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“I’m pregnant,” I blurted, eyes welling with tears again.
Whatever happened with me and Cal didn’t matter in the end, because I knew I’d be okay, and so would my baby. Because these women around me? My sisters, my best friends? They were all we needed.
Fuck, this kid was barely into its existence and it was already the luckiest alive.
Chloe’s eyes lit, mouth pulling into a bright, wide smile.
“Me too,” she whispered.
My sisters and I erupted, and I wrapped my arms tighter around Chloe, tears streaming freely down my face, a mix of happy and sad, the two emotions warring for purchase.
“Shut the fuck up!” Delia squealed, rising from the bed to tackle me and Chloe to the ground. “We’re gonna be aunties! We’re all gonna be aunties!”
“Delia!” I shouted, my shoulder digging uncomfortably into the hardwood floors. “You just tackled two pregnant women!”
“Shit,” she said sheepishly as she rose, and Ella and Brie helped me and Chloe to our feet. “Sorry. I’m just so excited!”
We moved out of my bedroom and downstairs to the living room, piling together on the massive sectional, looking out over the expanse of West Grand Traverse Bay beyond my windows. I felt calmer than I had before my sisters arrived, comforted by their presence and the knowledge that I wouldn’t be doing this pregnancy thing alone.
“When did you find out?” I asked Chloe.
“About a month ago,” she said, and Ella reached out to slap her. “Sorry! I just…we decided to wait until I was out of my first trimester to tell anyone.”
“How far along are you, then?”
“Thirteen weeks,” Chloe said, and I squeezed her hand.
If I had to guess, I’d say I was probably eight weeks along. Based on my missed period, the date of which had come and gone about three weeks ago, I’d bet good money I’d gotten pregnant in that Detroit hotel room, while he fucked me as we watched ourselves in that mirror.
I shivered as I let the memory wash over me—and then I let it go. Memories of our nights together only made my body ache for him, and I had some shit to figure out first.
Growing up, Chloe and I had always talked endlessly about our desires for a family one day. We both wanted at least three kids, and we wanted them to be as close as we were to each other and Delia, Ella, and Brie. We dreamed about our husbands, about having a love like Mom and Dad did. And we always discussed putting our roots down right here on this peninsula; we wanted our families close, to have our kids grow up together, to have Mom and Dad be fully involved in the lives of their grandchildren.
Chloe, at the very least, had gotten the husband and the love of a lifetime. She was doing this the right way, with a partner who would be there for her through every up and down of her pregnancy and the responsibility of raising a human.
It wasn’t fair of me to make assumptions about Cal, not when I hadn’t even told him he was going to be a father. I knew he wanted a family too, but to have one like this? Before he could plan and prepare himself for being a dad? How would he handle that?
“How are you going to tell Cal?” Ella asked, pulling me back into the conversation.
“I have no fucking idea,” I said, dropping my head into my hands. “I haven’t even talked to him in a few days.”
Cal deserved to know he was going to be a father; I wasn’t questioning that, or debating whether or not Ishouldtell him. The problem was I knew everything would change once I did, and to be quite frank, with everything about to change for me in the most epic of ways, I was holding onto any sense of normalcy for dear life at the moment.
I hadn’t talked to him since Tuesday, when he’d taken me to the winery restaurant for lunch. By then, I’d already begun to question whether or not I was pregnant, and I was barely present for the conversation we had over our meal. I knew he sensed something was off, but he didn’t press, and I brushed it off when he asked if I was okay, saying I was distracted over all the stuff I had to get done to prepare for the Labor Day weekend events happening in two weeks.
I’d been pulling away to protect us both, but whether I liked it or not, Cal and I were about to be connected for life. I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t terrified to drop this bomb on him, practically shaking with fear and anxiousness at the simple thought of his reaction.
“Mar…” Chloe said slowly, and I turned toward her. “There’s something about Cal you should know.”
My sisters shared a look, something entirely unreadable to me, and Delia said, “Coco…are you sure?”
“I thought we agreed we wouldn’t,” Ella chimed in.
“For the record, I never agreed to that,” Brie added, petulantly folding her arms over her chest and turning her nose up at whatever my sisters were talking about.
My eyes ping-ponged between the four of them, anxiety rising with my confusion.
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here and tell me what the fuck is going on!” I burst out.
