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THIRTEEN
Iris
“Hey! How are you feeling?”Sutton asks as she carries in a take-out bag from Prim + Proper.
It’s girls’ night and I completely spaced on it. It didn’t even click this morning when Madelyn asked about dinner and our plans.
“Better now that the morning sickness has passed for the day. Luckily, I’m really only sick in the morning.”
“Well, that’s good, right?” She asks and I laugh.
“It’s better than all day at least.”
“Well, Hudson made a bunch of choices for us tonight so hopefully something sounds good. He said that he made you a few things that are supposed to be good for the baby but also easy on the stomach,” Lyla says as she comes in carrying even more bags.
“That was really sweet of him. Tell him thank you.”
“Of course,” she says, leaning over and smacking a loud kiss on my cheek that has me grinning.
Madelyn walks in with a case of ginger ale and another of Coke and I close the door after her.
“Did you tell him? How did he take it? Was his reaction good?” She asks, whirling around to face me with a smile.
“Ah, no,” I mumble, starting to unpack all of the food onto the kitchen counter.
“What? His reaction wasn’t good?” She yells, looking like she’s ready to go kick Arlo’s ass.
“What’s this now?” Sutton asks, looking about as angry as I’ve ever seen her.
Even Lyla has stopped unpacking the food and is turned to me with her hands curled into fists.
“Who needs him then? We’ll help raise the baby,” she says and Sutton and Madelyn both nod.
“Uh, no, that’s not what I meant. I meant that I didn’t tell him today,” I say quickly before they can try to formulate some kind of revenge plan.
“What? Why not?” Madelyn asks, her anger leaving her as fast as it came.
“Officer Miles stopped by today,” I start and Lyla and Sutton stop moving around the kitchen to listen. “They caught the guy who broke into my store. He was trying to sell the antiques up at some pawnshop in Honey Peak.”
“Well, that’s good news, isn’t it?” Sutton asks.
“Yeah, you get your grandma’s stuff back,” Lyla chimes in.
“Yeah, he said they still need it as evidence but I should get it back soon.”
“Okay, and what does that have to do with you not telling Arlo that you’re pregnant?” Madelyn asks with a frown.
“It was Arlo’s brother.”
“What was?” She asks.
“He was the one who broke into my store. He was the one who stole from me.”
The kitchen is silent as they all digest that news and I shift uncomfortably. I wanted them to tell me that there’s no way that Arlo knew what his brother did, that I should have still told him because it’s not his fault what his brother did and he probably wasn’t even aware that his brother did it, but I find that hard to believe.
“They live together so wouldn’t he have noticed if he wasn’t home that night?”
“Not necessarily,” Sutton says but she sounds hesitant.
