Came Back Haunted (Experiment in Terror #10) - Karina Halle Page 0,12

she’s wearing a fitted grey sweater with lace details at the shoulders, a black velvet choker around her neck, a grey beret sitting jauntily atop her sleek bob. As usual I feel like a total schlub around her, even though I’m wearing black skinny jeans and a long teal sweater underneath my leather jacket, which I shrug off onto the seat beside me.

“You’re looking lovely,” Rebecca says to me as she slides over a menu.

“Oh. Thanks,” I tell her, hastily pushing my hair behind my ears, looking over the menu even though I already know what I’m going to get.

“No, really,” she says, and I look up to see her studying my face. “New makeup or skincare routine?”

I shrug. “No.”

“You’re all dewy and fresh-faced. Like, I would bloody kill for that highlighter.”

I pull my sleeves down over my hands, fidgeting at the compliments. “No highlighter. I don’t know what it is. I haven’t been doing anything differently.”

She pauses and then looks over at Lucinda who is humming to herself, playing a game. She leans in, folding her red-shellacked nails in front of her, and gives me a fixed look. “How are you and Dex doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean how are you doing? How is your relationship?”

I squint at her, not sure what she’s getting at. “I just talked to my shrink about this. You want to hear the same thing I told her?”

“You have the look of someone who just had a bloody good shag.” Her eyes dance. “That’s all.”

My eyes go wide and I quickly look at Lucinda, who thankfully isn’t paying us any attention.

“Oh, don’t worry about her. She can’t hear us,” Rebecca says, her red lips twisting into a smirk. “But you did, didn’t you? That’s what it is. I can always tell, especially since I’m not getting any. I have a sixth sense for it, which is quite unfortunate.”

My mind reels back to yesterday, how utterly insatiable and dominant he was with me, like he’s been a lot lately.

But I don’t talk about my sex life with Rebecca, much to her disappointment, and I’m not about to start now. “Things are good,” I tell her, smiling with relief at the waitress who comes by to take our orders, interrupting the awkward talk.

After we’ve decided on a bottle of white wine, as well as pasta for ourselves, Rebecca orders a slice of cake for Lucinda.

“Cake for lunch?” I question.

“It’s my trick for getting her to behave in restaurants,” Rebecca informs me. “I make sure she eats before we go out, that way she’s full and happy and the dessert is a nice treat.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” I tell her, reaching for the bottle of Pellegrino in the middle of the table. I catch her eye and she gives me a funny look.

“What?” I ask, unscrewing the cap and pouring some in my glass, then doing the same to hers.

“I think this is the first time I’ve heard you allude to having children.”

I busy myself with the mineral water and have a sip, shrugging lightly. “I’m sure I’ve done some alluding in the past.”

She shakes her head. “No. You haven’t. You’re always so cagey about it.”

I swallow, rubbing my lips together as I try to figure out whether to talk to Rebecca about this. She’s my friend, not my psychologist, so I should feel comfortable confiding in her. I guess what’s holding me back is the fact that she’s Dex’s good friend too, perhaps more so than mine, and since he doesn’t know how I feel, I don’t want to burden her with a secret.

“Perry,” she says gently, putting her hand over mine and giving it a light squeeze, her dark eyes prodding me. Then she suddenly gasps and slaps her fingers on the back of my hand. “Bloody hell. You’re pregnant!”

I literally spit out my drink in an arcing spray across the table. My eyes water, I have bubbles up my nose, and, yep, now I’m coughing loudly, the whole restaurant turning to look. I grab for my napkin, pressing it to my mouth, shaking my head at Rebecca, while Lucinda giggles loudly at my outburst.

Rebecca dabs a napkin at her face in amusement, but I’m quick to shoot her down when I can. “No. Sorry. But no. Not pregnant.”

“Could account for why you’re all glowy.”

“That’s the sex, okay?”

“Hmmph. Well, I was right about something, then.”

The waitress comes back with the bottle of white wine and pours us each a glass. Rebecca raises hers in