Page 40 of 40 and Flirting (with Disaster)
Iris eyed the other two women. “Were we all thinking it?”
Lily looked abashed. Claire did not. “Of course we were.” She flashed white teeth at Iris.
“How in the world could you all know…?”
This time it was Lily who spoke. “You have that special glow about you.”
“I do?” Self-consciously she touched her cheek.
“You do,” Erin assured her, more serious this time, reaching across the table to clasp her wrist in a warm hold. “And it looks beautiful on you.”
Iris felt a blush rise to her cheeks. “Thank you. And…” She giggled at the three pairs of expectant looks aimed her way. “Everything went fine.”
“Fine?” Claire smacked Iris’s arm playfully. “Is that all we get, ‘fine.’”
“Yep.” She picked up a pretzel and, before popping it into her mouth, admitted, “All three times.”
Her friends erupted with hoots and hollers.
“I definitely miss the nights when three times were involved,” Erin said, continuing to rub her belly. A grimace twisted her mouth. “Yesterday my doctor recommended I have sex to start labor, and I just looked at her like she was crazy. I mean, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Right?” Iris chuckled. “Sometimes I think even OBGYNs forget that at the end of pregnancy, the last thing you feel is sexy.”
“More like a hippo,” Erin complained.
Lily reached for her friend, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. “You don’t look like a hippo. You look like the happiest woman in the world with the cutest baby mound ever. I know I’m really excited for this next chapter in your life.”
“Exactly,” Claire said. “We get baby time!”
“Why do you guys get to enjoy baby time and I am the one who had to go to all the trouble to produce the baby?”
Laughter rippled around the table. “Hey,” Lily said, “you’re the only one of us who’s going to go through this. We have to get our secondhand enjoyment somehow.”
“And we get to hand the baby back when it starts to cry,” Claire said. “Win-win!”
Erin grinned. “Y’all stop.”
“What does Carter think about things?” Iris asked. “And Thad?”
“Thad cannot wait. I swear, he FaceTimes me every day now that he’s home with his mom, begging to know when his little sister is gonna be here. He can’t seem to grasp the concept that nagging is not going to get me to go into labor.”
Iris shot her a sympathetic grin. “At least he’s a child. My husband was the nag. By the time Adam finally arrived, I was exhausted just from all the many suggestions he had to get me to go into labor. I swear I walked three miles a day, every day, for the ten days past my due date—at Kirk’s insistence.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “You could’ve followed Erin’s doctor’s advice and just had sex every day.”
“As much as I would normally jump on that idea—and my husband”—Erin shifted uncomfortably in her seat—“I would really rather walk three miles every day at this point.”
Discussion turned to the new bakery and the work Claire was doing to get it up and running. Portions of the new resort would be opening in two months, and Claire wanted Gimme Sugar Too to be ready by then. Lily talked about issues with the city council, which Iris commiserated with. They were due for another council meeting next week, an event Iris dreaded every month. Kirk was still a member, so it meant not only seeing him every month, but sitting next to him since they had traditionally been assigned those seats together before the divorce. It was nerve-racking and stress inducing. Ever since the news of his engagement, she kept her fingers crossed that he would decide to leave the city council and focus on his new wife. She wasn’t holding her breath, though; the past couple of months she got the feeling that he might stay just to get on her nerves. Because of course he would.
They finished eating and were taking their drinks into the living room to relax when Erin suddenly clutched her stomach, one hand reaching for the wall to steady herself. A low moan escaped her.
“You okay, Erin?” Claire asked, reaching for her friend.
“Just a hard one,” Erin said, voice strained. “These Braxton Hicks have been a bitch lately.”
“Are you sure that’s all they are?” Iris asked.
“Pretty sure.” Erin panted a minute longer, the strain on her face relaxing as the contraction eased off. With a deep breath, she straightened to full standing.
