Page 15 of Her Big Bad Wolf

I hadn’t seen her since her little girl was born.

“I’m great. How are you?”

“Good.”

Well, that was awkward,I thought to myself, looking for opportunities to slowly back away.

I wasn’t sure what I thought she’d say, but “I’m great” and nothing else certainly wasn’t it.

She grinned. “Wanna see pictures?”

“Yes,” I blurted out.

Elise was already pulling out her phone as she proudly showed me pic after pic of the little girl she never knew she wanted.

“Wait, is she a red head?”

“Just like her father,” she proudly admitted.

“She’s gorgeous, Elise.”

“Thanks. We certainly think so.”

“Is her name still top secret?”

She laughed. “No. It’s Everlyn Kelsey, or Little-E as Patrick calls her.”

“That’s adorable. Congratulations.”

“Thanks.”

Elise wasn’t all that much younger than me and she’d just had her first baby after more than a decade being happily mated. No one thought they were going to have kids, and then one romantic getaway to Paris and they returned with the surprise of a lifetime.

My romantic loving heart adored their story, but it also gave me hope that just maybe my biological clock wasn’t about to run out just yet.

“Vanessa, would you like a glass of wine?” Christine asked.

“She’s not drinking,” Kelsey told her.

The room went quiet again and everyone stared at me with open curiosity. A few mouths dropped.

“What?” I asked, a little louder than I should have. It was a reactionary response. The older I got the more I despised being the center of attention.

“Why aren’t you drinking?” Shelby asked, and then her eyes involuntarily looked down to my waistline.

“No! I’m not pregnant!” I blurted out. “I just don’t like wine.”

Everyone burst out laughing and went back to their conversations.

Kelsey was still laughing even while trying to apologize.

“I swear I didn’t know it would come out sounding like that.”

I glared at her.

“Really. I didn’t even think about that.”

“You were just so adamant that she couldn’t drink,” Christine said.