“I like Max,” Jacqueline says. I still startle a little every time she speaks, it took her so long to get comfortable with us.
“I don’t want to slash his tires and egg his house anymore, if that’s what you want to know.”
Jacqueline’s eyes grow to the size of quarters. “You were going to slash his tires and egg his house?”
And suddenly, the mystery of why it took Jacqueline so long to warm up to us becomes crystal clear.
“Probably not.” I place her Model Behavior on the bar, her cheeks flushing when she sees her namesake cocktail. “I mean, he lives in a gated community and I bet he parks his car in the garage. The logistics were all over the place.”
The flush drains from her cheeks and she goes white. “Remind me not to get on your bad side,” she whispers into her drink.
“You’ll never be on my bad side.” I wink, turning to Poppy, who is unusually quiet.
“Yo!” I snap in front of her face, startling her out of whatever daydream she’s lost in. “Earth to Poppy! Are you all right? Is this a tequila night?”
“Ummm . . .” Her eyes shift around the room and she doesn’t meet my eyes. “I’m not feeling great, I think I’ll stick with Sprite tonight.”
I narrow my eyes.
Poppy doesn’t drink soda.
She said Ace and TK were encouraging too many bad eating habits and soda was the easiest thing to kick. And when Poppy decides on something, she sticks with it.
The gears in my head start kicking into overdrive, and my eyes widen.
I shove the martini glass I was preparing to fill back on the bar and yell for Tanya, the newest HERS family member, to cover me.
“You.” I point at Poppy. “Office. Now.”
Four sets of eyes turn to us, and four asses rise from their seats to follow us. Poppy turns panicked eyes to me and I can almost see her pulse throbbing in her neck.
“You guys stay,” I tell them before they lose their seats. “Save Poppy’s seat, and if you could keep an eye out for Tanya, I’d really appreciate it.”
Tanya doesn’t need help. She’s new here, but her family owns the oldest, most amazing Indian restaurant in Denver. The Khatri family is like royalty when it comes to local restaurateurs. The only reason she’s working here is because she wants to start her own bar one day, but didn’t want to ride her family’s coattails to the top.
And since I tell these women everything (except about Maxwell), they are well aware of this fact and all of them, sans Jacqueline, glare at me with pursed lips.
“I hope you know you just bought one night of us barging into your house unannounced,” Vonnie, never one to be left out, tells Poppy.
Poppy rolls her eyes. “You guys do that every week.”
She speaks the truth. We aren’t a group who respects boundaries.
I follow her into my office and lock the door behind me.
“What’s going on?” I don’t waste any time because if we’re gone for too long, those bitches will bust this door down.
“Nothing.” She turns away from me and studies the pictures on my wall that she’s seen a million times like they are the most interesting things in the universe.
“You’re the worst liar in the world,” I say, stating the obvious. “Is Ace okay? Did TK do something? You know I have access to a remote plot of land in the mountains and an excavator if you need me to hide a body.”
“You know saying shit like that is why Jacqueline was afraid to be alone with us for months, right?” A smile tugs on the corner of her mouth, but the worried look is still haunting her eyes.
“Yeah, I’m figuring that out.” I walk over to her, all joking forgotten. “Seriously though, are you all right? I can almost hear your heartbeat from here.”
She chews on her bottom lip and clasps her hands together, but even that doesn’t stop them from fidgeting. “I’m pregnant.”
“I knew it!” I scream, damn near doing a toe touch. My feet move of their own accord and before I know what I’m doing, my arms are locked tight around her as I force us to jump around in circles.
“Brynn!” She pushes me away, her ashen skin green. She runs to my trash can and dry heaves.
I gather her long curls and hold them behind her head.
After what feels like an eternity, but in reality is probably only two minutes, she collapses onto the rug hiding the concrete floors.
“Are you all right?” I ask, and want to slap myself. She’s lying on the floor next to my trash can. Of course she’s not all right.
She throws an arm across her face. “I’m freaking the fuck out.”
“What did TK say?”
“I haven’t told him yet,” she whispers.
“Poppy.” I lower myself to the floor beside her. “Why not? He’s going to be so fucking excited.”
I don’t say that to comfort her. Poppy and Ace are TK’s entire world. I mean, the guy walked away from millions of dollars to be with them. Thanks to his crazy-ass mom, he missed out on Ace’s early life. It’s something he doesn’t talk about much, but on the happenstance it’s brought up, he can’t mask the hurt and regret that he wasn’t there from the beginning.
“It’s stupid.” She sits up, tracing the pattern on the rug with her fingers. “I keep thinking about my pregnancy with Ace and how hurt I was when he wasn’t happy about it.”
I consider my words carefully; I don’t want to upset her more than she already is. “You know that wasn’t TK though.”
“I know. But I’m in school. We’re supposed to be getting married in seven months, and now I’m going to be a freaking whale—you have no idea what pregnancy does to my hips. TK is just getting adjusted to his non-football-playing days and I’m throwing this at him.” She brings her hands to her face and I think she’s crying until a giggle breaks through.
What the fuck?
“I’m sorry.” She snorts. “These hormones have turned me into a maniac.”
“You are not.”
She is, but I’m smart enough to not agree.
“Liar.” She laughs, wiping the tears away from her eyes, and I don’t even think to ask if they are from laughing or crying.
“TK had to know that sex means a baby is a possibility, so this can’t come as a huge surprise.”
“I had an IUD,” she tells me. “We thought we were covered.”