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Inside the cottage, Justin put the record on to play. It didn’t take long before Dave and Katrina were clapping their hands while Maggie and Justin danced, Maggie’s sensuous, lush body moving around Justin, waggling her hips. He held on to her, his hand on her back, and they slid around the living room, Justin bending down to whisper in her ear, making Maggie laugh.

“I feel like a voyeur,” Katrina said.

“Yeah, you should see them dance to a live band after you’ve had a few drinks under your belt,” Dave replied. He held out his hand for her. “Dance with me.”

“I won’t look like that,” she said, nodding toward Maggie.

“Because you’re slinky,” Dave whispered in her ear.

When the song was over, the couples clapped, laughing. “Now I want to go to the roadhouse and eat messy barbeque and kick up some sawdust on the floorboards,” Justin said.

“Let’s go!” they chorused.

Sunday evening at the roadhouse was famous in those parts but the parking lot was practically empty. Blowing up the dust behind them, Justin pulled his truck alongside his brother’s. They were parked at the old hitching post, the railing across the front porch a place where patrons still tied up their horses when they arrived on horseback. The weathered boards were original to the building, from a time when the building was a community center for the rural area.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in here in daylight, have I?” Maggie asked, grimacing.

“Jeez, I’m not sure. Is it unfamiliar to you?”

She gazed at the façade, frowning. “I don’t remember it being so beat up.”

“Ha! That it is,” Justin said, leaning over to kiss her. “If my brother and Katrina hadn’t been there today, I would have fucked you right in the living room.”

“I was thinking about that, too,” she replied, lust glittering in her eyes. “We can do it tonight.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him down to her, her tongue poking its way into his mouth the way Justin liked to be kissed.

The conversation wasn’t much different in the truck next to Maggie and Justin.

“Considering what we’ve been faced with this weekend, I wish we were home right now so I could get inside here,” Dave said, leaning over Katrina, charming her, making her giggle. He had his hand in between her legs, squeezing her. “If you didn’t have long pants on, I’d have access.”

“Yes, you would,” she said, kissing him. “When we get home, I’ll make it happen.”

Justin and Maggie got out of their truck, laughing and teasing each other.

“You ready to dance?” Justin asked when Dave got out.

“We’re ready to do the two-step,” Dave answered.

They climbed the stairs to the porch, brothers walking together, their arms across the shoulders of their women.

Chapter 5

The last day at work filled Katrina with more melancholy than relief. Working, problem solving, making decisions, and guiding people was how she had spent every day of her life since she’d graduated from Stanford, landing a job with the largest medical equipment company in the world. Giving up that control was going to be the hardest part, but she had a huge staff as the US Marketing Manager and once she became CMO, managers worldwide would report to her.

At nearly eight months pregnant, this would be the last flight she’d take. Her doctor wasn’t thrilled, but Katrina reassured her she’d go first class all the way, with a wheelchair, the no-stress route. What could go wrong?

Dave and Katrina flew in to the corporate center of her employer in San Francisco on a Thursday for a long weekend. The upper echelon was supposedly having a lavish baby shower for her and Dave.

“Are you going to tell them the diagnosis?” Dave asked. Thebuckle your seat beltsign had just gone off and the lineup for the bathroom had begun.

“I decided not to. Since I began working for this company, there has been enough turnover that I’m only close to my team and I can tell them at our next Zoom meeting. I’ve read that except for the people we tell right away, like friends and family, a birth announcement that mentions it is a good way to share the news with people who expect to hear from you but aren’t close. Since he’s healthy, I don’t need to prepare for extra time off so they don’t need any more information.”

“How would you word a birth announcement with that news?” he asked, not sure he was in favor of what was an invasion of privacy. He imagined the constant calls they might get from well-meaning friends wanting details.

“I want to tell people with our own words,” she said, her voice a tad stronger than usual. “I don’t want it to get spread around person to person.”

“Okay, honey. That sounds like a plan. I didn’t mean to challenge you.”

“You didn’t. I just want people to hear that we love him and that they can ask us questions. I’m not ashamed of our baby.”

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