“Then why didn’t you tell us?” Fay wanted to know.

Ivy sighed. “I’m not in a relationship or anything. What happened between me and Clin...between me and the baby’s father was a onetime thing. I didn’t want you to think I was...”

“Easy?” Gracie asked, coloring a picture of a cartoon duck.

Ivy narrowed her eyes at the girl. “Yes. Thank you so much.”

Gracie shrugged. “It’s no big deal. A woman’s sex life is her own business. Plus, the reason our foremothers had the whole sexual revolution was so we could make our own choices. And that includes who we sleep with.”

The kid sure did have a way with words.

“I hope you know I would never think anything like that about you,” Fay said, earnest and horrified. As if having a bad thought about someone was akin to kicking kittens and pinching puppies. “I don’t like to judge people. No one knows what someone else is going through, so it’s better to just accept them. Be there for them when they need you.”

Shame filled Ivy. Hadn’t she worried that Fay would look down on her? And hadn’t she thought Fay was somehow weak because she was sweet natured and giving?

Ever since Fay’s husband had left her a few years back, ever since Fay had ended up in the hospital after taking a bottle of sleeping pills, people had judged her. She was healthy now. At least physically.

Ivy wasn’t sure she’d ever be stronger.

Still, how difficult it must be, knowing that people were saying awful things about you. Fay must have heard the ugly rumors. Must realize that some people were still talking about her.

“Gracie and I both care about you,” Fay continued, able to open up and express her feelings without a qualm. A trait Ivy considered dangerous. If people knew what you thought, how you felt, they could use it against you. “We’re here for you and will help in any way we can. I hope you know that.”

Ivy did know that. But knowing it and trusting it were two different things.

“I’m available to babysit,” Gracie said. “Nights and weekends. You just let me know.”

Ivy’s eyes stung. Tears. God. She blamed her whacked-out hormones. She never cried. Not when the girls in high school had called her ugly names. Not when some boy had used her. Not when she’d let some boy use her. Not when her mother had blamed her for the way her life had turned out, had wished she’d never been born. But now, two people were being nice to her and she was all weepy. It was pathetic.

She sniffed. Cleared her throat. “Thanks. Both of you. I’m just... God. I’m scared,” she admitted. “I don’t know what to do or what to expect.”

“Bigger boobs,” Gracie said, ticking items off on her fingers, “swollen ankles, hemorrhoids, mood swings, stretch marks and possibly an episiotomy if something tears while you deliver.”

Ivy stared at Fay, horrified. “Please tell me she’s exaggerating.”

Fay looked at her with sympathy. “I wish I could. But trust me. It’s all worth it in the end. And not every woman has to deal with all of those things or even any of them. But I don’t think that’s what you meant.”

“It wasn’t, but now those are all I can think about.”

“Try to forget all of that,” Fay said. “They’re not important. The only important question is—are you happy about this baby?”

Ivy shut her eyes. “I wasn’t,” she admitted, not feeling guilty about it. She didn’t blame or resent the baby. And really, she couldn’t be expected to be held accountable for her feelings. “But I wasn’t unhappy, either. At first I was just...shocked.”

“And now?” Fay asked quietly.

Ivy looked at her, wondering if she’d misjudged this quiet, fragile woman. Maybe she was stronger than anyone realized. She glanced at Gracie, the girl who was almost like a little sister to her, and at Mitchell, so adorable and easygoing with his angelic grin and sweet disposition. She thought about the life inside her. Thought about how she’d be responsible for that life, caring for it, loving it always, and it didn’t seem like a burden.

It seemed like an honor.

She was going to have a baby. She was going to be a mother, something she’d always wanted but had feared would never happen—that no one would ever believe she was capable of that kind of love. Though it was earlier than she’d planned, though it was with a man she didn’t know, it had happened and she was going to embrace this pregnancy and this child.

“Now,” she told Fay, smiling at the thought of having a child to love, having her own family, “I want this baby.”

It wouldn’t be easy. Despite working two—and at times, three—jobs, she barely made ends meet. She knew nothing about babies, nothing about being a mother, but she could learn. She glanced at Fay, then at Gracie.

Maybe she wasn’t as alone as she thought.

CHAPTER EIGHT

SOMETIMES LIFE WAS just so unfair.

Gracie didn’t want to go outside. Didn’t want to have to walk across the side yard and get her brothers, but it was her responsibility to watch them. To keep them safe, yes, but when it came to the boys, it was even more important to keep other people safe from them.

How little kids could find so much trouble was beyond her.

While she was listing her complaints as she descended the front porch steps, Gracie acknowledged that she wasn’t exactly thrilled to be left watching her brothers on a Saturday afternoon in the first place. She wanted to be hanging out with her friends, but since Leighann was with her on-again-off-again-freaking-on-again boyfriend and Kassandra and Chelsea were out of town, Gracie had nothing to do anyway, so she hadn’t put up a fuss when her parents had asked her to babysit.

She should have, she realized as she crossed the yard, the grass warm and soft under her bare feet. Because now she was stuck at home. The baby and Chandler were napping, but the others...? Well, they’d been quiet for way too long. She’d looked for them all over the house but no luck. She’d checked the backyard, the garage, even had one of the dogs helping, but the four of them were nowhere to be found.

Not good. The twins, all on their own, could cause mass destruction. They were the ringleaders and often got their brothers to go along with their ideas. And she really didn’t feel like putting out any fires.

Literally.

They were nowhere to be found. Darn it. She stood in the bright sunshine outside her back door, twisting one of her curls around her finger. Around and around and around. They’d never taken off before, at least not down the street or anything. But they had, a few months ago when the weather had finally turned nice, ventured into the yard next door.

Andrew’s yard.

She could hear people out there now. Andrew’s mom didn’t spend a lot of time outside, but sometimes Andrew and his buddies would be out there, tossing a football back and forth. Not that she’d been spying on him or anything. It was just that her bedroom window overlooked his yard.

Sauron, her huge, black dog, barked and took off in the direction of the voices. Leaving Gracie no choice but to follow.

She walked slowly. Maybe she was borrowing trouble. It could be anyone out in the yard. Andrew’s mom or Leo Montesano, her firefighter boyfriend. Maybe Gracie would get lucky.

She turned the corner, stepped over the invisible line that separated the properties and sighed. No. No luck for her. Not today.

Okay, so maybe she was a little lucky. Because, while Andrew was there, he wasn’t alone. He was playing football with Luke and her brothers. Both Andrew and Luke had their shirts off, and she was honest enough to admit that seeing them shirtless was not a hardship.

It was purely a physiological response. She was a female in the throes of adolescence, a hormonal time and, some researchers said, the time when she was most fertile. The prime of her life. Though she would argue that time and evolution had pushed that prime back by at least ten years.