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“How are you feeling?”
“Less barfy this second, which is always nice.”
“You don’t look pregnant.”
“Not yet,” Dena said, heading into Reggie’s room and collapsing in the chair by the small desk. “I was going to keep the whole thing a secret until I was three or four months along, but with me throwing up, I’ve had to tell people I’m pregnant, not sick. I hate it when my plans get messed up.”
“You can’t plan for a baby.”
Dena grinned. “You can if you try hard enough. So, you’re back. How does it feel?”
“It’s too soon to tell, but mostly good. I’ve decided I was being ridiculous thinking people would care about my personal life. It’s been a year and Jake’s gone and no one’s going to say anything.”
Dena glanced away, then back at her.
“What?” Reggie demanded as she opened her suitcase and picked up a stack of bikini panties.
“You’re right about Jake. No one’s going to care. But the thing is, I’m not sure they won’t still be chitchatting about you.”
Reggie slid the underwear into the drawer. “What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t want to mention this before—when you were dealing with the breakup. But Toby moved back to town about the time you and Jake ended things.”
Reggie’s first thought was they hadn’t “ended things.” Jake had dumped her with zero explanation. But as her sister’s words sank in, she realized that wasn’t exactly the point.
“Toby as in Toby?” she asked, sitting on the bed. “The Toby I dated in high school?”
“That would be him, yes.”
Toby—she hadn’t thought of him in forever. He’d been her first love, her first boyfriend, her first everything. They’d had a fight, she’d ended things and two days later, he’d taken off, never to return. Or so she’d thought.
“How is he? Have you seen him? He’s been back a year and no one told me?” She tried to remember what, if anything, she’d heard about him. “His grandmother still lives in town, right? And his dad died a couple of years ago.”
“Yes to all that,” Dena told her, looking concerned. “He opened a Judy’s Hand Pies in The Wreath and moved the corporate headquarters to Seattle.”
“What?”
Reggie’s voice was enough of a yelp to cause Belle to raise her head and check for danger. Not finding any obvious threats, she put her head back down.
“He’s in Seattle?”
Dena shook her head. “Mostly he’s here. I think he goes over there every few weeks, but he lives here, with his grandmother, up by String of Lights Park.”
The more well-to-do part of town, Reggie thought absently. “Hey, how do you know so much about him?”
Her sister drew in a breath. “His eight-year-old son, Harrison, is in my class.”
“What?”
Reggie came off the bed and put her hands on her hips. “Toby has a son in your class and you never thought to mention it to me?”
Dena shifted uncomfortably. “I know. It’s bad, huh? I just didn’t know what to say, and when I thought about telling you, it kind of felt like I shouldn’t.”
Too much was coming at her too fast. “So he’s married.”
“No. There’s no wife. Harrison doesn’t say anything about his mom and I haven’t asked. Toby comes to all the parent-teacher stuff. He’s a good dad. He really loves his kid.”
Toby was back and he had a son?
