"You really didn't have to come in," Fay said, nibbling on her pinkie nail. "Gracie came in early and helped out with breakfast service."

"It's no big deal. My plans fell through." She'd thought it would take at least a few hours, if not an entire evening, for her and Clinton to discuss what they were going to do about her pregnancy. "And I wanted to get some prep work done for tomorrow."

"Are you sure?"

Ivy tossed aside the measuring cup, and it slid several inches across the Italian marble. "I said it's no big deal."

But her waspish tone made it sound like it was a big deal. d.a.m.n.

"It's just...you look tired," Fay blurted.

Ivy glared so hard, the other woman took a step back. "Why do people say that? Why don't they just say, you look like h.e.l.l? It'd be honest."

"You could never look bad." Fay's quick a.s.surance did little to make Ivy feel any better. She really was tired. And cranky with it.

She sighed. She'd have to try to steal a few hours of sleep before her shift at King's Crossing tonight.

And she needed to tell both her bosses that she was pregnant. At least she had a few days before she worked again at the River View, a restaurant across town where she often picked up a handful of shifts a week. She wasn't looking forward to letting Mr. and Mrs. Mongillo, the owners, know she was having a baby.

It wasn't as if she could keep it a secret much longer. And why should she? She wasn't ashamed of her condition or that she'd spent the night with a man she'd found attractive and interesting.

She just didn't want anyone to judge her. No, that wasn't true. She didn't care what people thought.

But maybe a small part worried about losing Fay's good opinion of her. They weren't ready for matching BFF bracelets and sleepovers, but they got along well enough. Having another woman to talk to, to gossip with and laugh with was...nice. Weird, but nice.

Too often, other women viewed her as compet.i.tion. The enemy, always ready to steal their boyfriends or husbands.

Fay, who should have viewed her only as an employee, often treated her more as a friend. Ivy didn't want to lose that.

She would, of course. No relationship lasted forever. She just hoped this fledgling one with Fay made it a few more months.

"I have to tell you something," she said, knowing she couldn't put this off forever.

Fay just waited. See? No prodding. No pushing. She simply stood by and let things happen.

Ivy preferred to make things happen.

"Look, what I'm about to say... I just want you to know this doesn't change anything. I'll still come in to work every day. It's not going to get in the way of my doing my job here."

A job she'd desperately needed before to help pay off the loan she'd taken out for her mother's funeral. To help pad the nest egg she was trying to build to pay for culinary school. A job that was of the utmost importance now that she'd soon have a baby to take care of.

Fay, sweeter than any woman should be, took hold of Ivy's hands. "It's okay. You can tell me."

Ivy nodded. Tugged free to wipe her palms down the sides of her dress. "I-"

"We're back," Gracie said as she walked into the kitchen, Fay's son Mitch.e.l.l on her hip. "Camden's mom said she'll drop off Elijah before five..." Gracie frowned. Glanced between Fay and Ivy. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Ivy muttered. She hadn't considered telling Gracie. What if the teenager thought having unprotected s.e.x was a good thing? She already looked up to Ivy. What if she thought getting pregnant was a great idea? That she should try it, too?

Ugh. She wasn't even a mother yet, and already she had a supersize case of guilt.

"Actually," Fay said, "something very important is going on. I believe Ivy was just about to tell me she's pregnant."

Ivy's jaw dropped. She shut it with a snap. "What?"

"It's about time," Gracie said, setting Mitch.e.l.l in a chair at the long farmhouse table and handing him a coloring book and box of crayons. "I mean, it's not as if you can wear loose dresses and tops forever and not expect people to notice."

Ivy shook her head, then looked at Fay. "You knew?"

Fay looked embarra.s.sed. Or guilty. "I suspected. You had a few bouts of morning sickness, especially whenever you cooked meat. That, plus the way you've been dressing..."

She trailed off as if there was nothing more to say, which, Ivy supposed, there wasn't.

"So, you suspected I was pregnant and instead of asking me, you told Gracie?" And if these two knew, did that mean others did, as well?

Of course it did. This was Shady Grove. News spread. Fast.

"Please give me some credit," Gracie said, sitting down next to Mitch.e.l.l. He automatically climbed onto her lap. "Molly has been pregnant five times in the past nine years. I know the signs."

"Are you all right?" Fay asked. "No problems with the baby?"

"I'm fine. The baby is fine. I went to the doctor last week."

"Then why didn't you tell us?" Fay wanted to know.

Ivy sighed. "I'm not in a relationship or anything. What happened between me and Clin...between me and the baby's father was a onetime thing. I didn't want you to think I was..."

"Easy?" Gracie asked, coloring a picture of a cartoon duck.

Ivy narrowed her eyes at the girl. "Yes. Thank you so much."

Gracie shrugged. "It's no big deal. A woman's s.e.x life is her own business. Plus, the reason our foremothers had the whole s.e.xual revolution was so we could make our own choices. And that includes who we sleep with."

The kid sure did have a way with words.

"I hope you know I would never think anything like that about you," Fay said, earnest and horrified. As if having a bad thought about someone was akin to kicking kittens and pinching puppies. "I don't like to judge people. No one knows what someone else is going through, so it's better to just accept them. Be there for them when they need you."

Shame filled Ivy. Hadn't she worried that Fay would look down on her? And hadn't she thought Fay was somehow weak because she was sweet natured and giving?

Ever since Fay's husband had left her a few years back, ever since Fay had ended up in the hospital after taking a bottle of sleeping pills, people had judged her. She was healthy now. At least physically.

Ivy wasn't sure she'd ever be stronger.

Still, how difficult it must be, knowing that people were saying awful things about you. Fay must have heard the ugly rumors. Must realize that some people were still talking about her.

"Gracie and I both care about you," Fay continued, able to open up and express her feelings without a qualm. A trait Ivy considered dangerous. If people knew what you thought, how you felt, they could use it against you. "We're here for you and will help in any way we can. I hope you know that."

Ivy did know that. But knowing it and trusting it were two different things.

"I'm available to babysit," Gracie said. "Nights and weekends. You just let me know."

Ivy's eyes stung. Tears. G.o.d. She blamed her whacked-out hormones. She never cried. Not when the girls in high school had called her ugly names. Not when some boy had used her. Not when she'd let some boy use her. Not when her mother had blamed her for the way her life had turned out, had wished she'd never been born. But now, two people were being nice to her and she was all weepy. It was pathetic.

She sniffed. Cleared her throat. "Thanks. Both of you. I'm just... G.o.d. I'm scared," she admitted. "I don't know what to do or what to expect."

"Bigger b.o.o.bs," Gracie said, ticking items off on her fingers, "swollen ankles, hemorrhoids, mood swings, stretch marks and possibly an episiotomy if something tears while you deliver."

Ivy stared at Fay, horrified. "Please tell me she's exaggerating."

Fay looked at her with sympathy. "I wish I could. But trust me. It's all worth it in the end. And not every woman has to deal with all of those things or even any of them. But I don't think that's what you meant."

"It wasn't, but now those are all I can think about."

"Try to forget all of that," Fay said. "They're not important. The only important question is-are you happy about this baby?"

Ivy shut her eyes. "I wasn't," she admitted, not feeling guilty about it. She didn't blame or resent the baby. And really, she couldn't be expected to be held accountable for her feelings. "But I wasn't unhappy, either. At first I was just...shocked."

"And now?" Fay asked quietly.

Ivy looked at her, wondering if she'd misjudged this quiet, fragile woman. Maybe she was stronger than anyone realized. She glanced at Gracie, the girl who was almost like a little sister to her, and at Mitch.e.l.l, so adorable and easygoing with his angelic grin and sweet disposition. She thought about the life inside her. Thought about how she'd be responsible for that life, caring for it, loving it always, and it didn't seem like a burden.

It seemed like an honor.

She was going to have a baby. She was going to be a mother, something she'd always wanted but had feared would never happen-that no one would ever believe she was capable of that kind of love. Though it was earlier than she'd planned, though it was with a man she didn't know, it had happened and she was going to embrace this pregnancy and this child.

"Now," she told Fay, smiling at the thought of having a child to love, having her own family, "I want this baby."

It wouldn't be easy. Despite working two-and at times, three-jobs, she barely made ends meet. She knew nothing about babies, nothing about being a mother, but she could learn. She glanced at Fay, then at Gracie.

Maybe she wasn't as alone as she thought.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

SOMETIMES LIFE WAS just so unfair.

Gracie didn't want to go outside. Didn't want to have to walk across the side yard and get her brothers, but it was her responsibility to watch them. To keep them safe, yes, but when it came to the boys, it was even more important to keep other people safe from them.

How little kids could find so much trouble was beyond her.

While she was listing her complaints as she descended the front porch steps, Gracie acknowledged that she wasn't exactly thrilled to be left watching her brothers on a Sat.u.r.day afternoon in the first place. She wanted to be hanging out with her friends, but since Leighann was with her on-again-off-again-freaking-on-again boyfriend and Ka.s.sandra and Chelsea were out of town, Gracie had nothing to do anyway, so she hadn't put up a fuss when her parents had asked her to babysit.

She should have, she realized as she crossed the yard, the gra.s.s warm and soft under her bare feet. Because now she was stuck at home. The baby and Chandler were napping, but the others...? Well, they'd been quiet for way too long. She'd looked for them all over the house but no luck. She'd checked the backyard, the garage, even had one of the dogs helping, but the four of them were nowhere to be found.

Not good. The twins, all on their own, could cause ma.s.s destruction. They were the ringleaders and often got their brothers to go along with their ideas. And she really didn't feel like putting out any fires.

Literally.

They were nowhere to be found. Darn it. She stood in the bright sunshine outside her back door, twisting one of her curls around her finger. Around and around and around. They'd never taken off before, at least not down the street or anything. But they had, a few months ago when the weather had finally turned nice, ventured into the yard next door.

Andrew's yard.

She could hear people out there now. Andrew's mom didn't spend a lot of time outside, but sometimes Andrew and his buddies would be out there, tossing a football back and forth. Not that she'd been spying on him or anything. It was just that her bedroom window overlooked his yard.

Sauron, her huge, black dog, barked and took off in the direction of the voices. Leaving Gracie no choice but to follow.

She walked slowly. Maybe she was borrowing trouble. It could be anyone out in the yard. Andrew's mom or Leo Montesano, her firefighter boyfriend. Maybe Gracie would get lucky.

She turned the corner, stepped over the invisible line that separated the properties and sighed. No. No luck for her. Not today.

Okay, so maybe she was a little lucky. Because, while Andrew was there, he wasn't alone. He was playing football with Luke and her brothers. Both Andrew and Luke had their shirts off, and she was honest enough to admit that seeing them shirtless was not a hardship.

It was purely a physiological response. She was a female in the throes of adolescence, a hormonal time and, some researchers said, the time when she was most fertile. The prime of her life. Though she would argue that time and evolution had pushed that prime back by at least ten years.

Still, seeing the boys bare chested was a pleasure. They were both tall, their muscles well defined. Andrew was darker, his skin already a golden tan, his hair flopping in his face as he caught a pa.s.s from one of her brothers. Luke tackled him. Hard. Both of them rolling onto the ground only to get up grinning, slapping each other's arms and backs, laughing, though Luke had just tried to drive Andrew's face into the gra.s.s.

Boys. So weird.

Her brothers were in on the action, and they'd taken off their shirts, as well, their skinny bodies all arms and legs and slight ridges of their ribs.

And they were filthy. Covered in dirt and sweat.

She considered, seriously considered, leaving them there so she wouldn't have to deal with them, wouldn't have to try to convince four stinking, overexcited boys to come home and get cleaned up but they were her responsibility.

Her feet dragging, she stepped farther into the yard.

Luke noticed her first. Smiled at her. He'd only worked with her twice since starting at Bradford House Tuesday, and she'd kept her distance, hadn't said much, but he insisted on being nice to her. Friendly. As if she'd ever believe he really wanted to be her friend. "Gracie. Hi."

Andrew stopped playing and looked up. Blinked in surprise, then jumped to his feet. "Hey, Gracie."

She nodded. "Boys," she said to her brothers, who were begging Andrew to throw them the ball, "what are you doing?"

Three-year-old Caleb pressed against Luke's leg and smiled angelically at her. "Hi, Gracie. Luke plays football," he said with all the awe of someone who'd just met a member of the Steelers or something. "I caught his pa.s.s!" He glanced up at Luke. "Didn't I?"

Luke grinned and ruffled Caleb's sweaty blond hair. "You sure did, bud. It was a great catch."

Usually, whenever Caleb saw Gracie, he raced over to her, but now he looked perfectly content to cuddle with some guy he didn't even know.

Traitor.

"You're not supposed to leave the yard," she told her brothers. Her tone, sharper than usual, had Caleb's lower lip trembling, had him edging closer to Luke.