Page 79 of Crazy Imperfect Hearts

“Congratulations!”

“When did this happen?”

“Is Josie excited?”

Amber laughs. “Okay, so Quinn and I have been sitting on this for a while. And what nobody knows is that we’ve been trying to adopt for a few years now. Not because we can’t have a child of our own, but because we felt it was our mission. We came close a few times, but those fell through. But this time—” Her hand comes to her heart. “You guys, we met the birth mom last weekend. She’s amazing. She’s eighteen. She’s been through a lot, but she’s so strong.” Tears come to her eyes. “She reminds me so much of my mom. We just knew this was going to be the one. It was fate that we found each other.”

Maddie’s husband, Tag, has been best friends with Amber since they were kids. Maddie has shared with us the horrific story of what happened to Amber’s birth mom, Piper.

“Was she…?” I can’t bring myself to say the word.

Amber nods. “She was sexually assaulted.”

Gasps abound, all of us disgusted.

“Like my mom, she has no idea who the father is. It was a random attack, and he wore a mask. We have no clue about the baby’s race or ethnicity.” She chuckles with a half-grin. “And we don’t care. We just knew this one was meant to be.”

“You guys will be great parents,” Ren says. “Again. But that poor girl.”

“Like I said, she’s strong. But she basically has no one. She entered the foster system at fourteen and bounced from home to home. She suspects her rapist might have been one of the many boys she’d been in foster care with. It happened when she was seventeen, but she didn’t find out she was pregnant until after her eighteenth birthday.”

“That’s horrible,” Ava says.

“Her name is Julia. She’s super intelligent and very talented. You should see her paintings. We’re going to pay for her to get a college education. Room, board, and tuition. The girl deserves a break, you know?”

“It just goes to show that sometimes good can come from evil.” Nikki smiles. “Julia could go on to be the next”—she rubs her chin then laughs—“some news anchor I am if I can’t even come up with the name of one famous female painter.”

“We’re all so happy for you,” I tell Amber. “So when is Tag planning the baby shower?”

Laughter comes from everyone. Best friend or not, Tag Calloway won’t be throwinganyonea baby shower. That’s okay, though. Amber is surrounded by friends who will be all too happy to step up.

Willow rubs her belly, shares a look with pregnant Nikki, and leans down to tickle Teddy’s chin. “Maybe something’s in the water.”

I don’t tell her I hope somethingisin the water.Mywater.

Chapter Twenty-six

Regan

Twelve days and nine pregnancy tests later…

I stare at the test in disbelief. Has it really happened? Am I—thirty-five-year-old Regan Lucas—really pregnant on the first try?

I take a tenth test just to be sure.

All the tests are spread out on my kitchen table. Many are from different manufacturers, so the results show up differently. Some have a plus sign. A few have two pink lines. The rest clearly announce it with one unmistakable word: PREGNANT. But all ten are positive.

I’m one hundred percent knocked up.

And suddenly, I’m more excited than I’ve ever been in my entire life.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Lucas

Regan: Can we talk?

I push my work aside and stare at the text. In my experience, never have those words come to mean anything positive. I’ve said them more than once myself, when I had the balls to have an in-person conversation rather than just not showing up at the wedding.

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