Since announcing her pregnancy, Jess had experienced a love–hate relationship with those five words. She oscillated between her need to protect her friendship with Libby and her desire to publicly declare that like Libby, she too had a claim on Nick. But in many ways Nick’s mantra worked to Jess’s advantage. Despite his occasional threats that he’d tell Libby about Leo, years of knowing Nick had taught her this would never happen. Jess also knew that Nick wasn’t confident that she would keep the secret. That he thought this saddened her. Jess had no intention of telling Libby. Meanwhile, Nick’s uncertainty gave her an edge and although she didn’t employ it often, when the need arose, she took the threat out of its scabbard and waved it around. His lack of enthusiasm for the house plan was one of those times.

But the last twenty-four hours had rattled her. She reassured herself that despite Nick’s recent unpredictable behavior, whenever she got him to sit down with her for a drink—tea, coffee, ideally alcohol—he eventually unwound. When that happened, the Nick she loved appeared and they talked and laughed together easily. It made perfect sense that if she lived next door and Nick could see her without the stress of having to create opportunities, then their rare moments of companionship would become an everyday event. Over time, they’d rebuild their closeness.

But life had taught her it wasn’t a perfect world and timing was everything. It was going to take time to show Nick that his two families could coexist in harmony. Time for Nick to relax into that realization and the only way it could happen was with Jess living next door.

She’d mulled over the best way to achieve this and had eventually decided to go through Nick, rather than Libby. Despite Libby owning the medical practice, she preferred being a doctor and deferred to Nick and Jess for business advice. It had taken Jess weeks of reasoning and demanding, along with some pouty pleading, to get Nick to agree to the three of them buying the Sullivan place together. He’d finally conceded that Leo deserved to grow up in a better house and have the security home ownership offered her. She suggested she sow the joint ownership seed with Libby, but for reasons she still couldn’t fathom, Nick had been unusually adamant that he do it. As much as Jess wanted to override him, she wasn’t stupid. She heeded the tension in his warning and waited for the excited phone call from Libby telling her the good news. Or better yet, anticipated arriving at Burrunan for one of their twice-weekly dinners to find her friend greeting her with a bottle of Veuve.