Page 95 of One Unexpected Gift

“Same answer to both questions.”

“You sly dog, you. And here we thought four days ago that you weren’t going to make a move on your baby daddy.”

Sky would have tossed a pillow at Gina if she wasn’t holding Gabby. “His family is really wonderful. Two brothers and a sister, and his parents are so sweet. They didn’t even hound us for answers about why we didn’t tell them about their granddaughter before this weekend. Unless they grilled Nick and he didn’t tell me about it.”

“That’s awesome, Sky. I’m so glad your weekend went well.”

“I’m not gonna lie, I was a little intimidated. They have a mansion on the ocean, Fish, with a carriage house and everything.”

“Oh, how romantic.” Gina propped Gabby up on her lap. “Is that where you and Nick had your romantic tryst?”

“No. They’re renovating it right now. I shared his bedroom. I wasn’t exactly prepared for that.”

“No condom?”

“That’s not what I meant.” Again, she would have smacked Gina. She chuckled anyway. “His parents assumed we were a couple, and we didn’t correct them. They set us up in Nick’s room. He got up in the middle of the night and changed Gabby, and even played with her downstairs when she wasn’t ready to nurse or go back to sleep. And then he let me sleep in while he and his sister and brothers made a breakfast.”

Sky told her about the rest of the weekend, and how he’d asked her to stay at his house last night and that she agreed to stay with him until she went back to Virginia.

“Wow. Moving in? That’s a pretty big deal.”

“I’m not exactly moving in. It’s for three weeks and then we’ll say goodbye.”

“Will you, though? You said he wanted to be part of Gabby’s life. How will he be able to do that from Maine? Do you think he’ll move?”

She’d been asking herself the same question for days but had yet to ask Nick. She was afraid to hear the answer.

“I don’t know. And even if he does, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be in Virginia for very long. I could be stationed anywhere. That’s a lot to ask of a man I barely know.”

“What if he offers so you don’t have to ask?”

Sky lifted a shoulder. “We’re taking it one day at a time.”

“Girlfriend code for you don’t want to get your hopes up and you really, really like him.”

Her friends knew her too well.

Later that night, Brooke and Charlie had said more of the same. Drew was out of town at a book signing so the four of them—plus Gabby—had dinner at Brooke’s.

“When are you going to tell him you love him?” Charlie asked, and then cracked open a beer.

“I never said I was in love with him.” Sky took a bite of her chicken fajita, chewed, then washed it down with her iced tea.

“I believe you were the first one to call each of us out when we denied falling in love with our guys. Even thousands of miles away, you knew. Here we are, only a few feet from you. There’s no way you can hide your feelings from us. We know you, Skylar Jane Hayes.”

When Brooke brought out the full name, they knew there was no avoiding the question. She was the toughest one of the group. Even Gabby asleep in her arms, didn’t soften the bossiness of her tone.

“Fine.” Sky dropped the rest of her fajita on her plate. “I think I’m in love with Nick.”

“Think?” Charlie coughed into her hands. “Bullshit.”

“Whatever. I’m in love. Blah, blah, blah.” She rolled her eyes in an attempt to blow off the weighty emotions strumming around in her chest.

“Skylar, that’s awesome.” Gina squeezed her forearm. The woman had always been a helpless romantic.

“Is it though?” Sky picked up her fajita and took an aggressive bite. “There’s no way this can work. He’s not going to uproot his life. Not with his new business and his family in Acadia Falls. They’re really close.”

“You said one brother is still in Austin,” Charlie reminded her.

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