Three

I ate my breakfast slowly, my mates studying each mouthful, and I suspected their minds were churning as to what the scan would reveal and how long it’d take for me to eat my eggs and toast.

When I was finally ready to leave, Dante picked up the keys to my car but I protested I didn’t need a ride. “Fresh air is good for me.” I was throwing my mates’ words back at them because for weeks, they’d pestered me to go outside while I’d wanted to stay in bed with my laptop, saying I had to get ahead with work before the baby arrived. And while that was true, eating candy and catching up with my favorite telenovela was another reason.

They shared a glance, but they knew they were beaten; I could see it in their eyes.

“Fine. We’ll all walk to Healer’s.”

I was huffing when we were halfway there, but as I was leaning on Alicia and catching my breath, Grant turned up in my car. “Thought you might like a lift to Healer’s.”

I caught Dante’s eye and he shrugged. This was his doing. My mates were look