“Fine.” Eliza leaves the door open and zooms out of the room. Lazily, I get up and use the bathroom. Lucas brought my suitcase upstairs, and I haphazardly pull out a sundress and get it halfway on before remembering it’s November in Chicago and a strappy dress isn’t going to cut it. I dig through my suitcase, finding leggings and a sweater.
“Lucas,” I whisper quietly, waking him up. “I’m gonna head out for breakfast with Abby.”
“Okay,” he says sleepily, sitting up to kiss me. Using magic, I curl my hair on my way down the stairs. Abby is in the foyer, apprehensively petting Scarlet.
“Hey, sis,” I say. “Sorry, I overslept.”
“It’s fine. The first trimester sucks all the energy out of you.”
“It really does.” I yawn, raking my fingers through my curls. “At least I have light at the end of my tunnel. I’ll pop this thing out and never have this much humanity inside of me again.”
“I feel like there’s almost a dirty joke in there somewhere,” Abby laughs. “But Lucas is a vampire, not a human.”
“Talk about a missed opportunity.”
“Did you guys have fun? I liked watching your stories on Instagram.”
“It was amazing! I got Penny a few things.”
“A few?” Abby raises an eyebrow. She’s a bit minimalistic and is probably going to hate the bags of presents I’m about to give her.
“It’s fun to shop for kids. I never really thought about it before.”
“Did you buy baby stuff?”
“Of course. Lucas went even more overboard than me.”
“I can see that,” Abby laughs. “Eliza got a dog?”
“Oh, right, you don’t know. This is Scarlet.”
Abby looks at the big dog. “How?”
“Lucifer.” Guilt rushes through me. The last time Lucifer was here, Abby almost died. She has no idea and I need to keep it that way. “We kind of hung out right before I left for vacation.”
Abby looks at me, horrified. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t tell anyone,” I admit. “Only Julian.”
“Is that why he came with you? To protect you against Lucifer?”
I fish my shoes out of another suitcase in the foyer as I talk. “Not necessarily. To make a long story short, Lucifer kind of saved me.” And you. But not just kind of. He literally pulled a bullet from your body and healed you as you lay dying in front of me in your very own house. “The other archangels almost found me, and he distracted them and led them away. Then he took us to a strip club in Texas and drank almost an entire bottle of whiskey. It was an interesting night.”
Abby stares at me, unblinking. “And I thought the guy who came into the ER last night with a toy car up his butt was a story that couldn’t be beat.” She meets my eyes and then bursts into laughter. “I don’t know why I’m laughing. The devil is here on earth and he…he…helped you.”
“Don’t think about it too much,” I tell her. “It’ll give you a headache.”
“So, he’s good?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.” The world feels like it's closing in on me, and I start to feel sick. I squeeze my eyes closed and the chandelier above us starts to shake. It was stupid to go on vacation and pretend that everything is okay, because it’s not.
It’s so fucking far from okay and I’ve only been delaying the inevitable. I’ve been texting back and forth with my friends, but I know they would withhold the truth to ensure I had a good vacation, and mostly, so I could get away from the stress for a bit. It’s no secret being stressed is bad for pregnancy, and I only have one shot at this. That alone is enough to cause me to have a panic attack if I stop and let myself think about it too hard. I’m a ball of nerves, one pinprick away from exploding. Abby, bless her, is able to tell and rests her hand on my arm.
“Let’s just get breakfast. And if you have vacation photos, I want to see them.”
I smile, trying to shift my focus back to the topic of vacation and being carefree and happy. “I have tons.”
“Great. It’s going to make me want to plan a family trip.”
“You should go!” I lead us out the door. “Are we walking or driving?”
“Driving because it’s cold,” Abby says. “Though we’ll probably end up walking because there’s no way I’ll find a spot near the restaurant.”
“We will. I’m feeling lucky about it.”
“I hope you’re right. The air is damp and gives you that instant chill.” We get into Abby’s SUV, talking about family vacations like everything is normal. Halfway down the block, Abby’s phone rings.
“It’s my mother-in-law,” she says and goes to decline the call but accidentally hits the green icon on the screen instead. “Shit, I mean, hi, Rosalin!” She looks at me and makes a face. I quietly laugh.