“Yes…” Emily said.
Sienna was an up-and-coming real estate agent. Her friendly personality, no-nonsense approach, and intelligence gave her an instant trustworthiness. So much so that she’d already jumped ranks faster than anyone at her brokerage, taking on some pretty incredible properties.
Blair leaned forward, poised to hear the news.
Sienna set her cup down slowly, prolonging the drama. “I sold it.”
“That’s fantastic,” Emily said. “Holy moly.”
That one sale probably made her just as much as, if not more than, Emily made in a year teaching school.
“Isn’t it?” But Sienna’s lined lips were spread in a tight smile. Then her eyes suddenly and unexpectedly brimmed with tears.
“What’s the matter?” Emily asked, blindsided by her complete one-eighty.
Sienna tipped back her head, her long lashes bobbing as she blinked away the emotion. “I’m so sorry. I’m just really happy,” she said. But the catch in her throat told a different story.
Was there something in the air? It seemed all three of them needed a shoulder today.
Blair took Sienna’s hand. “You can tell us, Sienna. What happened?”
“I really can’t tell you yet.” She angrily wiped her tears with her free hand, smudging her perfect makeup. “Why am Icrying? I don’t cry.”
Sienna was a pro at hiding her emotions. Her poker face was world-class. She hadn’t shown disappointment when someone had outbid her client, and she’d lost the sale she’d hoped would pay for her and Tyson’s honeymoon. No tears fell when they’d all watchedTitanictogether. And when they’d surprised Emily for her twenty-seventh birthday, Sienna had walked her up to the spa stone-faced—Emily’d had no idea.
Emily had never seen Sienna like this before. She eyed Blair to question if she seemed to have any idea. Blair’s head was cocked to the side, her stare locked on Sienna with a strange expression.
“Yeah, you never cry. That’s not like you,” Blair said, her voice soft. “Your face is puffier than it usually is too.”
Sienna rolled her eyes as she dragged her red fingernails under them. “Great.”
What was Blair getting at?She and Sienna were in some sort of silent deadlock.
“Someone want to fill me in?” Emily asked.
“I don’t know,” Blair said. “Sienna, want to fill her in?”
“I don’t want to.” Sienna sniffled, looking around before fluffing her hair.
“It could just be me…” Blair said. “But if I’m right, it’s okay to tell us. I’ll be fine.”
Sienna snatched a napkin from the holder on the edge of the table and dabbed her tears. “I’m pregnant.”
“I knew it,” Blair said.
Emily threw her hands over her mouth to stifle her gasp. Sienna and Tyson loved their freedom, and the fact that their life was unrestricted and void of emotional vulnerability. Sienna’s independence was the core of who she was. It was nothing for her to go on a 6:00 a.m. run before she spent an hour at the gym and then schmoozed with people all day. A typical night involved cocktails and extravagant dinners with clients. She lived in a high-rise apartment, seven stories in the air. Her furniture was modern, with lots of clean lines and sharp edges. Her life was the opposite of childproof.
“What did Tyson say?” Emily asked.
“He doesn’t know yet.”
“You toldusbefore you told your husband?” Blair asked, her head tilted.
“You think he’ll want to sell the condo and buy some God-awful single-family new construction in a neighborhood called Maplewood or Pine Ridge? He’s going to panic.” She put her fist to her lips as if she were stifling nausea. “I don’t know what this will do to our marriage. I don’t even know if I’ll be a good mom.”
“You might surprise yourself,” Blair said. The way she assessed Sienna, it was as if she were pondering the cruelty of why Sienna would have been given such a gift when a baby was all Blair had ever wanted.
“We don’t even have a dog,” Sienna said. “Tyson didn’t want one. But it’s a good thing because we ended up finding our apartment, which I love. And there’s no way I could truck up and down six flights of stairs to let a dog out. He and I work too much anyway. Neither one of us would ever be home to take care of it.”
