Page 17 of Shine On Oklahoma

“The baby shower!” She clapped her hands andher grin got wider.

“We started planning it,” Sophie said. Shewas classy. Elegant without trying to be. “Being the closestrelatives here.”

“Right,” Emily said. “But now that you’rehere, you’re closest. We don’t want to step on your toes.”

“Not that we’re dumping it on you, either.”Sophie held up both hands. “But you’re her sister. If you want tothrow it, then—”

“Wait, wait.” Kendra gave her head a shake.“You want me to plan a baby shower?”

They looked at each other, then at her.“Helpplan one. You are her sister,” Emily said.

“Her twin sister,” Sophie added. Like shemight’ve forgotten.

Emily nodded hard. “Vidalia’s helping, too.And Sunny.”

She was mentally identifying those people inher head. Vidalia was Kiley’s stepmother-in-law. And Sunny, she wasthe bakery chick, right?

“They’ll be back any minute.” Emily shot anervous look at the restroom door. “We want it to be a surprise.Rob doesn’t know, either.”

“We should meet to go over what we’ve done sofar and we can just start from there, with you in the lead,” Sophiesaid.

“Oooh-kay. Um, when?”

“My office tomorrow morning, say eight a.m?”Sophie asked.

Eight a.m. Why did everyone around here doeverything so early?

“Here they come!” Emily said.

“Here’s the address.” Emily slipped anappointment card into Kendra’s hand so sneakily she wouldn’t havebeen surprised if they got busted by a mall cop for a suspecteddrug deal.

And then Kiley and Allie were back, smilingand holding their baby bumps.

“Well, where do you want to shop first?”Sophie asked, rubbing her hands together and looking at the mallmap.

“I’m gonna need nursing bras,” Kileysaid.

Kendra’s jaw literally dropped. “Oh my God,Sis, we have to get you into Victoria’s Secret, STAT. You needsomething drop-dead sexy to wear after this baby’s born.”

“As a doctor, I concur,” Sophie said. Thenshe wiggled the most perfect set of eyebrows Kendra had ever seen.“I might just pick out something for myself, as long as we’re thereanyway.”

“My lingerie closet is looking a littlemom-like, now that you mention it,” Emily said.

Kiley was blushing. “You guys are crazy.”

Allie rubbed her baby bump and said, “Ihaven’t felt sexy in so long…” She met Kiley’s eyes, lifted herbrows and said, “Well, why not? I could get lucky again someday.You never know.”

Kiley looked at each of them, and then shegrinned that mischievous grin that hadn’t changed since they werekids, spinning in the wildflowers, looking up at the stars. “Let’sdo it!”

#

When Dax opened the front door, he found ashopping bag tree, with every branch filled. The muffled pleasounded like, “A li’l hep?”

He started plucking bags, and eventuallyKendra sighed and said, “That’s good, that’s good. Thanks.” Therewere still several clutched in her hands, and dangling from herforearms.

“You go a little bit crazy today?” Hewondered where she was getting her money. The car. Everything. Wasshe running a con on some poor rich slob and using Big Falls as herheadquarters?

“This isn’t all me. Kiley’s gal-gang shopslike there’s no tomorrow.” She came inside, looked around. “Kileywent home with Sophie. Guess she’s due for an exam.”

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