Read Online Barefoot in the Sun by Roxanne St. Claire - Free Book Online Page B

paper. But that wouldn’t happen here, would it? Zoe looked around at the nearly complete resort. Casa Blanca was nothing less than heavenly. Clay Walker, Lacey’s husband, had somehow managed to break the mold of the typical Florida resort, building a place that was clean, natural, and fitted into the foliage like Mother Nature herself had been on the architectural review board.
    Stop ogling. You can’t live here.
    Zoe followed the path to the private drive to Lacey and Clay’s two-story hacienda, which was already hugged by vibrant bougainvillea vines wrapped over the arched entryway.
    A pang of something that could only be called the green monster twisted inside Zoe as tight as those flowery vines. Tessa may be envious of Lacey’s baby, but Zoe longed for something different.
    What would it be like to call a place like this home? To build a family. To put down roots. To come home every night, year after year after year, to… home ?
    Not in your lifetime, girlie. Well, certainly not in Pasha’s lifetime.
    The front door swung open before she reached it, and Jocelyn Bloom stood in the doorway, sporting a most uncharacteristic wet splotch on the shoulder of her always-pressed-to-perfection blouse.
    Zoe pointed at the stain. “Will really ought to wipe his drool.”
    “Very funny.” Jocelyn took a cursory swipe at the stain, remarkably unconcerned by it. A year ago she’d be changed into something fresh and already have this shirt cataloged in her closet under D for Dry Cleaners. “It’s baby vomit.”
    Zoe sniffed. “Tessa probably wants to bottle and drink that.”
    Jocelyn gave her a look. “Don’t start.”
    “What? We can’t make jokes about each other’s not-so-secret desires anymore?”
    “Tessa’s infertility issues aren’t the butt of your crass jokes.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Everything’s the butt of my crass jokes. Even Baby Pukes-A-Lot. Where is he, anyway?” She inched around Jocelyn to look into the house. “I heard Pasha’s giving a reading.”
    “She is.” Jocelyn laughed. “Oh, Zoe. He’s so tiny and perfect. It makes you want to…” She squeezed her hands together and made a soft mewing sound that could only be hormonally driven.
    “Woman, you got engaged two nights ago.” Zoe nudged her. “No ovary bomb detonations yet.”
    Will Palmer stepped into the hallway, tall and tanned and looking at Jocelyn like he’d trudged through the desert and found an oasis. “Who’s detonating?” he asked, still beaming like he had been the night the baby was born and he’d squeezed a “yes” out of Jocelyn.
    “Don’t rush her, Will,” Zoe said. “She’ll need months just for the list making.”
    “Not true,” Jocelyn countered. “I’ve already promised him a quick and easy ceremony with no stress.”
    “And no waiting,” Will added, capturing Jocelyn under his arm.
    “You two are killing me.” Zoe shouldered between them. “Let me at the kid, please.”
    “Get in line,” Will said. “Pasha and Tessa aren’t about to give him up. Lacey went to rest, and Clay’s with her.”
    “Is Pasha feeling okay?” she asked.
    Jocelyn shrugged. “She seems tired today. All the excitement, I guess.”
    “I guess,” Zoe agreed. She hadn’t told her friends about the initial diagnosis they’d gotten before they’d left Arizona. Pasha had sworn Zoe to secrecy—big shockeroo there—and the others didn’t know Pasha well enough to notice the subtle signs of deterioration, weight loss, and easy exhaustion.
    Of course, if Zoe told them, she’d have to have a damn good explanation for why they didn’t just go to a doctor. And she’d have to do better than her usual joking and sarcasm. They loved Pasha, too. Especially Tessa, who, after her divorce, had lived with Pasha and Zoe for a few months and gotten close to the older woman.
    But not close enough to know the truth.
    How much longer could she keep her closest friends in the dark? Not only was Pasha’s illness forcing