Page 140 of Falling for Mr. October

“I’m pregnant with his baby,” she says loftily. “He’ll come home and do the right thing. His grandmother will expect him to marry me when she finds out about the baby, and he’d do anything that old bag asks.”

Giovanni makes a sound deep in his throat, nearly a growl, and Luanne rapidly scribbles down, Oh no she didn’t. But neither of them says anything.

I squeeze Giovanni’s hand again in appreciation. He promised he would leave it to me, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.

“And what’s going to happen when he releases all the unhinged messages you’ve been sending him?” I ask Janine.

“He wouldn’t do that.”

“Maybe not, but I will if you don’t back off. But say he does take you back…what’s going to happen next year, Janine? What’s going to happen when they do a blood test and they find out it’s not his? You haven’t thought this through.”

“He won’t ask for a paternity test. He’s always wanted kids.”

I feel Giovanni tensing beneath me, so I find his hand and cradle it. “So you’re counting on your charms to pull you through. Interesting.”

What charms? Helen writes.

“If you let that reporter go through with publishing this article,” I continue, “it’ll hurt Giovanni in the short run, but there’s only one person it’s going to hurt in the long run. You. And the baby, if there really is one.”

“I know he’s not really with you,” she snaps. “I saw the stories, but he didn’t go there because of you. He went because he was running away. He’s a fucking coward, just like he’s always been. Just like he’ll always be.”

“What was that?” asks Diana, the resident with the hearing aid. “Can you speak up? I didn’t hear the last part.”

“She said he was a coward,” Helen says with a snort, tapping the whiteboard sharply with her marker. “Has she even met Giovanni? I’ll have you know that man stripped off his own shirt to put out a kitchen fire. How many men do you know who’d do that, little missy?”

“What the fuck?” Janine sputters. “Are you on speakerphone with your grandma?”

“No, she’s on speakerphone with all of her grandmas,” Luanne says hotly, and then she hesitates, shrugging. “Except for her actual grandmother. Would you like us to conference her in? We probably should have invited her.”

“Her brother’s here too,” Miles adds. His gaze lands on Emily. “And her best friend.”

“You’re a bunch of freaks!”

“I’m here too, Janine,” Giovanni says, his voice hard. “You’re right. I came to Apple Ridge because I was a coward, but I’ve found someone and something worth fighting for.” He pulls me close, his hand wrapped possessively around my hip. “Give this up before more people get hurt.”

Janine’s quiet for a long moment. Then she says, “I want money. I know you have money now.”

Luanne snorts. “At least four of us are recording this conversation, dear.”

Diana swears under her breath. “I thought I was, but I was actually playing my audiobook on my headset. Sorry. But there are three others. That should be enough.”

“Fuck you,” Janine practically screams into the phone. “Fuck all of you.”

And the connection cuts off.

“Well, that was exciting,” Luanne says, then reaches for the Dong of Discussion. “What was everyone’s favorite smut scene in the book?”

Miles, Giovanni, and I are in high spirits as Giovanni pulls into the farm under the Evergreens & Apples sign, which is only visible as a swaying shadow in the dark. We discussed sending the recordings directly to the It’s Not Gossip reporter but decided to wait until after Giovanni talks to his agent. Still, we’re feeling pretty good about having settled this Janine business.

But as we approach the farmhouse, an ambulance with flashing lights speeds past us. It must have come from the house…

“Fuck,” Miles says, which conveys what all three of us are feeling.

The last time an ambulance was at our farm like this was several months back, when it came for Uncle Ted. It took him away to the hospital, and he never came home.

Giovanni doesn’t hesitate. As soon as he can manage it, he makes a sharp U-turn and follows the ambulance, speeding along the gravel road until we catch up to it. He follows behind it, his expression severe, and none of us say anything.

We all know what the two most likely scenarios are. Something happened to our grandmother, or something happened to his.