Kai put his half-finished beer down on the bar. “I’m going after him. Are you okay to get home if I’m not back in an hour?”
I stared at him. “I’m pregnant, not legless.”
Tori grinned.
“Okay, okay.” He leaned down and kissed me square on the lips.
A blush rose up my cheeks, and I knew it was the kind of blush everyone within a square mile would see.
“See you later.” He winked before he turned and rushed off after Colton.
Tori wiggled her eyebrows. “Ooh, look at you. Are you making that fake marriage real?”
I pressed my finger to my lips and gave her a wink of my own. “Maybe one day.”
Probably one day.
If we made it through the next nine months.
Note to self: I really, really had to buy some more chocolate sauce… and pancake mix.
EPILOGUE – IVY
Six Months Later
“Daisy?”
Holley shook her head. “Too Disney. And our aunt’s name.”
That was true. “Lily?”
She nodded slowly. “I like Lily. It’s cute.”
Okay.
I wrote it in the ‘maybe’ column. “What about Poppy?”
“Oh, that’s cute!” Kinsley yelled from atop her ladder. “My vote goes to Poppy!”
We’d been holed up in their bookstore, Bookworm’s Books, for the last hour talking baby stuff.
“Nooo,” my sister argued. “That’s the name of the troll in the movie!”
“Great. If we call her Poppy, you’ll call her a troll all the time.” I scratched out Poppy. “What about Marigold?”
“What are you giving birth to? A baby or a seventy-year-old grandma?” Saylor asked, putting two books down in front of me. “Here. If I have to listen to this painful baby naming session one more time, I’m going to tear out my hair.”
I took the baby name book from her and stared at it. “I don’t know how this will help. Grandma is insisting on another flower name if I want to keep my inheritance.”
“What is your inheritance?” Kinsley asked, stepping down from the ladder. “Has she ever told you?”
“No.” Holley picked up the other name book and flicked to the introduction page. “It’s either going to be something grand or something like an allotment for us to never grow vegetables in.”
I nodded along in agreement. “That is the general consensus. Problem is, neither me or Kai can find a flower name that we agree on. Lily is the only one, really, but I’m not sure I really like it.”
“What does he like?” Kinsley asked, pulling up a chair to join us. She peered over at my notebook. “Ah. Does he really like Tegan?”
“It’s actually the frontrunner,” I admitted. “We both love Tegan, but when we tried bringing up not using a flower name, Grams about had a stroke. A fake stroke, but a stroke nonetheless.”
“It’s true,” Holley piped up. “She even tried to faint. It would have been far more dramatic if she hadn’t been sitting on the sofa at the same time.”
Saylor snorted. “Why don’t you call her Tegan Rose? That’s close enough, and it’s your grandma’s name, so it’s not like she can complain too much. Just say you chose it after it.”
Ding. Ding. Ding.
“Saylor, you’re a fucking genius.”
“That is the word on the street.” She touched two fingers to her temples and disappeared between the shelves, her blonde hair flowing behind her.
I pulled out my phone and texted Kai.
ME: Tegan Rose????
KAI: If that’s someone off one of those reality shows you’ve been binging while on an ice cream high, I don’t know who it is.
ME: For the baby. Saylor suggested it.
KAI: Hang on.
ME: Don’t tell me to hang on. I can’t hang on to my pee, never mind anything else.
I wished that was a lie. A tiny body part was currently using my bladder as punching bag practice.
If it was her head, I was sooooo getting the epidural.
The bell above the door rang, and we all turned to look. Kai stepped inside with two bags from the sandwich place down the street and lifted them in triumph.
“I brought food,” he said brightly. “Anyone hungry?”
Holley pointed in my directly not so discreetly. “We’re hungry. She’s hangry.”
“If I didn’t have to get up to punch you, I’d punch you.” I tossed a pencil in her direction.
She stuck her middle finger in my direction as Kinsley called out for Saylor to come join us again.
“What are you doing for your birthday next week?” Kai asked Kinsley, handing her her food.
She wrinkled her nose up. “I don’t know. Nothing special, probably just some drinks and stuff with everyone.”
“Yay,” I deadpanned.
She laughed into her hand. “You can video me drunk rapping Kanye songs to blackmail me with.”
I held out my hand. “Done.”
She shook on it.
“Who’s drunk rapping Kanye?” Saylor asked, reappearing. “Oh, God, is that the theme for Kinsley’s birthday? I’m not dressing up as Kim Kardashian again.”
Kai grinned. “How did you pull off the ass?”
“About fifty dollars’ worth of bubble wrap,” she replied dryly, sitting down.
“She popped every time she sat down.” I unwrapped my sandwich with a giggle. “It was funny.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, no, thankfully not,” Holley said. “You said low key, right?”
Kinsley nodded. “I’m getting too old to party all night.”
“No, you can’t say that when you just promised me rapping videos,” I said, moving the books into the middle of the table so they didn’t get damaged.
“She’s right,” Saylor said around a mouthful of tuna sandwich. “You can’t do that, Kins.”
“Fine. We’ll see.”
“I’ll bring the tequila,” I said brightly, then looked at Kai. “But you’ll have to buy it, ‘cause you know. People look at me weird.” I motioned to the beachball currently attached to my front and preventing me from tucking my chair under the table.
He grinned, his eyes sparkling. “Done.”
“When you two are done eye-fucking each other,” Holley said. “We need to get back to work. Have you figured out her name?”
“I like Tegan Rose,” Kai agreed. “I think it suits her, and your grandma can’t complain too much.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” I bit into my sandwich.
Kinsley glanced at me, fighting a smile. “Hey, where’s Tori?”
“Meeting with a new client.” Holley wiped her fingers with the napkin. “Some big website redesign or something like that. She said she’d stop by later with the mockups for our new logo.”
“Thank God.” Saylor mirrored Holley’s movements. “I was starting to think she’d forgotten.”