“To be fair, our track record does foster a small dramatic reaction,” Rosie put in, pinching her thumb and finger millimeters away from each other.
Lucy scowled. “Since when were you ever fair?”
Rosie scrunched her nose. “You’re right. Fuck ‘em.”
Lucy grinned, facing me.
“You need to tell Keltan to call Heath off,” I told her.
Lucy laughed.
Like threw her head back and cackled.
“I’m not joking,” I said.
She wiped a tear from her eye. “Oh, I know, that’s why it’s funny.”
I scowled.
She squeezed my arm. “Sweetie, I do boast a lot of clout with my husband, especially since I’m the one that pretends I control how my legs open and close, but have you seen how hot he is?” Her eyes went dreamy for a second. “But it’s not him that I have to convince. Nor is he in charge when it comes to you and Heath is involved.”
“He was the one that ordered the security detail,” I argued.
Lucy raised a brow. “And who told you that?”
I paused. “Heath.”
She gave me a look, one that told me I should’ve figured something out.
“Heath did not have anything to do with this. In case you haven’t noticed, he hates me,” I argued with her look that tried to tell me this was all Heath’s doing.
“He does not hate you, honey, and that’s the problem,” Rosie said. “He wants to hate you. But he can’t. I’m going to guess he hates himself for feeling the way he does. Someone really has to sue Disney for unrealistic expectations of love and romance. If you lose your shoe at midnight, it’s because you’re drunk. And if it’s a Manolo and you lose it, it means you’re dead. If you fall asleep in a tower, there’s no way a man is gonna get his shit together and fight a dragon then kiss you to wake you up. You know what wakes a comatose woman? The smell of fresh coffee.”
She was rambling at this point because her words had hit their mark. And not just with me. Just because she and Lucy were married and pregnant now, did not mean their stories were over. And I knew that it haunted them, the pain it took them to get there.
It wasn’t something you just forgot.
“Can we please just change the subject?” I pleaded.
“Gladly. Rosie, are you scheduling a C-Section or doing a natural birth?” Lucy asked.
Rosie widened her eyes. “My hair color is never gonna be natural and neither is the birth. C-Section locked and loaded. Why, are you considering pushing a human out of your body?”
“Women have been doing it for thousands of years, it’s not some horrific act,” I cut in.
“Have you seen birthing videos?” Rosie snapped. “The Conjuring has nothing on the ‘beauty of natural birth.”
And from there, it went on. Because it was Rosie and Lucy and they almost managed to distract me.
Almost.
* * *
“I know what I want to do.”
“For dinner?” Lucy clarified, glancing up from her phone. “Thank goodness, otherwise we’d be here forever.”
I smiled. We had been known to take two hours to narrow it down to three different food options, and then we ended up ordering all three.
“Anything but Chinese. Or Mexican,” Rosie interjected. She frowned. “No, wait. What am I, high? No, just pregnant. Mexican is always on the table.”
“No, not for dinner, in life.” I paused. “Well, not life in general, but a job.”
Lucy blinked, her face carefully empty. I knew this look. This was his neutral ‘let’s humor whatever new thing Polly has decided is her calling.’
I didn’t resent it. Because as many boyfriends I’ve had, I had about the same careers. The two were usually mutually exclusive. When I had the boyfriend who wanted to own a farm, I thought I’d make a great alpaca breeder. Or when I briefly—very briefly since he took himself way too seriously—dated a doctor I entertained some Gray’s Anatomy fantasies and decided nursing would be amazing. Each of these new careers were met with that same blank face from both Lucy and my parents.
Rosie had no such reactions. She was grinning wildly. “Oh, can I guess this time?” She didn’t wait for me to answer. “Lion tamer? No, chef at some raw food shop that doesn’t even cook anything so you just chop and blend vegetables?” She paused. “Wait, you’ve done that. Please tell me it’s something that’ll give me some entertainment and excitement now I’m not able to chase after drug dealers and rapists.” Her eyes were bright and wild like that of a child.
I smiled. “Well, I don’t think this latest profession is going to give entertainment or excitement, I’m sorry to inform you. In fact, kind of the whole point of it is peace and calm.”
Rosie rolled her eyes. “Yes, for anyone else. But it’s you.”
She wasn’t wrong. I was me.
But I hoped she was wrong on this occasion. Peace and calm was exactly what I needed right about now.