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“Right?” I blinked a few times and looked from Sophie to Eva. “Please don’t tell me you guys somehow orchestrated this.”
Sophie was the first to respond, holding her hands in the air to calm me. “Let me explain before you get your blood pressure up.” Her laugh did nothing to make me feel better. “We didn’t plan for you to have a one-night stand with Pilgrim’s biggest playboy—of course, we didn’t. But after that happened, we both saw the sparks between you, the way you guys looked at each other. It was pure heat,” she said with a smirk. “And then came the pregnancy news.”
“Seriously?” I looked at Eva, who simply nodded and took another sip of pink lemonade.
“Yes. Honestly, Olive,” Sophie said with a shake of her head. “Honestly, I’m surprised it took you this long to realize it.”
“Me, too,” Mara added quietly, shrugging at the look of outrage I sent her.
“I’m surprised, too, if it makes you feel any better.” Eva’s wide smile took the sting off of feeling like everyone was in on a secret but me.
“It doesn’t.”
“Well, then, how about this little gem—I think Liam took off because he realized he was in love with you, too. He’ll figure his crap out and then he’ll come back.” Her words were spoken with such confidence that I almost believed her.
Which only highlighted the fact that I wanted to believe her. It was too disturbing a thought and I had to do a physical shake to get it out of my head. I turned to Mara, accusation in my tone. “You knew?”
Her smile was light and playful and she raised her hands in the air. “I don’t meddle and I don’t like meddling,” she said pointedly and looked at all three of us. “But you are in love with your baby daddy, which I’d say has to mean… something.”
“Traitor,” I groaned and took several long sips of lemonade.
“Sorry, babe, I just call it as I see it.” She didn’t look sorry, in fact Mara looked as satisfied as my other so-called friends.
“It doesn’t mean anything, girls, except that maybe I still have awful taste in men. I should have stuck to my original plan after Wyatt: to stay away from men. Period. End of story.”
Sophie snorted. “Dating hiatuses never work. Even saying you’re going off men is like, tempting the universe to put Mr. Right in front of you at every turn.”
“Liam is not Mr. Right—in fact, he is no different than every other man who only wants a good time. The minute things get real, he’s gone.” And now that I knew that about him, I could adjust my expectations. “It’s fine,” I said and sat a little taller. “Totally fine. I can do this on my own. It was always the original plan.” And my stupid hormones and my silly heart had me switching plans with one sexy little smile, one crook of his thick finger.
“And if he comes back?” Leave it to Sophie to ask the one question I was hoping not to answer at the moment.
But it turns out that once emotions were out of the equation, clarity was just a matter of being logical and rational. “I can’t prevent Liam from being involved in our child’s life and I wouldn’t do that, anyway. I won’t do it. If that happens.” Which it wouldn’t. “So, instead of talking about my pathetic attempts and failures at romance, how about we talk about the universe putting Mr. Right in front of Sophie?”
The oven timer chimed and Sophie popped up like her backside was on fire. “Time for food!” Another sign that Sophie was shaken by the mention of whatever was going on between her and Stone was the middle finger she flipped us all as she went to check on dinner.
Eva got up next and followed Sophie to the kitchen. “I’ll check on Sophie or we’ll end up eating undercooked chicken,” she whispered, disappearing with a final wink.
“And I’ll just give you a moment to gather your thoughts.” Mara’s sympathetic smile was almost enough to bring tears to my eyes.
Almost. “Thanks.” Left alone in the living room, I gave myself a moment to do just as Mara had suggested. I needed time to get my emotions under control. Time to harden my heart against Liam. To forget the way his kisses felt on my lips and my flesh. To forget the way I felt lying in his arms, cherished and protected. It was all a lie, but in my mind, it felt real. Hence the heart hardening I was going for.
Liam wasn’t Mr. Right. He wasn’t the man of my dreams.
He was the father of my child.
Nothing more.LiamIt took nine days, but I finally got my head on straight and headed back to Pilgrim late last night. It was cowardly to sneak back into town in the middle of the night when no one could ask me where I’ve been—or worse, tell Olive I was back.
