Page 68 of Seven of Hearts

The room was packed with familiar faces. Still, the idea of socializing in my current predicament was overwhelming. I was fine talking about my pregnancy or the baby, but that wasn’t the elephant in the room.

It was Logan and me.

What were we? How did I explain it to everyone? Did I have to explain it?

Luckily, Kristin and Will were parked in seats closest to the French doors we slipped through.

“Oh my god!” Kristin rocketed out of her seat as the thunderous rumble of childrens’ feet echoed from upstairs. “I swear. You’re right next door all the time, and it’s still impossible to catch you to talk. I thought Logan was lying when he said you were coming to poker.”

I spotted Kylie across the room, talking to Hannah Jane. Our eyes met, and her expression tightened.

Kristin glanced over her shoulder to see what I was staring at. “Ky will come around. She’s just stubborn,” she said as she pulled me into a hug. “How are you feeling, honey? I tell Logan every freaking day to bring you over for dinner and I swear he just wants to keep you all to himself.”

“I’m okay,” I said. “Just taking it a day at a time.”

She nodded. “Do you have my number? Get it from Logan. Or I’ll get yours from him and shoot you a text. Anytime you need something, just call.”

I forced a smile. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

Kristin was brimming with excitement. “And it’s a boy?”

“Yeah.” I rested my hands on my belly and looked up at Logan. “We’re excited.”

She squealed. “You’re glowing. And I’m going to be an aunt! Be warned, everyone in here is planning on one hell of a baby shower for you two, so you might want to start making space for all the gifts you’re going to get.”

I pressed my hands to my cheeks. “Yeah, I’m hoping the nesting phase hits me hard. I need to do some serious purging to make room in my apartment.”

“Just say the word,” Logan teased.

I rolled my eyes and jerked my thumb at him as I looked at Kristin. “Mr. Minimalist hasn’t come around to throw pillows, blankets, and comfort yet.”

Kristin snickered. “You two are good for each other.”

Will gently nudged her out of the way and came in for a hug. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” I said as warmth bubbled up inside of me.

Knowing that the people Logan loved most were excited for us meant everything.

“You okay?” Logan asked quietly when he pulled me away so we could grab pizza slices out of the mountain of boxes on the bar.

I used my sleeve to dab my eyes. “Yeah.”

The look he shot me told me very clearly that he didn’t believe me.

“It’s just . . . a lot different than my family,” I admitted.

Logan looked around the crowd of Will and Kristin’s friends who gathered every Monday to eat pizza and use a game of poker as an excuse to hang out.

It was clear as day that these people—the DeRossis, Lawsons, Brannans, Pelhams, and McGraths—were family to him. Even the ruckus echoing from upstairs where all the kids were being supervised by his youngest sister, Zoey, was good-natured.

Part of me wondered if Logan and I would make it to the place in life where we had friends who were an integral part of our daily existence. Not just people we saw once in a while and called them friends when they were really just people we knew.

Was Kylie going to become one of those people? Just someone I avoided in the grocery store to get out of an awkward conversation?

Logan smoothed his hand up and down my back as I picked through the pizza topping options. “Where’s your head at, honeybee?”

I snapped out of the haze. “Just thinking about the kind of people our kid will get to grow up around. I guess it’s putting the cart before the horse just a bit.”

---