Still, Sharon couldn’t help but lean into Kate, tilting her head so her bestie would know she wanted to say something privately. Her much taller friend bent slightly to hear whatever it was.

“Did Angel seriously manage to work in both a Doctor Who and a Harry Potter reference into her daughter’s name without Adam noticing?” she murmured.

Kate snorted, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as her blue eyes went wide. Fortunately, everyone was too busy cooing at the baby to take notice of what she and Kate were doing. Well, almost everyone. Sharon saw Jake’s eyes slant her way, narrowing slightly. Deciding to be mature, she didn’t stick her tongue out at him. It wasn’t any of his business what she said to Kate.

“Oh my God, she totally did,” Kate whispered back. “When do you think he’ll figure it out?”

“At least a week... he’s pretty shell-shocked right now,” Sharon guessed.

Andrew leaned forward around Kate so he could look at both of them, his dark eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What are you two whispering about?”

“Nothing,” Sharon said immediately, at the exact same time that Kate said, “I’ll tell you later.”

Just then, little Melody began to make unhappy noises and Adam immediately whisked her back to Angel’s room, leaving the group to disperse.

Sharon cursed her bad luck when it turned out she and Jake were parked on the same side of the hospital and no one else was. Figured. She kept her smile pasted on her face as she exchanged hugs with the rest of her friends and they went down one hall... and she and Jake turned down the other.

The silence between them wasn’t tense exactly, but it wasn’t comfortable either. She was trying to figure out how to break it when he did, and with the last question she’d ever expected from him.

“Why’d you sneak out this morning?”

Giving him a sidelong look, Sharon couldn’t help but raise her eyebrow. He wasn’t looking down at her, so she couldn’t tell if he could see her expression. Since he about six feet tall and she was closer to five, he might not be able to.

“Uh, cuz awkward morning afters don’t really appeal to me?” she responded, letting the obvious ‘duh’ leak into her voice.

Now he did look at her, a slight frown on his face. It occurred to Sharon that he’d slowed his normal walking pace slightly so that her short legs could keep up. She didn’t know whether or not to feel grateful for that. “You don’t know that it would have been awkward.”

That was just crazy talk.

“You think it wouldn’t have been?” she asked dubiously. He couldn’t possibly be serious; exactly how did he think this morning would have gone?

Jake shrugged. “We could have fucked again, at least.”