Georgia’s pregnancy-and-nursing-enhanced
cleavage— she has finally outpaced me there, too . Catherine had always
had more curves, but her friend now had them only where they counted most. Some
girls have all the luck.
When Georgia finally pulled away, Catherine took in
the black leggings and kitten heels and the belted charcoal tunic sweater that
made her friend model chic. She was already looking fabulous again after
popping out a kidlet a mere month ago, not that she’d even looked pregnant when
she was pregnant, at least not from behind—no width and no waddle—while
Catherine usually looked a few months pregnant after dessert. Both she and
Lacey looked fabulous already, but that was probably because they coordinated
their diets and workouts like they were twins separated at birth who’d just
found each other and were making up for lost time.
“Is everything okay with you? With Fynn?” Georgia
asked earnestly, motherly concern in her eyes.
“Fine,” she said tightly, a string pulled taut to the
breaking point. Of course everything isn’t fine! I look dowdy and plain and
pitiful! I didn’t just lose seven-plus pounds in one push and yet I’m the one
who looks deflated! I’m all alone! And if that weren’t enough, I was left off
the guest list of my own family’s party, while you—a satellite acquaintance—were
included! But she refused to say any of that. Sure Georgia had coaxed her
through many of life’s pitfalls since they were first thrown together as
roommates—random dumb luck perpetrated by a computer in the housing department
at Penn State—but now was different. Georgia was in a different stage of her
life. She didn’t know what it was like to be single anymore. God and the state
backed her relationship, making it practically impossible to fall apart in a
stupid snowstorm. She wouldn’t understand what Catherine was going through.
Georgia grasped her hand, holding it tightly, not
letting her walk away like she wanted to, now that she’d made her point with
her show of iciness. Georgia looked to her husband and flicked her head toward
Catherine subtly. They don’t even have to speak, she thought bitterly,
but she allowed her friend to guide her out of the foyer and through the
kitchen and up the back stairs to her childhood bedroom.
“What gives?” Georgia demanded—tough Love—leaning against
the bureau.
“You were invited to the party?” Catherine challenged,
sitting down on the bed.
“Yeah, why?” she said gruffly, sounding hurt that it
would matter.
“I wasn’t.”
“You weren’t what?”
“Invited.”
“But you were supposed to be in Nekoyah, sexing it up
with your man,” she pointed out.
“But I could have been invited anyway. Maybe I would
have changed my plans.”
“Yeah, right,” Georgia chuckled, throwing back her
head of flowing strawberry hair.
“I just can’t believe that no one even told me—”
“Zzzt.…” Georgia put a hand up to stop her. She
narrowed her eyes, framing them with tons of lusciously thick, mascaraed
eyelashes. “You look like hell, Cat. Why are you—”
“Why do you look even better now than you did before
you got pregnant?” Catherine accused, deflecting the question and jabbing at
the same time. She could just see the left half of her own reflection in the
mirror over her dresser and it wasn’t pretty. In spite of the touch of makeup
her mother had insisted she put on, the dark circle under her eye was garish,
and coral was really not her lip color. Plus she could feel her shoulders
slumped like she had a bad case of osteoporosis.
“Seriously, Cat, what areyou doing here—”
“Incoming,” Lacey called out from the door, carrying
an infant in each arm—Niki, bald as could be, and Nell with a head full of dark
hair.
“Oh, sweetie, you want your mommy?” Georgia cooed,
reaching out for Nell. She cuddled her close, forgetting anyone else in the
room. “You’re hungry already!” She said it like it was