foot size, but about his financial prospects. Nina had actually considered offering to take him for a fitting at Armani, if only to help him make a better impression with the people whose assistance he wanted. His potato-shaped physique probably wouldn’t fit the Italian lines anyway.
Nina kept quiet when a waiter returned and took Caitlyn’s order for a dry Chardonnay. Like most restaurants in the city, he did not request identification.
“And for you, miss?” he asked Nina. “Anything else?”
“Some sparkling water, please,” she said absently. “And maybe ginger tea if you have it?” Anything to wash the taste of minty animal flesh from her mouth.
“Right away, ma’am. Would you like me to box that up for you?”
Nina pushed her plate away. “No, thank you. Just remove it, please.”
Caitlyn’s sharp blue gaze flickered back and forth between Nina, the plate full of food, and the waiter as he left. Then she leaned close.
“Be honest. You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Nina had just sipped her ice water and nearly coughed it across the table. “What?”
Caitlyn grinned. “No wine? No eating? Plus, it’s not just the lake, love—you look green in the face. And you’re hanging out with that.” She wrinkled her surgically enhanced nose in the direction Calvin had gone. “Why don’t you just take care of it? Then you wouldn’t be stuck with him. We all get Prosecco goggles from time to time, but there’s no reason to martyr yourself to a one-night stand. Especially when it looks like that.”
Nina swallowed as the pit in her stomach tightened again. “I—it just wasn’t right. Not for me.”
“So it is his?” Caitlyn pressed.
“Hmm? Whose?”
“Whose do you think, silly? Calvin’s, of course. I’m just asking, N. We don’t really know what you were up to in the last year. For all I know, you had some delicious love affair with a hot Italian rogue.” She chuckled, as if the idea was absolutely hilarious. “Don’t worry,” she said with a conspiratorial wink. “I won’t tell a soul.”
Caitlyn had no idea how right she was, Nina thought. For a moment, she considered confiding in her. She thought about saying that’s exactly what had happened. And more than that, she had fallen so desperately in love with the most wonderful and unavailable man in the world that she couldn’t bear to give up any other piece of him, including his baby.
But if she did that, she might as well call Page Six and have them run a spread.
The photographers would find Peppe. They would destroy his family. His entire life. And that, despite everything, Nina would never ever do.
So, she let the assumption of Calvin’s paternity stand.
“Caitlyn, really,” she said quietly. “You can’t say anything until I speak to Celeste. At least for a few days.”
Immediately, Caitlyn sobered. She reached out to clutch Nina’s hand, and for a moment, Nina felt her heart rate calm.
“Oh, N,” she said with a soft squeeze. “Of course. You don’t even have to ask.”
Caitlyn really could be a good friend when she wanted. As had Calvin thus far, Nina had to admit. Perhaps he was being honest about the suggestion that a marriage between them would be a temporary arrangement. If he was truly her friend…would that be so bad?
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
“We’ve always kept each other’s secrets, haven’t we? You’re like my own sister.”
Nina sighed. “You can imagine what’s going to happen, after everything that happened with Eric.”
At the mention of Nina’s cousin, Caitlyn looked truly pained. It was no secret that she had nursed an intense infatuation with Eric since they were all children. His engagement had nearly ruined her. And now that he was gone…well, Caitlyn couldn’t be happy about that either. Florian Hendricks or not.
“It’s all just terrible,” she agreed in a voice that cracked. “Have you—have you heard from him?”
Nina shook her head. “Nothing. He hates all of us now. And I don’t blame him. Why wouldn’t he, considering what they did? Our kind of people can be so awful to others when they don’t fit in.”
Caitlyn pressed her slightly fuller lips together. She’d been on the receiving end of a few of those comments herself over the years.
“Which means you can’t disappoint them either,” she said with full understanding. “Of course not. But if your grandmother finds out about this baby, she will be enraged. Oh, N, what are you going to do if you’re not getting rid of it?”
“Did you tell her the news?”
They both turned to find Calvin back at the table, still adjusting