Free A Fallow Heart by Linda Kage

and stepped in reverse. “Don’t change the subject. Why’re you asking me something like that?”
    Stumped, Amy flashed the twins a panicked cringe. She pointed their way before plastering such a fake smile on her face even Jo Ellen rolled her eyes over the bad imitation. “Well…” she stalled. “The twins and I were just talking—hypothetically, of course—about what we’d do if one of us were pregnant, and I—”
    When she glanced Jo Ellen’s way, Grady cut in. “One of us ?” Turning to eye his sisters, he pointedly focused on the only twin with a boyfriend. “What? Are you pregnant?”
    Jo Ellen tried not to react, but her face heated anyway. “Why do you automatically assume we’re talking about me? Why can’t Amy be pregnant?”
    Grady snorted. “What makes you think Amy and I even have sex?”
    Emma Leigh jumped into the conversation to snort right back at him. “Oh, whatever. I’ve seen the condoms you hide in the back of your underwear drawer.”
    Spinning toward her, Grady scowled. “What’re you doing snooping in my underwear drawer, brat?”
    Em shrugged and smiled. “Snooping.”
    “Well, keep your damn nose out of my things.”
    “Grady!” Amy gasped. “Language.”
    He frowned at his girlfriend. “What? She needs to stay out of my room.”
    “I want to know why you don’t think it’s Amy who could be pregnant?” Jo Ellen demanded, irrationally stung by his automatic assumption about her. Did her own brother think she was so promiscuous?
    Oh, God, was she so promiscuous? What would everyone else think of her?
    “Whoa! Amy’s pregnant?” Caine cried from the doorway.
    The thirteen-year-old was wide-eyed as he zeroed his gaze inside the room at Amy’s belly. Grady’s girlfriend immediately covered her stomach with both hands before she ducked protectively behind Grady.
    “Great.” Jo Ellen groaned. “How many more people are going to stumble across this conversation?”
    “Go away, runt,” Emma Leigh demanded of their youngest brother, throwing one of Jo Ellen’s pillows at him.
    Caine ducked but kept gawking. He glanced at Grady. “You’re going to be a daddy? For real?”
    Grady sighed and set his hands on his hips. “Amy is not pregnant,” he very nearly yelled. Then he ruined the resolute proclamation by tipping a sideways glance toward his girlfriend and more quietly adding, “Right?”
    She nodded vigorously, and his shoulders immediately slumped.
    “So then who’s pregnant?” Caine demanded to know.
    Grady sliced a thoughtful glance Jo Ellen’s way.
    She exploded. “ Stop looking at me like that .”
    “Yeah.” Emma Leigh hooked her arm supportively through Jo Ellen’s. “Why do you assume we’re talking about her? Why can’t I be pregnant?”
    Grady snorted and sent Em a get-real scowl. “Maybe because I’ve been through your underwear drawer and didn’t find any condoms.”
    “Really, Grady. The idea of you pawing through my panties is just plain sick and creepy. Besides, wouldn’t the lack of condoms mean I was less protected and more apt to be pregnant?”
    His eyes narrowed. “Jesus. You always gotta be a smart ass, don’t you?”
    Before Amy could reprimand him yet again, their mother appeared in the doorway behind Caine. “What is going on in here? I can hear you kids arguing from downstairs.”
    Instantly, everyone fell mute. Tara Rose Rawlings set her hands on her hips. “And what’s all this talk about someone being pregnant?”
    Jo Ellen shared a poignant look with her siblings.
    “Dear Lord,” Tara Rose uttered in a hollow voice, covering her mouth with both hands as she ogled Grady and Amy. “Who’s pregnant?”
    Jo Ellen couldn’t take it any longer. “No one’s pregnant,” she yelled, and then ruined her resolve when her mother zapped her with a probing stare. Cowering closer to Emma Leigh, she more quietly added, “I don’t think.”
    “Oh, Jo Ellen, no,” her mother whispered, disappointment and worry thick