Page 127 of The Fake Out Flex

All heads swivel in her direction.

She stands and throws her arms in the air. "I'm pregnant, okay? And I'm sorry I've ruined everyone's lives."

And with that, she storms out of the room.

17

Evie

"So, where are we off to?" I ask, buckling up in Fraser's car.

He's been mysterious since he showed up on my doorstep this morning with the biggest bouquet of yellow roses yet—Hannah must be loving this, he's setting her future kids up for a great college education—and a mission to take me out for pancakes.

How could I say no?

We'd just finished breakfast at Bear's diner, and as Fraser was settling the bill, he mentioned something about going for a drive.

"Up the mountain," he answers, pulling out onto the street, a determined look settling over his features. "We're going to visit my sister."

"Okay." I didn't have that on my bingo card of people I'd be seeing today, but I'm excited to see her. "I haven't seen Dawn in years."

"I know." He drums his fingers on the steering wheel. "Just hold tight, okay? I know I'm acting a little…funny. I'll explain everything once we get there."

"Cool. I like a bit of mystery."

He glances over and smiles, and for the first time this morning, it's a proper smile, one that makes the skin around his eyes crinkle a little.

He focuses his attention back on the road, and I use the quiet time to reflect.

It's been a rough few days for both of us.

Margo called me into her office as soon as I got back from filming the LA story. It was another scheduled, closed-door meeting, making me totally regret having ever spoken badly about the 'walk and talks'—oh, how I long for those days.

She basically prepared me to brace for the worst. The network will be making their first round of layoffs shortly, and to no one's surprise, I'm on the list. I appreciated the heads-up and have amped up my efforts to do whatever I can to save my career in the short amount of time I have left before I'm forced to resort to Plan Washington.

And Fraser has been through the ringer lately, too.

Despite the Swifts getting off to a great start this season, their form has slipped. Badly. They've racked up a series of losses that have put a question mark over their shot at the Stanley Cup. At the rate they're going, they'll be lucky to scrape into the divisional playoffs.

But if I didn't know Fraser as well as I did, I'd barely know anything was wrong with him. All throughout breakfast, he kept the conversation focused on me, on how I'm doing. Anytime I'd throw it back to him, he'd somehow manage to deflect and steer the conversation back around to what's going on in my life.

Part of that is Fraser's natural reluctance to open up. But I feel like there's more to this.

He's acting strange, and it obviously has something to do with him taking me to see Dawn. We've talked a lot these past few months, but we still haven't broached the biggest mystery of all.

Over the years, I've quizzed Levi about it a million times, probing my brother for more information about what happened that made the Rademachers cancel filming their TV show midseason and Fraser disappear the very next day.

Rumors swirled immediately. With a scandal that big in a town as small as Comfort Bay, they were bound to.

I did my best to avoid them, and I certainly never believed any of them. Especially some of the nastier ones.

Like Fraser's dad having an affair.

Or that Fraser's mom went into rehab for some sort of addiction, sometimes it was alcohol, other times it was abusing prescription meds.

Or that Fraser's older brothers had done something illegal and the Rademacher clan were all in on it and covering it up.

Something obviously happened, but all those rumors were too far-fetched to be anything other than the product of people's imaginations.

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