Page 5 of One Unexpected Gift
“Pinky promise.” Olivia flopped back on the floor.
“Are you sure Owen won’t mind?”
“I talked to him about it an hour ago. He’s totally fine. Granted, I have to provide sexual favors tonight in return. Not a bad trade off.”
“I don’t need to know about what’s going on in the bedroom down the hall from me. I may need to move in with Gina.”
“Are you kidding me?” Charlie snorted. “They’re the newlyweds. Besides, Bryce has made our sweet, shy, Gina come out of her shell. According to Owen, who hears stories from Bryce, she can’t keep her hands off her husband. You’re much better here.”
“Like you can keep your hands off Owen.”
“He is pretty sexy.” Charlie grinned.
Sky rolled her eyes and pushed herself off the couch. “I still have pregnancy pounds to lose. Eating out is not a great way to help me with this battle.”
“Please. You look amazing. We’ll go for an extra long walk tomorrow. Or you can run ahead, and I’ll push Gabriella in the stroller.”
Being fit before and during the pregnancy helped her not gain too much, but she still had an extra twenty pounds she wanted to shed before going back to work. If only she wasn’t tired all the time.
She’d been taking advice from the Mom blogs she followed and napped when the baby napped, but she was still tired. Crawling between the covers sounded better than going out but she didn’t get to see her friends that often.
Once she went back to Virginia, she had no idea when she’d see them again. Six to nine months, most likely. She owed it to them to hang out.
An hour later, after she’d changed into a pair of leggings, boots, and a loose sweater, she nursed Gabby, handed her off to Olivia, and triple checked with Owen to make sure he had her number on speed dial.
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Charlie said when she climbed behind the wheel of her car.
“Until I hear a baby cry at the restaurant, and I start lactating.”
They met Brooke and Gina at Hanson’s, but the wait was thirty minutes.
“I would have made a reservation. Shoot. Where else can we go?” Charlie nibbled on her bottom lip.
“How about The Zone?” Brooke said.
Sky’s stomach clenched. Not the best of ideas. Before she could knock it down, Gina and Charlie agreed. They went to their cars and Sky had no choice but to climb in the passenger seat. It wasn’t that she minded going there. It was the memories the place elicited.
She tamped those down. Best to pretend nothing ever happened.
Five minutes later they pulled into the half-filled lot.
“It’s wicked busy on weekends and in the summer and winter. Tonight doesn’t look too bad. We should be able to get a table in the bar.” Charlie hooked her arm through Skylar’s.
Pretending she had no problem with The Zone, she followed her friends through the front doors. The bowling lanes were all filled but three, and the arcade games on the other side had a handful of families milling around.
Brooke found them a high-top table toward the back, away from the noise of the games. Sky had only been here once. Last November when she’d visited during Thanksgiving. Scanning the bar for a familiar face and not seeing one, she sighed with relief.
A waiter came by and took their drink and appetizer order. Once they were all settled, Brooke asked the question Sky knew would be coming eventually.
“Now that we’ve met our perfect niece and you’re settled in, don’t you think it’s time we learn who her father is?”
Sky swirled her straw in her iced tea. “He’s not a part of our lives.”,
“Yeah, we see that. Why?” Brooke had always been the brashest of the group.
“I’ve already told you this. He was a one night stand. I seriously know nothing about him.” Which was one hundred percent true. She had her share of one-night stands. They were her go-to over suffering through the dating and relationship ritual. No strings, sex when it was convenient, and no emotional conversations about feelings and expectations.
“Not boyfriend material?” Gina asked.