“Don’t wish that on her,” Wren said with a shake of her head.
“Wait, not like that! I just need to know I wasn’t alone.”
Finally, I loosened. This was going better than I thought it would. “Will you hate me if I said I didn’t know I was pregnant the whole first trimester?”
Mollie’s jaw dropped. “Seriously? So, it was just normal?”
“I was a little tired.”
“I’m ... so happy for you,” Mollie said through clenchedteeth. Then she shook her head and smiled. “I mean, really, I’m happy for you.”
“Is there anyone else in the picture?” Wren asked. “Or is it just you?”
I looked at Jade again. I hadn’t told her that things were going tentatively well with Dean. She didn’t know that he was slowly opening up, or that he’d held me while I cried about the glucose test.
“You know,” Mollie said, “if anyone can raise a baby on their own, it’s you.”
“Yeah, definitely,” Wren said. “And if you need help, I can build whatever. Cribs, toys. Ooh, what about a rocking chair?”
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m not ... entirely alone.”
“The jury’s still out on that,” Jade muttered. “Can I tell them about your lovely baby daddy who I might murder?”
“I love a good murder,” Wren replied.
“Things aren’t that bad,” I said. “It was rough for a bit, but we’re working things out.”
“Oryou’reworking things out. Grace here has a terrible habit of doing whatever she can to make others feel comfortable.”
“We can also add that she doesn’t love accepting help from others,” Wren added. “It took Dean sneaking off to fix a step because she kept insisting she would do it.”
Jade blinked and turned to me. “Dean was at your house?”
“My heat didn’t work and it turned out to be an electrical problem.”
“You can’t forget the part where he asked you out,” Wren added. I stared at her, silently begging her to shut her mouth.
“Hewhat?” Jade nearly yelled.
“Is that a bad thing?” Mollie asked. “Being pregnant doesn’t mean you can’t live.”
Jade pressed her lips together. She wouldn’t reveal who he was, but it was clear we would be having alongtalk about this.
“It was just to get to know me,” I rushed to say.
“Oh, I bet he does want to get to know you.” Wren laughed. “But not in the way you expect. He’s been into her for four months.”
I winced when she said it. Neither Mollie nor Wren were dumb, and after the words were out, I could see Mollie’s gears turning.
“Wait, how pregnant are you?” she asked.
“A-about four months.”
Wren gasped. “Wait a minute.No.Tell me you didn’t.”
“I could but ... I’d be lying.”
“So, is Dean the dad?”