The Secret She Kept
same.
    “Wow!” Katie called, from the perch where she was stuck. “Your bump has become a bulge!” She pointed at Lindsey’s belly.
    “I want to touch,” Savannah declared, shooting back in time to when she’d been pregnant. “May I?”
    Lindsey rolled her eyes and nodded. “A girl can’t keep anything private anymore, can she?”
    “Hey, I just told you the biggest secret of my life. The least you can do is let me feel the baby kick.”
    “He’s apparently napping this morning.”
    “The seamstress will be in in a few minutes,” Beth told them. “I’ll help you two get your dresses on. I hope that baby hasn’t grown too much.” She looked doubtfully at Lindsey’s middle.
    Once they were all in their gowns and waiting for the seamstress, Beth left the room to help another bridal group.
    Lindsey studied herself in one of the mirrors. “I’m never going to forgive you for getting married while I’m pregnant.”
    “You’re gorgeous even with the bulge,” Katie said, and faced Savannah. “So you went back to school, found out you were pregnant? Then what?”
    “I attempted to find Jake. He’d left Lone Oak right after our night together. I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t handle it by myself. Mom was gone….”
    Both her sisters nodded.
    “God, I missed her then.”
    “I can imagine,” Katie mumbled, her face drawn. “Did you find Jake?”
    Savannah shook her head. “I tried for weeks. Michael and I had gone on a few dates before the Jake night, and he helped me search. I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through everything without him.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me? ” Lindsey asked. Savannah could hear the subtle hurt in her voice.
    “You were at school, sixty miles away.”
    “You could’ve called. I would’ve been there for you.”
    Savannah studied her. “Are you now?”
    Her sister averted her eyes, smoothed coral satin over her belly, chewed her lip. “I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me. I came home from school often enough. Getting pregnant by the wrong guy—that’s huge, Savannah.”
    “You think I don’t know that? It wasn’t something I was proud of, believe me. Once I told Michael, I couldn’t figure how anyone else could help me. Only Jake.”
    Lindsey hesitated, as if imagining what Savannah had gone through back then. “So Michael knew from the beginning you were pregnant with Jake’s kid?” she queried. “There was no chance Allie was Michael’s?”
    “Michael and I never slept together. Not until after Allie was born, actually. When it was obvious we weren’t going to find Jake, and I started to show, he told me he was in love with me and offered to marry me and raise Allie as his own.”
    “Wow,” Katie said. “I had no idea.”
    “No one did,” Savannah said. “No one could.”
    “So does Jake know he’s Allie’s father?”
    “He does now. I confirmed it after he met Allie at my office.”
    “Oh, my God! That’s the guy in the new development, isn’t it? Jake. And Odessa Levine.” Lindsey said. “I hadn’t put the name together with your Jake.”
    “He’s not my Jake.”
    Lindsey closed her eyes for a moment. “Zach doesn’t know. You haven’t told him, right?”
    “I haven’t told him, but he knows something’s weird between Jake and me. I don’t exactly act normal when Jake’s around,” Savannah said.
    “That’s wild.” Katie shook her head.
    The seamstress knocked and entered. “Sorry to keep you ladies waiting.”
    “Oh, that’s okay. We’ve managed to entertain ourselves,” Katie said with a friendly grin. “Lindsey’s going to require another yard of satin, though.”
    Half an hour later, they were back in their regular clothes and walking out to Savannah’s minivan. Their discussion had turned to wedding topics ever since the seamstress interrupted them, but Savannah was still preoccupied.
    “There’s one more thing,” she said when they’d all shut their doors, Lindsey in the

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