Page 161 of Stuck with my Mountain Daddies

Her eyes flicked to the guys behind me, then back to me.

Her expression didn’t crack.

I tried to smile, but it came out twisted. “Hey.”

A long pause. Then: “You’re lucky I opened the door.”

“I know.”

“I almost didn’t.”

“I would’ve deserved that.”

Another silence.

Then she exhaled, stepped back, and said, “Well, you’re already here. Might as well come in.”

I followed her into the cabin, but her brothers made no effort to move.

It was warm. Familiar. But quieter than I’d ever felt it before.

She sat on the couch. I took the opposite side, folding my hands in my lap like I didn’t know what to do with them. Because I didn’t.

“Lucy,” I started. “I’m sorry.”

Her head tipped slightly, not angry. Just waiting.

“I should’ve told you. From the beginning. As soon as I found out that I was pregnant. That it was your brother's. One of your brothers'.”

Her eyes stayed on mine, and that was the worst part, how much I missed that gaze. Her steadiness. Her sharp, unwavering honesty.

She didn’t say anything for a beat too long, then: “You told me you were having a baby. You let me rub your back when you puked your guts out for two weeks straight. I thought I knew the hard part already.”

“I thought telling you that part was enough,” I said, voice cracking. “But it wasn’t. Not when the rest of it meant you were going to see your family name blasted all over the Internet next to mine.”

Her eyes flickered, pain flashing beneath the surface.

“I hated seeing it online,” she finally said. “Not that it was one of them. It’s not like I don’t know how irresistible those idiots can be. But I hated that the Internet knew before I did. I hated seeing you caught up in a mess I should’ve been helping you through.”

“I didn’t want you to get caught in it,” I whispered. “I didn’t want to drag you into the fallout.”

“You’re my best friend, Riley. They’re my brothers. I wasalreadyin it.”

“I know.”

She looked down at my still-flat belly. “So it’s really my niece or nephew in there?”

I nodded, breath catching in my throat.

“I can’t believe you keptthatpart from me.” Her arms tightened around her ribs like she was holding something in. “I kept thinking, how could she not tell me? And then that stupid video dropped, and suddenly I realized I wasn’t just left out. I was blindsided.”

“I was scared I’d lose you.”

“Well,” she said, “you almost did.”

I blinked fast. “Lucy.”

“But,” she added, cutting me off, “I get it now. Sort of. You didn’t just fall in love. You fell into alife. And you didn’t know how to keep it from crashing into the one we already had.”

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