least now I know how my own mother feels about the subject. You honestly think I brought this on myself.” She pushed back her chair and grabbed her purse.
“Avery, sit down. Don’t be overly dramatic.”
When she was a teenager, her mother’s cue of calling her dramatic would have resulted in a loud tantrum that would grab the attention of every patron in the room. If she were honest with herself, she wanted to do just that. Instead, Avery kept her voice cold. “Tell Daddy I won’t be able to make our Sunday dinner next week.” She turned to Margaret. “Lovely seeing you again.” Said no one, ever.
With a turn of her heel, Avery offered her mother a view of her back as she left the restaurant.
Chapter Three
“I just wish she liked me.”
Trina took center stage of their First Wives Club meeting, but that was to be expected, since she was on the verge of joining a Second Wives Club.
“Vicki likes you,” Shannon argued.
“When a future mother-in-law wants you to marry their son, she doesn’t go out of her way to be around every weekend. Wade and I seldom have the opportunity to be alone.”
“A future mother-in-law should be thinking of grandbabies.”
Everyone turned to Lori.
She jumped. “No. I’m not. I’m just saying . . .”
“You want a baby.” Shannon voiced what they were all thinking.
Lori shook her head. “Of course not. I’m too old.”
Trina started to laugh. “I’m sorry . . . Do you still have a period?”
“That’s a stupid question.”
“Then you’re not too old,” Shannon said. “Has Reed talked about kids?”
Lori stood and walked to her kitchen and grabbed the open bottle of wine they were working on. “He might have mentioned something the other night.”
“What kind of something?” Avery asked.
“About what our kids would look like.” Lori leaned her trim figure along the counter and stared beyond the three of them. “Would our girls have his brown hair and my smile? Would our boys be lawyers or join the Navy SEALs . . . you know, stuff like that.”
“Someone’s biological clock is ticking.” Avery leaned back on the sofa and stared at her friend.
“It’s not.”
“It is!” Trina said. “Nothing wrong with that. You’re married to a man you love and trust. You’re young enough to go there. It isn’t like the first round, where you knew you were married to Mr. Wrong.”
Of the four of them, Lori was the only one who had married her previous spouse for love and forever. Avery, Trina, and Shannon were all temporary, hired brides who entered matrimony for a predetermined amount of time and left their marriages several million richer. And for Avery, that was exactly how that played out. Trina, on the other hand, dealt with her late husband allegedly taking his own life and then found out he was offed by his own father. Cue the music for Days of Our Lives. And Shannon fell in love with her temporary husband and never got over it. Hence the cobwebs growing in her vagina.
To have one of them talking about having kids was a plot twist in itself.
“I totally want kids,” Trina told them.
All the attention fell back on her.
“Soon?”
“I wouldn’t say no if Wade suggested it. He’s going to be a fabulous father.”
“I think we should get you married first,” Shannon suggested.
The four of them laughed.
Avery pondered for a few minutes. “Maybe that’s why Vicki doesn’t like you. You’re going to make her a grandmother. Since she was practically a baby when she had Wade, she isn’t ready for the title.”
They sat in silence and considered the thought until Shannon spoke up. “I want a baby.”
Avery’s jaw dropped. “You have to have sex in order to have a baby.”
Shannon narrowed her dark brown eyes. “Yeah, I took the class.”
“Seriously?” Lori asked.
“I’m older than all of you, and I know I want to have a kid.”
“Older by less than a year from me,” Lori reminded her.
“Still counts. I never considered how my life would be without kids. So if Mr. Forever doesn’t come along, I’m just going to do what I have to do to have a child.”
“Sperm bank?” Trina asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have a one-night stand.”
Avery choked on her wine. The harsh taste going down into her lungs had her sputtering for several seconds.
Trina patted her back and Lori handed her water.
Once she got ahold of her breath, she squeaked out the words, “Shannon Wentworth does not have one-night stands.”
“Well, maybe it’s time she does,” Shannon defended herself.