You call me to tell me you’re pregnant and in Vegas and then I hear nothing? Brat. Call me!
I’m walking into a teammate’s wife’s house to watch the game. Call you tomorrow!
Before I reached the door, my phone vibrated again.
A shocked emoji and then, New friends already?! Soon you’ll forget all about me. Followed by a crying emoji.
Because I was the brat she accused me of, I replied, my thumbs flying. Little people. Always worried about being forgotten.
Her reply was an F followed by symbols and then a B followed by more symbols.
Katie never liked being reminded she was always close to being one of the shortest people in a room at any given moment. Served her right.
You started it, I typed back and rang the doorbell.
A ghostly, mourning tone echoed through the house, giving off a spooky vibe. It was immediately replaced with Sophie’s large smile and body decked out in Vipers gear as she flung open the door and shouted, “You’re here! Yay! Now the party can really start!”
I’d been so nervous pulling up to her driveway, the fact there’d been other cars there hadn’t clued me in on the fact I was late.
“Am I the last one here?”
Great. Way to be late and make an awesome first impression.
“No way.” She tugged me in, yanking on my arm like we’d known each other as long as Katie and not a few days and slammed the door behind me. “You’re totally fine. Everyone’s in the kitchen though and since you and Paige are both knocked up, I even made some mock sangria for you to have if you want some.”
Mock sangria? “Isn’t that… juice?”
Sophie laughed and kept tugging me along like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. But seriously. Sangria without alcohol? What else would it be?
“Yes, you cow. It’s juice, but fancy juice, so enjoy if you want.”
“Ah. Fancy juice. That makes all the difference.”
“I knew I was going to like you.” Sophie smiled, dragged me through her ornate entryway with a massive staircase delineating it. The kind you’d see in old-school movies where the women wore dresses to keep them five feet from other people.
Glamorous and gorgeous and yet it was richly decorated with neutral tones, lots of greenery. The living room she guided me through was at least two stories high with a catwalk from one end of the house to the other and even though it was enormous, it was comfortable.
“All right, ladies,” she called out as soon as we entered the kitchen. “This is Lizzie.” She swung out an arm in a dramatic gesture, much like I was learning she did everything else. “Lizzie. This is everyone you haven’t met yet. Paige, the other knocked up chick ruining all our fun. She’s married to Seth McCabe and they’re so adorable together they make us all want to puke.” A pretty little blonde tipped her glass in my direction and winked. “That’s Maisy, Willow…” Two brunettes wearing Vipers jerseys with different numbers on them lifted glasses of wine in my direction. “And that’s Nadia. André’s sister.”
My hand squeezed Sophie’s involuntarily as I took in the blonde. More beautiful than I remembered from her Instagram photos, three times as covered as I saw her the other day.
She looked as shocked as I was. Sophie, clueless to the tension mounting, more embarrassment than anything on my part, and based on the blush on her cheeks, Nadia’s too, continued. “Nadia isn’t a girlfriend, but she’s living here. Her ex is a douche-canoe we all want to throw into the Grand Canyon if we ever had the opportunity.”
“Hello,” she quietly said, and sipped a bottled water, almost seeming to hide her face behind it.
It was her nerves that settled mine. It was obvious she was embarrassed, but whether that was because of her behavior or because she didn’t get the shot she wanted kept me from being overly friendly. “Nadia.”
No one else seemed to know we’d met before, a fact I was grateful for. If she was friends with these women, she hadn’t spilled her plan—or the failure of it—to them.
But really… I needed a drink. “So… you said something about a mocktail?” I asked.
“It’s delicious,” Paige called out from her side of the island that was large enough to fit a row of eight barstools and grabbed a glass. “I’m on my third, which means I’m going to be up all night peeing like a racehorse, but it’s really good.”
“Ah. The things I have to look forward to.”
Her stomach was already proudly declaring she was much further along than me, something she didn’t bother hiding behind an oversized jersey. Her shirt was skintight, curving over her chest and full belly, stretching out the Vipers logo, a viper snake wrapped around a V.
It gave the illusion of a misshapen head, but she worked it. “How far along are you?”
Her hand stalled on the upper cover of her abdomen. “Thirty weeks. Only ten more to go but I swear, right now I wish it was two.”
“You look great.” I didn’t blame her. I couldn’t imagine being comfortable once I grew to her size.
“Thanks. I feel great too, most days. And you? You’re still early on, right?’
“Thirteen weeks,” I said, and glanced around. None of these women would know Garrett that well, or our history. Admitting I showed up on his doorstep pregnant after one night when we weren’t in a relationship wasn’t the best first impression.
She popped a chunk of cheese into her mouth while I took a sip of my sangria. “You two weren’t dating, right?”
Paige sounded more curious than judgmental, but I felt the eyes of every woman in the kitchen on me. On instinct, like I needed to protect my unborn child, my hands went to my stomach. Hell, I’d see these women all the time. “Garrett and I are—were,” I corrected because things seemed so simple recently, “complicated, I guess. But we’ve been great friends for years. Since college, actually.”
“But you weren’t dating?” one of the brunettes asked, Maisy or Willow. I couldn’t remember. “Because I thought he and Nadia—”
“No,” Nadia said, “Garrett and I were friends. We just…” she sighed, and the awkward levels in the room notched to uncomfortable levels. “He was helping me get Toby off my back. That is all.” She smiled at me, hesitant, but no less beautiful than she seemed to look at any other time. “He is a good man. I am happy for you both. Truly. And the baby is wonderful news.”
“Thanks, Nadia.” A chunk of cotton stuck in my throat. Her sincerity was apparent, along with her sadness and for that, I felt for her.
I knew exactly how it was to lose a guy like Garrett because I’d lost him and gained him multiple times over the years.
“But you’re together now?” the other brunette asked. “That’s awesome.”
“We are. I have to head back to Chicago next week but the plan, I think right now is to get my home ready to sell and then come back.”
“That’ll be wonderful for you and the baby,” Paige replied. “And if you need any help, pointers or have questions or need help finding a doctor or anything, let me know. Us mamas have to stick together.”
“Thanks.” I fought my chin wobble, tears and emotions threatening to erupt. “I will. Although I had a consult with a few places this week.”