“What would you call it then? An accident? His dick just happened to slide inside you and knock you up?”

“I’m just trying to give you some context—”

“There is no context! There’s no possible excuse for my best friend to sleep with my husband.”

Jess’s calm snapped. “This isn’t all on me, Libby. Nick’s involved too.”

Libby made a strangled sound—half cry, half scream. “But you didn’t say no. You were supposed to say no. Take the moral high ground. Tell him that friends don’t betray each other.”

The beat of an old betrayal resumed its tempo. “I’d already slept with you so I was just evening the score.”

“Oh my God! How can you possibly think that a drunken experiment at twenty equates to this—this—treachery. You had sex with my husband!”

Libby’s constant use of “my husband,” as if she owned Nick, slithered along Jess’s veins like a snake ready to strike. “I had sex with my friend. A man I’ve known a lot longer than you.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to sleep with him!”

“Why not? It’s called friends with benefits. We’d been having sex long before you and Nick ever did.”

The shock on Libby’s face told her that Nick hadn’t disclosed that bit of information. Jess wished she knew exactly what he’d shared and what he’d withheld. More importantly, she wished she knew why he’d broken his own rule and told Libby at all. And why today, when they were so close to making their lives easier and securing Leo’s future? Frigid fury formed an icy ball in her gut. How could Nick have betrayed her by telling Libby about their son without her being in the room?

“You’ve never told me about you and Nick,” Libby finally spluttered.

“Well, we both have our secrets about Nick, don’t we?”

“Not me! I’m an open book. The secrets are all yours. All I’ve ever done is love you. God! My family’s looked after you.”

Jess sloughed away a pang of remorse. “Growing up, your mother was forever telling me to go for what I want. I wanted a baby.”

Libby’s hand flew up into the air. “She didn’t mean steal my husband in the process! You’ve abused my friendship in the worst possible way. I don’t know how you can sleep at night knowing that. All I’ve ever done is love and support you, especially this last year—” Libby’s body suddenly flinched violently as if she’d been electrocuted. “You must have been laughing at me every time I sent Nick around to fix something.”

“No!” The need to clarify was suddenly important. “It’s not like that. It was never like that.”

“How dare you do this to me after everything I’ve done for you!”