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“Oh God.” Hallie shoved her plate aside. She couldn’t think it.
“I’ll take one, too,” Hannah piped up. “Deal?”
“I don’t know, Han...” Chances were, Hallie was fine. That her imagination had run wild on the heels of her conversation with Mags, the harbinger of doom.
“Come on, it will give us something to do,” Cassandra chirped. “You can each take a test and then when they both read negative, we will switch from wine to shots of tequila.”
More laughter rippled around the room, but Hallie didn’t join in. Pregnancy would be a cruel outcome considering this was the one and only time in her life she’d broken so many of her own rules. Almost too cruel an outcome to imagine. Pregnant with a playboy’s baby? That sounded like the title of a romance novel.
Hallie stood abruptly, drawing everyone’s attention. “Okay, now I have to take one, because I can’t think of anything but my sister or me being pregnant.”
“Super unlikely.” Hannah stood, as well, giving Hallie a reassuring nod.
Cassandra, suffering no turmoil, clapped. “Let’s do this!”
“I’ll grab the tests.” Pres returned a minute later with a pair of oblong, foil-wrapped pregnancy tests. “I brought one for each of you. They’re very reliable. Three of my female coworkers back when I lived in Tallahassee swear by this brand. That’s how I knew to tell Cash which brand to buy.”
“As a journalist, you did your homework.” Hallie gave her friend a wan smile as she accepted one of the tests for herself.
Pres pulled her into a quick hug and whispered, “You are going to be fine. Now go.” She handed off the other test to Hannah. “You, too. Cassandra and I will be out here sipping wine and awaiting the results.”
Hallie shut herself in the small half bathroom off the foyer while Hannah made her way to the main bathroom on the first floor. Thirty seconds later, Hallie had taken the test and set the pregnancy stick on the nearest flat surface—the edge of the sink. She took a few deep breaths while she waited for the results, which the package claimed took two minutes.
She might wait five, though. That’s how much she didn’t want to lay eyes on the results. She had a feeling, and it wasn’t a good one, that Mags’s warning had been more like an omen.
“Don’t be silly,” she addressed her reflection. “You’re fine.”
The chances of her getting pregnant were astronomical. She and Gavin hadn’t used a condom, but they’d had sex only a few times. Well, okay, way more than a few times. Less than a dozen... Then Hallie did a quick count on her fingers and sent a worried look to her reflection again. Less than two dozen...
But.
She had been on birth control for years. She was regimented and routine about taking her pills. And even though her periods were random and untimely, surely there would be some other sign if she were pregnant.
A small voice in the back of her head whispered, Even if you are only three weeks pregnant?
Hallie couldn’t listen to that voice right now. She had to listen to the voice of reason. And so, she thought of what Eleanor Banks might say. Would she tell her to keep her chin up? Would she advise her not to jump to conclusions? Would she be excited if Hallie was pregnant, or disappointed?
And how did Hallie feel? That was the most important question, wasn’t it? Well, aside from how Gavin would feel. Oh, Lord, she couldn’t think about that, either.
She opened her eyes when she heard chatter coming from the living room. Hannah’s voice was the most prevalent, though Hallie couldn’t hear what her sister was saying. Without looking at the results, she wrapped her hand around the pregnancy test and bolted from the bathroom. Hannah, wineglass in hand, clearly had her answer.
“Well?” Hallie asked anyway.
“Negative. I live to drink wine another day!” Hannah tapped her wineglass against Cassandra’s. “What about you?”
“I’m too scared to look.” Hallie held up the test. “Who wants to look for me?”
“I’ll do it.” Hannah relinquished her wineglass to the coffee table and walked over.
Hannah was Hallie’s best friend. A person she would trust with her life. The person she could trust to read the pregnancy test and lay it out for her—whatever it read. Hallie handed over the test and watched Hannah’s face as she read the results. When her sister’s eyes tracked from the test back to Hallie, she didn’t have to say a word for Hallie to know exactly what the test said.
“Oh, shit,” Presley murmured, picking up on the silence between them.
“It could be wrong,” Hannah said. “You can go to a doctor and double-check.”
“Oh my God,” Cassandra muttered.
Hallie snatched the test. Two bold pink lines might as well have been a pair of middle fingers flipping off her future plans. “It’s not wrong.”
