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“Tara!” Melissa gasps.
She shrugs. “It’s a legit question.”
Luke swallows. “Not for another week.”
“Decorum, please,” I ask her, but Luke kisses my head to let me know it’s okay.
“No more talk about blood tests, or balls being chopped off, or anything negative. Tonight, we are out to celebrate.” Melissa is rather cheeky tonight.
“How did you guys get away anyway? Tara’s here, so who has Ainsley? New babysitter?” Will asks.
“My parents,” I say.
“Oh, man. Poor Ainsley. She’s probably going to be balancing a book on her head as she gets ready for her future cotillion,” Tara says.
I laugh. “My mother is big on etiquette, but she never made me do that,” I state and then sway my head. “Well, once. Before my sweet sixteen. Yeah, Ainsley is most definitely walking back and forth withMoby Dickon her head.”
I look at the glass in Melissa’s hand, a highball with a clear liquid and a lime wedge.
“What are you drinking?” I ask her, knowing she’s usually a white-wine gal.
“This?” She lifts her glass and takes a sip from the black straw. “Just some seltzer with a lime.”
I narrow my eyes as I tilt my head at her. “Are you the designated driver?”
“Yep,” she answers, yet there’s something mischievous about her grin.
It’s as if she’s keeping a secret that she really wants to let us in on. When I look to the side and see Tara is giving me an equally curious side-eye, our jaws drop with the revelation as we turn back to Melissa in unison.
“No way!” Tara shouts.
“Are you?” I ask, sitting up and forcing Luke’s hand to fall from my shoulder.
Melissa nods her head rather forcefully and starts to smile and cry as she confirms, “I’m pregnant!”
Tara is at her side lightning quick. It takes me a second to get out of the booth and over to my friend, who is carrying life inside her. I throw my arms around her, and the three of us hug, blissfully happy for this news. Luke gets up and shakes Will’s hand in congratulations. Will’s smile is bigger than beaming as he talks to Luke, who seems genuinely happy for Will and Melissa.
It’s too early to know what the future holds for me and Luke as a couple, but soon, we’ll know what it holds for his health. If the result is negative, then he doesn’t carry the gene for Huntington’s disease, and if this thing between us blossoms, I’d love to give him another child. I’d love for him to experience it all—the announcement and the hugs, the growing belly, the birth and all the firsts that come with a baby’s first years of life.
I never thought I’d have more than one child, but for Luke, I would.
My insides flop with the romantic notions in my head.
What has gotten into me?
Luke Incendio.
That’s what.
As Melissa gushes about her news to me and Tara, the guys talk. Soon, Will whisks Melissa onto the dance floor, and Tara finds herself a handsome man at the bar.
Luke and I slide back into the booth, side by side. He rests his head against the leather and turns to me. “Do you want to dance?”
I shake my head. “Not really.”
“Good,” he croons. “I just wanted to sit with you in the quiet.”
I laugh and look around the room. Young coeds are screaming over the music as they share conversation and shots and dance to the band.Quietis the antonym.
