Chapter Ten

Pru woke up clutching the oddly long U-shaped pillow Finn had delivered to her place a week and a half ago after she complained about her back hurting like she was an eighty-year-old who’d worked hauling bricks her entire life. He had offered to find a solution for her, and the next morning he’d shown up with the heavenly cushion, saying it was the same kind that his sister-in-law swore saved her back during her last two pregnancies. He texted every day, checking in with her, seeing if she needed anything, dropping by at random times to give her pillows and morning sickness lollipops. Which she very much appreciated, since the term “morning sickness” was a big fat lie. More like “any time of the day or night sickness” and especially when Lilly drank her disgusting-smelling spinach and mango smoothies after working out.

Finn had gone into caring overdrive. Though he’d stop purchasing anything for the baby since the disastrous crib incident, he said taking care of her was just what a best friend was supposed to do. Since every day she felt crappier and crappier, she had no problem with him pampering her. As long as he didn’t try to take baby decision out of her hands again, they were good.

She laughed at herself, the chuckle turning into a groan when her stomach pitched and rolled.

“Oh, come on, Peanut.” She rubbed her flat belly. “Mommy hasn’t even gotten out of bed yet. Can we hold off on the hurling for five minutes?”

The acid working its way up her throat said no, no they could not. She tossed back her blankets and raced for the bathroom. Luckily, their apartment had two, and the moment she started puking twice a day, Lilly and Mo insisted she take the front bathroom while they shared the back. She made it just in time to heave up…nothing, mostly, but some water and the remnants of the late-night ice cream binge she’d snuck when she woke up at midnight craving rocky road.

“This baby-making is hard work.”

She clung to the toilet bowl, letting her stomach settle before she flushed and stood to thoroughly brush her teeth. A soft tap sounded on the door.

“Yes?”

“I come bearing special candy.” Mo’s voice filtered through the closed door.

Feeling slightly better after her new morning puking ritual, Pru turned the knob, opening the bathroom door a crack.

“You better mean my nausea lollipops and not the special candy in the goody bags from the ‘Marriage of Mary and Jane’ we did last spring.”

The two brides thought it would be hilarious to combine their love of a certain plant now legal in Colorado and the fact that their first names were slang for said plant. Since their wedding had been twenty-one and over only, they’d given each guest a goody bag with a sample of Colorado’s newest economy-driver with the strict instruction that the contents could not leave the state.

“Hey, I might have been raised by a couple of hippies, but even I know you don’t give a pregnant woman weed.” Mo lifted the small bag Finn dropped off last week. “Lollys to the rescue. And you really need to keep these by your bed for the mornings.”

She should, but she kept forgetting. “Thanks, Mo.”

“You’re welcome. Oh, and Lilly already made her smoothie and promises to finish it while you shower so the smell doesn’t bother you.”

Bless her understanding and thoughtful roommates.

“Want me to make you some toast?”

She moaned. “Yes please. I don’t deserve you two. You’re too good to me.”

“You deserve the best, Pru, because you are the best.”

Mo blew her a kiss, avoiding stepping any closer to the bathroom and the lovely smell of vomit wafting in the air.

“Here.” Mo handed over one sucker. “I’ll put the rest in your nightstand.”

“Thank you.”

“Welcome. Oh, and Lilly wants to have a meeting to check in on how the Franks-Sharma wedding is going.”

“Okay, I’ll be out in a few.”

They only had a few weddings left this year. The fall frenzy had tapered off, and the winter season was never very busy. A few Holiday Wonderland themes here and there, but most of the Colorado snowy weddings were destination affairs held at the ski resorts. They’d worked with a few in the past, but a lot of the resorts had their own wedding coordinators.

That was fine. There was plenty of wedded bliss to go around, and they tended to handle clientele on a slightly smaller budget than the big, fancy resort weddings allowed. Pru could handle large sums of money, but the type of service the six-digit brides and grooms required wasn’t quite what Mile High Happiness provided.

She brought the lollipop into the shower with her, scrubbing her hair and body all while sucking whatever miracle ingredients were in that semi-delicious candy that settled her stomach. Once she’d finished, dried off, and gotten dressed, she went to the kitchen to see her toast waiting with a note indicating the others had gone into the office and she should meet them there.

Now that her stomach was settled, her appetite returned with vigor. She practically inhaled the first piece of toast, grabbing the second to munch on her ride down on the elevator to their office on the first floor.

“Good morning,” she called to her friends and business partners as she pushed through the flower-etched glass door of their office.

“Feeling better?” Mo asked, sitting in one of the plush chairs they had for clients.

“Much, thank you.”

“I made some peppermint tea for you.”

Lilly nodded to a mug on the desk in front of her. Steam and the pungent aroma of mint rose from the cup, hitting Pru’s nostrils and settling her stomach even more.

Seriously. Best. Friends. Ever.

“Thanks.”

“We received a request from a couple who wants to have a February wedding at Union Station.”

“February?” That was four months away. “That’s cutting it close.”

They normally required six months of lead-time on a wedding before they accepted.

“I know,” Lilly said, shuffling some papers in front of her. “But they’re willing to pay extra for the rush.”

Pru noticed the slight tightening of her friend’s fingers. She put down the tea she’d just picked up and placed a hand over Lilly’s. “Lil, we’re doing fine. We don’t need to take every job that comes our way anymore. I do the books, remember? We’re in the black.”

Green eyes gazed up from behind black-rimmed glasses. “I know. I just…”

She just felt guilty for the thing that happened five years ago. The thing they never spoke of. The thing that almost ruined their business. Almost, but not quite. Lilly still blamed herself even if Pru and Mo didn’t.

“Let’s see what they want,” Mo said with a smile. “Maybe it won’t be too hard. We’re in our slow season, and everyone deserves their dream wedding.”

Lilly gave them both a grateful smile, and Pru realized she wasn’t the only lucky one in this friendship. They might gripe and snap at each other from time to time, but she loved these women and they loved her. They all came together to support one another, no matter what struggles they were facing.

And speaking of struggles…

“I’m in, but I need to leave after lunch. Finn’s picking me up for my appointment.”

Her friends grinned.

“Finn’s taking you?” Mo asked.

“Yeah, he, um, wanted to come.”

“Good.” Lilly nodded. “He should be pulling his own weight in this.”

“I don’t need his help. I just don’t want to block him out if he wants to be involved.”

“Sounds reasonable. I think you should involve him.”

“I think you should jump him again.”

“Mo!” Her cheeks heated. “We’re friends.”

The chipper woman snorted. “Friends who had sex and are now having a baby together. The barn door’s open, Prudence. The cow’s already out. Enjoy the milk!”

“I don’t even know what that means.”

Lilly pushed her glasses up her nose, staring at her papers. “Something about sex, I imagine.”

No way. She wasn’t going there again. Look what happened the first time.

Sure, it’d been the most amazing sex of her life, but they were having a kid. She was having a kid. She was having his kid… Whatever, it was complicated, and sex would only complicate it further. They could absolutely not fall back into bed together. No matter how many hot dreams she’d had since that night.

Nope.

She wouldn’t do it.

Not again.

They worked all through the morning and into lunch. Mo ran out to pick up sandwiches and another bag of anti-nausea lollipops, for which Pru was eternally grateful. Though she still insisted they didn’t need to cover it for financial reasons, they all agreed to accept the February rush wedding.

Before she knew it, there was a knock on their office door, and Finn’s head popped in.

“Ladies.”

“Oh, hey, Daddy.”

Finn’s smile fell, looking like he tried to keep it but just ended up with an awkward grimace.

Pru elbowed Mo.

“What? Are we not joking about this yet?”

How Moira could laugh off everything in life was beyond her. The woman could see sunshine in a hurricane.

“You ready to go?” he asked, smile now completely gone.

“Yeah. I’m ready.” She gathered her jacket and purse. “See you in about an hour or so,” she called to the other women, following Finn out the door and into the parking lot.

He opened the car door for her, and she shook her head with a smile. “What? No bike?”

“You’re pregnant, Pru. You can’t ride a motorcycle.”

Only because she didn’t know how to drive one. But if she did, she assumed it would be perfectly acceptable to ride one until her belly got too big. She didn’t actually know. It wasn’t one of the areas she researched.

They drove the ten minutes to her doctor’s office and sat in the waiting room. It was filled with a variety of women and some men, looking everything from excited to bored to terrified. Finn sat by her side, holding her hand in comfort, but his leg nervously bounced up and down, jiggling their chairs with the frantic motion.

At least she wasn’t the only one freaking out a little. Hopefully after today’s appointment, things would be clearer for them.

“Prudence C.? The doctor will see you now.”

She rose from her seat, Finn standing with her. The nurse led them back, taking her weight, a urine sample, and her blood pressure and then instructing her to disrobe and put on a paper gown before she left the room.

“All right, turn around.”

One dark blond eyebrow rose. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not like I’ve forgotten what you look like naked. You can make me turn around all you want, but that image is branded into my—”

She smashed a hand over his mouth, her cheeks warmed, and a small giggle escaped her lips. “Shut up, you perv. Just because you’ve seen it once doesn’t give you a free pass for all future viewings.”

Something wet and smooth caressed her palm. She quickly pulled her hand away. “Ew! Did you just lick my hand?”

He chuckled. The stupid, sexy jerk.

“Just reminding you what else this tongue has touched.”

Was he seriously flirting with her now? Here? And if he was, why was she enjoying it so much?

“Finn!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll turn around. But it seems weird.”

“This whole situation is weird,” she grumbled as she started to shimmy out of her clothes the moment his back was turned.

Once she’d settled on the cold, crinkly paper on top of the exam table, paper gown securely covering all the important bits, she cleared her throat. “You can turn around now.”

Finn turned, his teasing smile going soft. His hand reached out to grasp hers. “Hey, you know everything’s going to be okay. Right?”

She didn’t know that, but she hoped. Hoped that, somehow, they could navigate this tricky situation they’d gotten themselves into. Hoped that she could still have what she wanted without taking anything away from her best friend. Hoped that she’d still be able to fit into her favorite pair of jeans after she popped this kid out.

A soft tap on the door prevented her from answering.

“Hello,” Dr. Richardson called out as she entered the room. “Hello, Prudence. How are you feeling lately?”

“A little nauseous, but otherwise fine.”

“Good, good. And is this the father?” The doctor glanced at Finn.

“Yeah, um, yes, this is my…this is Finn.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Finn.”

Finn stuck out his free hand, accepting the shake her doctor offered. “Nice to meet you, too.”

“Okay, let’s get started and get a look at your baby. What do you say?”

She said ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

But only in her head. Outside she simply smiled as Dr. Richardson scrubbed her hands in the sink before donning gloves and instructing her to lie back. Finn stayed near her head, never letting go of her hand as the doctor wheeled over a machine with a video screen and a wand that looked like something Mo might keep in her bedside drawer.

The doctor rolled something that looked suspiciously like a condom onto the wand thing and squirted some liquid over it.

“Okay, this might feel a bit uncomfortable, but it’s going to give us a great view of your baby.”

She winced in discomfort, but honestly, it wasn’t too terrible.

“Okay, you hear that?”

If the doc meant the weird wooshing, whirring sound, then yeah, she heard it, but she had no idea what it meant.

“Oh, well, that’s something.”

What? What was something? Was there something wrong with her baby? Her pulse raced, a million horrible scenarios running through her mind, her dreams of motherhood crashing around her, wrenching her heart as she cursed herself and her body for being a failure.

She squeezed Finn’s hand, grateful when he bent down and kissed her temple, whispering in her ear.

“It’s okay, Pru. Everything is fine.”

How did he know? He wasn’t a doctor!

One large hand held hers, the other stroking her hair, calming her racing heart as the doctor moved the wand thing around. What the woman was looking for, she had no idea. Everything on the screen just looked like a black and white blob to her. How did people know what they were looking for on these things?

“Hmm, let’s just take a look and—oh yes, just as I thought.”

Dr. Richardson smiled, pointing to the screen. “See, there’s one healthy heartbeat.”

Oh, thank heavens. A strong, healthy heartbeat. Everything was fine.

“And there’s another healthy heartbeat.”

Say what now?

“Congratulations, you two,” the doc said with a smile. “It’s twins.”