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Her heart fluttered and her cheeks heated. “Well…I have been heavily booked,” she couldn’t help but brag. Just a little. Hell, she’d worked her butt off to deserve those bragging rights. “To spend the week here, I had to decline a dozen different requests. And I’ve got a job as soon as I return. It’s going to be a tight squeeze but the senator wouldn’t take no for an answer; he even doubled his offer.”
Cooper’s sexy blond eyebrows arched. “A senator?” He let out a low, appreciative whistle. “You have caught the attention of some big names. And it sounds like you love your job too.”
“I do.” She smiled. “I really do.” But even as she grinned and swelled with happy warmth, a part of her shriveled with disappointment. This might’ve been what she’d always wanted professionally, but her personal life had suffered the consequences.
She flashed her twin a glance, all cuddled up with Branson as they sat together, nearly sharing one stool on the other side of Alexa and Dexter. A part of her mourned, realizing she might’ve sacrificed too much, lost too many golden opportunities when she’d put all her time into starting her own business. Another part of her equally mourned because in all honesty, she knew she still never would’ve found what Emma Leigh had obviously found with Branson, even if she hadn’t been so busy working.
Travis had broken something inside her ten years ago. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to trust a man like that again. She just couldn’t commit. And if she couldn’t put a commitment into a relationship, she didn’t even want to bother.
“Bathroom,” Alexa said abruptly, rattling Jo Ellen from her declining thoughts. Before she could ask what her cousin-in-law meant, Alexa’s hand grasped her elbow and jerked her off her barstool, dragging her toward the ladies’ room.
“Um, okay,” Jo Ellen answered, stumbling to catch her balance as she tripped along behind the nearly sprinting pregnant woman. She threw Cooper a worried cringe, hoping she hadn’t insulted him by dashing off in the middle of their conversation. But he lifted his eyebrows in amusement and waved a couple fingers at her in farewell.
“Em,” Alexa called as she dragged Jo Ellen along. “I said bathroom.”
Emma Leigh lifted her face from where she’d been flirting with Branson and frowned. “But I don’t have to go.”
Alexa darted a dirty scowl over her shoulder and roared, “Now!”
“Geez, all right, okay. I’m coming.” Emma grumbled as she slid off her stool. After slapping a quick, departing kiss to her husband’s cheek, she hurried to catch up. “What’s the big fuss anyway, Lex? You had Joey with you. And I’ll tell you right now, I don’t group potty.”
Jo Ellen frowned at her sister, prepared to berate her for being obstinate when Alexa clearly wanted their company, but as soon as the bathroom door closed the three of them inside the dim, dank lavatory, Alexa burst into tears.
“I wet my pants,” she bawled, though the muted words sounded more like I met my mants through the two layers of fingers she held horrified over her mouth.
Jo Ellen gaped at her. Then she blinked and shared a look with Em, silently asking, did she just say what I think she said?
Emma whirled back to Alexa. “You did what?”
With her hands covering her face and only letting them see bits of her red, blushing cheeks, Alexa muffled the words again. “I freaking peed my pants. I can’t believe it. I didn’t even know
I had to go. One second I was chowing down, then there was this gush, and it’s all wet and…and…”
Since Emma Leigh was too busy gawking as if Lexi had turned alien on them, Jo Ellen rushed forward to catch her cousin-in-law in a warm, supportive hug. “It’s okay, sweetie. Don’t worry. We can handle this. I’m sure with thirty extra pounds pressing on your bladder, it happens all the time to women in your condition.” Needing her twin’s backup, she sent a telling took to Em. “Right, Emma Leigh?”
Emma Leigh winkled her nose before giving a slight negative slash of the head. “I never peed my pants when I was pregnant.”
As Lexi sobbed even louder and hid her bright-pink face against Jo Ellen’s shoulder, Jo Ellen scowled. “Could you possibly be a little supportive here? She’s clearly upset. You understand what she’s going through more than I do. Tell her this is normal.”
“But I never—”
“Emma Leigh!” Jo Ellen cried, wanting to strangle her sister, not for the first time in her life. “I said supportive.”
“Oh, all right.” Easing hesitantly closer, she nudged Lexi’s arm. “Buck up, sport. At least you’ll have something in common with your new baby now, huh.”
As Jo Ellen sighed and rolled her eyes, Lexi thankfully blurted out a shocked laugh. She lifted her face, wiped her red eyes and threw Em a tremulous grin. “Oh my God, you suck at moral support.”
Emma grinned back, looking proud. “I know, right?”
With another heaving breath of exasperation, yet relieved the tension had abated, Jo Ellen patted Lexi’s arm. “Why don’t you step into a stall and toss your underwear over the door. We’ll hold it under the hand dryer until you’re dry and good to go again.”
“Thank you, Jo Ellen. You’re a life saver.” Following orders, she promptly slipped into a stall and latched the door closed.
“I can’t believe you seriously peed your pants.” Emma Leigh wandered to the sinks to inspect her face in the single mirror. She leaned close to pat a discoloration on the side of her nose. “Bran is going to die laughing when he hears—”
“If you tell him, I will slaughter you.”
“Oh, honey, there’s no way I’m keeping this from him. Wild horses couldn’t—”
