Page 161 of Lemon Crush

“Wade is still at work, but Chick is here. I know you just closed up for the day, but if you wanted to stop by?—”

“Already in my car. Stay on the line.” I backed out of my driveway and tightened my grip on the steering wheel.

“Do you already have the margaritas ready or should I pull into the store on my way to your place?” I asked, trying not to sound as nervous as I felt.

“No margaritas.” She started sniffling again and I sped up without thinking.

“You’re going to have to give me a hint before I get into a car accident,” I said honestly, hating the panic tightening my throat.

“Don’t speed through the neighborhood, B.”

“If you wanted calm, you should have called Morgan.”

Her sister was an unshakeable rock.

“She doesn’t have your experience. Fine, I’ll give you a hint,” she said shakily at the same time I was turning onto her street. “You remember that first day you took me to the track for go-karting? Before the movers?”

I remembered the movers. One in particular. We’d had a nice evening, but it wasn’t nice enough for me to call him back. He had some experience to acquire, and I wasn’t known for being a patient teacher. “Refresh my memory.”

“You said it wasn’t too late for me to come to the dark side. That forty-three was the new?—”

“Thirty-three,” I finished for her, almost stopping in the middle of the road by her driveway as I remembered our conversation.No way.

I’d been joking.

“I’m here. Where are you?”

“By the pool.”

The sweat that had transferred to the shirt I threw on had almost dried, but in spite of the sixty-degree weather, I was still emitting heat from my workout.

And possibly from the shock of what August was hinting at.

When I walked around back, she and Chick had their feet in the shallow end of the pool while her dogs sniffed happily around the yard. Her head was resting on his shoulder.

I dropped my purse and keys on her new outdoor table. “You’repregnant?” I blurted out. “How is that possible?”

Chick grinned up at me. “Well, when an author who hasn’t gotten laid in years does too much naked research for a book?—”

“Don’t tease her,” August said as I dropped down beside them and took her hand. “The doctor said it’s unusual, but not unheard of, for someone to get pregnant during perimenopause... while tapering off the pill. Which, you know, I was still on.”

That was crazy.

“Your brother is a fertility god.” Chick shrugged. “Part of me feels like quotingJurassic Park. You know, ‘Life finds a way?’”

“Because I’m a dinosaur?” August narrowed her eyes.

“Apparently, the part of me that told me to keep my trap shut was right this time.”

“How far along?” I asked, because that was the question you automatically asked and I was still trying to wrap my head around this completely unexpected turn of events.

“I’m due in the summer. About three and a half months along.”

“That’s good news,” I told her firmly. “You’re already through the first trimester.”

I watched her take her first full breath since I showed up and knew that was the experience she’d been talking about.

“You didn’t have any symptoms before now? Nausea? Tender breasts?”

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