Page 71 of Can't Be Love

LILY: Absolutely.

MC: Sara’s waking up, I’m on my way.

Thomas’s phone rang not thirty seconds later. I tried to tell him not to answer it, but he did anyway.

“Hello?” he answered, sounding pathetic.

Kelsey was trying not to laugh out loud. “That’s so pitiful,” she mouthed.

“He’s good,” I mouthed back.

“I don’t know what happened, Mad. One minute everything was great, the next she’s flying off the rails like a rabid wolf. Is she bipolar?”

Kelsey held her stomach with one hand and her mouth with the other and started dancing around as she ran out of the room.

“Hey, sis, can I call you back? Something just came up . . . Yeah sure . . . Love you, too.”

He hung up the phone quickly and I burst out laughing.

“What was that all about?” he asked.

“Kelsey’s bladder is like the size of a dime when she’s pregnant. I think you made her pee herself a little. MC’s going to murder you for this.”

“You started it.”

We moved into the living room and sat side by side on the couch waiting. The front door opened and slammed shut.

“Madelyn? I thought you all were going to lie low and take it easy tonight?” I heard my mother say. Thomas and I shared a look and laughed as Kelsey walked in, shaking her head at us.

“Lily’s upset about Thomas. I needed to come over and check on her.”

“Oh really?” my mom asked from the doorway, giving us both that deadly mom stare. I’d always hated that look. Even as a grown woman it made me squirm in my seat next to Thomas.

Maddie walked in and set the carrier down, too distracted with baby Sara to take notice of us.

“Oh, give me, give me,” I begged when Sara was finally free.

MC turned to pass the baby to me and froze. One hand went to her hip as she too gave us the mom face, causing Kelsey to giggle.

She handed me the baby and I cuddled the sweet little girl. She was so precious, and I suddenly couldn’t wait to be pregnant and have one of my own.

“Say hi, Uncle Thomas,” I said in a gooey voice reserved only for babies and puppies.

“You played me. Both of you,” Madelyn confronted us. “It was all made up, wasn’t it?”

“I nearly peed,” Kelsey confessed. “They’re terrible.”

“So you guys are okay?” she asked, still sounding concerned.

“Never better,” Thomas said.

MC flopped down on the couch next to me. “I was about to take a hot bath while the baby slept.”

“Oh please,” I snorted, passing Sara to Thomas and turning to face Maddie. “You’d much rather hang out with us tonight anyway. You just needed a little prodding to get here.”

She smacked me in the face with a throw pillow. “Maybe, but you still suck. Both of you. Are you really okay?”

I nodded. “We’re good.”

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