AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I cock an eye at her. “Is this your ploy to get me to try dating someone from that party? Someone pressuring you to get me to call them? It was Henry Allworth, wasn’t it? He’s handsome and all that, but I’m just not interested. There was no spark. No connection.” I shrug. “Not his fault. He was perfectly nice. But I’m looking for more than perfectly nice.”
She bites her bottom lip, then works on her soup for a minute. “It wasn’t Henry.”
“Who?”
Lily sets her spoon aside to face me. “No one has pressured me to get you to call them, Aria. But there is a pressure in my life, and I’m not sure how to deal with it.”
“What’s going on? Wait—are you pregnant?”
She smiles and shakes her head. “No, it’s not that.”
“What, then?”
She takes a moment, and by the lines on her down-turned mouth, I know this isn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. “It’s you.”
I laugh. “Um, what?”
“Why didn’t you tell me Everett is Owen’s father?”
The world stops spinning, and my voice is barely a whisper. “What?”
“He is, isn’t he? I did the math, Aria. Everett said you two had a one-night stand almost six years ago, right before he left for the Andes. You have told me you have had exactly one one-night standever, and it left you pregnant. That was almost six years ago.” She pauses, barely containing some unpleasant emotion. “Owen looks just like him.”
I’m hung up on one detail. “Why did he tell you about our one-night stand?”
“Why didn’t you? All this time, you knew I was marrying Everett’s brother, and—"
“I didn’t.”
She frowns. “Don’t lie to me. I’m not—"
“He told me his name was James, and we didn’t exchange last names. Turns out, James is his middle name.”
She sits back, reeling from all of that. “I—"
“I have never lied to you, Lily, and I don’t owe you any explanation for my own sex life.”
“You should have told me the moment you figured it out,” she grumbles.
I laugh, shaking my head. “The moment I figured it out was at their mom’s birthday party, when you pointed him out to me.”
“That’s why you ran off, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I freaked out. That mansion was probably the last place I ever expected to see him.” I sigh, unsure of what to say next. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I never lied about it, Lily.”
Slowly, she nods. “I’m sorry I accused you of lying. I thought… well, we both know what I thought. Since I figured it out, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around why you wouldn’t tell me. It hurt. We tell each other everything since I’ve been back in Somerset Harbor, and I thought you’d tell me this for sure. It made me wonder if I was more invested in our friendship than you… I got all in my head about it.”
Reaching out, I rub her back for a moment. “I get that.”
“And you’re right—you don’t owe me any explanation for your own sex life, but come on, Aria. He’s my brother-in-law. If you think this doesn’t affect me, you’re wrong.”
Shit. “You have a point. Sorry. I was feeling attacked.”
“I get that. Didn’t mean for it to come off that way. I’ve been spiraling about Owen being my nephew since last night.”
A choppy laugh pops out of me. “Hadn’t even thought about that part of things. Oh my god.”
She nods and smiles sadly. “Whatever you decide to do, you have my support. You know that, right?”
