Page 9 of Big Island Sunset
“Right now I need a nap.” Juniper gave him a wan smile and squeezed his hand before pulling away.
“Okay.” He frowned but sat motionless as she stood to go.
“We have plenty of time to figure everything out.” She sounded like she was trying to convince herself of that. “I just… I couldn’t not tell you.”
Cody nodded. Juniper walked towards the door, and he watched her go like a marooned sailor watching his ship sail away.
Emma gave Tara one last apologetic glance – almost a wince – as she followed her niece out the door.
“We’ll talk soon,” she said. “If you want to.”
Tara could only nod.
“My dad doesn’t know,” Juniper said with a burst of anxiety, stepping back through the doorway. “I haven’t told him yet. I haven’t told anyone else.”
She nodded again, lips pressed together. What did Jun think, that they would run out and tell her father? Tara had only met the man in passing.
When the door closed, she looked at Cody. She expected to see overwhelm, even terror. Instead he was looking at her with… irritation?
“What?” she said.
“You didn’t have to glare at her.”
Her jaw dropped, guilt and indignation duking it out in her chest. “Was I glaring?”
He scoffed and stood, sticking both hands into his mop of dirty-blonde hair.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
“Not now.” He gave her a look that was half annoyance, half apology. “I’m gonna go for a run.”
“Okay.” Her shoulders slumped in relief. Exercise was probably the healthiest thing that he could do to immediately process some of the emotion that must be flooding through his body. And anyway, she had no idea what to say to him. She was still struggling to process the news herself.
Cody pulled his sneakers on and was out the door in under a minute.
She drifted back into the kitchen, where she turned off the oven and all of the burners on the stove. Luckily nothing was ruined.
“Mom?” Paige hovered at the end of the hallway, looking unsure.
Tara walked around the kitchen counter and held out her arms; Paige rushed in for a hug.
“Are they really having a baby?” she asked, arms wrapped tight around Tara’s waist.
“It sure seems that way.”
It still surprised her sometimes, how tall her girls were already. Paige’s cheek rested against her breastbone. They were so tiny when she brought them home. Blink, and they would be taller than her.
She still couldn’t fathom that Cody was a grown man.
And she was about to be agrandmother. Lord help her.
“But how?” Paige asked, looking up at her.
From the shadows of the hallway, Piper scoffed.
“What?” Paige turned to face her sister, hands on her hips.
“You’ve seen the rabbits. And the roosters. And the goats.”
