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âNo, youâre not. You need to stay in bed all day and rest. Iâve got things handled here. You know weâve been right on schedule with this charity event. I just have a few last-minute things to take care of. You rest up and get better so you can make it on Friday.â
âOkay, I think youâre right.â
âSleep. Itâs the best thing for you.â
âThanks, and, Brooke, no way am I missing this weekend.â
âIâll come over later and bring you some soup.â
âUgh, no. Just the thought of food right now turns my stomach.â
âAll right. Iâll call you later.â
When the call ended, Emma turned her head into her pillow, closed her eyes and slept the entire day. She woke up bathed in a stream of dim light coming from the night-light on the opposite wall. She blinked herself awake. Outside, darkness had descended, but she was safe, protected. Since the night of the blackout, she kept night-lights on day and night in her apartment to keep from ever being alone in total darkness. She also now had an entire bedroom shelf devoted to pillar candles, scented and unscented. It didnât matter, as long as they did the trick. She took them with her when she traveled, too, just in case, and had also started carrying a mini flashlight in her purse. Not that she couldnât use her cell phoneâsomeone had turned her onto a flashlight app, which came in handyâbut cell phone batteries died on occasion and she couldnât chance it.
A look at her cell phone now revealed that it was seven twenty-five. Wow, sheâd slept for nine hours. Funny, but she didnât feel rested at all. Or hungry. Just the thought of food made her queasy all over again.
Brooke called and they spoke for half an hour, going over the final details of the golf event, the dinner, dancing, silent auction and raffle. At two thousand dollars a head and with an expected one hundred fifty guests in attendance, there were lots of fine points to check on.
âIâll see you tomorrow, Brooke,â Emma said, feeling optimistic as she hung up the phone. Her stomach had eased back to normal and she figured sheâd been through the worst of it.
By the morning of the next day, she knew that sheâd figured wrong. She emptied her stomach twice before it settled down. She managed to go into the office, but once Brooke took a look at her pasty face, she ordered her back to bed. Emma didnât have the strength to argue.
By Thursday morning, nothing had changed. She spent the morning in the bathroom next to her new best friend. Suspicions were running rampant in her head. What if she didnât have the flu? What if there was something else wrong with her? Something permanent? Something rest and hot soup wouldnât cure?
Eyes wide-open now, she fought the invading rumblings in her belly, quickly dressed and dashed to the local drugstore. Once she got back home, she peed on a stick at three different intervals of the day, only to get the same result each time. Opening her laptop, she keyed it up and researched a subject she thought would be years down the road for her.
She was as sure now as she would ever be; she had all the symptoms.
She was pregnant.
And Dylan McKay was her blackout babyâs father.
Three (#ulink_903c6c46-e4c7-55d8-b173-4f24ed4ceefd)
âYouâre trying to hide a smile, Brooke. You donât fool me.â
âIâm not trying to fool you, Emma. I think itâs kinda cool that you and my brother...â
âNo, it wasnât like that, really.â Oh, boy.
Having Brooke stop everything at the office and come over right away might have been a mistake. But this was big and she couldnât hide her pregnancy from her best friend. Especially not when Brooke had a stake in this, too; she was Dylanâs sister after all. Emma needed her right now. She had no one else to turn to and time was running out. She had morning sickness, big-time. Immediate decisions had to be made and sheâd have to deal with Dylan at some point.
âWeâre not romantically involved,â she said to Brooke.
Her friend sat on the sofa next to her, her mouth twitching, the smile she couldnât conceal spreading wider across her face. This was no laughing matter. Obviously, Brooke thought differently.
Sheâd given Brooke the bare facts about what had happened that night between her and Dylan, explaining how sheâd panicked when all the lights had gone out in that nightclub. The entire city had gone dark from what she could tell and she hadnât been in any shape to drive home. At least she got that part right. No drunk driving for her.
But instead of Brooke coming to pick her up as sheâd hoped, Dylan had come to her rescue, as any good guy would. Emma tried to make clear to Brooke that sheâd been the one to initiate the lovemaking. Emma remembered that much; sheâd begged him to stay with her. She had no recollection of exactly how it all went down, those hours fuzzy in her head, but it was all on her. Sheâd been scared out of her wits and inebriated. And Dylan was there. Sheâd lived out her fantasy with him that night, but she didnât tell Brooke that. Some things were better left unsaid.
âBrooke, Iâll say it again, and this is hard to admit, but I probably climbed all over him that night. I swear, he didnât take advantage of me.â The worst would be that Brooke would hold anything about that night against Dylan.
Brooke covered her ears. âEmma, pleeeze! No details. I canât think of Dylan that way.â And then she lowered her hands. âBut itâs sweet that youâre trying to protect him. You donât want me to think badly of my brother. I get that, Em. And I donât. No oneâs to blame.â
âOkay, no details.â Not that she could remember any. âDylan doesnât know any of this happened.â
âAre you sure of that?â
âIâm sure. Iâd know it, if he remembered. Iâd see something in his eyes. And heâs never mentioned my phone call that night, or the fact that he came to pick me up from the nightclub. When he came to my apartment the day we went to the childrenâs hospital, he didnât seem to recognize anything as familiar. Iâm certain that night was erased from his memory.â
âI think so, too. Just making sure there were no signs.â
âNope, not a one.â
Brooke nodded and then gazed warmly into Emmaâs eyes for several ticks of a minute. âYouâre going to be the mother of my niece or nephew,â she said as softly as Emma had ever heard her speak. The tone was rich and thick as honey. âAnd my brother is going to be a father.â
The way Brooke put it was sort of beautiful. Emma could get lost in all the wonder of motherhood, of nurturing a new life and having a man like Dylan father her child. But the wonder didnât come close to erasing the plain facts. That she and Dylan didnât plan this child. That he didnât even have a clue what was happening, yet his life was about to change forever.
âOh, Brooke. Iâm just wrapping my head around it. The baby part has me feeling...I donât know, protective already and scared.â Emma shivered. âVery scared.â
âYouâll be fine. You have me. And Dylan. Heâd never turn his back on you.â
âGosh, itâs all so new. Part of me feels guilty not telling him about that night. It mightâve triggered some of his memories.â
âYouâll have to tell him now, Em. He has a right to know.â
It was inevitable that she tell Dylan. But she wasnât looking forward to that conversation. Gosh, heâd been like a big brother to her and now nothing between them would ever be the same.
âI know. I will.â
âGood. Youâre in no shape to do the golf event, Em. Youâre exhausted and still having morning sickness.â
Emma chewed on her bottom lip. She didnât want to miss this weekend. All those hours, all that planning. Brooke needed her, but how could she function when she was running to the bathroom all morning long? âYes, but itâs getting better. Maybe I could come along and help out in the afternoon and evening.â
Brooke was shaking her head. When had she turned into a mama bear? âIâve got it covered, Emma. You canât come. Youâd be miserable. Iâve got Rocky and Wendy on standby.â
The part-timers?
âIâve been briefing them and theyâre up for the task. I donât want you to worry about a thing. You should concentrate on the baby and feeling better. Weâll do fine.â
âAre you saying you donât need me?â
âIâm saying, weâll make do without you, but of course, weâll miss you. Thanks to your unending efficiency, weâve got all the bases covered. You should take this weekend to adjust to all of this. Thatâs what I want for you. Itâs what you need.â
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