“I didn’t know there was a contest.”
He leaned back, put sunglasses over his eyes. “Now that you do, I’ll look forward to tomorrow.”
“Look forward to disappointment, then. I only brought two. One to wear, one to dry.”
Dylan overheard their conversation and spoke up. “I can help you with that.”
Shannon picked up her e-reader, woke up the screen. “Victor can have his own little fashion show in his head. I have plenty of suits at home. No need to shop here.”
“Where’s Avery?” Erasmo asked a few minutes later.
“She’s still not feeling right. I want to take her to the doctor, but she’s not cooperating.”
“She’s not drinking the water out of the tap, is she?” Victor asked.
“No.”
“She didn’t drink alcohol last night,” he added.
“Even if she did, of all my friends, she’s the one with the iron stomach.”
“She seemed fine last night.”
“I know. It’s like she’s allergic to the morning.” Sick in the morning . . . fine by the evening. It reminded her of when she wanted to skip school as a kid.
Only Avery was skipping her vacation.
“Is that the new e-reader?” Dylan asked.
Unless . . .
“Yeah,” Shannon answered on autopilot.
She flipped forward several chapters in the book she was reading and came across the one titled “Pregnant and Single.” She skimmed several pages and read a passage on morning sickness.
“Oh my God.”
“What?” Victor asked.
Shannon dropped her e-reader and jumped up. “I’ll be back.”
She all but ran through the sand, around the beach chairs, and up the stairs to their suite. She swung the door open, startling Avery.
“Geez, Shannon . . . you scared me.”
“You don’t have a parasite,” she said, smiling. “You’re pregnant.”
Chapter Fifteen
Victor watched as Shannon ran off. “What is that all about?” he asked the other guys.
“Who knows. I don’t try and figure out the actions of women,” Erasmo said.
Victor laughed.
Dylan moved over to Shannon’s spot and picked up the e-reader he had been asking her about. “I’ve been thinking about getting one of these.” He waved it around. “It’s waterproof. Perfect for the beach.”
Things like that didn’t interest Victor.
He looked around the shade of his palapa to see if he could get a glimpse of Shannon up in her room, but his vantage point wasn’t nearly as good as it was across the beach.
“Oh, wow . . .”
Victor glanced over to Dylan, who looked at him, and then the device in his hand.
He dismissed Dylan’s excitement over the new technology and folded his arms behind his head and started to close his eyes.
“Oh, oh . . . no.”
“What’s so exciting?” Erasmo asked.
“Nothing.” Once again, Dylan looked at Victor, then the e-reader.
Dylan dropped the device and scooted back to his spot next to Erasmo.
Victor started to close his eyes again.
“Do you read for pleasure?” Dylan asked him.
“No time,” he replied.
“That’s too bad. You can learn a lot about a person by what they read.”
Erasmo laughed. “Which would make you a serial killer with all the thrillers you go through.”
Victor felt the weight of someone watching him.
He opened his eyes and saw Dylan. When his gaze moved to where Shannon had been sitting, or more importantly, the e-reader he’d been so fascinated with, Victor caught on.
He sat up. “Waterproof, huh?”
Dylan nodded. “Lightweight, too.”
Victor looked up, didn’t see Shannon, and saw his hand reaching toward her stuff.
He touched the screen and it came to life. It took him a few sentences to comprehend what he was reading.
A book on pregnancy? No . . . not exactly.
He flipped through and found a chapter heading and the title of the book.
No, no. Why would Shannon . . . ?
“Pretty cool, right?” Dylan asked.
He had to be mistaken. Was the woman pregnant? He thought of the bikini hugging her body. A bathing suit like that was what a woman wore to attract a man. Not to mention the alcohol. Shannon seemed like a responsible woman. Pregnant women didn’t drink.
Victor knew it was wrong, but he clicked on what looked like a menu and the images of book covers popped on the screen. Single Mothers. Single Motherhood by Choice. Skip the Syringe, Just Have Sex.
What the . . .
He clicked back into the book she’d been reading, flipped back a few pages, uncertain where he’d picked the device up, and left it next to her bag and hat.
“I might have to take up reading again,” Victor said, staring at Dylan.
Dylan offered a sad smile.
So many questions came at once. Shannon was considering a baby, which was obvious. Skipping the syringe meant sleeping around, trapping a man? No, no . . . single mothers. No dad needed for that. Except in the baby making part of the deal. Kinda hard to have a baby without a man or the implied syringe.
Victor tried to find some kind of incriminating behavior to point the finger toward Shannon working some kind of scheme to get pregnant without the man realizing what was going on.
Except all he came up with was the time she’d spent with him and the gay couple from Portugal.
Which left him.
Only his fiancée had walked out, and here Shannon was at his honeymoon hotel, by accident.
Was she playing him?
Was she playing anyone?
Son of a . . .
There was really only one way to find out.
Shannon skipped back onto the beach ten minutes later, much happier than when she’d left.
“Is everything okay?” Victor asked.
“Everything’s great.” She sat on her perch, waved a hand at the server on the beach. “I’m up for a Bloody Mary, anyone want one?”
“I’ll take one,” Erasmo said.
She looked at Victor.
“I’m good.”
“Dylan?”
“Too early for me.”
“How’s Avery?” Victor asked.
Shannon grinned and bit her lip. “Much better.”
“What’s so funny?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
The waiter approached, cutting off the conversation.
As Victor watched Shannon sipping what he would call a vacation cocktail or something given a name that made it okay to drink before noon, he completely ruled a pregnant Shannon out.
Her playing him, however, was still on the table. He had two days to figure out her game.
If there was one thing Victor had come to realize, it was that she was up to something.
Nothing could dim her mood. Even Avery grumbling around their room and checking her stomach’s profile in the full-length mirror while in complete denial.
Like clockwork, Avery’s transient stomach issues disappeared as the morning ran on, leaving her tired but hungry around two.
“We’ve been using protection.”
“Apparently not all the time.”
“I knew going off the pill was a bad idea.” At thirty-three, her doctor had suggested she take a break to test her hormone and thyroid levels. Add to that the fact that she and Liam had talked about having a baby . . . someday. “All your talk about getting pregnant scared me into thinking I wouldn’t.”
“Obviously not your concern.”
Avery paced the room, as she had most of the day. “We just got married.”
“Liam is going to be thrilled.”
“I know that. But he isn’t the one puking. I’m going to get fat.” She sat on the edge of a bed. “Maybe it’s just some kind of parasite.”
Shannon giggled. “Yeah, the nine month kind.”
“This isn’t funny.”
She took Avery’s hands in hers. “You’re going to be a great mom.”
Avery’s eyes opened wide. “Oh my God. I’ll be like my mother.”
“Not a chance.”
“What if I screw up?”
“You’re not going to screw up.”
Avery shook her head. “I’m not ready for this.”
Shannon knew her friend. It had taken her a long time to allow a relationship between her and Liam, even longer to admit it. Then one step after the other, Liam had put them on the fast track to getting married. Now this. “You’re ready. Liam is going to be the perfect father. You have me, Trina, and Lori. Everything is going to work out.”
Avery reverted back to her earlier argument. “I just got married.”
It was going to be a long night.
Victor found Dylan and Erasmo at the space reserved for their party before Shannon and Avery joined them.
He’d barely taken a seat before Dylan brought up their discovery earlier in the day. “What are your thoughts on Shannon’s choice in reading material?”
Victor glanced beyond Dylan to his husband.
Erasmo smiled. “We share everything. He already told me about it.”
Victor looked over his shoulder, didn’t see Shannon or Avery in sight. “Honestly, I’m confused.”
“She doesn’t act like she’s pregnant.”
“I don’t think she is,” Victor added. “She seems a lot more responsible than to be drinking during a pregnancy.”
“That’s what I pointed out,” Erasmo said. “But if she’s reading books on being a single mother, then maybe she’s considering her options.”
Dylan lowered his voice. “We know a lot of same-sex couples, and the women have talked openly about hooking up with a guy long enough to get the job done.”
“One even asked one of us to step in,” Erasmo told him.
Victor’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?”
They both nodded.