The Girl Next Door

by Emma Hart

  “You’re jealous.”

  “I am not jealous,” I repeated, making a connection with the ball. Unfortunately for me, the connection was far too strong, and the ball went flying into the next hole, almost knocking someone’s ball out of the way. I winced. “Sorry.”

  Smirking, Kai went to retrieve my ball from the laughing couple and handed it back to me. “Maybe you don’t try to take someone’s eye out with it this time.”

  “I’ll take your eye out with it.”

  “Or just aim for the women you’re glaring at.”

  “Shut. Up.” I retook my shot and needed three tries to get it in the hole.

  “Four,” Kai said, taking my score.

  “Four? That was three!”

  “No. The first one counts, too.”

  “Ugh.” I picked my ball out of the hole and, after taking the paper and pencil from him, said in a low voice, “If we were really married, you so would not be getting laid tonight.”

  “Then there’s no need to worry about sex on the first date, is there?” He chucked me under the chin with a wink and moved to take his turn.

  Ugh.

  I knew mini golf was a bad idea. I should have guessed it would be super busy here, and I knew all too well it was one of the local hangout places for first dates and groups of single friends.

  Sigh.

  Not that I had any right to really be this annoyed about all the women who were now not trying to be so obvious in their staring.

  Did I?

  Huh. Maybe I did have a right. This was a date. All the people in town did think we were married.

  I wasn’t against using those two things to my advantage.

  All right, maybe I was jealous.

  Whatever.

  “Three,” Kai said, joining me at the start of the next hole.

  “Three what?”

  “Hits,” he said slowly. “My God, you’re really not paying attention, are you?”

  “No, I’m not, and it’s making me play badly.”

  “You told me in the car that you almost hit yourself in the head with a club, Ivy. I don’t think you being distracted has anything to do with it.”

  “Yes, it does, so ignore what I’m about to do so I can kick your ass at this game.” I cupped the side of his neck with my left hand and rose up onto my tiptoes so my lips touched his.

  No, I hadn’t thought this through.

  Yes, I might regret this later.

  The kiss only served to draw us both deeper into our lie, but it was hard to care about that when Kai wrapped one arm around my waist, holding me against him, and kissed me back like he didn’t give a damn who saw.

  He probably didn’t care.

  And for a moment, neither did I.

  Because all that mattered was his warm, soft lips that were pressed against mine, and that my heart dared skip a beat at the touch.

  I pulled back. “Now move so I can take my shot.”

  He laughed under his breath, stepping away so I had the room I needed to hit it.

  It took four tries.

  “Yeah, that worked,” he snarked as I took the paper away from him.

  “Oh, shut up.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN – IVY

  “You’re thirty dollars deep. It’s ridiculous. You can buy like five bears for that in any normal store.”

  “I know, but I want this one.”

  “It’s just a stuffed bear.”

  “It’s a cute stuffed bear.”

  “I think you’ve lost your mind.”

  “I think you’ve lost yours.”

  “I have. That’s why I’m still standing here waiting for you to attempt to win this thirty-dollar bear,” I said, leaning against the next machine.

  Kai ran out of turns and put more coins in the slot. I shook my head. I had no idea why he was so desperate for this bear, but I was getting tired.

  Although it was funny to see him lose so miserably after he’d totally kicked my ass at golf.

  I sighed. “I’m tired and hungry. That took a lot out of me. Can we go if you don’t win this time?”

  He looked between me and the bear he was desperately trying to win. “I suppose.”

  That was better than ‘no,’ I guess.

  I watched as he tried two more times to no avail. Gritting his teeth, he maneuvered the grabber for his one final try. I didn’t know why he was trying so hard—it was just a bear, just a stupid freaking bear from a grabber that probably cost the owners of this place fifty cents in some mass purchase from China.

  Look, just because I’d spent all my allowance here when I was a kid didn’t mean I couldn’t be a hypocrite now, okay?

  The grabber claws closed around the bear and lifted it up.

  I raised my eyebrows. This had happened like fifteen times already, and not a single one had made it into the tub.

  So shock jolted through me when this bear not only made it to the edge of the machine, but into the chute that meant Kai had won it.

  “Ha!” He punched the air and bent down.

  He stuck his arm through the flap and retrieved the cream bear with a red tartan ribbon tied around its neck in a bow. I had to admit that it looked softer outside of the glass than in, and it was kind of cute in a lopsided-eyes kind of way.

  He held it out to me. “Here.”

  “You spent thirty-five dollars on this bear for me?” I raised my eyebrows.

  His lips pulled to one side. “No. I just spent thirty-five dollars and ten minutes of my life trying to win this bear for the baby.”

  My lips parted, and I reached out to take the bear from him. It was ugly as hell with its lopsided eyes and its loosely stitched nose, and its bow looked like something out of Scotland in the seventeen hundreds, but oh, my God.

  I didn’t know if I’d ever loved a bear more than this one.

  “Are you going to cry?”

  I swallowed. “Maybe. Can I?”

  He choked back a laugh and wrapped me in his arms, squishing the bear between us. I hugged it tightly as Kai did the same to me, and thankfully, I didn’t actually cry.

  Phew.

  Thank God for small mercies.

  I pulled back and shrugged off any lingering emotional moments. “I’m just hungry.”

  “Of course you are,” Kai said, wrapping his arm around me. “What do you want to eat? Chinese?”

  I shook my head.

  “Thai food?”

  “Ugh, no. I don’t like Thai on a normal day.”

  “A burger?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Two pints of ice-cream?”

  I paused. “That’s not really dinner, is it?”

  “Why don’t we get pizza on the way back? The pizza place is just up the street from the grocery store. I’ll run in and get you ice-cream if you can wait for the pizza.”

  “God, talk dirty to me.”

  “Hot, gooey, cheesy pizza.” He leaned in, his lips brushing against my hair. “With a cheesy stuffed crust and crispy pepperoni, followed by all the ice-cream you eat without any judgement from anyone.”

  “Yep, now I’m turned on.”

  Kai snorted and unlocked his truck. “Get in, you lunatic.”

  “Hey, you started the dirty talk. It’s not my fault if pizza and ice-cream is sexy right now.”

  Yep. I was definitely not going to fit into my skinny jeans in a few months. Sigh.

  I got into the truck, once again with him opening and closing the door for me. He followed suit and we pulled out of the golf complex’s parking lot. The traffic was light for a Sunday, so it didn’t take us long to get across town to Hot Stone Pizzeria.

  Armed with the order, I went inside to order while he went to the grocery store for the ice-cream. Thankfully, it wasn’t busy in the pizza place and it didn’t take as long as usual to get our order.

  I also had potato wedges and a side of cheesy garlic bread because, well, Kai was paying.

  And if he was smart, he’d remember that
the way to my heart was through free food.

  And my grandma. But she wasn’t here right now. So it was food.

  I took my carb-heavy loot back to the truck. Kai was already waiting for me in the front seat, and he looked up from his phone when I opened the door.

  “That didn’t take long.”

  “Nope. They weren’t busy.” I set the boxes on my seat, and he picked them up to put them in the back.

  “Christ, Ivy, what did you buy? The entire pizzeria?”

  “Maybe. I think my eyes are bigger than my stomach.” I grimaced when he tilted the pizza boxes. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t manhandle my food like that!”

  He dropped his head and straightened the box.

  I hopped into the truck, buckled in, and motioned for him to put the food on my lap. He handed it over, and I nestled our dinner snug on my thighs. The traffic was still quiet so it literally took us mere minutes to get to our building and park up.

  Thank God.

  I really, really needed to pee.

  We got out of Kai’s truck, and I was bouncing by the time my feet touched the ground. I was also pretty sure I was making some weird little squeaking noises that were more in place in a forest full of squirrels, but holy hell, I needed to go.

  “Are you all right?” Kai asked, fumbling with his keys.

  “No! I gotta go!”

  “Go where?”

  “To pee!” I squeezed my thighs shut. “Damn it, here!” I shoved the food at him and pulled my keys out of my purse. I didn’t have nearly as many keyrings as he did so I was able to find my key and slip it into the main door within seconds.

  Honestly.

  You’d think the man was a hotel school janitor, not a builder.

  “Put your janitor’s keys away,” I said, rushing through the door. “I gotta go.”

  His laughter followed me up the stairwell. I took the stairs two at a time. I was as close to sprinting as I ever would be in my life—I was not a runner—and even rushed past Vincent as the slushie I’d had at mini golf finally caught up to me.

  I vaguely heard Kai apologize to one of our elderly neighbors, probably Vincent, but I didn’t stop on my mission to the bathroom.

  My apartment door came into view and I shoved my key into the hole, unlocking the door. I left the door wide open as I rushed into my apartment and locked myself in the bathroom.

  I swear to God, I was going to buy this bathroom a lordship by the time this pregnancy was over.

  No, don’t look at me like that.

  Scott Disick did it.

  I could buy my porcelain throne one for sure.

  I washed my hands when I was done and let myself out of the bathroom. Kai was standing by the island with the food laid out, and I paused in the hall.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “That’s a lot of food,” I mused. “It’s not made for skinny jeans.”

  He sighed. “Go and put on your pajamas.”

  Oh, God, this was the best first date ever.

  “Remember this when you say you don’t want to date me for real,” he called after me.

  I couldn’t stop the laugh that barked out of me. He wasn’t wrong—this was officially the only date I’d ever had where I was actually told to put pajamas on.

  I didn’t disappoint. I switched my cute shirt and skinny jeans for pajama shorts with a banana print and an old tank top with a penguin on it. Both were loose and comfortable, and when I reentered the kitchen, Kai had everything open and ready to serve.

  Including plates.

  Oh, God.

  This was so hot.

  Pajamas and pizza.

  Drool.

  Best. Date. Ever.

  I put a little of everything—aka one hundred slices of pizza—on my plate and curled up in the corner of the sofa. I wasn’t as fancy as Kai was with his so-called dining table.

  I was pretty sure it was just a tall coffee table, to be honest.

  I moaned as the mix of hot cheese and sauce hit my tongue. It was such good pizza. Hot Stone Pizzeria was literally the best in the state of Montana, and I’d fight anyone who tried to me tell me otherwise.

  Which meant I’d win, because nobody would fight a pregnant lady.

  Boom.

  I took control of the remote and switched the TV to the Amazon app. I could barely remember a time that my life wasn’t made easier by technology, and that was pretty sad.

  Then again, I couldn’t remember a time when pizza didn’t make me happy, so there was that.

  I scrolled to the HBO app and browsed until I found True Blood. A click of the remote told me it was where I’d left off a week ago before my life had done a Fresh Prince of Bel Air and flipped upside down, and that was also something that made me happy.

  “Vampires? Really?” Kai carried the food over to the coffee table, unperturbed by me already shoving pizza into my mouth.

  “And werewolves and faeries and witches,” I confirmed. “And shifters.”

  “Aren’t werewolves shifters?”

  “You need to read more.”

  He glanced at the TV. “I don’t want to read what you’re reading.”

  “You’re missing out.”

  “I highly doubt it.”

  “Calm down, Judgey McJudgerson.” I shoved the last bit of the crust into my mouth. “There’s a lot of sex in this show.”

  His skeptical gaze turned in my direction. “So what is it? Vampire porn?”

  “It’s not porn,” I said slowly. “But there’s a lot of boobs.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Then again, if I was Anna Paquin, I’d have no issue showing my boobs off, either.”

  “I don’t really know how to respond to that.”

  “It’s a good thing you don’t need to, huh?” I grinned.

  A low noise rumbled in this throat that sounded like enough of an agreement that I was placated. Thankfully, a half-naked Anna Paquin appeared on the screen and distracted him long enough for me to funnel more food into my mouth, ending the conversation.

  I knew she’d get him hooked.

  Hell, I had a girl crush on her myself.

  “Oh, shit, he bit her.”

  I snorted. “He’s a vampire. What did you think he was going to do? Tickle her?”

  Kai shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t read vampire porn.”

  “I’ll beat you over the head with the books if you keep calling it vampire porn.”

  “There are books?”

  “It’s based off a book series and I own all thirteen, so that’s a lot of books to beat you with.” I paused. “The books are so much better than the show.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “What? That the source material is so much better and descriptive and compelling than a TV show that, by a lack of narration, cannot possibly compete with? Literally half the story is missing because there’s no narration. There is no screen adaptation of a book that has ever been better than the book.”

  “Harry Potter?”

  “Don’t swear in my apartment.”

  “Lord of the Rings?”

  “Kai, you can shoot an entire library of books at me and not a single movie or TV show will be better than the original books. It just won’t.” I put my empty plate down on the coffee table. “It’s impossible. And if you really want to argue it, I’ll call my sister and three best friends right now to prove you wrong.”

  “Let me think about that for a moment,” he said, staring at me. “Would I like to argue with five women over something I know I’m going to lose? That’s a tough one.”

  “Aw.” I touched his arm and got up. “You’re so smart.”

  “If I’m going to argue, I’d rather it be over something I actually care about. Like pineapple belonging on pizza.”

  “Okay, now you’ve lost me. That’s a fruit, Kai.”

  “And? It’s great on pizza.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Look, if I’m eating pizza, it’s no
t to be healthy. It’s like people who put all those weird veggies on their pizza.”

  “Weird veggies?”

  “Yes, like onion or pepper or—” I shuddered. “Mushrooms.”

  He smirked, looking over at me in the kitchen. “All perfectly good vegetables.”

  “No.” I pointed my spoon at him. “No. Mushrooms are not perfectly good anything. They’re gross and slimy and should only be used for locating fairies.”

  One of his eyebrows curved up. “Locating fairies?”

  “Yes.” I pulled one of the cartons of ice cream from my freezer. “Everyone knows that if you see a ring of mushrooms, it means fairies live there.”

  “God, I hope I’m around long enough to teach our child some logic.”

  I sat back on the sofa, cross-legged, and cracked open the carton. “As long as you teach them to always use a condom, I’ll forget you ever said.”

  “What? You don’t want to be a grandma?”

  I scowled. “It’s like you don’t want to make it to fatherhood, never mind being a grandparent.”

  He grinned, shoving a potato wedge in his mouth. Clearly finished, he set his empty plate on top of mine, then sorted out all the food. He put the pizza into one box and secured all the others before stacking them up neatly in the corner.

  Wow.

  That was kind of hot.

  I liked neatness in a guy.

  In anyone, really.

  It was a trait I kind of lacked, for the most part. I wasn’t against a sock on the floor or a bra over the nightstand. It added character. You know, made the place look lived in.

  The way a comfy blanket or wonky cushion would.

  Whatever.

  “Did you bring a spoon for me?”

  “Why would I bring you a spoon?” I asked around a mouthful of ice cream. “This is my ice cream.”

  He sighed and leaned back into the cushions. “You just can’t get the staff these days.”

  Leaning over, I slapped his forearm with my spoon.

  “Ouch. That kind of hurt.”

  “Well, that was the point.”

  He laughed, dropping his head back. “I bought you dinner and ice cream and you won’t share. I see how it is.”