“I’ll be ready. I’m assuming casual?”

“Oh, yeah. Burgers.” She cleared her throat. “So, this isn’t like a date or anything, you know. Just—”

“Oh, I know. And you don’t have to spend the night with me tonight if you don’t want to.” A pause. “But I’d love for you to.”

Nic’s breath caught as she tried to swallow. “We’ll see,” she managed.

“Okay. See you in a few hours. Looking forward to meeting your friends.” Another pause. “Looking forward to being with you, Nic. Bye.”

She stared out into space, wondering what was happening to her. Wondering where those walls were that she’d so carefully constructed over the years. She’d built them strong and built them high.

Or so she thought.

Chapter Forty-seven

“So nice to meet you,” Addison said with a friendly smile. “Nic has told us so much about you.”

Abby looked at Nic. “You have?”

“Have not.”

Abby gave a subtle wink to Addison. “She’s told me a little about you too. When are you due?”

“April seventeenth. I can’t imagine I won’t burst by then.” Addison held the door open. “Come in, please. Eric is out on the patio already. Go visit with him. I was just washing the tomatoes.”

“Oh, I can help,” Abby quickly offered. She smiled at Nic. “I’ll be right out.”

“Grab a couple of beers,” Addison added.

Nic stared at them, looking at first one then the other. “I can help too.”

“No, no. We got this.”

Nic pointed her finger at Addison. “No talking about me.”

Addison dramatically rolled her eyes. “Now why would we talk about you?”

Abby patted her arm. “I’m just going to help slice tomatoes and onions and stuff. I’ll come out to meet Eric in a second.”

“Okay.” Nic opened the fridge and took out two beers. “I’ll go supervise him cleaning the grill.”

As soon as Nic closed the patio door, they looked at each other and grinned. “I see you found her last night.”

Abby nodded. “The plan worked like a charm. Thank you.” She grabbed a tomato, then paused. “I told you I’d missed her, but I had no idea just how much until I saw her again.”

“So did you talk?”

“Yes. She reiterated that we weren’t dating and that she couldn’t give me anything other than what we shared last night.”

“And?”

Abby smiled. “And I’m falling in love with her, and I have no intention of letting her run from this. She can pretend—can tell herself—that she feels nothing for me, but I know she does. It’ll catch up with her sooner or later.”

“And in the meantime?”

“In the meantime, I’ll let her believe that she’s in control.”