Page 25 of The Biggest Sacrifice

“Oooh, she’s feisty tonight.” Britt comes and wraps her arms around me. I know she’s trying to soften me up, and I’m usually the last one to get upset, but this is such a touchy subject right now.

I roll my eyes and return her hug. “I’m not feisty. I’m just…”

“Horny?”

“Frustrated?”

“Needy as fuck?”

I throw my hands up. “Oh, my god! You all sound like the guys!”

“No, we’re worse. Well, Britt is worse, for sure.”

We all agree to that and move around the kitchen, pouring drinks, opening bags of chips and gathering our goods, then head to the living room. I love Britt and Bobby’s home. It’s an open floor plan like the rest of ours, but the ceilings are high. They have a loft for their bedroom, which only covers half the house, so the remaining space has high ceilings. The natural light from the skylights warms the room and the moon and stars set a sweet romantic feeling at night.

Not that I know anything about romance at the moment. Or for the last year. And definitely not the three before that.

“Let me guess, your mom has all the babies tonight, Chess?”

“Yup.” She pops the ‘p’. “She wants those kids all the time. I think she’s trying to relive our childhood, but with a tamer bunch.”

“I’d say as long as none of them have Billy’s tendencies, she’s safe.”

“I don’t know,” Britt sing songs. “Word on the street is that there may be another Casanova baby already baking.”

I gasp and look at Adley. She immediately puts one hand up and then holds her drink up. “It’s not me!” She’s laughing. “I plan on getting basic bitch wasted on white wine tonight.”

“But you want it to be you, don’t you, Adley? You want Billy to be your book boyfriend surprise baby daddy!”

“It would be a good story.” She winks and teases Britt.

We all look around, checking out what everyone else is drinking because that will be a dead giveaway. My eyes land on Chelsea and the clear liquid in the wine glass she’s holding.

“What’s in the glass, CJ?”

“Vodka.”

“You filthy liar!” Chess snatches the glass. “You can’t drink vodka! Not since the night of my college graduation, when we got sick on espresso martinis!”

She lets Chess take the drink and then covers her face with her hands. “Adam is going to freak out!”

“Wait. Are you really? Oh my God, I was totally making that up to start trouble! Chelsea!” She jumps to her side and wraps her up while we all scream out and huddle in closer. “Congratulations! Why are you crying?”

“We’re going to have four kids, all under four years old!” She looks at us with distressed eyes. “This town is going to think all we do is have sex!”

“Thatisall you do. Jesus, we all see the BDE Adam carries.”

“Gross! Stop talking about my brother!”

“Oh please, Miss ‘let me wear your jersey, Coach Gage!’”

“Stop it!”

“It’s nothing we don’t know already, Chess. I mean, Jackson put it right in his vows!”

We laugh uncontrollably and I see Chelsea is laughing along with us, which is a good sign. “Chels, seriously, this is amazing. No one will love this baby,allthe babies, more than our group. Look at how many we are. You’re going to have plenty of help.”

She sniffles and wipes her eyes. “I know. It’s just a shock. I figured Dominic and the twins were it for us.”

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