Vegas Pregnancy Surprise by Shirley Jump

boring. Jayne and I still go to tea at the tearoom, but we spend most of our time wondering how you two are doing.” She grinned. “We had lots of great times at that place, the four of us.”
    The four of them had often gone to the Victorian Tea House, one of San Diego’s favorite Old Town hangouts. They loved the food, the atmosphere, and most of all the opportunity for female bonding over cookies.
    “We did have a lot of fun there,” her friend agreed. “So, what brings you to Vegas? Besides seeing me and Serena, of course.” Alex’s sky-blue eyes danced with merriment.
    Molly didn’t think she’d ever seen her friend so happy. Glowing even. “Marriage agrees with you.”
    “Wyatt agrees with me,” Alex said. “He’s wonderful. I never thought I’d find a man so…” She paused and a smile spread across her face, the kind of smile Molly had read about in novels, imagined some women had for the men they loved, and once wondered if she would someday have on her own face. “So amazing. When he looks at me, I feel loved. He doesn’t have to say a word. Just look at me.”
    A wave of envy ran through Molly, the force so strong it surprised her. She was happy with her life, glad she had gotten divorced. Doug had never once looked at her like that, and never, in fact, really taken the time to listen to her or understand her. And with a baby on the way, she had someone else’s life to worry about—not her own.
    Then why did she suddenly wish she could trade places with Alex? To have just a taste of the happiness emanating from Alex like sunshine?
    Clearly, marrying Wyatt McKendrick, owner of McKendrick’s, had been a good choice for Alex. Who would have thought when Alex had stayed behind after that wild weekend to work for Wyatt as his concierge, that she would have found love with the tall, dark-haired bachelor? Now they were running the hotel together and obviously making their work and personal partnerships work.
    “I’m so glad for you,” Molly said, and meant it. “Really. You deserve all that and more.”
    “So do you,” Alex said. “One bad marriage doesn’t mean all of them are that way.”
    Molly didn’t want to talk about her romantic life—or lack thereof—especially not after just leaving lunch with Linc, when everything inside her was still in turmoil after seeing him. Plus, being back in the lobby of McKendrick’s, the very place where she and her friends had started their wild weekend two months ago, brought back every memory of meeting Linc and ending up in his arms, and later in his bed.
    And she was hyper-aware of the results of that night. She felt every one of the changes in her body, even as minuscule as they were now. They all just kept reminding her that she was alone and pregnant, and though she now had a job, she had yet to find a way to tell Linc about the baby. A man who’d made it clear he wasn’t interested in the hearth and home thing.
    Molly sighed. “I don’t have time for a relationship right now. I’m too busy starting a new job.”
    “A new job? What happened to teaching?”
    “Cutbacks. So I’m taking a position here in Vegas until I can find another teaching job back in San Diego. It’s a temporary thing, just a few weeks.”
    Alex blinked. Stared at Molly. “You’re…you’re uprooting your whole life for a temporary job in a strange city? You? Of all people?”
    “What? It’s not that unusual. People do it all the time.”
    “Yeah, other people. Not you.” Alex reached out and laid a hand on Molly’s arm. “You’re the conservative one. The one who never does anything unpredictable or wild.”
    For a second, Molly wanted to tell Alex all about that night two months ago. To tell her good friend about how, for one moment, Molly had done something unpredictable and wild—
    And ended up with very predictable, very serious consequences.
    “You’re right, Alex,” Molly said instead. “Think of this as my first step into uncharted