Somethingincredible.
Something I didn’t wish toend.
A sign on the door invited us to join the party out back. I was wearing a short-sleeved, black-knit maternity dress that skimmed my growing curves. The stilettos? They were locked away in my closet…fornow.
I’d long since realized that stilettos and being pregnant didn’t work well, at least not for me. Now, at twenty weeks, I was wearing black thigh-high suedeboots.
What did Josh think of them? If the way he reacted when he saw them earlier was any indication, he was fantasizing about me wearing them while we had sex—the boots being the only thing I was wearing while he thrust insideme.
At the thought of screwing around with Josh, my horny hormones predictably perked up—ever ready toparty.
I mentally rolled my eyes and did my best to corral the littlebuggers.
At the far end of the backyard, a dozen or so kids were running around and playing. Kari was with a tall blonde woman, watching the twins chase a ball around the lawn. She glanced in our direction andwaved.
I wavedback.
“Holly,” Josh said, bringing my attention to the man in front of him. He was in his late forties, wearing a “BBQ Boss” apron and holding a spatula. “This is Coach Fusco. Coach, this is my girlfriend,Holly.”
I slid a glance at Josh and my nervousness faded. The glow in his eyes wasn’t warning me that he had said it for the coach’s benefit. He really did see me as hisgirlfriend.
“You can call me Mike,” the coach said. “And I see congratulations are in order. When’s the babydue?”
Josh told him the date and Mike didn’t so much as flinch—although it wasn’t hard to know what he was thinking: “Good luck withthat!”
A woman with blonde, chin-length hair approached us. “Sweetheart,” she said, “the burgers are ready for the grill.” She then smiled at us. “Hi y’all. I’m Molly, Mike’s wife. It’s so nice to meet ya.” Her gaze dropped to my belly—like the magnet that it was. “So when are y’alldue?”
“February twenty-third,” I toldher.
She didn’t do as good a job of keeping what she was thinking off her face. “That’s always a tough time of year. My advice is to make sure y’all have other people to help in case you go into labor while Josh isaway.”
Except I didn’t have anyone who I couldask.
I didn’t have asister.
My brothers? Not on your life—and they would no doubt agree with methere.
Mum? Yeah, that would go down well. Noah might hear her telling me that I’d ruined my life by making the same mistake she had, and change his mind about beingborn.
Erin had given birth to her baby girl a few weeks ago, so she was definitelyout.
That leftKelsey.
I made a mental note to ask her and prayed to the pregnancy gods that she would say yes. Then I prayed even harder that Josh wasn’t away when I went intolabor.
I would even throw in a sacrificial chocolate Easter bunny—the extra-large kind—if it wouldhelp.
Josh did the rounds and introduced me to everyone. Unlike with the puck bunny from a few months ago, none of the women were disappointed to see me withJosh.
“How’s it going?” Kari asked after Josh had introduced me to his teammates. Tomas was snoozing in her arms. It was hard to believe he was the same non-stop toddler from lastweekend.
“Good. Just don’t quiz me on everyone’snames.”
She laughed. “I know what you mean. It took me forever to get everyone straight. It doesn’t help that it’s always changing. Just as you get the girlfriend’s name right, she’s history. Or you finally remember the wife’s name and her husband getstraded.”
Did her girlfriend comment hurt? There was a good possibility, but I did my best to keep the pain at bay. It wasn’t like NHL players held the monopoly on breaking up with girlfriends. Just because a guy referred to a girl as his girlfriend, it didn’t mean they’d ride off into the sunset and have a happily everafter.
And just because she became pregnant with his child, it didn’t mean they’d take the same carriage ride into the sunseteither.
