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“Oh hello, Mrs. Curtis from seventh grade sex-ed class? I’d like to buy a ‘you can get pregnant on birth control’ for five hundred, please.”
I roll my eyes even though Mandy can’t see me. “You’re wrong. Stress can make you vomit. Or I have that nasty flu going around. I’m exhausted.”
“Another symptom of pregnancy. According to your ovulation app, you were ovulating last month on the week of the eighth. Did you and Cam happen to shebang the orangutang? Tug the bug? Get jiggy with the piggy?”
“Oh my god, please stop.” My best friend is certifiable. I think back to the week of the eighth. “Cam was in town…”
“I knew it! Go take a test. Bless it, I’d peel out of this driveway faster than Deacon can say Bass Pro Shop sale, but Michael has a math test tomorrow I need to help him study for and Hunter has baseball tryouts after school on Wednesday—”
“Mandy, it’s okay. You’re not missing anything because I’mnotpregnant.”
“Go! Take it! Call me back in fifteen. Never mind, don’t bother. Setting my timer now. And you know what will happen if you don’t answer. Now go,” she barks, causing me to jump.
“Fine,” I groan and hang up on her. I check Charleigh’s monitor and see her stirring in her crib. Charleigh will be eighteen months next week. There’s no way I can be pregnant. Cam and I agreed two is enough with our busy lives. He will shit a brick if I am.
Oh god, what will I tell the others? TJ? He’ll be so upset. I pull out a pregnancy stick I have left over from when we were trying with Charleigh and pee on it, placing it on my bathroom sink. Charleigh cries from her room.
Heading back downstairs with Charleigh on my hip, I walk down the hall toward our bedroom. I pick up the stick and my stomach drops. Two pink lines. Shit. My phone rings.
“It’s been fifteen minutes, what’s the verdict?” Mandy asks before I can say a word.
“I’m pregnant,” I say miserably.
“Why do you sound upset? This is something to be celebrated!”
“Mandy, Cam and I literallyjusthad a conversation about how busy we are and having two kids is enough. I was thinking about how I might have to cut back on my photography. And what about our trip to Greece we’ve planned for the next book this summer? That’s not going to happen now.”
“Andie, it’s December. You’ll be what? Seven months in July? No problem.”
“How am I going to tell TJ?”
“He’ll be over the moon.”
I place a fussy Charleigh in her high chair and give her some sliced bananas. “He and Connor are trying to find a surrogate. They want to have a family.”
“Oh, that’s exciting! I promise, he’ll be ecstatic for you. Okay, well, that confirms it! I’m coming for sure next Friday. Can’t wait to celebrate!”
“Mandy, I don’t…Mandy?” I look down at my cell, but the call has disconnected. My phone pings and I expect it to be my best friend blowing up my phone with a list of baby names or an article on having baby number three, but it’s from Kiki and Sarah.
Kiki:Emergency meeting tomorrow morning before TJ gets in. Check the BB-2 app.
I open up the app the three of us installed to track BB-2. It covers the baby’s movements, feedings, sleep cycles, and diaper changes. There’s also a little camera installed in the left eye that takes short videos. There are only three videos, so I pull up the first clip. It’s Chase holding the baby. He holds it up to a calico cat and pets the cat with BB-2’s head. The cat swats at BB-2 and the clip ends. The second clip is a gray blur, like fabric out of focus, and the doll-baby crying. I pull up the last clip. It’s the sky with a tree and there’s a coffee cup. The video shakes and the coffee cup falls on BB-2 before the doll falls. The video goes haywire and blacks out.
Me:I watched the videos. I’m pretty sure BB-2 has second-degree burns and flew off a moving car.
Kiki:Jesus. I haven’t watched the videos. I just saw the car seat time and wigged.
Sarah:Poor BB-2. I hope it’s still in one piece. We have to say something you guys. This is wrong.
Kiki:We’ll confront him in the morning.
I sigh and place my forehead on the cool table as Charleigh babbles from her seat. I’m going to have to keep this pregnancy under wraps for now. It will kill TJ when we tell him he failed BB-2. I can’t add insult to injury by announcing I’m pregnant.
Chapter 13
TJ
The elevator doorsslide open. I check my reflection one more time, noting the faded marker which still hasn’t washed off from this past weekend when the boys stayed over. Luckily, I don’t have to meet with any clients for the next few days since I’ll be helping Kiki working in-house on some wedding dress design ideas and then it’s Christmas break.
