Page 61 of Forever With You

My jaw unhinged, and immediately I pictured those bottoms and knew I’d never get that out of my head. Ever.

“Okay then.” Roxy smacked her hands off the table and quickly changed the subject. Drinks arrived and then our food was placed down. The steam was still rising off my omelet when Roxy’s shrewd gaze landed on me. “So what’s going on with you and Nick?”

I paused, a forkful of eggs and peppers halfway to my mouth. Roxy and I texted on and off, and she stopped over if I was home when she was visiting Reece, but I hadn’t talked to her about Nick or about the pregnancy. I wanted to, boy did I ever want to, because I wanted to tell someone other than Nick or my mom, but Roxy worked with Nick, and that changed things.

“What do you mean, what’s going on?” I asked.

Katie stabbed a piece of sausage. “What she means is that Nick hasn’t hooked up with another chick since you strolled into Mona’s.”

Thank God I’d swallowed my food, because I was sure I would’ve choked upon hearing Katie’s blunt remark, but a deep, almost unsettling relief uncoiled in the pit of my stomach. Whether Nick was still messing around with other ­people was something I hadn’t allowed myself to even think about. A tiny part of me hadn’t thought he was, but there were no labels between us, and even though he was attracted to me and we were linked together by this baby, that didn’t mean he was settling down.

Roxy smiled slightly as she picked up a piece of bacon. “I can see that you’re happy to hear that.”

I opened my mouth, about to deny it, but suddenly I was tired of pretending. And that’s what I was doing. It was bigger than just letting my friends in, sharing my life with them. Sooner or later they were going to find out the truth.

Nervousness made my stomach queasy. I wasn’t sure how they’d respond to what I was going to tell them. I also wasn’t sure how Nick would really respond, when it got down to it. “We have ... stayed in touch,” I said.

Roxy’s look turned bland. “Yeah, I know that.”

Waving half a piece of sausage around, Katie snorted. “In other words, you’ve been screwing each other’s brains out?”

“Actually, no.” What he had done Thursday morning didn’t count. “We haven’t had sex since the first time.”

Katie dropped the sausage. “A pig just flew past the window.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Really?” Roxy sounded surprised.

Nodding, I cut another piece of omelet with my fork. “No. Okay. Well, we’ve messed around—­once,” I added, when a knowing gleam filled Roxy’s eyes. “And that was just a few days ago.”

“Holy crapola, girl, I don’t know any girl that Nick has hung out with after having sex with them and they’ve—­”

“It’s because he’s fallen for her,” Katie interrupted as she picked up her fallen sausage. No sausage left behind, that girl. “So he’ll do all kinds of things he hasn’t done before.”

I slid her a sidelong glance. “Is that your psychic stripper powers at work again?”

“Damn skippy.”

I grinned as I shook my head. “We’re not boyfriend and girlfriend. I don’t know what we are. Actually, that’s not really true.”

“What does that mean?” Roxy brought her glass to her mouth.

“We’re going to be a mom and dad in approximately seven and a half months. Roughly.” I dropped the bomb like someone would drop a mic.

Tea sprayed into air, luckily in the direction of the aisle. I smacked my hand over my mouth, stifling my giggle as Katie sat there and stared at me. Guess her psychic stripper abilities hadn’t enabled her to foresee that.

Once Roxy recovered from becoming a human geyser, she whipped off her glasses, lowering them to the table. “Are you screwing around with me right now?”

I shook my head.

Katie still stared at me.

“You are being totally serious?” When I nodded, Roxy sat back. “Oh my God.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You’re pregnant?”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling weakly as I placed my fork on my plate. Appetite gone, I struggled to keep the smile plastered on my face, but it was hard. The reaction to Avery’s pregnancy was vastly different from mine. Like two different continents different. I nibbled on my lower lip, my brows knitted. “I know Nick and I aren’t together. Maybe we will be one day. I don’t know. I’m kind of hoping that’s the case, but right now we’re working at ... getting to know each other, but we decided to do this.”

Katie’s mouth popped open but she didn’t say anything.

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