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“Pepper...” Becca said, unsure of how to answer. After all, they’d told her family. Their friends would find out soon enough. Why not now?
Becca glanced up at Nick, worried that two nights of pregnancy announcements might send him over the edge. But he gave her his lopsided smile and a barely perceptible shrug.
“And what if she is?” he said to Pepper.
Pepper’s jaw dropped. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Becca looked at Nick again, fortified by what she saw in his eyes.
“Yes,” Becca said.
Pepper unleashed an earsplitting squeal, and then she threw her arms around Becca’s neck. “I knew it! I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Oh, I am so happy for you two.”
“So, you’ve been baiting me with the wine, haven’t you?” Becca asked.
Pepper shot her a sly smile. “Maaaybe.”
“How in the world did you know?” Becca asked.
Kate was a vault. There was no way she’d betray Becca’s confidence. That was one of the few constants in the world she could count on.
Pepper shrugged. “Just intuition, I guess.”
Becca didn’t believe her, and Pepper must’ve seen it in her eyes—or maybe it was more of that intuition she was claiming to possess.
“Okay, I’ll confess I overheard you and Kate talking about it at the office after you got so sick with the food poisoning. After you recovered, I guess I was a little jealous, because I wanted to celebrate with you, too.”
“Pepper, I’m sorry. We had to tell my family before we told anyone else.”
“I totally understand,” Pepper said. “And I am totally going to throw you the best baby shower this town has ever seen.”
Nick was quiet. Of course, nobody could get a word in edgewise when Pepper was excited about something. But Becca was learning that Nick tended to stand back and take things in. He had to process them.
As they stood in the glow of the lighted Christmas tree, Nick standing behind her with his arms around her, holding her close, a calming peace settled over her. Last night, after Nick had left her parents’ house, things had been so uncertain between them, she’d feared she might never know this peace again. But she’d trusted her instincts, and she’d given him room to think, to process everything.
He’d come back to her.
Of course, they hadn’t talked about her family and everything that had transpired last night. She wasn’t going to bring it up tonight. Especially after they said goodbye to their friends and went over to the Christmas tree booth and chose a tree together.
As Nick carried it to her car for her, she caught herself pretending that they were a real family. Because maybe they could be...someday.
Right now, theirs might not be the traditional situation she wished it would be, but it was one of those situations where she had a choice: the glass could be half empty, or it could be half full.
It was her choice, and she chose half full.
So many good things had happened lately. They had been blessed with not one, but two children. The babies had survived the food poisoning. Nick had come back into her life. She had to trust that everything would be okay.
Maybe if she kept repeating the positive over and over, like a mantra, she could will him to love her enough to make it all true.
Chapter Eleven
“I can’t believe Jake and Anna’s wedding is tomorrow,” Becca said as she unlocked her front door and flipped on the foyer light.
Nick nodded and bent down to pet Priscilla, who had met them at the door.
Tonight’s rehearsal dinner and tomorrow’s wedding were the last of what seemed like an endless succession of events that had followed one after the other since Thanksgiving at her parents’. It’s not that he wasn’t glad to be part of the festivities and the celebrations surrounding his new friends’ wedding. He was glad everything would be slowing down pretty soon.
At the risk of sounding like a Scrooge, after telling her parents about the babies on Tuesday, telling her extended family at Thanksgiving dinner, telling their friends about the babies at the tree-lighting ceremony on Friday and going to Jake and Anna’s rehearsal dinner tonight, Nick was looking forward to getting back to work, where everything didn’t feel so out of control.
Truth be told, he was a little weary, feeling as if he was living someone else’s life. Because three months ago, if you had asked him what he’d be doing for the holidays, it wouldn’t have been any of the events that had been on his social calendar lately.
