Free Free Fall by Jill Shalvis Page A

done that would be considered a problem, but Sara’s mind worked in mysterious ways. Still, Lily absolutely did not want to do this in the bar—whatever this might be—and tried to direct Sara outside. They made it as far as the double swinging saloon doors.
    â€œI can’t believe you’re covering for Matt again.” Sara didn’t look mad, which was a huge relief forLily, but the misery in her sister’s eyes made the relief short-lived.
    â€œIt was a last-minute thing,” Lily said, having promised Matt she wouldn’t give away the surprise.
    Sara nodded, rubbing the ever-increasing bump beneath her sweater. “I think he’s lying to me.”
    â€œWhy don’t you sit down and take a load off. I’ll make you a hot chocolate.”
    â€œI don’t want to sit down. Did you hear me? I think my husband is lying to me.”
    â€œI just think for the sake of this—” Lily pointed to the baby “—you should sit down.”
    â€œIt’s not a this .” Sara’s eyes filled. “It’s a b-b-baby, and maybe he doesn’t want it anymore. Maybe it’s me and how fat I’ve become!”
    â€œNo, it’s not—”
    â€œThen what’s keeping him lately? Where the hell is he? Oh, my God.” She clapped her hands over her mouth. “He’s changed his mind about me. That’s it, isn’t it?”
    Matt had warned her that Sara’s mood swings were bordering on manic, and Lily glanced at the door, wondering how long he’d be. “He probably just got held up on the road. Listen, Sara, I really have to serve—”
    â€œIt’s because I’m cranky, right?”
    â€œUh…”
    â€œWell, you’d be cranky too if you’d gained enough weight that your scale groaned when you got on it. If it could talk, it’d say, ‘One at a time, please!’”
    â€œSara—”
    â€œWhat if you knew that in six weeks you had topass a basketball out your vagina? Huh? Wouldn’t you feel entitled to a few emotional breakdowns?”
    Lily scrunched up her eyes but, nope, no good, the image of a basketball coming out of a vagina stuck.
    â€œDo I look that fat?” Sara asked miserably.
    Trick question. Lily knew the rules: never answer the trick questions. Matt had taught her that one himself.
    â€œIf he’s cheating on me, I’m going to castrate him.” Sara looked serious. “Slowly. That’ll make us even.”
    Lily looked over Sara’s shoulder at Matt, who’d just come down the hallway and had gone very still and a bit pale. Behind him, Logan came along, looking tall, dark and yummy, and for a moment Lily lost her concentration because her body did a happy-hormone dance.
    â€œYou know where he is,” Sara said to Lily, oblivious. “I can tell when you’re lying. Remember that July Fourth when you blew up my toilet with the illegal fireworks you bought from a buddy? You said God was telling me to stop spending so much time in the bathroom, but I knew it was you.”
    â€œThat was never proven.”
    â€œWhere is he, Lily?”
    Matt shot Lily his puppy-dog look and silently begged her not to tell where he’d been. She took one last peek at Logan and then forced her gaze off him before she did something stupid. Like drool. Instead, she rubbed her aching neck. “I don’t know. But he doesn’t think you’re fat and he wants the baby. He’s crazy about you.”
    That much was the utter, baffling truth at least. In her life, there’d been a lot of dissent. Her parents hadtraveled a lot for their jobs, and when they had been in the same house for any amount of time, they’d fought. Her grandparents had never greeted a day without a bicker.
    As a result, she and her sisters had developed relationships based on their own bickering hierarchy, with Lily at the bottom, of course. But then Matt had