Lunch at Jewels’s usually smelled divine, especially when her daughter, Bri, cooked. She had a gift for the culinary arts. If her writing career didn’t pan out, Kat thought she’d nudge Bri toward being a chef. The aroma of spicy Tex-Mex churned her stomach and burned her throat with rising acid. Ugh. When would the nausea stop?
She’d given it tremendous thought and decided she must’ve picked up a bug on top of the beginning of menopause. It made the most sense.
She halted at the edge of the front door and turned her head away from the open window to get one more deep breath of cleansing sea air. Houdini, their pet ferret, chittered at her, his nose poking into the wire mesh between the open green window slats. “Hey, boy.”
He squeaked a reply, and the door flew open. “Why you standing out there?” Wind stood in her floral chiffon cover over her bathing suit.
If Kat was pregnant—which she didn’t think she could be, considering she was on the pill and she was too old—bikinis were a thing of her past. Along with her hopes and dreams and plans and…Wes. Her heart sank like the Titanic had hit Antarctica.
“Kat, you okay?” Wind swept out, put an arm around her, and whisked her inside.
Houdini hopped on Trace’s sun-kissed blonde hair and landed at the edge of the side table. Trace swatted at him playfully. “Told you, not on my head.” She ran her fingers through her hair, taming the frays. “What’s got you ghost white?”
Kat blinked at Trace and forced words to form. “Nothing.”
“Drop everything. Friendervention alert,” Wind called to the kitchen.
The smell of hot peppers and an inquisition made Kat want to run. She eyed the door, but Trace hopped off the couch and blocked her way out. That girl had a spring in her step since she’d started dating Dustin Hawk. “Don’t even think about making an escape.”
“Me?” Kat wanted to fall on her knees and have a good cry, but she hadn’t done that since her mother had told her in the sixth grade that people didn’t care about tears, they only respected strength and determination.
“Trace is right. You do look pale, darling. Here, sit.” Jewels pulled out the bistro chair, and Bri stuck a glass of water in her face.
She needed to stay hydrated since everything that went down the last few days kept coming up.
“Thanks.” Kat took a sip, but when Bri returned to the stovetop and opened the pot lid, sending a rush of peppery beef that attacked her nose, she fled to the bathroom for round number four of praying to the porcelain god. When nothing was left in her stomach, she blotted her face with a damp washcloth, took in a deep breath of eucalyptus soap, and returned to the living room to face four pairs of expectant eyes.
Wind snapped into motion first. “You poor girl. You sick?”
Trace fluffed a pillow, and if Kat didn’t know better, her rough and tough friend actually showed concern. The only girl Kat thought of as stronger and more emotionless than herself.
“Don’t make a fuss. I’m fine.” Yet she gladly sat and closed her eyes for a moment. “It’s just a stomach bug.” Yep, that had to be it. A virus that attacked women who missed their period.
“You sure that’s all it is?” Jewels asked in that motherly tone of hers. “I mean, you’ve been a little off the last week or so.”
“Off? No I haven’t.”
The girls all did that look at each other thing. “Stop. Fine. I’ve been a little off, but I’ve had the purchase of my parents’ house and you all doing your falling in love thing. Wind’s been running off, and Bri’s had her little reunion with her blast-from-the-past boyfriend.”
“Sure. That’s what has you flushed and pale, all within minutes.” Wind picked up the fan she’d been given from some Asian royal family who saw her in a play on Broadway and waved it in Kat’s face.
“Not to mention that nausea. Maybe you should see a doctor,” Trace said, tucking one leg under her and propping Houdini on her lap, stroking his fur. But he didn’t stay. Instead, he ran over and curled up on Kat, resting one paw on her belly.
Jewels sat on the driftwood coffee table in front of her. “Hmm.”
Kat flinched. “Hmm, what?” She scooted the all-knowing Houdini from her lap. He shook his head and ran up the board to his shelf and looked down on her in judgment.
“Nothing, just that you’re flushed but pale, sick to your stomach, and irritable.”
“I’m not irritable,” she shouted in a too loud for an inside voice. “Much.”
Jewels took both her hands and held them tight. “Hon, is there any chance you could be pregnant?”
Wind laughed so hard she fell off the arm of the chair. “Pregnant? We’re passed that age.”
Kat shot her a prosecuting gaze.
“Oh.” Wind covered her mouth with both pointy peach nail hands. “No. Oh hon, I didn’t mean that.”
“You’re going to have a baby?” Trace asked in a too-quiet whisper, as if the world found out, lightning would strike them down.
Houdini chattered as if to say I tried to tell you all.
Kat pushed up from the chair, knocking knees with Jewels, ignoring the dizziness that threatened to take her to the ground from lack of calories. “I don’t know that I’m pregnant. I’m sure I’m just ill. Some sort of weird virus or something. I’m on the pill, and well, I’ve been on it forever. Why would I get pregnant now? It isn’t possible. It’s a virus.”
“Have you missed a period?” Wind blurted.
“I’m menopausal.” Kat spat out the bitter words.
“Oh my gawwwwd, you’re pregnant,” Wind shouted, as if the people in the arctic needed to know.
“No, I’m not. Pill, menopause, remember?” Kat huffed. “Right, Jewels?” She looked to the only woman in the room who had ever had a baby.
“Probable no, possible yes,” Jewels said, her hand resting on Kat’s back. “No matter what, we’re all here for you. You know that, right?”
Kat scooted away from the huddle of friends. “Yes.” She drifted around the room, wishing she knew but fearing finding out.
Houdini bolted along the shelf to the other side of the room. For once, that strange little rodent had helped. She did feel better unloading on her friends. Her mother would be disappointed in her for needing someone to help her through any circumstance. Heck, Mother would be disappointed in her being pregnant. Of course, she could be disappointed in Kat for breathing, so what did it matter?
“Have you told Wes?” Trace asked.
“No. He’s made it clear he never wants children. I’d be on my own with this.”
“Not alone.” The girls surrounded her in a friend circle. “We’ve got you, girl. But you do need to tell Wes. Even if he says he doesn’t want kids, he has a right to know,” Bri said, as if the girl who was eighteen years younger would know how she felt at this moment. Kat knew she meant well, though. They all did.
“I’ll tell him if there’s anything to share,” she snipped.
“Then let’s go get a test.” Jewels slid away and snagged her purse from the hanger on the wall near the kitchen.
The clock struck one, and Kat knew she had a way out. “I can’t go right now. Wes’s coming to visit. He should be here any time. I need to get home.”
Wind sashayed between them. “I’ll go let hunky man into your place, no worries. I’ll tell him you got caught up with some client or something. Don’t worry. I’m a good actress.” She winked.
“No way. You’re not getting near him. You don’t keep secrets.”
Wind held her hands to her chest. “I’m deeply hurt.”
Kat eyed the clock. “I’ve got an hour. I’ll run to the drugstore and then to the house. I’ll do the test later.”
“I’ll go with you to get it. We should probably hit the shop closer to Cocoa Beach if you don’t want the entire town to know by dinnertime. The Small-Town Salty Breeze Line is alive and awaiting the latest and greatest gossip.”
“Right, good point.” Kat checked her watch. “Fine, let’s go.”
“I’ve got a meeting, but call me and let me know.” Bri returned to the kitchen. The girl knew when she was welcome to be part of the friend group and when she didn’t fit in, and right now, she was too young to understand what Kat faced.
Kat headed for her car, but Wind snatched the keys. “I’m driving.”
“No, I’m driving.” Trace stole the fob from Wind.
Kat took it back and faced Jewels. “You drive?”
“Sure.”
They all climbed into the Lexus convertible she’d picked up a week ago. Wind and Trace sandwiched into the small back seats without complaint.
“Hey, this feels like the road trip we always talked about taking,” Kat said, imagining her troubles away. The problem was she’d always been better at doing than imagining. That was more Wind’s thing.
Jewels drove up Sunset Blvd and hung a left to head toward Cocoa Beach.
At the edge of town, the sea breeze swept through Kat’s hair and calmed her stomach, so she relaxed for a few seconds.
She shoved the idea of a baby from her mind. It was ludicrous. Impossible. “Let’s do that.” She pulled her phone out of her purse. “Let’s drive up the coast. I can take some time off in a few months. Let’s say the second week in May.”
The car came to an abrupt stop. Wind squealed like a little girl. Trace grunted. Kat saw the sign.
Jewels leaned out the left side of the car as if to see what was going on ahead. “I forgot about the construction.”
“I hope we can make it there and back in an hour. Maybe I should postpone this trip until tomorrow. I’m feeling better. The nausea’s gone.” A baby, really? The idea was ludicrous. Impossible. “We can go back to my house and start planning our trip together. It’s long overdue.” Ignoring the dozen or so undoubtedly work-related text messages, she danced her thumbs over the keys and entered Girls road trip into her calendar.
She caught Trace’s you’re-in-denial expression in the rearview mirror. “What? I’m not pregnant. There’s no way. I’m telling you. I’ve been on the pill forever and never had an oops. Ever.”
A nagging voice in her brain answered before any of the girls did: But there’s a first time for everything.
Anything was better than facing her friend’s accusatory look, so she decided work would be a good distraction. She touched the text app to discover several messages from Wes.
Caught an earlier flight. See you by one instead of two. XOXO
“Turn the car around,” Kat ordered.
“You’re not escaping this that easily.” Wind patted her shoulder.
“No, seriously. Wes’s already here. Look.” She held up her phone so Trace and Wind could see the text.
“She’s not kidding. Abort Operation Baby Check and head to her place. Time to meet the creator of the bun in the oven.”
“Stop, Wind,” Jewels scolded.
Kat didn’t have the energy to be mad at Wind.
Jewels leaned over and whispered, “You know she only means to cheer you up and distract you, not to be mean.”
“I know, and I appreciate it,” Kat said, and she did. “All this will be over soon. We’ll all have a good laugh tomorrow as we sip margaritas on my rooftop.”
Jewels managed to go off the side of the road and whip around to head back to the house. “I’ll take you home, and then we can walk back to my place. It’s a nice day for a stroll.”
“Thanks.” She took in a lungful of air and trusted that everything would be okay. She knew with her friends by her side, she could face anything.
They made it back to Kat’s place in record time.
“There’s Mister Hunkamungas.” Wind took off her seat belt and stood up in the back of the car and whistled.
Trace yanked her down but then leaned forward. “What’s he doing on your front porch?”
“Stop the car. Stop.” Kat stared across the street at Wes down on one knee. A magical and terrifying sight when she knew she couldn’t say yes. “I forgot I told him when we were away together last month that I would marry him if he asked me again. I can’t reject him. Not for a fifth time.”
“Five?” Wind grumbled. “I’d take once.”
“I can’t say yes. Not until I know.” She rubbed her belly, and an unwanted warmness spread through her abdomen.
She glanced up at Wes again, and her muscles seized and her head spun. “Oh my God. No.” Kat covered her eyes and ducked. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t.”