“I don’t watch TV often, but when I do the TV is normally on the Speed or Discovery channel.” Except last week when I was watching that girl shit mindlessly while I freaked out about Delaney being pregnant.
“That is not going to happen,” she muttered under her breath.
“Whatever you want,” I laughed.
Delaney finally settled on the new Herbie movie. “Compromise?” she asked. “It’s got a car and stuff in it, but I still like it.”
I didn’t want to tell her I wasn’t interested in a magically Volkswagen Beetle. “That’ll do.”
She sat back in the chair and pulled the blanket up to her chin.
I wasn’t going to watch the movie.
The thing that had my attention was the pretty woman sitting in the recliner who was cooking my baby, as she put it.
Best thing I had watched in a long fucking time.
*
Chapter Eight
Delaney
That was probably the most boring night Jay had ever had in his life.
Ten minutes after I had settled on watching the Herbie movie, I had promptly fallen asleep.
It was now five AM, and I was standing over a sleeping Jay.
“Crap.” Should I wake him up and tell him to go home?
I knew sleeping on the couch wasn’t comfortable. It was old, worn out, and if you sat on it just right, a spring poked you in the butt. Or in Jay’s case, it was probably poking him in the back right now.
“Are you okay?” he grumbled.
I jumped back and bumped into the coffee table.
His arm shot out, and he wrapped it around my legs to steady me. “Easy, Del.” His voice was rough and low and sent a shiver down my spine.
“I’m fine,” I said breathlessly,
“Then why are you awake?”
“I had to pee.” There was me being straight to the point.
“You go?”
“Uh, yeah?” I had spotted him when I had woken up, but my bladder told me I better get my ass into the bathroom before I started freaking out over Jay being on my couch.
“Good. Why don’t you get in your bed and get a couple more hours of sleep?”
“Um, what about you?”
He rolled onto his side and crammed the pillow back under his head. “I’m good here.”
“How?”
He cracked open one eye. “Have you ever been in a race trailer?”
I shook my head.
“This couch is good, Del. Once you see where I sleep on race weekends, you’ll get it.” He shut his eyes and reached blindly behind him for the blanket.
I pushed his hand out of the way and laid the blanket over him. “There’s a spare bedroom if this gets too uncomfortable. It’s the first door at the top of the stairs.”
“I’m good here. Now get in bed. You need to sleep, Del.” He reached out again and brushed his hand down my legs. “Take care of our baby,” he whispered sleepily.
“Okay,” I whispered back.
Part of me wanted to crawl onto the couch with him and the other wanted to run out of the house.
What in the heck were feelings like these? Things were normally so cut and dry in my head. When Jay was around, I didn’t know what I wanted though my body tried to tell me exactly what it wanted.
Jay.
I slipped out of his hold and lightly jogged up the steps. I climbed into bed without even turning on the light and stared up at the dark ceiling.
“What the heck is going on, baby?” I whispered. I laid my hand on my stomach and sighed.
It had to be that I was still tired. That was the only thing that could explain me wanting to climb into Jay’s arms.
I knew exactly what kind of guy he was.
I had to hand it to him for trying to get to know me, but I knew his interest in me would fade once I had the baby. As long as he stuck around to be a dad to our baby, he could forget about me.
All that mattered was he loved the baby.
In the end, that would make me happy.
*
Chapter Nine
Jay
“Wanna go see a movie?”
Delaney looked up from her coffee.
For the record, Delaney was not a morning person. Not. At. All.
“What?” she grunted.
I, on the other hand, was totally a morning person. I may not wake up super early, but when I was awake, I was ready to go.
Delaney and I had both slept ‘til past ten, and now we were sitting at the kitchen island. I was trying to figure out what we could do today while Delaney was just trying to wake up.
“We could go see a movie today,” I suggested.
She shook her head. “There isn’t anything good out.”
“How do you know that?” I couldn’t remember the last time I had been to the movies in an actual movie theatre with popcorn and everything.
“Uh, because I watch the previews on TV.”
“Then what do you want to do today, Del?”
Her eyes dropped back to her coffee cup. “Right now, I’m wishing this tea would turn into coffee. That’s as far as I’ve planned for today.”
“Why don’t you drink decaf?” Decaf seemed to be a better thing to drink than watered down tea. I set my empty cup in the sink and crossed my arms over my chest.
“Because that is an even bigger tease. Like false advertising. It has the amazing taste of coffee but none of the caffeine to make me go. This way, I know I’ll have zero energy drinking this.” She took another sip and looked like she was ready to cry.
“Del, I think you gotta start drinking decaf. You, at least, will get a little happiness from it instead of looking like you’re crying while you drink that piss.”
She looked down in the cup. “It does look like piss, doesn’t it?”
It sure as shit did. “Get dressed. We’ll find a place for lunch and then we’ll go to the store.”
“Those are our plans for the day?” she laughed. “I’m surprised you haven’t fallen asleep hanging out with me.”
So we weren’t doing the most exciting things, but sometimes, I needed to slow it down and just relax. Being on the road with the race team was plenty excitement for me. Slowing it down on my off days with Delaney seemed perfect. “Get dressed. Don’t worry about me.”
She rolled her eyes and moved around the island to drop her cup into the sink. “Better bring a pillow along just in case,” she sassed.
“Just get dressed, woman.”
She looked me up and down. “You want me to wear the same thing I did yesterday so we can match?”
“You’re mighty sassy in the morning,” I drawled. “We’re stopping at my place on the way to our exciting day.”
“Fine, fine,” she mumbled. She shuffled up the stairs, and I leaned against the kitchen counter.
I had no idea what Delaney and I were going to do after we got her decaf coffee, but I needed to figure something out quickly. I wanted to impress her, but all I really wanted to do was come back here to watch TV and hope she let me sit on the couch with her. Hell, I’d even sit on the recliner and have her perched on my lap.
Anything to get her closer to me.