“I know, right?” Christine said, trying to come around. “We’re the ones”—she almost said left holding the bag—“who have to do all the work. How far along are you?”

“I’m only a week behind you!” Stephanie’s dark eyes lit up with uncharacteristic excitement. “We’re going to be pregnant together!”

“Oh my God!” Christine laughed, getting used to the idea, as strange and awkward as it was.

“We’ll have such a great time!” Stephanie squealed in a way that Christine had never heard from her before. “You have to tell me everything, Christine. You’re the pro. I know you have all those books. You know everything!”

“Girl, I will hook you up. I memorized those books, and I can barf on cue.”

Stephanie laughed. “I didn’t think I would be this excited, but I am!”

“Wait until you get your ultrasound, that’s amazing. You can hear the heartbeat and see the heart.” Christine realized as soon as she’d said the words that she hadn’t told Marcus about the ultrasound. He glanced over at her, blinking, but didn’t say anything. His smile looked frozen in place, but his frown was deep.

Marcus turned to his father. “Dad, I have to admit, I’m surprised. I didn’t know you guys were even thinking about having kids.”

“Tell me about it!” Frederik flared his eyes, comically. “We weren’t. I was sure my days of that foolishness were over. But the one time we slipped up, bam!”

“Just like that?” Marcus kept smiling, but Christine knew this had to be killing him, not only because he had mixed feelings about having a new sibling, at his age.

“Just like that! At my age, can you imagine!” Frederik puffed up his chest in an exaggerated way, then bent his arms and flapped them like a rooster. “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

Stephanie recoiled, laughing, and gave him a playful shove. “Frederik, really? Could you keep it classy? You’re embarrassing yourself.”

“Congratulations, Dad,” Marcus said again. “I have to say, this is a hell of a way to celebrate your birthday. I’ll hand it to you, I didn’t see this coming.”

“Never a dull moment, right?” Frederik laughed heartily, throwing his head back and displaying his carnivorous teeth. “I’ll be in a walker by the time the kid’s out of high school, if I’m lucky!”

Stephanie nodded in happy agreement. “You know the expression, ‘Man plans, and God laughs.’”

Frederik looped an arm around Stephanie’s slim shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “I’m happy. I admit it’s a surprise, but I’m so happy. We’re happy. Right, honey?”

“Right.” Stephanie looked up at him with a beautiful smile.

“A*” Christine nodded but felt a tinge of envy. Both Stephanie and Frederik looked over-the-moon, and Christine couldn’t help but feel that they were having the happiness about the pregnancy that she would’ve wanted for her and Marcus.

“Damn, where’s that waiter now?” Frederik said, looking over his shoulder, but Stephanie’s lovely gaze settled on Christine, and her grin faded.

“I’m … sorry, Christine,” Stephanie said, nervously. “I didn’t mean to be so insensitive.”

“How were you insensitive?” Christine asked, confused.

“Well”—Stephanie glanced at Marcus and then back again at Christine—“Marcus shared with us why you had problems conceiving, that you didn’t produce enough eggs, and that’s why it took you so long to get pregnant.”

Christine said nothing, shocked that Marcus had told them such a lie.

Stephanie’s glossy lips puckered with regret. “I didn’t mean to brag about getting pregnant so fast. I’m sorry, it wasn’t nice. You know we love you.”

Frederik’s smile faded, too, and his gray-blond eyebrows sloped down with unusual empathy. “Yes, we love you guys. We didn’t mean to show off. I know I tend to, but Stephanie’s making me mend my ways.”

“That’s okay.” Christine plastered on a smile.

“All’s well that ends well, right, Christine? We’re reproducing like rabbits now! Nilsson babies are taking over the world!” Frederik cranked his neck to look over his shoulder. “Now where the hell is that waiter?”

Chapter Thirty-one

“Marcus?” Christine called out, as soon as she hit the house, closing the door behind her. She’d stewed the entire car ride home since they had driven separately to the restaurant. She tossed her purse, keys, and phone on the console table, glancing around the entrance hall, but the house was quiet and felt still. She hustled into the kitchen, but Marcus wasn’t there and Lady jumped up on the kitchen island, her tail curling into a question mark.

“Marcus?” Christine headed for the sliders to the backyard. One of the doors was open, and the outside light was on over the back patio, recessed into the bottom of a pent roof. She stepped outside, and the motion-detector light went on instantly, casting a cone of bright white in the middle of the yard, where Marcus stood looking down at his phone, his features lit from below. Murphy trotted around at the back of the yard, visible only because of the glowing red disc that dangled from his collar. The night air felt cool and calm, but Christine was anything but.

“Marcus, why did you lie to your father and Stephanie?” Christine walked toward him, not bothering to check her frustration.

“Lie to them about what?” Marcus turned, lowering the phone.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, so please don’t lie to me, too.”

“You mean about why we can’t get pregnant?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. You told him it was because of my eggs.”

“What’s the difference?” Marcus shot back, and just then the motion-detector light went off, so Christine could barely see his face in the ambient light from the neighbors’ houses. There was no moon out, and the sky was black, opaque, and starless.

“The difference is that you lied.”

“So, why does it matter?” Marcus’s tone was sharp. “That’s what you told me, wasn’t it? It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. So why should it matter if they think it’s your fault and not mine?”