The Baby Truce. Jeannie Watt

one arm draped over a woman wearing a sequined top very similar to the one on his bathroom doorknob. With the other hand he pointed directly at the camera, his mouth open as he obviously expounded.

      And how he’d expounded, according to the article beneath the photo. The text wasn’t long, but it was colorful and explained exactly what he thought of Jervase Montrose and his restaurants, plus his feelings on all corporately managed eating establishments. The reporter had also helpfully included Tom’s insights into the personal habits of several food critics. There were many, many quotation marks.

      Tom slammed the laptop shut and jumped to his feet, needing to move.

      He sensed the need for some damage control.

      He punched Pete’s number into his phone. The business manager answered on the first ring. “You read it?”

      “Yeah.”

      “Then you’ll understand what I’m about to say next.”

      “Which is?”

      “I quit. Please seek other management.”

      REGGIE HAD HEARD OF WOMEN IN denial buying three and four different pregnancy tests, just to make certain the first two or three were correct. She was about to join their ranks. The only thing that stopped her was the landline ringing as she went for her purse and keys. Ignore her sister or get it over with?

      If she ignored her, Eden would show up at her door.

      “Well?” Eden said when she answered.

      “I don’t want to talk about it.”

      “No!”

      “I said I don’t want to talk about it.” Reggie planted the palm of her free hand on her throbbing forehead, trying to ease the tension there. “I’m going to buy another test. This one may have been old.”

      “Old?”

      “Or compromised in some way.”

      “Or the reason you’re throwing up is because you’re pregnant.” Reggie dropped her hand. She couldn’t bring herself to respond. “I’ll be right over,” Eden added.

      “Don’t tell Justin,” Reggie said through gritted teeth. Her brother did his best to appear as if nothing bothered him, but it was a front. Justin was the most protective male of her acquaintance, and right now she didn’t need protection. She didn’t need to hash this through with Eden, either, but better to get it over with now, while she was still numb.

      “Wouldn’t think of it,” Eden said. “See you in twenty. Just…stay calm.”

      Reggie rolled her eyes and hung up. Stay calm. Oh, yeah. She headed for the door. She had just enough time to get to the nearest drugstore and back again.

      No. She’d wait for Eden and then go to the drugstore. They could go together. Reggie stopped in the middle of the room and pressed her palms against her abdomen. How? How could there possibly be a baby growing inside her?

      When Eden showed up twenty minutes later, Reggie was sitting on the sofa, holding Mims on her lap and staring at the opposite wall. This was real. She had accidentally become pregnant at the age of thirty.

      Unless, of course, the test was wrong. It happened.

      Reggie stood as Eden let herself in with her own key. They were dressed almost identically in white T-shirts and jeans…and Eden’s jeans were going to fit her in six months. For a moment the two sisters simply stared at each other, then Eden crossed the room to wrap her arms around Reggie and hug her tightly. “You’re not alone in this. All right?”

      “I know.”

      Eden released her and stood back. “It’s none of my business—”

      “Tom.” No sense being coy.

      “Gerard?” Eden’s mouth fell open. She waited, as if expecting Reggie to say, “Just kidding.” That didn’t happen. “When…where…? Isn’t he in New York?”

      “Sommelier class. San Francisco. He was staying at the hotel while interviewing for a job. We ran into each other the first day of class.”

      “So you slept with him?”

      Reggie gave her sister a weary look. Obviously.

      “You—”

      “We used protection,” Reggie said. “It didn’t work.”

      “But…Tom?”

      She wasn’t going into the wherefores and the whys—mainly because they sounded lame. And she didn’t want anyone to know that she’d gotten pregnant proving to herself that she was over a guy; that she could walk away, just as he had.

      Especially when she’d made the rather startling discovery that physically, at least, she wasn’t over him. Regardless of what her very logical brain was telling her. Sleeping with Tom after all these years had been…something. And if it hadn’t been for her realization that she still had issues with him, she would have pushed back her departure. Had another night with him.

      “Yes, Tom.” She picked up a squirming Mims, who’d had about enough of being used as a security pillow. “And now I have to tell him.”

      Eden’s expression became closed. “Why?”

      Reggie hugged Mims tighter, holding the cat’s plump gray body against her chest. “What do you mean, why? Because he’s the father. He has a right to know.”

      Eden let out a sigh as she reached up to pat Mims, who escaped to the back of the sofa after Reggie released her. “It’s just that he made you so damned unhappy when you guys broke up, and now…” She gave a small shrug. “But it isn’t like he’s going to want to settle down or anything.”

      “No.” Again, obviously. He hadn’t settled into anything since leaving her, moving from job to job, city to city. Her kid was going to have a normal life, and Tom’s life was anything but normal.

      Her kid. What a concept.

      “And I guess he should pay support,” Eden added.

      “I don’t know that I want him to.” Because if he paid support, he’d have a say in the child’s upbringing.

      But would he want a say?

      She’d been officially pregnant for all of an hour and was already drowning in unanswered questions and potential complications.

      And she was still grappling with the thought of a tiny being growing inside her. “I guess the smart thing to do, after I go to a doctor and make sure I’m really pregnant, is to see a lawyer.” She sat on the sofa, reaching up to stroke Mims on the cushion next to her head. “It’s going to take a while to get used to this idea.”

      “For all of us.”

      Reggie dropped her hand into her lap and looked up at Eden, who still stood next to the recliner. “I always figured that if one of us got into this mess, it would be Justin.”

      Eden’s mouth twisted in ironic acknowledgment. “Instead, it’s the responsible Tremont. Go figure.”

      The responsible Tremont who had no idea what to do next.

      CHAPTER TWO

      REGGIE TOOK TWO MORE PREGNANCY tests early the next morning before work. Just to make sure.

      Her body and three different pharmaceutical companies were in agreement. She was pregnant.

      After the last test went into the trash, Reggie poured a big glass of orange juice, took two sips before deciding it tasted off, then put the glass on the counter.

      She sat at the kitchen table and laid her head on her folded arms. Mims jumped up on the off-limits surface and butted her with her head, trying to remind her that the Salmon Soufflé was still in the can. Reggie shooed her off, then closed