“Which is all the more reason to go see the doctor as soon as possible,” Holly pressed.

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

Holly nodded reluctantly.

“In the meantime, I need you to promise me that you won’t say anything about this to anyone. Not even Tim.”

Holly sighed. “Fine. My lips are sealed for the time being.” Then she broke into a smile. “I can’t believe you’re going to have a baby.”

“I know!” Sabrina squealed with delight and hugged Holly. “And you’re going to be an aunt.” Because to her, Holly was like the sister she never had.

“Oh, I’m going to be the best aunt in the world.” Holly laughed.

“I have no doubt about it.”

“I’m going to spoil that baby as if she were my own.”

“She?” Sabrina laughed. “What makes you think it’s a girl?”

Holly shrugged. “Women’s intuition? Okay, so I’m hoping for a girl so I can show her how to shop and get her nails done and tell her all about boys.”

Sabrina had to stop laughing and try to appear normal again when the door opened and Julia appeared with a glass of water. She didn’t want anybody else to find out prematurely, because she knew just how fast gossip could spread in a small community like Montauk.

8

After dropping Holly off at the Maidstone Country Club, Sabrina drove into the village of East Hampton.

It looked busy in town when she arrived. Nevertheless, she found an empty parking spot and pulled in. After stuffing several coins into the meter, she adjusted her purse on her shoulder and walked along the sidewalk, not sure yet what she should get for Holly.

She wandered along the main street, glancing in store windows, trying to find inspiration, when she saw Mrs. Teller, the Sinclair’s next door neighbor coming toward her.

“Hi, Mrs. Teller,” she called out to her with a smile.

The woman’s eyes widened, clearly recognizing her. But instead of returning Sabrina’s friendly greeting, she dashed into the street and crossed to the other side of it, before Sabrina had reached her. Surprised at her odd behavior, Sabrina stopped for a moment. No, the behavior hadn’t only been odd, it had been downright hostile if she’d interpreted the deep frown on Mrs. Teller’s face and the sneer around her lips. As if she were appalled by what she’d seen.

Sabrina looked down at herself, wondering if something was amiss with her wardrobe, but she couldn’t find anything dirty or torn that would warrant such a reaction. Despite the warm temperatures that had most of the vacationers in the Hamptons wearing shorts, Sabrina wore a colorful summer dress that neither showed too much cleavage nor was too short.

Shaking her head, Sabrina continued walking down the sidewalk and tried to put Mrs. Teller out of her mind. Maybe she was having a bad day and wasn’t in the mood to talk to anybody.

For a moment, she gazed into the window of a lingerie store. Lisette’s was stenciled over the window. Holly loved beautiful lingerie. It was part of who she was. Yet Sabrina hesitated. The revelation that Holly wanted to quit her job had come as a complete surprise. A welcome one, actually. But did this change who Holly was? Did this mean that suddenly, pretty lingerie wasn’t one of her priorities anymore? Sabrina shook her head at her stupid thoughts. Holly was Holly. She was an extremely beautiful woman with long blonde locks, a gorgeous smile, and a figure any woman would kill for. Even if she didn’t plan to work as an escort anymore, she would still take care of her appearance, and her taste in lingerie would certainly not change.

Having convinced herself that lingerie was always the perfect gift for her friend, she entered the store. A doorbell chimed and soft music played from speakers somewhere in the ceiling. Inside the store it smelled of scented candles. She’d been to this shop once before with Raffaela and found the sales staff very helpful, though she didn’t think she really needed any help this time. She knew Holly’s taste as well as her size.

One sales woman was busy helping another customer at a display of bras while the owner of the store stood at the checkout and finalized another customer’s purchase. She looked up for a moment, glancing at Sabrina, a smile already on her lips, when her eyebrows snapped together and her lips set in a grim line.

“Hi,” Sabrina said in her direction, but got no response.

Feeling awkward, she cast a look over her shoulder, checking whether anybody else had entered behind her who might have caused the scowl on the owner’s face, but there was nobody.

Brushing off the feeling of unease, Sabrina walked to a display of negligees and browsed through the selection, gravitating toward items in black and red, two of Holly’s favorite colors when it came to lingerie.