Free Gansett After Dark by Marie Force Page B

me,” Abby said.
    “I don’t care about any of that,” Stephanie said. “It’s ancient history, and you’re happy with Adam.”
    “I’m so happy with Adam,” Abby said with a goofy grin that made the other women laugh.
    “Are you going to tell us what’s going on, Steph?” Laura asked. “Is something wrong between you and Grant?”
    “No, nothing is wrong. Did he tell you to ask me that?”
    Laura shook her head, concerned by Stephanie’s obvious torment. “Whatever it is, you’ll feel better if you air it out with your best pals.”
    “There’s nothing wrong,” Stephanie insisted.
    “Then why don’t you want to talk about getting married when you’ve been engaged to the man you love for almost a year?” Grace asked.
    “I don’t know.” Stephanie’s shoulders drooped with defeat that tugged at Laura’s heart. “I just don’t know why I don’t want to talk about it. I love him. You guys know I do.”
    “Anyone can see that,” Abby said.
    “Everything is fine the way it is. What difference will it make if we’re married?”
    “I don’t pretend to speak for him, but I think it’ll make a difference to Grant,” Laura said. “He wants kids someday, and he’s already thirty-six. That’s probably part of the reason he’d like to get married and get on with having a family.”
    “I don’t know if that’s what I want.”
    “You don’t want a family?” Abby asked.
    Stephanie shrugged. When her eyes filled with tears, she closed them and seemed determined to will away the tears.
    Grace put an arm around her, and Steph dropped her head onto Grace’s shoulder.
    “I’d probably be an awful mother,” Stephanie said softly, so softly Laura almost didn’t hear her.
    And then suddenly, she understood. “No,” Laura said emphatically. “You’d be a wonderful mother.”
    “How can you say that?” Stephanie asked. “My own mother was a horror show. I have no idea how to take care of a kid who deserves someone who knows exactly what to do.”
    “You’re nothing like her, Steph,” Grace said. “Look at all you’ve done and accomplished by getting Charlie out of jail and opening your own business, all while having the most wonderful relationship with Grant and the rest of us. How can you say you wouldn’t know what to do?”
    Weeping openly now, Stephanie shook her head. “That’s really nice of you to say, but there’s no way to know whether or not I’d mess it up until it happens, and I can’t take that risk. It wouldn’t be fair to the kid or to Grant. He deserves better. He deserves so much better than me.”
    “God, Steph,” Laura said. “You have no idea how much he loves you if you can say something like that.”
    Stephanie wiped the tears off her cheeks. “I know you guys mean well—”
    “Ladies,” a deep male voice said behind them. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take it from here.”
    They spun around to find Grant standing there.
    Laura looked to Stephanie to see what she wanted them to do.
    “It’s okay, you guys. This conversation is probably long overdue anyway.”
    Each of them hugged and kissed Stephanie before they walked away to leave them to work it out. Laura squeezed her cousin’s arm as she walked by, afraid of what might become of him if he lost the woman he loved.

     
    A knot of fear settled in her gut as Stephanie eyed her fiancé’s unreadable expression. “How much did you hear?”
    He kept his hands in the pockets of the plaid shorts she’d bought him for his birthday earlier in the summer. She’d had to talk him into wearing them, and now he loved them. “Enough.”
    “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have shared with them something I’ve been unable to share with you.”
    “Why is that? Why have you been unable to share it with me?”
    “Because I’m afraid.”
    He took a step closer to her. “Of what, honey?”
    “Of losing you.” Despite her effort to contain the emotional wallop of exposing her deepest fears, a sob escaped