laugh. “It was only the world’s fastest kiss. I don’t even know why I told you.”
Iris nudged her. “Because kissing’s where everything starts.”
Rose said, “If we’re going to talk about sex, I need to move to a hotter pool.” She began to pull herself up, revealing the top part of a sculpted body that she and her personal trainer worked at diligently.
Iris stopped her with a hand on Rose’s shoulder. “Wait. I need to talk to you.”
Rose sank slowly back down into the water and drilled Iris with a look that was partly medical and partly big sister. “Aha,” she said. “I wondered.”
Marguerite considered the irony that one sister was pregnant, the other engaged, and the only one who had so far spilled their news was her telling them about the world’s most innocuous kiss.
There was something about the rhythm of sisters. Even though they didn’t see each other all that often, when the three of them got together they fell back into patterns. She smiled to herself, knowing that they probably always would.
Iris raised her hands in the air causing water droplets to stream down her arms and plop onto the surface of the pool. “Okay. I’m pregnant!”
In her line of work, Rose dealt with pregnant women all the time, but this was her sister and the first pregnancy in the Chance family. Even though she had to have known what the news was, she still squealed and jumped up to give her blushing sister a noisy and very wet hug. “I’m so happy for you. Really, really happy for you.”
Iris waved her hands in front of her face. “You’re going to make me cry. But then everything from seeing a baby in a carriage to kittens on a TV commercial makes me cry these days.”
“Hormones,” Rose stated. “Lots and lots of hormones.” Then she immediately switched into Doctor mode. “Are you taking pregnancy vitamins?”
“Yes. I started them months ago in fact.”
“Good. And how are you feeling generally?”
“Scared, that’s how I feel. Scared. I have wanted this for so long, wanted it so badly, that on some level I can’t believe it’s true.”
Rose placed a reassuring hand on her sister’s shoulder. “That’s not unusual. When you’ve wanted to get pregnant, it can be frightening when it actually comes true. I see it a lot in my practice. Have you had a scan yet?”
