“You’re an amazing best friend, Vi. You’re going to make an even more amazing mother.”

She throws her arms around me, hugging me hard. “I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” she mumbles into my shoulder.

“You’ve got this. You’re going to be fabulous.”

She steps back, holding my shoulders, maybe for balance or support. “I’m going to get so fat, and my boobs are going to be huge.”

I laugh, but tears threaten to spill over. “Alex is going to love that.”

She cups her hands over her mouth. “Oh my God, he’s going to be so excited.”

“Are you going to call him?”

“I don’t know. I mean, he’ll be home tomorrow. Maybe I should wait and tell him in person. I should wait. I want to see his face. And I don’t know if I want to tell anyone else yet. It’s still so early, so much can happen.” She takes my hands in hers. “Can we keep this between the two of us for now? I’ll tell Alex tomorrow, and we’ll figure out when we want to tell everyone else. But for now, it’ll just be us who know, okay?”

“Of course.”

“Oh my God, Char. I’m going to be a mom, and you’re going to be an aunt, because let’s face it, you’re as close to a sister as I’m ever going to get.”

She hugs me hard again, and I let the tears fall, because as happy as I am for her, I’m a little sad for me and how this is going to change things.CHARLENE

Chicago ends up losing the game in Toronto, which means they’re coming home to play game six in the series. If they lose again, Toronto moves on to the next round, and they’re out of the playoffs. If they win, they go back to Toronto to play game seven.

The second Darren lands in Chicago, he calls to make sure I’m still coming over after work, which is good, because I need a distraction from Violet’s not so little secret.

That anxious feeling settles in my stomach and moves lower. Too bad sneaking off to the bathroom at work to get myself off is frowned upon. “If you still want me to, yes.”

“Definitely. Yes. I want you.” There’s a short pause before he continues. It sounds like he’s opening and closing drawers. “To come over after work.”

“What are you doing? You sound distracted.”

“I can’t find any of your clothes in my dresser. I mean, apart from lingerie. You must have a few articles in here somewhere,” he says.

“Oh, uh, I always bring my things home with me after I spend the night.”

“Oh.” He exhales heavily. “I didn’t realize that. You should leave things here for the nights you plan to stay.”

“Okay. I can do that.”

“Good. Great. I’d like that. You’ll stay tonight, then?”

“You have a game tomorrow night; you need your rest. You know I’m an active sleeper.” I can’t be responsible for interfering with his game when Chicago is so close to making the finals again.

“I suppose I’ll just have to wear you out so you don’t pose a threat to my sleep.”

I laugh at that. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. I would like more rather than less of you, and you staying the night solves that problem.”

“I’ll stop at home before I come to you after work and pick up some things, then.”

“I can do that. I have errands to run so I’ll be out anyway. I could stop by your place and pick up a suit and whatever else you need, That way you can come straight to me—if that works for you, of course.”

“Are you sure? It’s kind of out of your way, isn’t it?”

“Not at all, and it means you’ll be at my place that much sooner. We’ll order dinner in.” He almost sounds giddy.

“Sure. That sounds great.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you soon.”

I leave work promptly at five, my body humming with nervous excitement as I head to the parking garage. I need Darren tonight as much as he seems to need me. Violet’s pregnancy news is hitting me harder than I expected. It’s another thing she and Sunny will have in common, and another way our relationships are just so different. I wonder how Violet’s doing. I’m sure I’ll get a message from her tonight at some point, or maybe she’ll be too busy celebrating.

In my head I’m already filtering through the lingerie drawer at his place. Since they lost the last game, I’m thinking Darren will want sweetly sexy tonight. Something soft to distract him from a hard loss. I imagine I’ll end up in pale purple.

Before I leave the garage, I decide it would be a good idea to let Darren know I’m on my way. Normally he’s quick to respond, but I don’t get anything from him between getting in the car and arriving at the security of his gated community. The guard lets me in, and I pull into Darren’s driveway. It’s empty, but he often keeps his cars in the garage, so it’s not out of the ordinary. I check my appearance in the visor and take a deep breath. The pinging ramps up in my lady bits as I cut the engine and grab my purse from the passenger seat.