How Forever Feels Read Online Free PDF Page A

leaned in closer as though by doing so they could keep Maya’s whisper from drifting past them. “Griffin asked me to have his baby.”
    “What?!”
So loud, so very, very loud, it brought Shelley hustling back to their table.
    “Is everything okay?”
    “Yeah, sorry,” Maya muttered. “But we’re gonna need a rush on those drinks.”
    By the time Shelley started heading back to the bar, the other three were all talking at the same time, sputtering over one another, none of them finishing a single sentence.
    “Are you—”
    “Is he—”
    “But you—”
    “I know. It’s crazy.” Nodding, Maya looked at each one in turn; everything they were thinking right then, she’d already thought. Every question they were trying to ask, she’d already asked herself.
    Jayne sat with her hands pressed tight against her cheeks; Ellie kept muttering “holy shit” under her breath; and Regan, still caught up in her jacket, couldn’t even seem to blink.
    “I know,” Maya repeated, tucking a hefty tip in Shelley’s little black apron pocket as she set out the fresh round. “Thanks, Shell.”
    “Are you sure everything’s okay?”
    “Yeah, it’s fine. Thanks.”
    Sitting stock-still, Jayne let her eyes follow Shelley across the room; then she leaned over the table and practically hissed. “Fine? This isn’t fine! How can you drop something like that and say everything’s fine?”
    If it had been Regan or Ellie to freak out first, Maya wouldn’t have been surprised, but Jayne…She was usually the quiet one in the bunch, so to have her lean over the table like that, with her hands still glued to her face, and her eyes absolutely wild, Maya couldn’t help it—she laughed.
    “You think this is funny?” Jayne croaked. “You’re talking about having a baby with—”
    “Shh!” Still laughing, Maya raised her hands off the table in a “calm down” gesture. “I know, and if you could all maybe take a breath, I was kind of hoping we could talk about it like sane, rational women.”
    “Sane?
Sane?
The three of us are perfectly sane, Maya, it’s you who has obviously lost her freakin’ mind!”
    “Maybe, but does that mean we can’t talk about it?”
    With a sudden jerk, Regan yanked her arm free of her jacket and balled it up on her lap. “Yeah. You talk, I’m going to drink.”
    Maya tipped her glass in Regan’s direction, took a sip, and set it down again.
    “Okay. You know we’ve gotten together at my apartment a couple times and you know we’ve talked on the phone, but what you don’t know is that both times he came over, he stayed the night—and no, not like that—he slept on the couch.”
    “Griffin Carr slept on your couch.” Ellie’s voice was flat, even, as though by repeating the words it would be easier for her brain to digest. “Griffin Carr spent the night at your place—”
    “Twice,” Jayne said.
    “And you made him sleep on the couch.” Ellie exhaled over a slow nod. “Okay.”
    “Trust me, Ellie. He was fine with it.”
    “How do you know? Apparently you can’t even tell when a guy’s hitting on you—so how the hell would you know if he wanted to sleep with you?”
    “I know when a guy’s hitting on me,” Maya said, rolling her eyes. “Usually. The thing with Griffin is that…well, I like him, he’s great, and we get along really well, but there’s no spark there for either one of us.”
    “There’s no…” Jayne clamped her mouth shut, growled, then dropped her hands to the table. “Then why the hell are you even thinking about this?”
    Maya closed her eyes for a second and exhaled slowly. “Because, Jayne, given where I am in my life right now, it might be my only chance.”
    “What the hell are you talking about?” Regan cried, her voice a dry croak.
    “Just listen. When I found out about Will and Stella…it broke me, it really did.” She lifted her hands to wave off the three of them, who’d all leaned forward again. “I’m fine, I am, and I