Chapter 10
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Istartle awake at the sound of something clattering to the floor. My eyes scan the room as I try to figure out where I am. I notice the snow on the television and realize I’m laying on the couch. I guess I fell asleep here. Nothing new.
“Where is she?” Ashlyn asks from my bedroom. And now I know what clattered to the floor. It wasn’t a what. It was a who.
“Keep it down,” Aspen responds.
“Why? We’re breaking into her house. She’s going to figure out it’s us eventually.”
“Where are Juniper and Lilac?” I holler toward my bedroom.
“Present!” Juniper yells.
“I’m here also,” Lilac says as she enters the living room while wiping imaginary dirt off of her pants.
“How did you get in here?” I made sure to lock all the windows and doors when I came home since I knew a sister invasion was bound to happen after they learned I’m pregnant.
“Don’t insult us,” Aspen says.
“I’m on the second floor.”
“What’s your point?” Ashlyn asks.
“Never mind,” I mutter.
Aspen lifts my feet to sit on the sofa next to me while Ashlyn and Juniper sit on the floor in front of the television. Lilac drags a kitchen chair into the room.
“Oh good. We’re all here.”
“Yes.” Lilac nods. “It’s best we discuss things as a group.”
“I was being sarcastic,” I tell her.
“It doesn’t change the accuracy of your statement.”
“Have you talked to Mom?” Aspen asks, and I cringe. The last thing I want to do is tell my mom – the world’s biggest advocate for safe sex in the entire world – about how I got pregnant by mistake.
“She won’t be mad,” Ashlyn claims.
“No, she’ll be disappointed, which is …”
“Worse!” my sisters shout in unison.
“Who is Cole and why haven’t we heard of him?” Ashlyn taps her chin, and I notice her engagement ring sparkle.
“Shit, Ashlyn. I don’t mean to steal your thunder. You got engaged today, and I haven’t congratulated you yet.”
She waves her ring at me. “No need to apologize. I got the guy in the end. It’s all I ever needed.” Her smile stretches from ear to ear.
“I’m happy for you.” My eyes itch and I sniff before the tears can fall. “Damn pregnancy hormones.”
“Don’t blame the pregnancy. I cried for Rowan when he proposed, too,” Juniper teases and Ashlyn shoves her over while she giggles.
“According to my information, Cole was only in town for a few days,” Lilac says.
Of course, she knows how long he was in town. In addition to being a walking, talking encyclopedia, she doesn’t forget anything. It’s incredibly annoying normally, but more so when you grow up with her and think you’ve managed to get away with ‘borrowing’ her skirt ‘for good’.