By the time we finish eating, I’m leaning back in my chair, one hand on my stomach, the other covering my mouth as a satisfied sigh slips out. Lilly wipes her mouth with a napkin, eyes twinkling mischievously like she’s already up to something.
“So,” she says casually, tossing her napkin onto her empty te. “How about we go grab a drink?”
I give her a t look. “You do remember I’m pregnant, right?”
She smirks. “Rx, mama bear. They make non–alcoholic drinks, you know. You can sip on apple juice in a fancy ss while I enjoy something stronger. Everybody wins.”
I roll my eyes but can’t help theugh that escapes. “Only you would drag a pregnant woman to a bar.”
“Correction–only I would know when a pregnant woman needs it<i>,</i><i>” </i>she counters with a wink. “Come on,
Si. You’ll feel better.”
I hesitate for a second, weighing my fatigue against her stubborn streak. She means well, and I know that I need this. I need to be around some positive energy after having to deal with Noah and Brook.
Finally, I sigh, shaking my head and teasing. “Fine. But only because I know you’ll be miserable without
me.”
She rolls her eyes and gives a snort but smiles nheless.
We pay our bill and head out. Thirty minutester, Lilly pulls into the lot of a cozy–looking bar that glows warmly against the night. Music hums low,ughter spills out of the doors, and the ce feels alive but
not overwhelming.
Inside, the air smells faintly of citrus and something sweet from the cocktails being made at the counter.
Lilly slides into a booth near the back, and I follow, grateful for the quiet pocket away from the main
crowd.
When the waitresses, Lilly orders some kind of cocktail with a name I can’t pronounce, and I stick to
a soda.
While we’re waiting, I lean forward, picking at a straw wrapper. “So… Brook came to see me today<b>.</b><b>” </b>
Lilly arches a brow. “Brook?”
“The one and only,” I mutter. “She didn’te for a friendly chat, though. She… threatened me.”
Lilly’s face hardens instantly, her yful spark dimming into something sharper. “She what?”
=
AA
does she think she is, making threats? When did she even get the audacity toe at you? And why the hell did Noah tell her about your pregnancy?”
Her wordse out fast, like bullets, and I can feel the heat in them. I almost smile despite myself,
because this is Lilly, ready to burn the whole world down if someone crosses me.
“I was just as shocked when I saw her.”
I should tell her everything, from Noah’s visitst night to the scare in the morning, but I don’t want to
worry her too much… and even though her rtionship with Noah has always been rocky because of me,
I don’t want to add more strain to it by telling her he came with more threats.
“I told you we should have dealt with her a long time ago,” she grumbles, folding her hands across her
chest. “The only way to deal with someone like that is to crush them before they get too poweful… Now
see, she has the balls toe at you because you were too kind and didn’t want me to take care of her
and Chloe.”
The moment we realized the kind person they are, Lilly came up with a suggestion to deal with them. ‘
dealing with them‘ could have meant a lot of things, and knowing my crazy best friend, I couldn’t risk us
going to prison.
“You know Noah sees her as his sister,” I tell her with a sigh.
Lilly growls, “She’s a fucking leech, that what she is.”
The thing is, Lilly has tried telling Noah so many times about Chloe and Brook’s maniptions but he
wouldn’t listen. He always thought that Lilly was just ndering them because of me. Actually, he thought I was pulling the strings and putting Lilly up to it, so he never even let Lilly get the words out any
time she tried talking to him.