The Pregnancy Proposition

I knew you were coming home today.”

“What do you care?”

Piper flinched. “How was Papa’s service?”

Paige folded her arms protectively over her midsection. “It was very nice. They took some professional pictures at the ceremony that they’ll be sending to our parents. They should get them in a week or so.”

Paige felt awkwardly trapped at her front door. She didn’t want to get any closer to her sister. She wanted to collapse into her bed, but Piper was in the way. “You didn’t bring him here with you, did you?” It was the kind of thoughtless thing her sister would do. She wasn’t deliberately hurtful, she was just oblivious to other’s feelings.

“No,” she said with wide eyes. “Wyatt...is gone.” Piper broke down into tears again, but Paige had a hard time feeling sympathy for her.

At the same time, she got the feeling that her sister wasn’t leaving anytime soon. “I’m going to make some coffee,” she said. She’d have to use up her daily allotment of caffeine to get through this.

As the coffee started brewing, she noticed her sister standing in the entryway to the kitchen. “So what happened? Did he leave you for someone prettier?”

Piper winced at her sister’s cutting accusation. “I don’t know. Maybe. We didn’t really talk about it. I just came home from work one day and he was gone.”

“You don’t know why?” Paige asked, pouring them each a mug full of steaming brew.

“I have my suspicions. He kept asking me what Papa left me in the will. I finally told him yesterday that he didn’t leave me anything. That Papa left almost everything to a wounded veteran charity. I don’t think he expected that. I think he was sniffing around me...around both of us...in the hopes that we’d inherit a fortune when our grandfather died. When I came out of it with nothing, he took off.”

That made sense to Paige. She’d met Wyatt when he was working for her grandfather. He had firsthand knowledge of the sprawling estate and how much money the ailing man had to be worth. Paige must’ve been a convenient target for him. “That’s probably why he called me yesterday. Maybe he thought I got something in the will even if you didn’t. I feel stupid,” she said. “It sounds as though he would’ve left me no matter what. He just jumped ship earlier because he thought he could get the money and a prettier woman in the meantime.”

She held out a mug to Piper, who accepted it. “I’m so sorry, Paige. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. He was just so...”

“Mesmerizing.” Paige remembered that much.

“Yes. And charming. And handsome. When he spoke to me, I felt like the most important person in the world. I got wrapped up in it. I never should’ve let myself get anywhere near him when I knew you two were dating. I never meant to hurt you. I mean, you’re my sister.”

Paige didn’t know what to say. Would her sister be here apologizing if she hadn’t been dumped? She wasn’t sure. Instead, she just shook her head. “It’s okay. I’m over Wyatt.” And she was. She was madly in love with another man who lived an ocean away.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Paige turned to face her sister and noticed that Piper’s gaze zoomed in on her just-rounding belly. She knew better than anyone that Paige had always been rail thin, even underweight. A sudden belly was more than just too much food on her recent vacation. Her eyes grew round and wide, then she looked up at Paige with her mouth agape.

“You’re pregnant?”

Paige looked down and stroked the tiny belly she’d earned as she started her second trimester. “I guess this shirt is tighter than when I wore it last. I should’ve tried it on before I packed it.” She sighed and nodded. “Yes, I’m pregnant.”

“With Wyatt’s baby?” Piper didn’t need her sister to answer that. The crestfallen expression on her face was proof enough of that. “Oh my god, Paige!”

Paige set her coffee down just in time to receive the sudden embrace of her sister. Piper clung to her with new tears dampening Paige’s shirt. She thought she’d cried all she possibly could in the car yesterday, but she’d been wrong. In her sister’s arms, she found she couldn’t hold them in. The tears rolled down her cheeks almost faster than her body could produce them.

They stood like that for several minutes until their emotions were spent and their eyes had dried. At last, Piper pulled back and wiped her cheeks. “You come sit down right now,” she said, launching into her older sister bossy self.

Paige was too tired to argue. She took a seat at her dining room table and Piper sat down beside her.

“How far along are you?” she asked.

“Almost fourteen weeks. I didn’t find out about the baby until after...” Her voice trailed off, unable to finish with the words after you stole him away.

“Does he know?”

Paige shook her head. “I was going to tell him when I got back.”

“Oh no,” Piper said. “You’re not likely to track him down. His phone is disconnected. His apartment is vacant. He’s not even working for that landscaping company anymore. Wyatt seriously split town when he was done with us.”