Page 30 of The Light to My Darkness (The Light to My Darkness 1)

"So that was a weird baby shower," Daphne said.

"Actually I think I liked that one better than my first one."

Daphne laughed. "I'm glad Jen is moving back to the city. But you think she could have saved this crazy bachelorette party idea for her own bachelorette party."

"Well, that doesn't sound like Jen at all."

"Fair enough."

We both slowly stood up from our chairs.

"But what Jen doesn't know is that Rob and James are at that same bar they're heading to down the street," I said. "Which probably means Mason is with them. This little party will be broken up in no time. Bee and Mason already agreed that they didn't want traditional bachelor and bachelorette parties. And James and Rob are good at shutting down Jen's crazy ideas."

"And here I thought you were excited for a night on the town."

"God no. I'm exhausted."

"Me too," Daphne said with a laugh. "I'll probably join Sophie in her afternoon nap."

"Now that's something that sounds much more exciting than a night on the town."

We both waddled after our energetic friends who didn't know what it was like to carry a human inside of them.

Chapter 11

Sunday

"I feel like this is a bad idea," Hailey said as I caught up to her on the sidewalk. "It's all fun and games when everyone is single, but we're all married or soon to be. What is Jen's goal here? Does she want Mason and

Bee to break up?"

I laughed. "No way. She loves Bee. Jen just likes having fun. And getting her way. Maybe I should have consulted with her on the original party planning process and she wouldn't have felt excluded."

"The Hunters are all so high maintenance."

She did realize that I was technically a Hunter too, right? "I don't really think that's true," I said.

"I was just joking, geez." She squeezed my shoulder. "You don't have to act all defensive. I'm going to go see if I can shut this thing down." She ran ahead of me on the sidewalk to catch up to Jen and Bee.

That was rather snarky. Usually Hailey was always so nice. Was she mad at me? I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. What if Tyler told her about my books? I bit the inside of my lip. That couldn't be it. She knew Tyler and I had a history. We were all friends now. And honestly, it didn't seem like anyone was ever going to read my books anyway. James had been bugging me to read it for ages, but when I finally gave him permission he hadn't even touched my manuscript. Ow. Please stop kicking me, little dude.

I had fallen way behind everyone walking to the bar. Part of me just wanted to hail down a taxi. The only thing that kept me going was that I knew James was at the bar. He could take me home. I wasn't going to partake in anything like what they had made me do for my bachelorette party. Thinking about that awful weekend made me want to start crying. I didn't want Hailey to be mad at me. I just wanted that nap that Daphne and I had discussed. Today had been exhausting. Bed rest was starting to sound more and more appealing.

To my dismay, my friends crossed the street up ahead. Damn it. Why were they crossing the street when there was a perfectly good bar just a little farther on this side of the street? I sighed as I crossed the street to follow them. I wasn't supposed to be walking around in this heat. James was going to be so mad at me. I slowly opened the door to the bar. The blast of cold air felt refreshing, but the smell of stale beer instantly made me feel nauseous. I placed my hand on my stomach. Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of here. I spotted my friends in the corner. As I made my way toward them, I pulled out my phone and sent a text to James asking him to come get me.

"I'm really sorry, but I have to get going in a second," I said as I joined them at the table.

"Time for shots!" Jen yelled and slid one down the table at Bee.

Bee grabbed my arm. "You can't leave me here with them. You're my matron of honor."

A month ago I would have stayed. A month ago it didn't feel like my heart physically hurt. "I'm sorry, Bee. I'm just really tired. I'm gonna call it a day."

She got a worried look on her face.

"Oh come on," Jen said. "What else would you be doing? You just sit around all day."

I swallowed hard. Why was everyone taking jabs at me today? Fuck. I put my hand on the center of my chest. The pain is in my head. It's just in my head.

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