“My stomach,” she said. “It’s . . . nothing. I’m fine.” But she wasn’t. Not by a long shot. If Sophia was really pregnant . . . Oh, dear God . . . Did Sophia even know that Julia could never get pregnant, had been told by two doctors that the chances of her ever conceiving were pretty much zero?

For a second, she almost gave it all away, afraid she couldn’t pull the masquerade off a second longer.

Buck up, Julia. Don’t give up! Do not! You’ve worked too hard for this. You can handle it. You have to!

“You’re sure you’re all right?” Concern etched his face, deepening the crow’s-feet near the corners of his eyes.

No! This is a disaster! “Yeah . . . yeah,” she managed to get out. “Just a little queasy.” She came up with a quick excuse and mentally crossed her fingers that he would buy it. “Morning sickness isn’t always in the morning, you know.”

“I didn’t,” he admitted.

“It sometimes hits at the oddest times.” That sounded good, didn’t it?

“Well, just so you know, I’m good with all this,” he said, though he didn’t look convincing. “There’s still a lot of things to work through, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Still a lot going on that needs to be straightened out.”

No shit. He was talking about Megan going missing and the murders. The cops had been everywhere and seemed to be zeroing in on Gus. Which was already a major worry. And now . . . on top of all that, she had to pretend to be pregnant?

“We’ll find a way to get through it,” he said as his phone rang and he looked at the screen. “I gotta run. Bobby’s ready to close up the shop and needs me to check out some of the work.”

“Okay.” God, her voice sounded weak. Strangled.

For a second, she thought he would lean over and kiss her. Wouldn’t that be the normal reaction after a conversation like this? He didn’t. Instead, he walked out the back door, and Julia felt as if she really could be sick. But not yet. She had too much to do.

She screeched back her chair, hurried through the Christmas shop, and found her coat in the closet behind the counter. Her thoughts spinning a million miles a minute, she snapped out the lights and walked outside, where the air was cold and bracing, hoping her head would clear.

Pregnant. Sophia was pregnant.

And she didn’t tell you!

That stung.

What else had Sophia kept from her?