Page 89 of My Scorned Best Friend

She nods. “And I’m about ready to die. Do you realize Leighton just started sleeping through the night? I’ve had one month of bliss, and I haven’t even lost all my baby weight yet.”

I grab the diaper bag and pull out a few toys for Leighton. I build a little fort with the abundance of throw pillows Xavier owns and toss a few toys in there. She happily sits up and digs through the little toys. Turning on the television, I put on a kids’ channel to keep her entertained then walk over to my sister.

“It’s going to be fine.” I rub her back.

“I might as well turn into a zombie. The bookstore is hardly even open because of how much I take off with Leighton. How will I ever manage with two?”

I put my arm around her and guide her to the couch.

The treadmill stops downstairs, and I hear Xavier coming up the steps. He stops at the top of the stairs and looks at Presley. “Did someone die?”

“No,” I answer.

“Did Cade leave town?”

Presley glares at him.

I shake my head. “No.”

“Someone sick?”

“No.”

“Can I tell him?” I ask Presley.

“No,” she says. “Not until…”

I shake my head and point upstairs. Xavier blows out a breath but goes upstairs without another word. I hear the television click on before he shuts the door and turns on the shower.

“Okay, first thing is you have to tell Cade. I mean, he is the father, right?”

She rolls her eyes. “Funny, Clara. Yes, he’s the father.”

“Why don’t you go into Xavier’s office and call him? Ask him to come over, and the two of you go for a walk. We’ll watch Leighton.”

She nods but doesn’t move.

I tap her shoulder. “This is where you get up and walk.”

“I’m scared. I mean, we never talked about it. When we’d want another. I’m on the minipill. But there was this one night when we didn’t have a lot of time and we were out of condoms and thought what are the chances…” She points at her stomach. “Pretty damn good apparently. I should play the lottery.”

“Just go call him. You guys can handle two. I’ll help out more.”

She groans and gets up, walking to Xavier’s office.

I sit down next to Leighton, pick up her stuffed giraffe, and prance it around the pillows, making her laugh. I hear the bedroom door swing open upstairs.

“I’m gonna kill the bastard.” Xavier rushes down the stairs.

“There are impressionable little ears down here.” I point at Leighton.

“You’re never going to believe this. That Mark guy wrote a nasty article about me. Said how he came all the way to Alaska to interview me about my love life and I was rude to him. That you were like a housewife from the fifties, ready to fetch my paper, prepare my eggs, and alluded to giving me blow jobs on request. He said I kicked him off my property.”

“Well, you kind of did do that,” I say.

“After he was an asshole to you. He called Sunrise Bay a Podunk town and you just some small-town girl who probably doesn’t realize how famous I am.”

I want to confess to Xavier what I heard the guy say about me, but I don’t want to upset him any more than he already is.

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