My Ex's Baby (Crescent Cove Book 8)

by Taryn Quinn

  The baby who didn’t bat one silky eyelash.

  “She’s too little to care. Also, I guarantee Lucky Charms swears plenty around her. When he even bothers to be home.”

  “You really don’t like him, do you?”

  I pulled off my ball cap and finger-combed my hair before putting it back on. “I don’t hate the guy. He loves my sister.”

  “And this baby.”

  “Yeah, he does,” I agreed reluctantly as Kinleigh started circling the room, humming softly to a sleeping Rhiannon. “He’s a decent guy. It just feels like my job to bust his balls.”

  “You know, you could start practicing now to moderate your language. In a few months, she’ll understand what you’re saying.”

  “Probably more than a few months until she knows about balls.”

  Kinleigh shook her head. “You’re a contrary sort. I never realized.”

  “Could be because you run out on me whenever we’re alone for more than five minutes.” I crossed my arms. “Why is that?”

  “I do not.”

  “Right. So you’d go out with me then. On an actual date.”

  “Why, so we could have sex again?”

  “Little ears,” I mocked. “And we don’t need to go on a date to do that.”

  “Maybe we dodged a bullet.” She wouldn’t look at me. Instead, she stared down at the happily snoozing baby, now sucking on her fingers in her sleep.

  “Because I didn’t knock you up? Maybe. Depending on if that test was old or something.”

  “You mean like your condom?”

  “I never said it was old. John gave it to me. I’m sure it was perfectly satisfactory.” At least I assumed it was. I had no clue how long he’d been toting it around. Macy had gotten pregnant right away. For all I knew, maybe they’d free-bagged it from day one.

  “You got a condom from John? Like a high school boy? Can’t you buy your own?”

  “I could, if I had a reason to use one. But I haven’t been on the hookup circuit for a while, so I was unprepared. Sorry to disappoint you.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “So you got the feeling you’d be getting lucky and asked the newly married guy to spot you some latex?”

  “No. I asked him for advice about one specific lady—whom I didn’t name—and apparently, he enjoys action more than talking.”

  “What specific lady?”

  “Take a wild guess that ends with you looking in the mirror.”

  She huffed out a breath and the baby just curled more fully into her cleavage. Couldn’t say I blamed the kid. I enjoyed that particular spot myself, though I’d barely had time to get familiar with it. “I can’t believe you mentioned me to John.”

  “I didn’t say your name. He guessed.”

  She flushed right up to her hairline, making her freckles pop like cinnamon on her fair skin. “He gave you a condom so you could slip it to me?”

  “Pretty much.” I shrugged. “Not sure how long it’s been since you’ve dated, but that’s usually the way of the world. You like someone, you get to know them, you kiss, you fuc—”

  “August,” she snapped. “You don’t have to draw me a picture.”

  “Oh, I think I do. I think you need a roadmap complete with little stick figures and timelines and projected materials, just so we speak in the language we’re familiar with.” I stepped closer, bumping the toes of her sexy suede boots with my much heavier work ones. “You might not agree, but in mine, we use condoms. A lot.”

  Her lashes fluttered before she closed her eyes and shut me out. Still clutching the baby as if she was drowning and my sister’s child was her only chance of keeping her head above water. “It’s all going so fast.”

  “Fast? You’ve barely talked to me in six weeks. I didn’t put a ring on it, Kin, I just want to spend some time with you. If that leads to the bedroom, awesome. If it doesn’t, fine. We can play it by ear, as long as we play it.”

  She smiled briefly enough I wondered if I’d imagined it. “I’m not really good at dating. It’s been years.”

  “Same.”

  “We didn’t exactly start with first date material.”

  “Nope. But we can rewind, hit some of the steps again. Or speed up and go at our own pace. We make the rules. We can do whatever we want.”

  She wetted her lips and carried the baby to her bed before oh so carefully setting her down. Rhiannon didn’t stir. Thank God. I didn’t think I had it in me to soothe another temper tantrum today.

  I definitely had no reason to be disappointed Kinleigh wasn’t pregnant.

  Absolutely none at all. Because seriously, what would we do with a baby? We didn’t have a damn clue. Rhiannon had given us both a bit of an education, but it wasn’t the same as being the ones responsible. There was so much more to it than giving her a bottle and playing with her and her plastic frog in the bath and dressing her in those snuggly onesies that were so ridiculously cute they were almost capable of making a guy wonder.

  And maybe even wish.

  “You could always take another test.”

  Kinleigh’s back stiffened. She didn’t fully stand from where she’d leaned over the crib to fuss with Rhiannon’s…something. But when I moved closer, she was just stroking her fingers over Rhi’s fine ginger curls.

  My heart kicked hard.

  “It’s going to be the same answer. I just panicked when my period was late. I’ll probably get it tomorrow.”

  “Yeah.” I slid my hands in the back pockets of my jeans. “But if you don’t, you could take another. Just in case.”

  “We’ll see,” she said, her voice distant. She was already closing me out as effectively as a slammed door.

  I knew she would never take another test. She probably wouldn’t go out with me either.

  What we’d had was probably going to be the extent of what occurred between us, and I would just have to learn to live with that.

  Somehow.

  Nine

  I took another test a couple of days later, after driving to the drugstore outside of town and getting another one, this time a different brand. It wasn’t as if I’d never been this late before, but it was rare.

  I didn’t know if I wanted the proof conclusively that I wasn’t pregnant or if I was still hanging on to hope I could be carrying that piece of August inside me.

  It didn’t make sense. We weren’t a couple. We’d started…whatever the heck we were with a hookup. Even if he claimed he wanted to date me, as if we’d gone back in time to a much simpler way of life.

  We hadn’t. The reality was I didn’t want to risk my relationship with Ivy—and Ivy’s family. They meant far too much to me to cause a potential ripple in our relationship just because I was horny.

  Right, that’s all you are. Which is why you’re two steps from tears staring at the test on your bathroom counter.

  But I didn’t cry. Not even when the test came back negative yet again.

  Then the next day, I got my period. A super light, super short version, but good enough.

  It was a relief. My life wasn’t set up for a baby in any shape or form. And goddess knows, I wasn’t mother material any more than I was meant to be a wife.

  What example had I grown up with for either? I hadn’t known my father. Not his name or anything else about him. My mom had been a partier who had lost interest in being a parent when I was still a kid. Actually, she’d never had any interest. But she’d stuck around for a while, mooching off the state, doing the bare minimum so that I didn’t go to school with holes in my shoes or knots in my hair. When I did, sometimes there was a teacher who cared. Sometimes there wasn’t.

  Even so, I didn’t understand that last day when she dropped me off at a church in Syracuse. She went up to the first priest she saw, tugging me by the hand, telling me to shush as I started to cry. The next thing I knew, she was gone.

  She didn’t even say goodbye.

  I cleared my throat and rubbed my thumbs under my eyes just in case before sweeping t
he test into the garbage. Nope, no tears. I might want to cry, but my eyes were dust dry. I was far too used to shifting dreams aside to get lost in my emotions now. Once before, I’d thought marriage and a child or two might be possible for me.

  Now I knew if I didn’t make it happen for myself, it never would.

  Frowning, I braced my hands on the sink and faced myself in the bathroom mirror. It was probably where I was heading this evening that had me out of sorts. Vee was having a little get-together with her friends so everyone could meet her twins, Theodore and Elijah.

  The boys had been born early right after the wedding, so after spending a bit of time in the preemie ward, they were finally home and healthy. Understandably, Vee and Murphy had wanted to make sure the twins were doing well before they had friends over to meet them, and even so, this would be a relatively small gathering. Vee was doing shifts with her friends. She had a ton of them, and let’s face it, Crescent Cove was baby central. Everyone wanted in on the sweet talcum smell action.

  I did too, although today wasn’t the best for me for obvious reasons. I couldn’t make a baby appear just from sheer want, no matter how insane it was to even wish in these circumstances.

  The bright side was no one knew what was going on in my head. I’d just fix my makeup, toss on a heavier sweater over my winter-inappropriate dress, swap my killer boots for some ballet flats, and put on my game face. Tonight would be fun. And these babies I could cuddle before giving them back.

  On the drive to Murphy and Vee’s cabin, I glanced at the passenger side of the truck. I’d brought a bottle of white wine for those who weren’t pregnant or trying to get pregnant or nursing—pretty much just me—and now I was wondering if I should’ve brought more gifts for the twins. I’d already sent over newborn gifts, but what about Vee? I should’ve thought to pick up a spa package gift certificate for her.

  Or…

  As I paused at a light, I unwound the pale pink scarf from around my neck, a find new to the shop. Was it tacky to give Vee something I’d worn, even if it was just for a few hours? It was gorgeously soft cashmere and the color would be perfect with her blond hair and blue eyes.

  I turned up the street to go toward Ivy and August’s duplex, suddenly clutching the scarf like a kid with a pacifier. I should’ve asked Ivy to pick me up. What was I thinking coming over here while my brain was still full of thoughts about her brother knocking me up?

  Even though I was clearly unknocked, it hadn’t stopped the full action reenactments happening in my brain.

  I pulled up to the curb and debated honking. No, I’d send a text. August was supposed to be watching the baby while Ivy had her girls’ night out, and Rory was in Turnbull working with his rockstar friend, Kellan McGuire. That meant I could just wait out here and—

  Oh for the love of goddess, why was August coming outside with his arms full of baby?

  I couldn’t do this again tonight. I was already going to be seeing three at Vee’s, including her eldest son, never mind all the other children who would be discussed, including the ones still being cooked. Now I was going to be confronted with Rhiannon too?

  And August, looking all seductively windblown and wintry in his Carhartt jacket and jeans and that stupidly sexy ball cap pulled down over his head. His nose was red to match his reddened knuckles as he shifted the baby in her bright purple jumpsuit to his hip and motioned for me to roll down the window.

  I did as requested and immediately stuck both feet in it.

  “Where’s Ivy?”

  “Taking a bath. You’re early.”

  “I’m not.” I glanced at the time on the radio. “Okay, but just by twenty minutes.” Who could blame me for not wanting to sit around and brood?

  “Come on in and have a cup of coffee.”

  “I’ll wait out here.”

  Rhiannon squealed and tilted toward me, apparently having decided she’d been well-behaved enough for approximately one minute. I reached my arm out and she grasped my fingers, immediately drawing them to her mouth.

  “She loves Aunt Kin.” His voice warmed over the words to match the heat in his green gaze. It was nearly dark, and still, his eyes were like lasers, practically searing through my sweater and coat to where my nipples were beading against my dress.

  I’d foregone a bra for a lacy camisole since it was winter and that meant lots of layers. But right now, that seemed like an unwise move.

  Anything that got my breasts closer to August’s sex stares was a big fat heck no.

  “As I love her. Look at those red cheeks.” I just had to pinch one and she giggled, flailing her hands about in her bright yellow mittens. “Have you been playing in the snow with Uncle Auggie?”

  “Not you too,” he muttered. “Lucky Charms can’t get enough of calling me that.”

  “Well, he probably does it as payback.”

  “And yes, we’ve been building a snowman out back. She hasn’t helped much. Kind of being a bum and lazing about, aren’t you, Rhi Rhi?”

  She patted his chin with one of her snowy mittens and my heart just melted at the smile he aimed at her. He would make an excellent father someday.

  To babies born from a woman who wasn’t me.

  I frowned. Okay, awkward, unnecessary thought. Of course he would. We weren’t dating. And even if we were, sleeping together once wasn’t enough to consider a future. My needing to pee on a stick might’ve altered our relationship, but it hadn’t. So no harm, no foul.

  Definitely no thinking about August’s latent parenting abilities.

  “Rory bought her this big old-fashioned sled thing, so I’ve been pulling her around with me while I take care of stuff outside. You know that old wind-damaged sugar maple by the back fence? Think I’m going to have to cut it down and harvest the wood.” He rubbed his chin, sprinkling snow into the V-neck of the deep green sweater that offset his eyes. “Could build you another accessory armoire. Narrow and tall to fit your space.”

  Now he was talking my language.

  “How much?” Trying to pay the man was an exercise in futility, so we usually bartered stuff. “I can whip up those pillows for that loveseat of yours you’ve been squirreling away when you thought I didn’t notice.”

  He arched a brow. “I don’t squirrel away. It’s an anniversary gift for Seth Hamilton’s wife. Apparently, they christened one similar early on in their courtship. At any rate, I don’t want it anywhere near the display windows for obvious reasons, and sometimes the shop gets better light than my studio. Much to my consternation.”

  I wasn’t sure what I found hotter right then—a man who toted around in-progress loveseats as if they were Pez dispensers or one who used the word consternation in casual, breath-puffing conversation.

  It was cold as balls out. I wanted to roll up my window, but that would’ve been rude even for me. So I blasted the heat and tried to keep my teeth from chattering.

  “Well, what do you say? Trade some pillows for a maple armoire to fit in my space?” Unwisely, I stuck my hand out the window to shake.

  Frostbite was a dangerous thing. That was the only reason I could find for such an impulsive, risky move with a man who most certainly wasn’t merely a business associate.

  He didn’t shake. Instead, he drew my bare hand up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. “You’re cold. Such delicate skin, out here without protection.”

  Why did that sound so lascivious in his low, seductive voice?

  “My gloves are in my jacket.”

  I should tug back my hand. Yet I didn’t move.

  “Put them on.” He turned his head, making me stretch my arm out farther from the window as Rhiannon pushed at his face. I had to laugh despite how his command had affected me. Bossy August could piss me off—or turn me on.

  “Let me go and I will.” I darted a glance toward the duplex just in case, and annoyance crossed August’s face.

  “Fine, I’ll warm you up myself.” He kissed my fingertips and moved his broad thumb over th
e back of my hand in distracting circles.

  Parts of me were warming up nicely, but not my hands.

  “August, Ivy could—”

  “We’re adults.” But he released me just the same.

  The loss of his touch hit me harder than I expected as I tucked my hands under my lap. The scarf I’d decided to give Vee had fallen to the floor of the truck.

  Along with my sense evidently, or I never would’ve agreed to pick up Ivy in the first place.

  At least she was now rushing across the snow-encrusted front lawn, her bright red hair trailing behind her from beneath her knit cap.

  “There she is.”

  For a second, I thought she meant me. I grinned as she quickly turned toward her baby, who was making grabby hands for her mother. Of course she wanted her little sweetheart. I’d never thought of Ivy as a mom, but she seemed like such a natural, cradling Rhiannon against her chest and kissing her ruddy cheek.

  “Hiya, Kin. Sorry I took a few extra. I had to shave, but that’s what I get for wearing a dress.” She pointed at the knee-length sweater dress she had on with cute ankle boots.

  August held up his hands and backed up. “That’s my cue to leave. Have fun, ladies.” His voice dipped on the last word.

  “Jeez, I didn’t say I’d given myself a Brazilian.” Ivy rolled her eyes and skidded up the driveway to hand off her baby before he escaped entirely. “There’s enough bottles made. More than enough. I pureed her bananas. She gets cranky without them. Don’t put her down without her stuffed tiger. The one with the blue bow tie. Her daddy brought it back for her from California.”

  There was more, but I tuned it out, as adorable as it was to hear my freewheeling friend being such a mom. She’d clearly been cut out for the role.

  I picked up the scarf from the floor to give myself something to do that didn’t involve thinking about motherhood or watching August hold his niece. Either one was problematic.

  When Ivy finally slipped into the truck, I held out the scarf. “Think Vee would like this? It’s a new find. I’ve been so distracted lately that I totally forgot to bring her a present beyond the baby gifts I already sent.”