Page 17 of A Bright Winter Season

Alexis nodded. “I—well, I got really nauseous just now. I’ve been feeling tired and queasy all day, and then as soon as I smelled that hot cocoa, it did me in. I don’t know why I keep reacting to hot cocoa this way. The other night Grayson made me some hot cocoa and I couldn’t finish it because it made me so nauseous.”

Vivian leaned against the counter, pressing her lips together. “Sometimes that can happen.” She spoke slowly, as if she was choosing her words carefully. “Sometimes the smell of coffee, which is my favorite drink in the whole world, made me sick.”

“Yeah?” Alexis started to dry her hands, confused. “I don’t remember you ever getting sick when you smelled coffee.”

“Well, you must have been too little to remember when it happened while you were around. It only happened during three periods in my life.”

Alexis blinked at her mother, beginning to understand what she was saying. Vivian had been pregnant three times in her life—once with Julia, once with her, and once with Dean and Hazel, who were twins.

“Are—” Alexis stared at Vivian, wide-eyed. “Are you implying what I think you’re implying?”

She can’t be,Alexis thought, her mind racing. She felt as though she was suddenly on a rollercoaster, and she could hardly catch her breath.I can’t be pregnant. Can I?

Vivian reached out and gave Alexis a big hug. “I think you might be pregnant, sweetheart. These things can happen, you know.” She chuckled.

“I know, but—” Alexis shook her head. “I mean, I was just thinking about how I absolutely don’t have time to have a baby right now. I think it’s just my fatigue making me queasy. Fatigue can make you nauseous sometimes.”

Vivian smiled at her daughter. “I think you should take a pregnancy test. This seems to be more than just some fatigue nausea.”

Alexis leaned against the counter next to her mother, her mind spinning. What if she really was pregnant? How on earth was she going to add a baby into the mix? She barely had enough time to get everything on her plate done as it was. She found herself staring into space, feeling torn between excitement over the prospect of being pregnant and being completely overwhelmed by the idea.

“Is everything all right, sweetheart?” Vivian asked gently.

Alexis covered up her concerns with a laugh. “If I am pregnant, do you think I’ll like hot cocoa again after my pregnancy?”

Vivian chuckled. “My love for coffee certainly came back, so I wouldn’t worry about that. But even if your love for cocoadoesn’t come back, a baby is a worthwhile exchange for just about anything.”

Vivian hugged Alexis again, and together they left the bathroom. As they walked back out into the cozy, warm seating area of the bakery, Alexis wondered if what her mother had said was really true.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hazel sat down in one of The Lighthouse Grill’s booths with a sigh of contentment. It had been a long, tiring day, and she was ravenously hungry. The sloppy joe with a side of French fries in front of her looked absolutely incredible.

“Mind if I sit with you?” Alexis appeared next to her at the booth just as she was taking her first bite.

Hazel shook her head, smiling, as she chewed on the delicious bite of sloppy joe. The bun was soft and soaked with the rich sauce, and she thought to herself that she could have cried, the food tasted so good to her.

Alexis slid into the booth opposite Hazel, emptying the contents of her apron onto the table. “I always like to count my tips before I leave. It’s a nice break for my feet before I go home.”

The pub was closed for the evening, since it was well after dinnertime. Hazel had just managed to put her order in before the kitchen was all cleaned up for the night. Since Samantha was spending the night at a friend’s house to work on a science project, Hazel only had the responsibility of feeding herself—and she’d procrastinated that task for far too long.

“I would do the same.” Hazel nodded as she swallowed. “I’d also want to know how much money I made right away.” She laughed.

“That’s nice too.” Alexis chuckled. “People tip well here, especially my regulars. It’s always fun to add up the cash tips at the end of a shift.”

Hazel and Alexis chatted while Alexis counted her money and Hazel ate her meal. Hazel savored every delicious, messy bite of the sloppy joe, thinking to herself that she was almost glad she’d waited so long to eat, since it meant that her food tasted so particularly good to her.

“You won’t believe what happened at the doctor’s office today,” Hazel said, laughing before popping a French fry into her mouth. “You remember Mrs. Tilney? She’s got a couple of grandkids who are twins. They’re pretty identical, I’m sure even their parents struggle to tell them apart sometimes. One of them was due for a checkup, but they were both there. I was sitting at my desk watching them, and while Mrs. Tilney was reading it was pretty clear that the one twin who was there for a check-up was trying to convince the other one to go to the appointment instead of him. He kept trying to pass him a five-dollar bill, and finally the other twin gave in. They switched baseball caps while their grandma wasn’t looking—and they almost got away with it. I had to point out that it was the wrong twin when they got called on by the nurse.” Hazel laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes. “I wish Dean and I had been able to get away with stuff like that when we were kids. We would have had so much fun with it.”

She had been staring into space while she spoke, remembering first the event with the twins and then her childhood with Dean. When she turned back to Alexis, she saw that her sister was frowning in concentration at the money and didn’t seem as though she’d been listening to her.

“Do you mind that I’m talking while you’re trying to count?” Hazel asked, taking a napkin and wiping the sloppy joe sauce from her fingers. “I remember you saying once that you can count even while people are having a conversation with you.”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” Alexis looked up with a brief smile, and then went back to her counting.

“Okay.” Hazel popped another fry into her mouth. “Anyway, you should have seen Mrs. Tilney’s face. It was really funny. I think she was more shocked than mad—I bet she thought they couldn’t get away with something like that with her but then they almost did.”

“Ah.” Alexis paused in her counting, exhaling in frustration.

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