The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) by Carol Ericson

town.
    When she parked, he grabbed the handle of the door. “You coming with me?”
    “Sure.”
    As they walked inside the brightly lit drugstore, the clerk behind the register called out, “You have ten minutes until closing.”
    “We’ll make it quick.” Jase nudged Nina with his elbow. “Toothpaste.”
    They rounded the corner of the aisle, which gave them a straight shot to the pharmacy counter, where a couple was arguing with the pharmacist.
    “I think someone else was using my driver’s license.”
    “I don’t think so, ma’am.”
    “God, don’t call me ma’am. I’m only thirty-one.”
    Nina tugged on his sleeve to try to escape her stepsister’s notice, but Lou caught the movement and turned.
    “Nina, can you help me out?”
    “Ma’am... Miss, you can’t have someone buy the antihistamine for you after just trying to buy it yourself.”
    Lou cussed at the pharmacist and slapped the counter. “Hick town.”
    “C’mon, babe. Let’s go back to the bar.” Kip, looking more beat-up than before, wrapped an arm around Lou’s waist.
    “Hold on.” She shrugged him off. “What are you doing back in town, Nina? I thought you were headed to Moonstones.”
    “Needed a few things.” Nina tipped her chin toward the pharmacist, who was hastily rolling down his window.
    “Why are you trying to buy antihistamines?”
    “You know, runny nose.” Lou pinched the bridge of her nose and sniffed.
    “Antihistamines are for stuffed-up noses.”
    Lou plucked a tube of lip balm from a hook and put it in her pocket. “You have any room at the inn?”
    “What?” Nina visibly recoiled.
    “At Moonstones? Any vacancies for me and Kip to crash?”
    “I...I thought you were staying here in town.”
    “We are, but we’re running out of cash.”
    Jase reached his arm behind Nina and gave her hip a pinch. Surely, she could say no to her stepsister. The woman tried to drown her just this afternoon.
    “I can’t help you, Lou.”
    “Of course not. You got what was rightfully mine, and now you can’t even spare a room for me.”
    “Jase and I were expecting to be alone.”
    His heart slammed against his chest. What was she playing at?
    Lou narrowed her reddened eyes. “You and your handyman?”
    Nina tossed back her shoulder-length hair. “I just didn’t want to get you all wound up, Lou, but I’m getting sick of tiptoeing around you.”
    “What does that mean?” Lou’s voice had taken on a dangerous edge, and Jase inched closer to Nina.
    “Jase isn’t my handyman. He’s my fiancé.”

Chapter Six
    Nina wrapped her arm around Jase and gave him a squeeze. It was what she’d been wanting to do ever since he pulled her from the water anyway. Now she had an excuse.
    Kip had dropped the box of condoms he’d been fidgeting with, and Lou gave it a kick with the toe of her shoe.
    Nina’s muscles went rigid, bracing for the explosion.
    Lou’s trembling lips stretched into a line and then turned up at one corner. “I’m not as surprised as you might think.”
    Not as surprised as Jase anyway, who hadn’t uttered a sound since her announcement of their impending nuptials.
    “And why is that, Lou?”
    “I’d heard you were engaged, but that was through a friend of an acquaintance’s second cousin or something like that, so I didn’t know how true it was.”
    Lou had heard about Simon? Nina squared her shoulders. “Well, it’s true, and we want to be alone, so you’ll have to tough it out at your motel.”
    “I wouldn’t expect anything more of you, sis.”
    A low sound rumbled in Jase’s throat and he pulled her close. “Now that I’m going to be part of the family, I can speak my mind. You need to stop ragging on Nina and get your life together.”
    “Really.” Lou crossed her arms and her light-colored eyes glittered.
    Even though Lou self-medicated with drugs and booze, those substances did nothing to calm her down. But Nina had Jase to protect her until Lou left the island. She hoped he