Page 249 of Vegas Heat

“What?” I voice the thought in my head.

“You’re pregnant,” he confirms.

“But…but…but how?” I sputter.

“How?” he asks, narrowing his eyes at me in confusion. “When a man and a woman—"

“But I’m on the pill!” I scream at him.

“The pill is not one hundred percent—”

I hold up a hand. “Effective. Right. Noted,” I practically spit out at him. “How far along am I?”

He glances down at the tablet he holds. “The test you took only tells us yes or no. You’ll need to schedule an ultrasound with your obstetrician to determine the answer to that.”

“But how could this have happened?” I ask. “I’m on the pill. I take it at the same time every day.”

“Stop taking it since you’re pregnant,” he says.

“Is it dangerous that I’ve been taking it?”

He shakes his head. “Many women still take it in the early weeks when they don’t know they’re pregnant. And many women also don’t even know when they’ve taken it incorrectly. Vomiting or diarrhea could render it ineffective. Have you been ill?”

I shake my head, though Ihavefelt a little nauseous lately—I attributed it to the pill, but obviously it wasn’t that.

“Have you missed any at all?” he asks. “Or have you been sick recently?”

“Sick?” I repeat. “Like with a cold?”

He nods. “Some different cold medications can affect you, and many times when women are sick, they miss a pill or take it at a different time of the day.”

“Cold med…” I trail off as it hits me.

It’s been nearly two months since I was sick right before Christmas, and the doctor recommended an over-the-counter cold medicine to alleviate my symptoms.

Oh my God.

It doesn’t really matterhow. Maybe I missed a pill and didn’t realize it back in December.

It hits me, and I nearly pass out again.

I’m pregnant—maybe as far along as two entire months…and the daddy ismydaddy’s best friend.

CHAPTER 26: COOPER

My phone rings as I sit in a golf cart, and I slide my phone out of my pocket to see it’s Gabby calling.

I can’t exactly answer it during her father’s backswing, so I have to just let it ring.

I text her when I get a covert second to send it through.

Me:Can’t talk. Everything okay?

She doesn’t text back, and it’s got me worried.

“What about you, Noah?”

I glance up at James McKinney, bassist for the band Vail and one of the co-owners of Coax. He’s in the golf cart right behind me as we wait for Troy to finish teeing off, and clearly he’s asking me a question but I have no idea what it was since I was texting my best friend’s daughter on the sly.

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