Piper was confused. “Of course it matters.”

“It doesn’t,” Winnie insisted. “I’ve got this, Piper. I do. I mean, how hard can it be?”

“To be a mom?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yeah.”

Piper didn’t want to scare her, but neither did she want her to look at this with rose-colored glasses, with absolutely zero idea how hard parenting could be.

Winnie was watching her and shook her head. “Don’t discount me, not on this.”

“I’m not trying to, Win. I’m trying to be supportive.” While not freaking out completely. Because she’d already raised two chicklets. She was in the home stretch of being free. Or at least, she had been. “What about college? You’ll need a degree if you’re going to raise a kid. You could get another semester under your belt before you give birth.”

Winnie shrugged. “Maybe I’ll do it online, but I like fixing things. I want to do that instead.”

“You’re getting good at it too,” Gavin said.

Winnie beamed at him.

“We’re selling this place,” Piper burst out.

Her sister gasped. “What?”

“Why?” Gavin asked.

“Think about it,” Piper said. “We’d each get a third of the money. Winnie, you’d be able to pay off some of the college debt and have a nice nest egg for your baby. And, Gavin, you’d have financial security.” She paused, expecting excitement.

“But I want to raise my baby here,” Winnie said. “Be a family. Like we were.”

Gavin looked like he agreed with that.

Okay, so no excitement. What was happening?

Gavin drew a deep breath. “God knows, you deserve to get something out of all the work you put into this place. But if you’re doing this for me, don’t. The last thing an addict needs is financial security and discretionary money burning a hole in his pocket.”

“Okay.” Don’t panic. “So what do you need?”

“Honestly? To be right here in this house with both you crazy people.”

Wow. This was not how Piper had seen this going. At all. “So we’re, what, going to live together, until we’re old and gray?”

Gavin and Winnie looked at each other and then at Piper. “Yes,” they said in unison.

Winnie put her hands on her still-flat belly. “I need this, Piper,” she whispered.

Gavin nodded, and at the touch of fear in his gaze, Piper softened. Ached. “But—”