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Uh-oh.
“What is it?” Alexa gripped her father’s upper arms and peered over his shoulder at her best friend. “Is it the baby?”
“No, of course not.” Nellie patted her belly as if to reassure herself it hadn’t detached and rolled away. “We’re just here for a visit. We brought lunch,” she added, holding up a brown paper sack.
Double uh-oh, and now that uh-oh was directed her way. She recognized the looks on their faces. If they weren’t keyed up over the baby—thank God—someone else had set off their worry button. And that someone clearly was her.
Just great.
“I can take a short break. Hang on.” She went to the back room and aimed a grim smile at Travis, who was kicked back at her desk with her MacBook Air propped on his knees. “Just going to borrow these,” she said, snagging the two spare folding chairs.
He immediately sat up and tried to look serious. “Need help?”
“I’ve got it.”
“Okay. I’ll get back to work then.”
Did he really think she hadn’t noticed the game window he’d minimized as soon as she appeared? But he was a good kid and what he’d done so far on the site looked amazing. She wouldn’t begrudge him a couple minutes chasing birds or whatever he’d been doing. “You do that.”
Once the seating was arranged around the counter and sandwiches were open on everyone’s laps, Alexa decided to go for broke. “Since when are you two hanging out together in the middle of the workday?”
“Since Jake had a meeting and your mom was stuck in court and I needed a ride to the ob-gyn,” Nellie replied, pulling off the crust on her ham salad sandwich.
“A, I’m your best friend, why didn’t you call me? And B, what’s up with your car?”
“In the shop. Broken axle. Besides, you’re working and Pop told me I could ask him for anything.”
Alexa almost choked on her tuna on rye. “Pop?”
Nellie grinned. “Yes, what Jake calls him. He said you refuse to call him anything but Father.”
“Too true,” her father put in, busily inhaling his own turkey and Swiss.
“Not true. I call him Daddy sometimes.”
“Yeah, when you want something. Like when you begged and begged for that Miata for two years in high school.”
“And you gave it to me for graduation.” Alexa smiled fondly at the memory of her first car, a pristine white convertible. It hadn’t had a single dent when she’d sold it four years later after college.
“Your first love,” Nellie agreed.
Alexa’s smile faded. Did they really need to talk about love? She didn’t want to think about anything that had to do with men. Not when she was battling serious second thoughts about cutting-and-running when it came to Dillon. Even if it could get messy with him working in her building. Even if he had purchased a part from Value Hardware, which really wasn’t a crime at all. It was just that she’d still been suffering the sting of Patty’s defection, and he’d waved that smiley-faced bag around…
“I don’t need anything,” she said under her breath, fiddling with her sandwich. “Everything is just hunky-damn-dory.”
Her father took a swig from his soda, then set the bottle aside with a finality that made her nervous. Here it came. The real reason for their impromptu visit. “Sweetpea, there’s nothing wrong with asking for help from people who love you. Who only want the best for you.”
“I don’t need help.” Hadn’t she just said that?
Her father and Nellie exchanged knowing glances. “We disagree.”
“Oh, really.” She glanced back and forth between them, not liking this united front they were presenting against her. Nellie was s
upposed to be her best friend. On her side in all things. Even those that had yet to be discussed. “Help with what?”
“Well, let’s start with the sign in the window.”
“The sign that’s been there all of two hours?” Alexa rolled her eyes. Suddenly it all made sense. Her caped crusader of a brother had blown his bugle and spread her news all over town. “Jake called you, didn’t he?”
