Page 14 of Unplanned
Quincy’s eyes widen. “Oh shit.”
I blow out a breath and rub my palms together. “Well, it’s like this. I’m pregnant.”
My best friend shrieks. “What!? How? When?”
I glance over my shoulder to make sure no one else is listening, especially now that Quincy has gone supersonic.
Seeing my discomfort, she leans forward and lowers her voice. Way, way, lower. “Sorry. You…I was not expecting…” Her eyes fill with tears.
“We took a test yesterday. You’re the first to know.”
Her jaw drops as I explain about the missed doses of birth control.
The gasp from her has me glancing around the room again. “That’s why you wanted to come here instead of getting mimosas!”
My shrug is followed by her whispering conspiratorially. “I’m going to be an auntie!”
Not by blood, but I’m happy to hear her say that. Nico was right. This baby is going to be so loved.
“Thank you,” I reply, my voice shaking. “That means so much to me, Quincy.”
She reaches across the table and grabs my hand. “Are you kidding? I’m trying not to scream about it.”
“I appreciate that. And the other reason I wanted to see you is this: I’m so tired, achy, and stressed that I don’t think I canmake it through a whole day orchestrated by my mother. Would you come with me to the dress fitting? Nico will be there, too, but I really need as much moral support as I can get. I’m going to put my foot down about the dress.”
Quincy lets go of my hand and picks up her handbag. “Let’s go, Mama.”
The dress studio is a short hike through a lush backyard full of ornamental trees and flowers. A rocky herb garden there, a koi pond over there. And over near the carriage house, a welcoming fire pit.
My mother is already complaining. “Very strange to make paying customers tromp through the wilderness,” she says as we pass through the garden gate behind Iris’s Arts and Crafts-style house.
Nico makes appreciative noises as he looks around, the kind of noises that tell me he’s getting ideas. Maybe inspiration for a backyard we might have one day.
Quincy is a trooper. “It’s worth it. Iris is the best in town,” she says.
My mother, who came here for the previous fitting, still isn’t over how unorthodox this is. It’s like she doesn’t even live in the town where she and Daddy raised me. She lives by the lake and sort of…exists here. Not really a part of it, though. Mama gets her groceries at big chain supermarkets in other, larger towns. She shops for clothes in Raleigh and Charlotte. She vacations at the Outer Banks, but still has never seen the state park where my brother James works.
Maybe it’s the hormones taking over and making me dramatic, but a lump starts to form in my throat. She doesn’treally know any of her adult children. Not in any meaningful way.
“Let’s just hope I got what I paid for,” she says.
Iris meets us outside, looking flushed and happy.
“Hi everyone! Come on inside,” she says, opening the windowed door to her studio.
Nico puts up his hands. “Oh, I don’t want to see the dress yet. I’m just here for moral support.”
Iris is already prepared for this. “Of course. You can let yourself into the kitchen right over there.” She gestures to the French doors at the back of the main house connected to the studio. “There’s sweet tea and cookies waiting. Make yourself at home.”
Iris’s boyfriend steps out of her studio, then, and a look passes between them.
“This is Oliver,” she says, shyly. He gives everyone a nod hello.
Oh, we know who he is. The whole town was talking about the man from Charlotte who rented her carriage house two months ago and just…never left.
Oliver kisses Iris on the temple and tells her he’ll be back later. I cut my eyes to Quincy, who fans herself as Oliver walks away.
“That man is hot, hot, hot,” Quincy whispers as we follow Iris into the studio.
