AllFreeNovel
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“They see you as a traitor. You’re finally seen with a woman, and she’s an outsider.” I stop when I catch my words, my brain scattering to backtrack them. “Not that we’re, uh … more than friends. Justfriendssharing ameal.”
“They’re well aware we’re more than friends sharing a meal.” He relaxes in his seat. “They’re really going to find out when you start to show and wear clothes that don’t swallow youup.”
“I’ll tell them I gotfat.”
“And then lost all the weight, and we suddenly have twobabies?”
I shrug. “Sounds legit tome.”
Shirley interrupts us and winks while dropping a turkey bacon club and our drinks in front of us. “You twoenjoy.”
“You ready to come up with a plan yet?” Dallas asks when I take my firstbite.
“Nope,” I answer afterchewing.
He nods, telling me the conversation isn’t over but that he’ll save it for later. “What’s your favoritefood?”
I look up from my plate. “What?”
“Your favorite food. We can’t sit here in silence, and I figure we’ll ask each other questions we never did when we workedtogether.”
I tell him it’s a tie between sushi and tacos. His is his mom’s carrot cake. We throw questions at each other back and forth while we eat. Having a normal conversation with him feels right. It’s comfortable. It doesn’t feel like first-date awkwardness because this is definitely not adate.
My dream vacation is staying in one of those tiki huts in Bora Bora. His is Yosemite. Black-and-white movies are my thing. He’s not much of a movie buff, but we both agree that anything with Tom Cruise isoverrated.
Shirley collects our plates and comes back to set a delicious piece of blueberry pie in front ofme.
“Oh no, I didn’t order this,” Isay.
She smiles. “It’s on the house, honey. First slice for a newcomer is alwaysfree.”
“Thank you.” I take a bite and groan at the deliciousness. “Shirley is officially my favorite person in thistown.”
He smiles in amusement. “She’s bribing you. The first piece is neverfree.”
“What do youmean?”
“Don’t think I’m the only one hoping you stay in BlueBeech.”
Chapter Seventeen
Willow
“Guess who’s back,back again. Willow’s back, tell a friend,”Stella sings when I slide into the passenger seat of her BMWSUV.
My best friend might’ve shut the door on the celebrity lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean she gave up her love of expensive handbags and foreign cars or that she doesn’t stop gifting those cars to her favorite personalassistant.
She’s grinning, her eyes pinned on me, and her charcoal-colored hair is pulled back into a high ponytail that shows off her Spanishfeatures.
I buckle my seat belt while groaning. “I’m officially putting my two-weeks’ noticein.”
It’s my first day back at work since moving to Blue Beech, and it feels good being around Stella again. We went from spending endless days side by side to communicating through video conferences and textmessages.
Her lips curl into a smile. “You’d miss me too much, but you can bet your ass I’ll be giving you maternity leave for as long as you’d like, and then you can bring the cute munchkin towork.”
No one knows we’re having twins yet, and Dallas promised to keep it that way until I was ready. I need time to wrap my head around everything in my life beingmultiplied.
“Paid leave, right?” Iask.
