Love Imagines (Sully Point, Book 6) by Nicole Smith Page A

each other
tightly.
    "A baby," Sam said. "A brother or sister for Joshua."
    "I get a brother or sister?" Joshua asked from the
doorway, with a big smile on his face. "When? Today?"
    His parents laughed.
    "Not today," Anna said. "It's going to take about
eight or nine more months. A long time."
    "Oh."
    "But tonight Aunt Rose is coming over for dinner,"
Sam said, picking up Joshua and whirling him around in a circle.
    Joshua laughed. "More, Daddy, more!"
    Sam and Anna laughed with their son. Then Anna
reached for another stick of celery.
    * * * *
    When Rose arrived at Sam's beach house, she saw
another car in the driveway and it wasn't Ben's. She knocked on the front door
right as it opened.
    "Oh! Hi, Sam."
    "Hey, Rose, come on in," Sam said.
    Rose looked at him and shook her head. "What on
earth has put such a huge smile on your face?"
    "We think Anna's pregnant!"
    "What? That's great, but what do you mean, you
think?"
    "Well, she's eating celery."
    Sam walked down the hall to the living room and
Rose followed, bemused, only to find another surprise sitting on the couch.
    "Mom...and Dad! What are you guys doing here?" she
asked, and then went over and hugged them both.
    "Sam invited us to celebrate Anna's news, and he
thought we should also get to know Ben," Sophia said.
    Rose sat down in one of the leather chairs and
shook her head. "Okay, everyone stop and explain things to me. First, don't you
know for sure if she's pregnant? What's the celery about?"
    Anna walked in, beaming. "I hate celery, except
when I'm pregnant."
    "Didn't you guys go get a test to see for sure?"
    Sam stared at Anna and they burst out laughing.
"We didn't even think of that," he said, finally. "I'm going to go get one
right now."
    Anna called after him, "You only have twenty
minutes."
    Rose took a deep breath. "All right, moving on.
Why did Sam think you should get to know Ben?"
    Her father gave her a look she recognized from
when she'd been thirteen and had stolen money from the change jar in the
kitchen.
    "Don't even try to pull off the idea that you two
aren't dating. We heard you were out on Cody's boat yesterday. You've been seen
around town together. Maelynne is telling everyone that you'll be moving to
Hollywood to be with him."
    "Ed! Why would you listen to Maelynne?" Sophia
asked, her eyes wide in disbelief.
    Rose had heard enough around town already to know
that Maelynne was the worst Sully Point gossip.
    "Yeah, Dad, don't listen to Maelynne. I have no
intention of moving to Hollywood. Yes, we've hung out a bit, and we did go
fishing yesterday. But that's it, there's no big thing going on."
    She heard a knock on the front door.
    "Now listen to me. No more talk of this stuff
tonight. No insinuations. Just a nice friendly dinner, okay?"
    Everyone nodded, and Rose went to let Ben in the
house.
    * * * *
    Ben walked behind Rose down the hall and thought
she had gorgeous hair, among other things. She'd whispered to him that her
parents were going to be at dinner, and he wondered if that meant the problem
of Suzanne wouldn't be discussed.
    Sophia and Ed Carter were a surprise to him. The
gruff, big man and the willowy, sophisticated woman seemed to be a mismatch. When he
heard that Ed had been a police detective and that Sophia was a fashion
designer, he was even more surprised by them. They had greeted him warmly,
however, and as he watched them, he saw in the looks and small touches that the
two were very much partners.
    Sam came in with a paper bag in his hand and he
and Anna vanished down the hallway, giggling. Ben wasn't sure what was going
on, but right then Ed began questioning him about his career. About ten minutes
later, Sam and Anna returned wearing big smiles.
    "It's positive," Anna said.
    "Congratulations!" Ed said as he got up to hug
Anna.
    Rose leaned over and said, "Anna's pregnant. They
just found out from a pregnancy test."
    "That explains those big smiles," he said. He got
up and waited his turn to shake Sam's hand and offer