The Truest Thing (Hart's Boardwalk 4)
“I’m sorry, Jess.” Bailey gave her a sympathetic look.
“No, I’m sorry.” Jess glowered at the wall beyond us. “I’m an irritable, unpleasant human to be around. Dahlia and Em closed their stores to come here so I didn’t have to come to you, and I’m being horrible.”
“You’re thirty-four weeks pregnant with what I can only assume is a future NBA player,” Dahlia retorted. “You’re allowed to be irritable.”
“Emery isn’t irritable.”
Oh God, don’t bring me into it.
“Look”—Jess gestured to me, bringing me into it—“twelve weeks pregnant and you wouldn’t even know it. I bet you’re going to have a cute little bump and stay long-legged and beautiful and comfortable throughout the whole thing.”
“Let’s focus on the future,” I urged. “And how our children will be so close in age, they’ll grow up as best friends.”
“And,” Bailey jumped in, “if one is a boy and the other a girl, they might grow up as childhood sweethearts. How adorable would that be?”
“That would be adorable,” Jess agreed with a smile.
All four of us sighed with relief that she liked the idea. It was her first smile of the day.
“What about you and Vaughn?” Jess asked Bailey. “Have you had the kid talk yet?”
“We know we don’t have a ton of years to put it off, but we’ve decided we’d like at least a year, maybe two, where it’s just us.”
“I get it,” Dahlia agreed. “Michael and I talked about having kids just after I got shot. I wanted to know it was an option. But now Michael is talking about it a lot, as if he wants it all and he wants it all as soon as possible. I just want him for a while. I didn’t have him for so long, and as selfish as it sounds, I don’t want to share him just yet.”
“Have you told him that?” Ivy asked.
“No, I don’t want him to think I’m selfish.”
“I don’t think he’ll think that’s selfish at all,” I assured her. “In fact, I think it’ll probably make him want to have sex with you.”
“Watching paint dry would make that man want to have sex with her,” Bailey teased.
Dahlia grinned, and it was smug. “You’re not wrong.”
“And what about Ivy and Jeff?” Bailey gave Ivy a mischievous smile.
“Oh hell, we are nowhere near that.”
“Well, the entire town is talking about the good sheriff mooning after our Academy Award-winning Ivy Green. They’re anxious that she’ll break his heart by returning to Hollywood.”
Ivy gaped at Bailey. “Are you kidding me? Are people really saying that?”
“Of course, they are. Between Emery and Jack hanging o
ut all the time, and you and Jeff, the tongues are a-wagging.”
If they knew what Jack and I had been up to last night, the gossips would lose their minds.
“Jeff and I are very new. We’re just enjoying each other’s company.”
“But are you staying in Hartwell?” Bailey pressed. “Because the gossips want to know.”
“The gossips can go take a flying jump off the boardwalk.”
“I mean me, Ivy,” Bailey huffed. “Your best friend wants to know.”
Ivy’s expression softened. “I just sold a screenplay I wrote awhile back, and I’ve started working on a book.”