Page 84 of Sweet Twins For My Brother's Best Friend

“Uh, you know my days are tight. And they could turn on a dime. I usually just stuff a sandwich down my throat.”

“I know,” I say firmly, waiting on Lucy to smell a particularly interesting flower. It really is beautiful, purple and stretching out its petals to the sky.

I lean down and pluck it for Hannah, feeling like a child, but Lucy takes it and eats it in front of me.

I laugh a little and throw the stem on the ground for her. “Well, hey, I wouldn’t want to mess your whole day up. How about if you find yourself with a free hour you let me know?”

There’s a pause on the other end as Tyler considers my request.

I know he’s not actually considering whether or not he’s going to let me know if he gets a free hour, but whether or not he’s going to take off now just to make sure I’m okay.

I quickly say, “Seriously, don’t worry about it.”

“You sure?” he asks hesitantly.

“Positive. I’m a big boy,” I promise him. “I’ll talk to you soon. Like you said, when you get off tonight.”

“Okay, great, dude. I really do want to see you soon. Hey, how did things go with that girl?”

I freeze, unable to remember my lie or come up with anything to fill the space. “What girl?”

“That good, huh?” he chuckles. “I really thought you cared about this one. You seemed so upset. Ah, well, learned my lesson again.”

“Yeah, I don’t know.” I scratch my head and pull Lucy away from the weeds cropping up along the strip of grass that she’s determined to eat.

She sniffs indignantly and reluctantly follows me.

“Who knows what happened?”

I consider saying something right then:I was lying. It was about Hannah. Oh, also, I got your sister pregnant.But I don’t. I let it go.

“Well, hey, you’ll find someone again soon enough. I gotta go, they’re calling me into scrub. I’ll call you later tonight. And hopefully this afternoon!”

He sounds peppy before he hangs up but I know he won’t have time to call me.

I shove my phone back into my pocket and sigh. The sound perks up Lucy, who looks backward at me while trotting. I pet her head and tell her, “Come on, girl, let’s go see what the other girls are doing.”

Chapter Thirty Seven

Hannah

The afternoon is normal, although a bit lazier than most of my afternoons. I leave Lucy at Chris’ and my mom and Chris and I go shopping for baby supplies.

I’m afraid to say what I’m thinking, which is that I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to go shopping for supplies for a high risk pregnancy, at least not this soon. So I don’t. I hold the thought in and let it go. Besides, it’s hard to stay realistic when there are tiny baby shoes on a shelf in front of me.

I unlace a pair of teeny sneakers and pull the tongue out, imagining fixing them over small feet and tying them tight, trying to keep the wiggly legs still.

From behind me, my mom says, “Oh, you don’t want those.”

“What? Why not? You don’t think they’re cute?” I wave them around like they’re little airplanes, each shoe on two of my fingers.

“They’re very cute,” she assures me, patting my shoulder, “but babies don’t need shoes, I promise you. You’ll never really put them down, and when you do, you put them down on their backs. Plus, they grow so fast, they outgrow things almost before you can break them in.”

My shoulders sink and I push out my lower lip as I put the shoes away.

“But what if I just think they’re cute? I can’t just buy the shoes because they’re cute and I want to see the babies in them?” I protest as we continue to circle the small boutique.

“Sure, Hannah, but babies are expensive. Be careful spending too much right away. It’s easy to spend an entire savings account on cute things you don’t need.”

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