Read Just a Little Sequel for Free Online

the elevators, up to the third floor, and into the maternity wing.
    The friendliest face in the world was ready and waiting to greet us the moment the doors bounced open.
    “Derek!”
    “ Oh, thank God !” He opened his arms to invite a hug. “I couldn’t find you at the party. We had to rush straight to the hospital. I’ve been calling you for over an hour. Where have you been ?”
    “I’m sorry. Luke and I took a ride, and I left my phone at the house.” I looked down at my dress, “I don’t have pockets.”
    Derek closed his eyes and pulled me close to his chest. “You’re here now, that’s all that matters,” he said so quietly that I’m not sure Luke, Lonnie, or Grace even heard him. “I’m freaking out, Julie. I don’t know what to do—”
    “Hey,” I pulled far enough away to look him straight in the eye, “it’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. I promise.”
    “I can’t believe this is happening—”
    “Well, it is,” I nodded my head confidently.
    “Ugh,” he blinked a few too many times, “God, I think I need to sit down.”
    “Right,” I said, heading to the nearby chairs in the waiting room, “let’s sit.”
    Grace, Lonnie, Luke, and Molly excused themselves to the corner of the waiting room, giving me and Derek some much-needed privacy.
    “How are you?” I leaned forward to get a better look at him. He already looked different than he had when I’d seen him at the party just an hour earlier; at the party, he was relaxed, despite the fact that he was alone. At the hospital, he was frazzled and jittery.
    “I should be a bigger part of this, Julie.”
    “Hey, your part’s done,” I tried to look on the bright side. “There’s not really much you can do now,” I patted Derek’s leg. “You’re just gonna have to sit here and wait it out like the rest of us.”
    “I wish she’d let me in there—”
    “Oh yeah,” I said, wide-eyed, “that wouldn’t be awkward at all. Hey Rebecca, I know we hooked up one time nine months ago, and now you can’t stand the sight of me, but how ’bout I come watch as you squeeze a baby out of your —”
    “I get it, Julie.”
    “Good.”
    Derek sulked lower in his chair and leaned his head on my shoulder. I dropped my head on top of his and took his hand.
    “I’m sorry,” I whispered because I didn’t know what else to say.
    I was sorry.
    I couldn’t imagine what poor Derek was going through, and I knew that these last nine months were only the beginning of the hardest days of his life. He was about to become a father, and the mother of his unborn child didn’t care if she never saw him again. She blamed him for their unplanned pregnancy—him and him alone. She didn’t want to take the responsibility for it. For that, and everyone agreed with me, she was wrong.
    Even Luke had tried to reason with her— it takes two to tango , he’d said—and that was saying something considering the fact that he wanted to murder Derek when he first found out about the pregnancy. But instead of killing my best friend, Luke simply took the high road. He invited him out for a guy’s night. They spent time together. They talked.
    And then the weirdest thing of all happened…
    Luke apologized to Derek for everything. They put the past behind them.
    “You wanna go grab some coffee?” Derek asked, and he squeezed my fingers gently. “If she’s not going to let me in there, I need to focus my attention elsewhere, or I’m gonna go nuts.”
    “Sure,” I turned back to the others, “can we bring anything back for you guys?”
    Grace and Lonnie politely declined my offer. Luke, sitting only a few chairs away, didn’t even turn his head away from Molly as they sat flipping through a magazine.
    “Luke?”
    “Hmm?” He quirked an eyebrow and looked my way.
    “Coffee?”
    “Nah, you guys go ahead.” With a small smile and a quick wink, he turned his attention back to his niece.
    Gone were the days of insane jealousy now that