of excitement in his eyes. “Don’t get excited, Colton.”
He shrugged. “Too late. I care about you and have spent most of the last few weeks wondering what I did wrong.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
He released a breath. “And I’m not about to start. I’m sticking with you and the baby.”
Libby and Colton found Lofton on the fourth floor. The nurse directed them to her room. When Libby pushed past the curtain, she found Lofton lying in the hospital bed, clutching a plastic basin. Her face was pale and drawn.
“Lofton,” she said softly.
As Colton remained by the door, Libby moved toward the bed. Lofton looked up and studied her a long moment before she closed her eyes. There was a bruise on the side of her face and scrapes along her jawline, likely left by the deployed airbag. “You sound just like Mom.”
“Do I?”
“Yeah.”
“Elaine asked me to check in on you. She’ll be down in a few hours. Apparently, she’s in New York.”
She pressed fingertips to her brow. “Great.”
Libby pulled up a chair and sat down. “Like it or not, we’re stuck with each other. Can’t pick your family, right?”
Lofton raised the small basin to her lips. She heaved a couple of times, causing Libby to stand up and turn away.
“I’m pretty sure Elaine wants us to be friends, and this is her idea of a bonding moment,” Libby said.
“Until you, I was enough. She loved just me, and we were best friends. She used to call us the Two Amigos.”
“And now you’re one of the Three Musketeers.”
“Exactly. It sucks.”
Libby moved closer to the bed but remained standing. “I’ve no desire to get between you two. I had a great mother.” She drew in a breath. “And a great father.”
Lofton sat forward and threw up again. Libby pressed her hand to her stomach and hurried away from the bed.
“I’ll get a nurse,” Colton said.
Libby sat in a chair across the room and put her head in her hands. Her own stomach tumbled several times. “What the hell were you drinking?”
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Scotch. Dad’s going to be pissed when he realizes I went through his bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue.”
“At least you have good taste.” Libby counted slowly, drawing in a breath until her stomach settled.
“What’s wrong with you?” Lofton asked.
“A little pregnant.”
“What?”
The nurse appeared, checked Lofton’s vitals, and replaced the plastic basin. When the nurse left, Libby noticed more bruises on Lofton’s arms. “You’re lucky you aren’t dead.”
“You don’t get to lecture me,” Lofton said. “That’s for Dad and Mom.”
How could she go from no family to petulant little sister and a bun in the oven in five weeks? “No, but Elaine will. You scared her to death,” Libby said. “You’re smarter than that. And you told me yourself she is fragile.”
“I get that. Believe me. I’m about to get arrested, and that’s going to fly with the new boss like a lead balloon.”
Libby had no words of comfort to add. “What were you doing at Woodmont anyway?”
“I was getting ready for Mom and Dad’s renewal of vows ceremony. It’s in two weeks.”
“Why throw rocks at the greenhouse?”
“I started thinking about the party and how one day I wouldn’t have access to the land, because it would be yours. I certainly wasn’t going to burn down Woodmont.”
“Smart decision.”
Lofton closed her eyes. “I always thought Woodmont would be mine.”
“Then take it. I don’t need it.”
“Mom says you get it. I think she’s trying to assuage her guilt.”
In Elaine’s rush to make things right, she had hurt Lofton deeply. “Then I’ll give it to you.”
“I don’t want it from you.” She sat up and looked at Libby with bloodshot eyes smudged with mascara. “I want it from Mom.”
“Since when do we get everything we want in this world? Do you want the house or not?”
“She won’t go for it. She wants you to have it.”
“I’ll talk to her.”
Lofton groaned and shoved back a tangle of blonde hair. “Don’t talk to her. I don’t need you pleading my case.”
“What if we go halves on it? Both of Elaine’s daughters will own Woodmont.”
“I don’t even know you. And now you’re going to give Mom her first grandchild.”
Libby rose, drawing a deep breath, hoping it would calm her stomach. “Stop whining, Lofton. You sound like you’re five.”
“I do not.”
“Do too” rattled in her head but was silenced by the sound of footsteps approaching the door. The curtain whisked back, and Elaine and Ted stood there looking frazzled and