CHAPTER 7

Sutton

When something important is on your mind, sometimes you just have to blurt it out. So that is precisely what I did.

“Do you think my ass is getting bigger?”

Candice choked on the sip of diet soda she had just sipped. “Excuse me?”

I frowned. “You heard me. Obviously, it is because your face resembles Old Man Mackey’s barn when it’s freshly painted, shit, damn, and hell. I’m a real fatty, aren’t I?”

Candice wiped her mouth with a napkin. “You do know that you are pregnant, right?”

I gave her a feigned look of horror. “What? Why am I always the last to know?”

She smirked. “You’re snarkier when you are gestating.”

I slumped down into the seat of the plane. It was unladylike, but it was just Candice and me, so I reasoned that it didn’t really matter.

Okay, we did have the flight crew, but by now they were used to the random noises coming from the bedroom when I flew with Mark. It’s likely that they were overjoyed that Candice was with me this trip.

I missed Mark. It had only been a few hours and already I was turning into a sad sack. I needed to take my mind off things. Looking at Candice, I decided that it would be much more fun to talk about her life.

“How’s Knox?” I gave her an innocent look. By the way her eyes narrowed, she really wasn’t buying it. But I didn’t care. I finally wasn’t thinking about you-know-who and I wanted to keep it that way.

“I am sure he’s fine,” she hedged. Something wasn’t right; she wasn’t glowing like a Christmas tree.

“Hey.” I reached out a hand and gently touched her arm. “Is, “is everything okay?”

Candice nodded stiffly. “Yes... No... I don’t know.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. I almost pressed her for more. If; if ever a woman looked like she needed to talk, Candice did. But just when I resigned myself to not stick my nose where it wasn’t wanted—Candice broke.

“I am just being a worry wart. Things were super rocky and then he came to New York...”

I cut her off. “And swept you off your feet.”

She flushed. “I thought that we were good. But then, there is a new deputy from a few counties over, her name is Natalie and she is way too pretty to be a cop. Knox just texted me that she’s definitely going to be working with him.”

I raised a brow. “The feminist inside of me takes offense to the statement that she’s too pretty to be a cop.”