Page 99 of Wilder

“What?” Charli sounded indignant. “Why not?”

“Because I thought you were just saying that so I wouldn’t go out and get pregnant before I was married.”

“Oh, shut up,” Charli said with a laugh. “You did not. And besides, I think Lexi would have a hard time believing that a nurse doesn’t know about a lot of the more common aspects of pregnancy. Plus, Aria was sick during different parts of the day throughout the early part of her pregnancy. She’s your best friend, so I know she told you, like she told me.”

“Yeah, but mine is worse than either of your experiences.”

Lexi lifted her eyebrows at Janessa. Sometimes the way the sisters interacted made her laugh. Having never had a sibling, she didn’t have that type of relationship with anyone. They sniped at each other, but even she could tell that it came from a place of love.

“Regardless,” Janessa said. “I’m surviving and praying that the second trimester will bring relief.”

“When is that?”

“One more week, and I’ll be in my second trimester.”

“Hope you feel better.”

“And then you can finally tell everybody you’re pregnant,” Charli said as she leaned to pull something out of the box.

Again, Lexi’s eyes widened. She’d been sure Wilder had said Janessa had been telling everyone.

“It’s not my fault that I’m not super good at keeping a secret,” Janessa said. “I was excited. Plus, this is my secret to tell. I’d never tell someone else’s.”

“By the time you have this baby, you will be wishing that you’d kept it to yourself a little while longer.”

“What do you mean?”

“By the end of your eighth month, people are going to see you coming into church with your belly and comment on the fact that you’restillpregnant. Right about when you’re feeling your worst, waddling around with swollen ankles, all the comments will make you feel like you’re enormous.”

“Well, it’s too late to do anything about it now,” Janessa remarked. “I’ll keep that in mind for the next one.”

“Speaking of babies, where’s Shiloh?” Lexi asked.

“Denise was at the house to clean today,” Janessa said. “And she offered to keep an eye on her.”

“She has Ciara too,” Charli added. “But Peyton and Layla still had school.”

“No school for you and Amelia?” Lexi asked.

Charli shook her head. “Something happened to the heater overnight, so they cancelled school today.”

“Since Mom already had Timmy for the morning, she offered to watch him for the whole day so Aria could cover for me at the clinic today,” Janessa said. “She took pity on my sick, pregnant self.”

The door to the rink swung open again, and this time it was a small group of ladies. While Janessa and Charli went to greet them, Lexi made her way to the boards. Amelia was in the middle of the ice, practicing a spin.

Watching the girl, Lexi was struck again by how at ease Amelia was on the ice. Layla still had some stiffness when she moved. Amelia, on the other hand, had really loosened up overthe past few weeks. Like she was no longer afraid of falling. Of the ice hurting her.

“How is she doing?”

Lexi glanced at Charli, then looked back at Amelia, who’d just landed the jump she’d been practicing. She hadn’t spoken to her and Blake yet about the girls beyond saying they were doing well. Because they were. She just wasn’t sure how to tell them that their younger daughter was probably going to surpass their older one fairly soon.

“She’s doing really well,” Lexi said, then decided to test the water. “How does she feel about figure skating?”

“She loves it. I thought she might like ballet better, but she’s definitely talked about figure skating more, especially since you started teaching her.”

“Is Layla in ballet too?”

Charli nodded. “I think she probably prefers ballet, though she’ll never actually say that since she really likes you.”

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