Luck of the Draw (A Betting on Romance Novel Book 1) by Cheri Allan Page A

just came out!”
    “It’s okay!” Rachel brushed the hair from her face. “I feel exactly the same way!” She leaned close and smiled—a warm, friendly grin. “I like your honesty. It’s very refreshing.
    “You know, I know you’re only here for the summer, but Doug will be interviewing in the area over the next few weeks —we’re hoping to move closer to Sugar Falls—and I was thinking it’d be fun to get together now and again. We can hang out. Grace. Susan. Whomever’s around. Just us girls. What do you say?”
    Kate paused. She didn’t know what to say.
    Oh, sure, she’d been social enough these last few years. She’d gotten together with neighbors… coworkers… people who invited her to their Martha Stewart-inspired Fourth of July barbecues and wine and cheese buffets. But, since having Liam and moving to southern Connecticut, she’d lost touch with all her old friends. Nowadays, get-togethers seemed less about enjoying herself and more about making an impression on someone for her parents’ sake or for Randy’s.
    Rachel’s relaxed invitation to ‘just hang out’ was a breath of fresh air in a life that was closing in on her.
    Just us girls.
    Kate grinned. “I’d like that very much.”
     
     
    A FTER THE BOAT RIDE, S USAN TOOK the three kids to make s’mores, and Kate followed Grace and Rachel to the house to change. She tried to duck into the hallway bathroom, but it was occupied.
    Grace held open the door of the spare bedroom. “Aren’t you coming?”
    Kate hesitated for a moment before following Grace into the bedroom. Grace shut the door. As the two cousins chatted and stripped to their underwear, Kate slid her shorts and tee off and dug in her tote for her things. Not having grown up with sisters, she felt the old disquiet of the high school locker room, wondering what the others would think of her plain, practical briefs and tired old bra. She really needed some new things.
    “You’re not wearing that, are you?” Kate glanced up and was relieved Grace was speaking to Rachel, clad in a sporty maillot, and not about her underwear.
    “What’s wrong with it?” Rachel countered.
    “It’s navy .”
    “So?”
    Grace glanced around and leaned toward her cousin, “It just seems… Oh, Rach , I hate to think... you’re giving up. There’s always hope...”
    Kate pretended to look for something in her tote as Rachel stared at her cousin.
    “Giving up?” Rachel asked, but then her face broke into a coy grin. “It just so happens, Doug loves this suit on me. And for the record, it hasn’t hurt my fertility either.”
    Kate held her breath as she watched the cousins from across the bed.
    Grace’s eyes widened. “ No! ”
    “ Yes! ” Rachel beamed.
    “Oh. My. God !” Grace blinked then turned and yanked a fistful of tissues out of a box before flinging herself bodily at her cousin. “I’m so relieved! I thought there was something awful happening. You weren’t talking to me... Then Jim made this stupid comment—” She blew her nose heartily, still clenching her cousin tightly to her. “Pregnant? Really?”
    Kate’s hand went to her own stomach.
    “I know!” Rachel beamed. “I’ve been popping with the news all night, but I wasn’t sure how to tell you. If you’d be okay with it…”
    “Are you crazy? I’m so happy for you!”
    “No one else knows,” she said. She turned to include Kate. “And I don’t want to make it public until I’m further along, so if you guys could just keep it between us?”
    Grace pretended to zip her lips and drop the key. “I can’t believe it!” she burst out in a whisper. “When?”
    “February, we think, but I totally stopped charting in December because it was stressing me out, so we’re a little sketchy on the date of conception. It’s ballpark until I go for my ultrasound next week.”
    “An ultrasound!” Grace enthused.
    Kate dropped her hand and eyed Rachel in her swimsuit, her blonde hair and petite figure set