Free More Than He Expected by Andrea Laurence Page A

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noise and walking around. Too much energy spent dodging Alex’s watchful gaze and
Adrienne’s continued arguments about her unfit living situation. By the time
their parade of cars pulled into the circular driveway, Gwen was ready to sleep
until her third trimester. Some of the group was talking about watching a movie,
but she wasn’t interested in anything but getting up close and personal with her
pillow. She ignored both Adrienne and Alex’s pointed looks as she excused
herself and went to bed.
    She resisted the urge to sleep in her clothes and managed to
stay awake long enough to take off her jewelry and slip into her oversized
University of Tennessee T-shirt. After that, she fell into a restless sleep
pretty quickly.
    Sometime after midnight, she woke up with a miserably aching
lower back. She propped a pillow between her knees and curled onto her side, but
after another twenty minutes, her back still hurt and she was now wide
awake.
    Gwen flipped on the lamp and sat up in bed, defeated. At home,
she would take a hot shower to ease her muscles, but the sight of her swimsuit
on the dresser gave her a better idea. A swim in the pool would help take the
pressure of the pregnancy off her body and allow her to stretch her sore
muscles.
    Gwen listened for noises outside her bedroom door, but it
seemed that everyone had already gone to bed. Good. This would be her first time
wearing her bikini since she’d gotten pregnant, and she wasn’t quite ready to
debut it to the world yet. She had a one-piece maternity suit that she would
wear during the day with the others.
    But tonight, she was free to swim as she pleased, and it would
be easier to wrestle out of a wet two-piece. It was her favorite swimsuit, navy
blue with tiny, white polka dots. As she slipped it on, she was pleased to find
it still seemed to fit okay, although the bottoms rode lower on her hips to
accommodate her belly. Gwen unlatched her bracelet, leaving it on the dresser,
grabbed her towel and stepped quietly into the dark hallway. She took the direct
route through the kitchen, creeping out the back door without so much as a
creaking hinge.
    Outside, the night was dark, but the lights of the pool were
still on, giving it a shimmering turquoise glow. Wavy silver lines reflecting
from the water danced along the back of the house and across the round, exposed
orb of her stomach.
    She tossed her towel across one of the lounge chairs and
stepped to the stairs. Dipping her toe, she found the water to be cool, but not
too cold. It was heated by solar panels to take the chill off. She stepped down
slowly, submerging her body inch by inch until the water reached her waist.
Letting go of the railing, she surged forward, cutting through the water. She
resurfaced at the far end of the pool, taking a breath and pushing her wet hair
back from her face.
    It felt so good. Not only the water, but the weightlessness.
The ache in her back immediately began to fade. She seriously needed to look
into a membership somewhere with an indoor pool for the last few months of this
pregnancy. Maybe a gym where she could work to get back in shape after Peanut
was born. But either way, it would be worth the money, even if she just soaked
in the water like a giant tea bag.
    Gwen pushed off the wall and started back to the other side,
stretching and pulling herself through the water. After several laps, she leaned
back and let herself float at the surface. The water covered her ears and
muffled the sounds around her, leaving nothing but the silent, starry night
above her. She sighed, looking up at the twinkling scattershot of stars she
couldn’t see in the city. She hadn’t realized how much she missed them until
this moment.
    As a teenager, she’d spent a hundred nights lying on the
trampoline in the backyard doing this same thing. Watching the stars. Making
wishes if one fell to Earth. Dreaming that one day she’d get out of Tennessee
and do something grand and important with her