Page 66 of The Duke's Virgin

I smiled at him and strode off.

Our cousin is so sweet.

“Stop it,” I told myself.

Aeric had a large family, a number of cousins on his father’s side. They could have been talking about any number ofsweetcousins who had parents who treated their daughters less than stellar. And it wasn’t like Stacia had outrighttoldme her parents were, as Anne had put it,horrible.

Twenty-Three

Stacia

I checked the test again.

It was still sitting on the counter from last night. Emmett and I had stopped by a pharmacy to pick it up on the way home from the club, and I’d taken it while he sat in the living room waiting.

So far, he was the only one who knew.

Personally, I was just fine with that, but I had lunch with my parents ahead of me, and I’d spent the past few hours trying to figure out what to tell them,ifI should tell them today, and if nottoday, then when…

It was all enough to give me a massive headache, and in the end, I made the decision based off one simple thing. I was tired of walking on eggshells around them. If I didn’t tell themtoday, I’d be walking on those eggshells and worrying about their response until Ididtell them.

Who needed that in their life?

Justthinkingabout the conversation with my mother the night before irritated me all over again, that faint edge of disdain in her voice as she discussed Emmett.

A nice guy who made great money and did good things for people, but it wasn’t good enough for her—or my father.

Nothingwas good enough for them, and I could only imagine their reactions when I told them about the baby.

Looking at my reflection, I reached down and covered my belly with my hand. I wasn’t showing yet. When would I? I had no idea. I hadn’t looked up any of that, afraid I’d end up on one of those stupid sites that would convince me everything was wrong, then I’d curl up in the bed and not come up until the doctor’s office opened on Monday.

No. I had enough worrying to do. My parents weren’t going to be on that list too. I already had a lot of things to figure out over the next few months and dealing with my parents’ reactions shouldn’t even be a consideration.

I’d have Ricky stay handy to drive me back to my brownstone in case they didn’t take it well—and I knew they wouldn’t. I normally didn’t ask him to work on weekends, but this wasn’t a normal day.

He knew something was up when he knocked on the door. He took one look at me and frowned, but before he could ask, I held up a hand. “Later, okay? I’ve got to keep my cool so I can deal with Mom and Dad. I’ll talk to you about…everything later.”

He hesitated, then nodded, concern clear in his eyes. “Let’s get on the road.”

* * *

I wasstarvingby the time we got to the estate, despite the nerves tangling my belly into knots. As we came around the final bend and the big estate, a sprawling construction of stone and sparkling windows, came into view, I made an executive decision.

I was going to eat first.

I didn’t feel remotely close to how I’d felt last night when I’d gotten sick, not hot and sweaty, not nauseated.

I doubted lunch at my parents’ would involve anything remotely close to nachos or spicy meat or peppers, whatever it was that had set my stomach off.

Of course, if I went in there and something didn’t past the smell test, I’d have to reconsider the eating thing, but as long as nothing set me off, I was going to eat.

“The final meal of a condemned woman,” I murmured.

“What’s the sentencing, Miss Stacia?”

I looked up to find Ricky glancing at me in the rearview mirror. “You’re stubborn.”

He winked at me. “Only with the people who matter.”

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