The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(92)

“I wasn’t talking about kids in general. I meant I didn’t want that one.”

“He’s cute.”

“He peed on me.”

Kinsey was putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and got weak in the knees, so she dropped to the floor and joined them, her heart in her throat. “Are you saying . . . ?”

Brynn smiled and set her head on Eli’s shoulder. “We’re going to have a baby.”

Kinsey felt her eyes fill. Sure, the floor was undoubtedly covered in germs, but . . . pregnant? “We’re having a baby?”

Brynn smiled at her through her tears, and then they were hugging too, Kinsey holding on tight, eyes closed, feeling more love and affection than her heart felt like it could possibly hold.

“You’re going to be the best auntie on the planet,” Brynn said to her, eyes fierce and full of a matching love and affection. In five or ten minutes, that would most likely switch to irritation more than once, but Kinsey had never been as happy in her life as she’d been the past two years with her sister at her side.

Deck and Max appeared together in the doorway and stared down at the three of them on the floor.

“Are we okay?” Max asked worriedly.

“We’re pregnant,” Kinsey said, like her sister both laughing and crying. “We’re pregnant!”

Deck hit his knees and pulled his wife into him, fist-bumping Eli over Kinsey’s head, leaning in to press a kiss to Brynn’s sweaty temple as well.

“I don’t know anything about babies,” Brynn said to the room. “Do any of us know anything about babies?”

“Deck does,” Kinsey said.

“I winged it,” Deck said.

Eli pressed his forehead to Brynn’s. “Winging it, it is. With all of us, how can we go wrong?” He stood and helped Brynn to her feet. “You okay? How about some soda water, or crackers? Something to settle your stomach?”

“I’m better now.”

Max handed her some wet paper towels. “Can we name the baby Max?”

“Of course not,” Kinsey said, trying to smooth Brynn’s hair back down. “She’ll be Kinsey.”

Brynn looked into Eli’s eyes and smiled. “Feels right, doesn’t it?” she asked softly.

He pulled her into him again. “With you, everything feels right.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kinsey said as they all followed the couple out of the bathroom. “But about her name . . .”





P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*


About the Author



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Meet Jill Shalvis

About the Book



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Reading Group Guide

Read On



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Coming soon . . . An Excerpt from The Forever Girl





About the Author


Meet Jill Shalvis


New York Times bestselling author JILL SHALVIS lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is . . . mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.





About the Book


Reading Group Guide


Brynn is given a real shock when she learns the truth of her connection with Kinsey. What did you think of her reaction? How do you think you’d react if you were told a similar life-altering fact?

Kinsey has been dealing with illness her whole life. How do you think that’s affected who she has become? In what ways do you think difficulties shape our character?

Families come in many different forms and in this novel, Brynn and Kinsey are struggling to decide if they are family or if they are just biologically related. How would you define family? What makes a family unit?

If Kinsey had told Brynn the truth about their connection when she first moved in, would Brynn’s reaction have been different or would she have believed she was only wanted for her kidney? Was Kinsey right to try to build a relationship first?

If you were Eli, would you have made the decision to keep Kinsey’s secret?

Kinsey sees herself as selfish. Do you agree?

Keeping a secret to protect another happens more than once in The Summer Deal, from Brynn not telling her moms about the childhood bullying to Kinsey not telling Brynn about their father. Is this kind of secret worth it or is it a type of lie? Would you keep this kind of secret?





Read On


Coming soon . . . An Excerpt from The Forever Girl


Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next heartwarming novel from

JILL SHALVIS

The Forever Girl

Available January 2021



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Prologue

Three years ago . . .

MAZE PARKER WAS good at playing a role, so good she’d have sworn she couldn’t access a real emotion even if she wanted to. So she was shocked to find herself stopping twenty-five yards short of her goal, unable to so much as swallow past the lump stuck in her throat.