Page 78 of Silver Fox's Secret Baby

Dana squeezes my shoulder, and I can feel the energy of the rest of my sisters bolstering me. There are very few things any of us could do to make us lose support from the rest of us. I’m very grateful for that.

“I knew what I was doing. I was there and I made a choice. It just got a little out of control.”

Dad’s eyebrows jump. “You’re pregnant, Harley. That’s more than a little out of control.”

My face is raw from tears, yet more fall. “I’m sorry.”

“Dad, give her a break. She’s overstimulated,” Dana murmurs.

Dad takes a moment before getting up from the bed. “I need some time to think.”

I curl my legs up and bury my face in my knees to sob. I can’t watch him go, not after I watched Grant leave so bewildered by the news of my pregnancy. It’s already been too much.

Dana wraps her arms around me. “It’s going to be okay, Harley.”

“No, it’s not.”

I feel Amy leap onto the bed next to me and join the hug. “Yes, it is.”

Then Gillian. “We promise.”

“He’ll never forgive me,” I sob.

The last Solace sister joins the group hug, Kira with her limitless simplicity of wisdom. “Of course he will, you’re his daughter.”

I shake my head. “He has four more. He can lose one.”

“Now you’re just being mean to yourself,” Dana admonishes, squeezing my shoulder.

Feeling all my sisters crowded around me settles my pounding heart. For the first time since Grant left, my tears feel fully abated. “Grant…” I croak. So many thoughts I can’t express. His name the only thing I can find.

“I can’t say I saw that coming,” Amy remarks.

“You must think I’m disgusting,” I say.

“As long as you wanted to do it, I don’t think we have room to judge,” Gillian says.

I raise my gaze to Gillian. She’s being so nice to me. Our newfound identity as mothers has bridged the gap more than I could have anticipated. And I couldn’t be more grateful.

“Besides, from an objective standpoint,” Kira says, pushing up her glasses. “Grant is a specimen.”

We all look at her and burst into laughter. Kira is so spare in sharing her feelings about men that it takes us all by surprise.

“Now, this is a picture-perfect moment.”

My sisters and I go silent at the sound of my mom’s voice. As if I haven’t been taken off-guard enough today, here she is in the door to my room, perfectly dressed and manicured, looking more like a Stepford wife than a mother.

“What areyoudoing here?” Dana asks, tightening her arm around me.

“I came by to check on Harley. But what a pleasant surprise to see all my girls in one place,” she says, her veneers glowing white.

It is remarkable when all of us Solace girls are silent. Our mother is probably about the only thing that can take the words out of our mouths.

She floats into the room and sits at the foot of the bed. “How are you feeling, Harley?”

“Better, thanks,” I sniff.

Mom smiles sweetly. I used to long for this. My mother at the end of my bed, here to comfort me. Now it sours my stomach. “You gave us all quite a fright last night.”

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