enough exercise." She softened her response with a teasing smile. "Your looks are not one of the things I'm worried about."
I stopped walking. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
Iz muttered something under her breath that I couldn't hear.
"I didn't hear you."
"You weren't supposed to hear me." She pointed at a restaurant up around a curve in the path. "Need anything?"
I shook my head. "No, I'm okay for now. But if you need to use the toilet, let's go in and grab some tea or something."
"Where's our next stop? I can wait."
"Kensington Palace," I told her. "It's on the other side of the park."
"Sweet. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse of William, and I can tell him about the poster Molly used to have on her wall."
I snorted. "I forgot about that. I told Jude that if I'd come a couple of years earlier and met Harry when he was single, he would've been shit outta luck."
She smiled but didn't say anything. She'd asked a few questions about Jude, about his job, and about football overseas in general. But I got the sense that my sister was treading very, very carefully. Which was unlike her.
As we curved around the meandering paths, stopping at bridges for pictures, I waffled on how much I wanted to push Isabel on her comment. When you came from a big family, your relationships with each sibling were unique. Claire and I were twins, so ... that was a gimme for reading minds and feeling all the same feels and doing weird prolonged eye contact when I knew exactly what she wanted to tell me without her saying a word. Molly was the warm, friendly sister. As cheerleaders went, she was the one you wanted in your corner. She was the sister I could count on to listen to me cry without judgment, the one who'd wrap me up in a hug and tell me everything was going to be okay.
Isabel ... she was actually a lot like our brother, Logan.
If I burst into tears right now, she'd probably get a panic-stricken look on her face, and I'd get an awkward pat on the back. But on the flip side, she'd dole out pragmatic, no-bullshit advice anytime we needed it. And if anyone, and I mean anyone, threatened the people she loved, she was an absolute savage.
And I knew, as we walked and looked at buildings and fountains and bridges and made small talk, that that was the reason I hadn't told her about what happened at Jude's parents’ farm.
She'd hate him for putting me in that position—arguably one of the most awkward I'd ever been in—and I didn't want Isabel to hate him. I wanted her to like him because if she did, she'd smooth the way for the rest of my family to like him too.
Yes, my time in London was drawing to a close, and Jude knew I was going back to Seattle for the birth, but what about later? What about when I finished with school?
We approached Kensington Palace from the front, and Isabel grinned the entire time she snapped pictures. "It's so fucking pretty I could puke."
I shook my head. "Such a way with words. But you curse like a Brit, so you'll fit in just fine at the match tomorrow."
"Yeah, about that ..." She turned her camera and snapped a quick selfie of us with the palace in the background. "Tell me more about him."
"What do you want to know?"
We got in line to go into the palace and huddled together when the wind picked up. "I mean, what's his deal? You get this googly-eyed look on your face when you talk about him, and I know you'd slept there the last time I called, so don't even pretend you didn't."
I ducked my face into the collar of my coat to warm my cheeks. And to avoid figuring out how to answer the question.
"We're ... I don't know exactly."
Isabel rolled her eyes but softened it with a teasing grin. "What are we, sixteen? You're having a baby with him, Lia."
"I know that." I exhaled. "There's something there. And we waited to sleep together again. It's not like I told him about the baby, and we hopped back in bed. But we get along. We're getting to know each other, and we like each other. Does there need to be some big label on it?"
She studied me with a careful expression on her beautiful face. "Not necessarily. But you're also going home soon. You're