Free Vegas Pregnancy Surprise by Shirley Jump Page A

she wanted to tell him about the baby—just as she dashed off to the ladies’ room.
    Linc reached for her, his face filled with concern, but before his touch could connect with Molly she mumbled an excuse about being late—
    And hurried down the hall, escaping just before she announced her pregnancy in the worst possible way.

CHAPTER FIVE
    M OLLY picked at her dinner, pushing the chicken from one side of the plate to the other, piling the risotto into a mountain that she knocked down again with her fork. She was sitting in Sparkle, the beautiful, plant-draped, sun-kissed rooftop restaurant at McKendrick’s with Alex and Serena Benjamin, who had begged off from attending a political fundraiser with her new husband, Jonas, to come to dinner instead. Molly knew she should be excited to be reunited in person with another of her best friends, but she couldn’t seem to find the energy.
    “What gives, Molly?” Alex asked. “You’re not exactly the life of the party tonight.”
    “Are you feeling okay?” Serena asked, concern filling her green eyes. “You’ve hardly eaten a bite.”
    Molly put down her fork and pushed her plate to the side. “No. Yes.” She sighed. “Maybe.”
    Alex and Serena laughed and exchanged a glance.
    “No. Yes. Maybe,” Alex repeated. “That’s like saying everything all at once. What are you, sick?”
    “No. Yes.” Molly let out a breath. “I mean, I’m fine, I’m not sick, but—”
    “That has to be the weirdest answer ever,” Serena agreed. “The only time I know of when a woman feels awful but is totally cool with it is when she’s pregnant and there’s no way…” Serena stopped talking. Stared at Molly.
    Molly swallowed hard. A weak smile wobbled on her lips. She put out her hands and shrugged.
    “Molly?” Alex said.
    “You’re not. Are you?”
    Molly nodded. “I just found out.”
    Alex and Serena both exploded in cries of joy, drawing Molly into twin hugs so fierce Molly nearly couldn’t breathe.
    “Two months?” Alex said. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us. How did this happen? I mean…” Then the lightbulb went on. Her jaw dropped, her eyes widened. “Two months ago we were here. In Vegas.”
    Molly nodded again. She had to tell them. These women were two of her best friends. Eventually she would start showing, and the questions would start. She had to come up with answers. How could she possibly tell people—strangers, casual friends, oh, God, her mother —that this pregnancy was the result of a one-night stand? But with her best friends, she could—and should—tell the truth. After all, they’d been there, and they, of all people, would understand.
    Molly took a deep breath, then plunged forward with the story. “Remember the second night we were here, how we all kind of went our separate ways?”
    Serena nodded. “You and I went to one of the bars at the Bellagio, but then you said you had a headache and you were going back to our room.”
    “I did. And I was. But as I was leaving I stopped in another lounge, this wonderful piano bar, thinking maybe a glass of wine would help me feel better.” Heat filled Molly’s cheeks. “And while I was sitting there, I met someone.”
    She could see it all over again, as if she were in the Bellagio’s Baccarat Bar right now, the lights dim, the pianist playing jazz music softly in the background. And then, when she’d been about to leave, Linc had taken the seat beside her, and changed everything. “He slipped onto the stool next to me and ordered a bourbon on the rocks. He was handsome—really handsome—but that wasn’t what intrigued me.”
    “What?” Serena leaned forward, her green eyes wide beneath a fringe of auburn hair.
    “It was his eyes,” Molly said. “When I looked at him, he looked…” She searched for the right word to describe the Linc she had met that night, the one word that could capture the reason she had decided to flirt with him, and later, sleep with him.