Chapter 5
Devyn
“You’re not eating.”
I smiled over at Audrey, but it could also be described as more of a wince. It was an automatic reaction to being called out. “Thank you so much,” I told my sisters, looking around at their four eager faces.
You’d think that we’d be like normal siblings, fighting all the time, and basically at each other’s throats, but it’d never been like that for us.
We’d always been close. And we’d only gotten closer as we got older.
Sophie, the second oldest, and I were only a year apart and we’d shared a lot of the same friend group.
But we’d still always been best friends.
Vivian and Shay were the next two oldest and had bonded, and of course we all watched out for Audrey.
It wasn’t uncommon for us to meet at one of our places a couple times a week for dinner and chatting.
We really enjoyed spending time together.
Most of our friends had started getting married and having kids and we’d lost touch, but the five of us were as inseparable as ever.
Everyone always said you should give your kids siblings so that they always had friends.
What they failed to mention was that it was most important when you were older, not when you were young.
At least that was what had happened in our family.
It was nice—mostly—when we were young. Now? I couldn’t get by without them.
“I haven’t really been able to do much of that,” I admitted.
Shay frowned. “Isn’t eating important when you’re pregnant?”
I laughed. “Apparently not, because someone’s not letting me. I eat, I puke.”
Viv made a face. “Sorry. I hate throwing up.”
“Honestly just getting it over with and not being nauseous all day is preferable,” Sophie said.
Audrey nodded enthusiastically.
“That would be,” I told them. “Only the nausea doesn’t go away afterward.”
They all stared at me with mild horror.
“You just walk around always feeling like you’re going to throw up?” Audrey asked.
I nodded, pressing a hand to my stomach. The smell of the pizza was getting to me.
Sophie must have noticed because she slid the pies away from me and toward the others. We were sitting in a circle on my living room floor. Pillows were strewn around, and a movie we weren’t paying attention to was playing in the background.
“That doesn’t sound fun,” Shay said with a grimace.
“Is that typical?” Viv asked.
I shrugged. “Sounds like it can be for some people. Apparently, I’m one of those lucky few.”
Sophie was already up and searching through my cabinets. “What can you eat?” she asked from the kitchen. My apartment wasn’t very big so she didn’t even need to raise her voice.
I smiled at the others. “I can eat Ramen, Mac ‘n’ Cheese—sometimes—and those little frozen corn dog bites in the freezer. And sometimes crackers.”
They were all staring at me again, a mix of horror and disgust on their faces.
“Seriously?” Audrey asked.
“There’s nothing nutritious in any of that stuff,” Sophie said from the kitchen, putting her fists on her hips as she watched me. “Half of those don’t count as actual food.”
“Trust me, I know that.” Sighing, I closed my eyes. “I want to eat healthy. But I can’t seem to hold anything else down.”
“Ramen it is,” Sophie said as she started getting a pot of water boiling on the stove.
“And they say pregnancy is beautiful,” Shay said with a snort.
“I think it is for some people,” I told her. “Some manage to sail through it without any problems. Or so the internet claims.”
“This says this is a first trimester problem,” Audrey told me, staring down at her phone as she read. “Oh.”
My brows shot up. “Oh, what’s ‘oh’?”
‘Oh’ is never good. Especially when said in that tone of voice.
“Nothing,” Viv said before Audrey could answer. “It’ll go away.” Her voice was brimming with confidence and assurance.
“I hope so.”
They all smiled at me in encouragement.
“But it’s fine.” I cringed as Sophie set the bowl of noodles down in front of me on the floor. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be long before I wouldn’t be able to sit down here on the pretty cushions I’d bought last year anymore.
“You have to eat,” Sophie said, motioning to the food.
That was easier said than done. Taking a bite, I ignored the fact that they were all studying me like a mouse running a maze, and worked on swallowing the food. It was only slightly creepy. “How’s the new job going?” I asked, looking over at Shay.
“Great!” She beamed at us. “I really like my new boss.”
“That’s good,” Sophie told her.
“Like him?” Viv asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
“I’m twenty-four,” Shay said in a dry tone. “He’s like…fifty.”
“Ever heard of an age-gap?” Audrey asked, taking a large bite of her pizza.
“Have you?” I responded, narrowing my eyes.
“I’m twenty-one,” she said, mimicking Shay, “not twelve.”
“I knew what an age-gap was at twelve,” Vivian said, licking sauce off her finger.
Now that I was taken care of they were all finally eating.
“That’s because you always stole all of Mom’s old bodice rippers and read them even when you weren’t supposed to,” Sophie told her.
She opened up a ginger ale and handed it to me.
She’d always been like the mom of our little group—even as kids.
Didn’t matter that I was the oldest, she was always the one looking out for everyone else.
I ate another bite of the soup and listened as Shay explained what she was doing in her new job. She had recently graduated college and this was an entry level position, but she was excited about it. That was all that mattered.
When the chatter about her job died down and they started looking my way again, I shook my head. “No. It’s not my turn again.” I didn’t want to talk about me. Turned out that wasn’t their plan. They wanted to know about Bolo.
“You have to tell us something,” Audrey demanded.
“Is he hot?” Viv asked with a sigh.
“You really need to find yourself a guy,” I told her.
“I’m trying!” She shook her head. “Why is it so hard? Does he have any hot friends? Brothers?”
“Try not to sound so desperate,” I said with a laugh.
But I also understood because I’d struggled with the same thing until that biker had stormed into my life.
She was twenty-eight and confided in me the other night that she was worried her time was running out.
Vivian was a romantic at heart. She’d been searching for a husband since she hit eighteen.
Being married was everything she wanted in life.
But, like the rest of us—well, all of us except Soph, she wasn’t looking to date and for valid reasons—Viv kept running into men who weren’t…
suitable. That was the nicest way to say it.
It wasn’t like there weren’t any good guys, but those who were good were already dating, married, or too busy getting their lives together to eventually get married.
They had no time for anything else. Well, that and it was hard to meet new people when you were an adult.
We’d never been the kind to go to clubs and bars.
And forget the dating apps. Those were disasters waiting to happen.
And people who were out grocery shopping, eating at restaurants, and working out didn’t want to be disturbed.
That left work, but that wasn’t usually the solution either.
All in all, it wasn’t easy to find love.
“Any of the firefighters you work with single?” Viv asked, a hopeful note in her tone.
“Yeah. This week,” I told her.
She made a face. “Never mind.”
“What about your new guy?” Sophie asked with a smile. “Seriously, does he have any brothers for them?”
All of us were envious of our parents’ relationship.
It was in all of our plans to get married, have a couple kids, have the perfect job—which was different for each of us—and live a good life.
It was just a lot harder to get that life than any of us expected.
And here I was, doing things a little out of order.
A lot out of order. I always thought I’d be married for a few years, get some traveling done and see the world, before I had kids.
Placing a hand over my stomach, I smiled at Sophie. “Yeah, actually, he does. Blood brothers and MC brothers.”
They all perked up at that. I held up a hand.
“I’ll need to meet them first before I’m doing any introductions.
” I wasn’t about to let my sisters date anyone who wasn’t worthy of them.
Which was why none of them were married to any of my co-workers.
Firemen could have a bit of a reputation. Just like motorcycle club guys.
“I still want to know what your guy looks like,” Viv complained. “What’s his real name?”
Sighing, I told her. She tapped furiously at her phone, then frowned. “Nothing.” She looked up at me, then around at the others. “That’s weird.”
“What is?” Shay asked.
“He has no social media presence. Like, none.”
Sophie bit the insides of her lips to keep from laughing and shot me a look.
“That’s because he’s older, Viv,” I told her. “I don’t have anything either.”
She made a face. “It’s downright unnatural.”
Audrey nodded, taking a spoon and drizzling ranch over her slice of pizza. “How are we supposed to dig up dirt on him if he refuses to be like a normal human being?”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “You talk to people. You know…face to face.”
They both gave us disgusted looks. Even Shay looked uneasy at that suggestion. I couldn’t help it, I laughed. There was a big difference between us and them, but we still loved them and mostly tolerated them.
The smile slipped off of my face as my stomach revolted. Dashing to my feet, I ran to the bathroom and slammed the door. I was on my knees and throwing up violently before I even knew what was happening.
“Oh my God. It sounds like she’s having an exorcism in there!”
“Viv!” I heard Sophie snap at her, between bouts of hurling up the meager contents of my stomach. “Don’t say that.”