“Very funny.” She glances around. “By the way, I’m pretty sure Rory is over there, planning your baby shower.”
“God, her reaction was dramatic. Her fruit punch fell to the ground in slow motion. I thought she wanted to kill me for not telling her.”
“Oh, that was just the shock. You didn’t see the bright-ass smile on her face after you left. She’s not pissed. She’s fucking elated.” She laughs. “The only people who weren’t over the moon were the women who wanted to be the one Dallas had knocked up. You got knocked up by Blue Beech’s finest bachelor. You go, girl.”
“So, the news is out,” Dallas says.
“The news is out,” I repeat slowly.
Maven is passed out in the backseat, snoring like a man in a nursing home, and it’s almost eight o’clock. She apologized to me countless times for her outburst, but I couldn’t be upset at a girl sporting a Birthday Girl tiara and sash.
“You want to come over?” he asks. “Hang out for a bit? I have leftover cake.”
Jesus, does everyone think all I eat is cake?
The thought of spending more time with him excites me, but the problem is, going to his house doesn’t. It terrifies me. The memories from our night together might slash a hole in the connection we’ve been making. We’ve already been through enough today. Reliving those memories isn’t something I want either one of us to do.
“Not tonight,” I answer. “I’m exhausted.”
“You sure?”
I nod at the same time he pulls up to my apartment building, and I stop him from unbuckling his seat belt. “Don’t wake her up. I can walk myself in.”
“Okay. I’ll wait out here until I see your light come on, and you call me to let me know you made it in okay.”
And that’s what he does.
It’s seven in the morning, and someone is banging on my door.
“What is up with your family knocking people’s doors down at the butt crack of dawn?” I ask when Lauren walks in.
“Good morning, my future sister-in-law,” she sings out while walking into my apartment. “I brought doughnuts and green tea.”
Seriously?
“What do you want?” I mutter in my best cranky voice.
“You didn’t believe it’d be that easy to dodge me, did you, neighbor?” She plops down on a barstool at the island. “I was upset enough that I got called into work and missed my niece’s birthday party, and then I find out you’re having twins, and you didn’t tell me.” She crosses her arms. “As the girl who lives above you, I am extremely offended.”
I take a gulp of the green tea. Yummy. “We were waiting. No one knew.”
“Except the six-year-old.”
“Except the six-year-old,” I mutter. “Your brother apparently can’t lie to his daughter.”
“Yeah, he sucks at saying no to her. She’s got him wrapped around her finger. Now, if it’s a girl, I’d like her name to be Lauren.”
I side-eye her. “It’s too early to argue about baby names.”
“It’s never too early to hash it out over baby names. Trust me. I’ve heard stories from the maternity ward nurses about the kind of drama and chaos families have over baby names.”
“I’m naming them after my pet goldfish—Goldie and Nemo.”
She rolls her eyes. “Now that we’ve got Lauren Junior covered, what’s going on with you and my big bro?”
My brows lift. “Other than the fact that we’re having twins together, nothing.”
“His truck was here the other night when I got home at four in the morning. It seems to be here pretty frequently, if you ask me. Since we know you weren’t discussing baby names at four in the morning, what were y’all doing?”
“Discussing nursery decor.”
“You suck,” she grumbles.
I perk up. “You love me.”
“I do. But can I say something serious?”
“I don’t think I can stop you.”
“Don’t hurt him.”
This really catches my attention. “Huh?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Don’t hurt my brother. He’s been through too much to lose someone else he loves.”
Deflection time. “I’ve made it clear, I won’t ever keep the babies from him.”
“I’m talking about you, girlfriend.” She annoyingly shakes her shoulders while drinking her smoothie through the straw.
“Your brother most certainly does not love me.”
She grins. “Not yet. From what my mother tells me, it’s getting pretty damn close, and my mama knows everything.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Dallas
The excavator I bought from the auction is kicking my ass. Even though I do my due diligence the best I can, you never know what you’re going to get when you buy an item as is.
It’s an easy fix but fucking time-consuming, and Hudson ran off for a staycation with Stella for the day—whatever the fuck that is—at the local bed-and-breakfast. I tried to fight him on it, telling him they could eat Cheerios at their kitchen table, and then he could come into work, but he agreed to give me as much time as I needed off when Willow had the babies.
Almost a week has passed since Maven’s birthday party, and I’ve talked to Willow on the phone a couple times a day but not in person.
The machine loses my attention when the music is cut off.
I look down and grin. “This is a nice surprise.”
Willow holds up the cooler in her hand. “Thought I’d bring you some lunch.”
Good. I’m fucking starving, and I was planning on skipping lunch, so I wouldn’t have to spend time driving into town and then back today.
I carefully move down the ladder and wipe my forehead with the back of my arm while coming her way. I laugh when she licks her lips while brazenly eye-fucking me at the same time I’m eye-fucking her.
She’s not wearing her usual baggy clothes today. I’m not sure where she got the maternity clothes, but she’s breathtaking in her jean shorts and T-shirt that says Tacos for Two, Please.
Her and her tacos.
I run my hand down my sweaty chest. I have the air on high, but I get hot, no matter what, when I’m working on machine engines. “You like what you see?”
She lifts her gaze back up my body and grins playfully. “Oh, I love what I see.”
“You know, I’m more than just a hot, lean body.”
I curl my arm around her shoulders to pull her into me and plant a kiss on her lips. She doesn’t even flinch. Us touching has become so natural. Not only does it feel good, having her here, but she also showed up without my asking. She took the time to make lunch and came to surprise me. She can deny it all she wants, but she’s falling for me.
“I’m starving. What did you whip up for us?”
She glances around the room. “It’s a surprise.”
I gesture toward the other side of the garage. “We have a table and shit in the office, if you want to eat in there, or we can go outside?”