Page 53 of Single Chance

As I reached Chloe’s open door, she was setting her cell phone down.

“Hey, come on in,” she said, standing from her desk.

“Welcome back,” I said. “How’s Sutton?”

Chloe had stayed home for several days last week because her daughter was sick.

“She’s well and back at Quincy’s today. I just hung up with Presley. Have you talked to her? They finally came to an agreement. She got the house.”

“That took a while,” I said. From what I understood, there’d been a lot of back-and-forth. “She must be super excited. Has she figured out her plans for her new little purchase?” I laughed as I said it because the house our friend had bought—with cash—was not at all little.

“Of course not, but that’s our Presley. Buy a house on a whim. Figure out what to do with it later.”

“Gotta love her,” I said, meaning it.

“She mentioned the possibility of gutting it.”

“I can’t wait to see it.”

Chloe closed the door as I headed to her table, where we usually met. “It’s warmer in here when I close the door,” she said. Then she paused and her brows went up. “Or have you hit that point in the pregnancy when you’re hot all the time?”

“No,” I answered. “That will probably start just as it gets stupid hot outside.”

With a grin she said, “Most likely. How are you feeling?” She set her laptop on the table and sat next to me.

“Mostly okay. Every once in a while food makes me feel sick, but I’ve only thrown up a couple of times.”

“I hope that gets better instead of worse,” she said.

“Same. The fatigue is real though.”

She’d warned me about it early on. Between being pregnant, moving, and wrestling with the shit storm of emotional stuff, I was ready to collapse in bed by dinnertime each evening.

“I remember how bad it was during the first trimester,” Chloe said. “Did you extend your stay at the inn? Ava said she’d give you the same rate break, right?”

“Yeah. And no. Ava’s a doll, but I found a cheaper solution.” Even with the rate break, the inn was a lot for my puny budget.

“Oh, good. What’d you find?”

“I found a room for rent in a house.” I swallowed, preparing for her reaction. “In Chance’s house.”

“Our Chance?”

“The one and only. Sam’s room is in the basement, and he has two extra bedrooms upstairs.”

I could see her mind chewing on that as she nodded. “I didn’t realize you two were that cozy.”

“We’re not cozy,” I said with a nervous laugh.

I was pulled in three directions as I tried to decide how much to tell her.

Chloe was my boss and my friend, and those each called for differing levels of info. On top of that, Chance and I had agreed not to spread the word about the baby until we’d told Sam.

Leaning forward, I planted my elbows on the table and ran my hands over my face tiredly, debating.

Chloe and Presley were my confidantes. They knew a lot of the details about my pregnancy, but not about the father. They’d been respectful of my desire to keep his name to myself.

But I was dying to talk to someone, another female who could relate and help me navigate this muddled situation.

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