He strode over and placed his hands on her shoulders. “My father cheated on my mother. I’m with someone I care about. Totally different. Now go have a good time and stop finding reasons to worry.”
She nodded, managed a smile, and headed out for the day.
* * *
At lunch, Chloe and Aurora chatted while they ate. Jordan, suddenly dizzy and nauseous, picked at her salad. They’d been talking about the stores they planned on checking out first, but Jordan had tuned them out. The minute the waitress placed the Cobb salad in front of her, bacon bits and the strong smell of cheese had her stomach churning.
“Jordan? Are you okay?” Chloe’s voice calling her name caught her attention, and she shook her head to clear her mind. “Yes, sorry. What were you saying?”
Both women looked at her with concern.
“You haven’t eaten anything, and you spaced out for most of our conversation,” Aurora said. “What’s wrong?”
Jordan sighed. “I haven’t been feeling great. I think it’s a silent migraine.” She’d read up on them earlier today, wondering if she needed to make an appointment with a neurologist. Usually her migraines were painful with throbbing in her head. This was different. All the other symptoms without the pain.
“What’s a silent migraine?” Chloe asked, taking a sip of her club soda, her engagement ring twinkling as the sun in the window bounced off the large diamond. “I’ve never heard of one.”
“I actually had to look it up myself, but since I get painful migraines and what I’ve been feeling has similar symptoms, like nausea and light-headedness and a general blah feeling without the head pain, there’s a good chance that’s all it is.” She shrugged and took a small sip of her own club soda, hoping it would help settle her stomach.
Aurora leaned in closer. “Nausea, huh?”
“Yep.”
“And you’re light-headed?” she repeated.
“Again, yep.”
The young woman narrowed her eyes. “Very tired?
Jordan thought about how she’d been feeling. “Well, yes.”
Aurora glanced at Chloe, whose eyes opened wide. Something silent had passed between them.
“Do your boobs hurt?” Aurora asked bluntly.
“What?” Jordan asked loudly, caught herself, and moderated her tone. “I’m sorry. What are you asking me?”
Aurora grinned. “Jordan, could you be pregnant?”
Her words caught Jordan mid-swallow, and she swallowed wrong and began to choke on the bubbles in her drink. “What?” She was beginning to sound like a broken record. “Pregnant? I don’t think so!”
And how could she even talk about this with Linc’s sisters?
Chloe clasped her hands in front of her, looking shaken but not at all upset. “Okay, so based on what I saw at the shower and today, I’m assuming you and Linc are together.”
“Yes. And he’s your brother and we don’t need to talk about it. But I know we always used protection. Now subject closed. End … of.” Jordan sliced her hand through the air.
But the word pregnant lingered between them.
And Aurora wasn’t finished. “Nothing is one hundred percent.” She shot Jordan a knowing gaze. “How long have you two been … you know?”
Chloe’s eyes were wide, but she appeared focused and was listening.
Jordan swallowed hard. “In Florida. And one more time after that,” she said, squirming in her seat. Not because she couldn’t discuss sex but because these women were too closely related to the man she’d been with.
“So a little over a month ago.” Aurora was a persistent thing, something Jordan was discovering.
She nodded. But she couldn’t be pregnant now. She’d gone through that experience before, and early on, which was all she’d had, she’d felt fine. No symptoms until she missed a period. Oh God. She thought about when she’d been due and realized she had skipped her period. With everything going on in her life, she hadn’t even realized it. She began to sweat, the possibility of being pregnant now running through her mind.
“We passed a pharmacy on the corner. Let’s get the check and you can buy a pregnancy test,” Chloe said. She wiped her mouth with her napkin and gestured for the server.
Stunned, Jordan nodded, her mind going back to the first time she and Linc had been together. He hadn’t intentionally brought condoms but had found one in his Dopp kit. And it had looked old, like it had been there for a long time. Wincing, she pulled out her wallet to pay.
A little while later, Jordan had purchased the pregnancy tests, a few because she needed to be certain, and the three women returned to the restaurant, which was attached to the mall. Nobody else was in the lounge or the room with the stalls.
Chloe and Aurora sat down in chairs in the waiting area while Jordan, panicked and horrified, closed herself in a stall alone, peed on three sticks, and placed them on top of the boxes they’d come in on the floor in front of her.
And she remained in the private stall, wanting to be as alone as possible.
And she waited.
“Any news?” Aurora called out to her.
She glanced down but her phone and the alarms she’d set hadn’t gone off. “Not yet!”
She’d bought three different brands. Unfortunately that meant three different time frames before she got all of the results. One minute, three minutes, five minutes.
Nausea filled her, this time thanks to worry and fear. She’d been down this road before, and the last guy had not taken the news well. Linc’s father hadn’t taken the news well. It was a wealthy man pattern.
She and Linc didn’t make sense as a couple, and the rationale for that conclusion hadn’t changed. A pregnancy now would be a nightmare. Sure, Linc wanted them to be together, enjoying sex, having fun. He didn’t want kids. He’d once told her about his fear of subjecting children to parents who tried marriage but didn’t get along, like his had. And Jordan was still certain she didn’t fit into his world.
So the tests had to be negative. They just had to be, she thought, closing her eyes and
