by Becca Barnes
“Thanks.”
I looked down and realized that, without thinking about it, I’d let my hand drift to my belly. I whirled around and left the dance floor, thankful no one else had noticed.
Eleven
Jake
“Open the damn door, Tori. I know you’re in there.”
I could hear her dog barking and scratching at the other side of the door. And I knew that Nate had already dropped her off because I’d texted to make sure he and Jen were at their house.
I’d never been more thankful that Tori’s penthouse took up an entire floor of her apartment building. No chance of noise complaints from neighbors. I really didn’t need anyone calling Nate to tell him that his land manager was about to beat down his little sister’s door.
Because I would.
If she didn’t open the thing in three, two, one…
“What do you want?” She swung the door open, holding her puppy who was now twice as big as he’d been since I’d seen him last, which wasn’t saying much. She’d already changed into cotton pajama pants and an oversized tee shirt.
I gulped. Hesitated.
There was a chance I was wrong.
But what if I wasn’t?
“Can I come in?” I asked.
“Sure.” She held the door open wider, and I walked past her.
I wasn’t sure how to begin, so I just started.
“When were you going to tell me?” I asked.
“Tell you what?” Her voice was nonchalant, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze.
“What do you mean, tell me what?” I walked right up next to her so she couldn’t avoid me, brushed my thumb against her cheek. “I know the feel of your body better than my own. When we were dancing earlier…”
I grazed my hand down the side of her torso and let it rest on her hip.
“Your breasts are twice as big as normal. And when you pressed against me, the swell of your stomach...God, Tori. Why didn’t you tell me the moment you realized?”
“Realized what?” She jutted out a defiant chin.
That was what sealed it. I wasn’t wrong.
And she was a terrible liar.
“Realized you were pregnant,” I said.
Tori sighed.
“Why would I?” She shrugged away from me and walked into the living room, curling up on the couch.
“Because it’s mine.” I didn’t leave any chance of her interpreting that statement with ambiguity. It was a statement. Not a question.
She had my baby inside her.
And she’d had my baby inside her for over three months now. Three months of dealing with all this by herself. There was no telling how alone and scared she’d felt. I went and knelt beside the couch at her feet. She wasn’t alone now.
“Have you told your family yet?” I asked.
“Nana knows. She’s the only one.”
She hadn’t told her brother yet.
“Okay, well, we can tell Nate about us when we tell him about the baby.”
“Tell him what about us?”
“Tell him we’re getting married.”
“Tell him we’re…bahahahaha.” She almost tumbled off the couch laughing. “Uhh, no.”
“I’m not joking, Tori. I want to marry you.”
“What are you talking about? As of three months ago, we weren’t even dating. Now we’re supposed to get married, simply because I have a tiny human being in me?”
“There’s nothing simple about the fact that you have a child in you. My child.”
“Oh. Are you going to beat your chest and roar over me now?”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“The only thing I know is that we had a very casual thing going, and one of your boys slipped in. That doesn’t mean you’re obligated to me in any way now.”
“Obligated to you? What are you talking about? There’s nothing casual about how I feel about you. I want to be with you, Tori.”
“What are you talking about? Three months ago, we were friends with benefits. Now, we’re not even that.”
“The only reason we were friends with benefits and nothing more was because you didn’t want a commitment. That was the only reason.”
Even as I said it, I feared she’d call my bluff. It hadn’t been the only reason. My friendship with Nate and loyalty to him had factored in. And she knew it as well as I did.
After all he’d done to help me, I hated the fact that I’d betrayed him.
But this changed things.
“It doesn’t matter where we were three months ago,” I said. “This is now. And now, there’s a baby.”
“Yes, there is.” Tori unfurled her legs.
“So if you’re not going to tell Nate about us, what exactly are you planning on telling him? Even under the baggiest clothes, you’re not going to be able to hide your bump too much longer.”
“I know. I’ve already thought it through. I’m going to tell him that I decided I wanted a baby and on a whim got artificially inseminated.”
“Artificially inseminated?” I let out a guffaw.
“He’ll believe it. One more impulsive decision from his flighty little sister.”
“And where do I fit into this so-called insemination?”
“I thought that through, too. If you want, you can have a relationship with the child. I’ll say that you’re just being nice and volunteered to be a father figure of sorts.”
She pulled a throw blanket around her shoulders.
“A father figure?” I said.
“A positive male influence. We can call it whatever you want. But there’s no pressure.”
“I don’t want to be a father figure, Tori. I want to be a father.”
“Okay.” She gulped. “We can arrange a visitation schedule and say that you’re babysitting.”
“Let me rephrase. I don’t want to be a father figure. I definitely don’t want to be a sitter. I want to be my child’s daddy.”
“But—”
“I want to change diapers and tuck them in at bedtime. And rock them to sleep.” As I spoke, my voice grew lower and lower. I leaned closer and closer to Tori. “And then I want to go to bed myself. With their mother at my side. In my arms.”
Preferably stark naked, but I didn’t think it wise to add that particular detail at the moment.
“I’m sorry to burst your little family fantasy bubble,” said Tori, “but it’s not going to happen. I don’t do commitment. Remember?”
“You’re going to have a baby, Tori. I’d call that a big commitment.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she blinked them back.
Shit. I could actually feel my heart crack.
“I’m sorry. Don’t cry,” I whispered.
“It’s fine. It’s the hormones,” she said through a sob. “I’m just scared. This has all been kind of overwhelming. What if I’m a terrible mom? My mother died when I was so young, and I keep wondering if that means that I won’t be good at it or missing some skill set that I need. I mean, Nana always took good care of us, but--”
“Shhh. You’re going to be an amazing mommy.” I brushed her hair back from the wet spot on her cheek. “The best. And I will do or be whatever you need me to be. Heck, I’ll be a live-in manny. Okay?”
She laughed and wiped the last tears away, still sniffling.
“You don’t exactly have ‘manny’ written all over you,” she said.
“You’d be surprised. I do know how to change a diaper.”
“Oh, God.” She clutched the sides of her head. “I don’t.”
“Hey,” I sat next to her on the couch and pulled her in close. “No matter what, we’ll figure this out. You are not alone. Ever.”
She relaxed against my shoulder, and I held her until her breaths went from their shaky huffs to a slow, even cadence. Next thing I knew, she was snoring.
In that moment, I knew two things absolutely.
One. Tori had been hurt at some po
int, so deeply and so badly that she ran from commitment like a scared bunny.
And two. I wasn’t going anywhere.
Twelve
Tori
When I woke up, I was in my bed. Alone.
Jake must have carried me to my bedroom at some point in the middle of the night.
I’d give this to pregnancy. I could now sleep through a freight train barreling past my window if I needed to. As long as it wasn’t carrying sloshing liquid.
I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to pee.
As I washed my hands, I sniffed the air.
Bacon. And eggs.
I wandered to the kitchen where my baby daddy was currently whipping up an omelet.
“Sorry,” he said when he noticed me. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Uhh, that offer to move in?” I said. “You do realize I didn’t take that literally, don’t you?”
“I know.” He chuckled. “I’m not staying. But I started doing some research last night, and you should be consuming a lot of protein. I noticed that your fridge and pantry were a little lacking in the protein department, so I went on a grocery run in the middle of the night.”
“Ohh.” I nodded. “So you’re crazy.”
“More like...I need to funnel some excessive mental and physical energy right now.”
“Yeah.” I leaned against the counter next to the stove. “That makes two of us. And I’m sorry. I know you’ve had a lot to take in and process these last twelve hours.”
I wasn’t an idiot. I knew he had to find out sometime. And I knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy conversation when he did. Last night had actually gone better than I expected.
Knowing Jake, I also knew he’d feel obligated to be a part of the baby’s life, whether he wanted to or not.
That marriage proposal, though, if that’s what you could call it. I still shuddered at that.
The last thing I wanted was a husband who felt beholden to me. And that was all it was. A sense of responsibility and duty.
The man was chivalry incarnate.
Not to mention sexy as hell. But that was just the hormones talking.
So. Many. Hormones.
“Do you want cheese on this?” he asked.
“Sure.”
He slid the plate over, and I moaned as I took the first bite.
“This is really good,” I said.
“See? Protein.”
“Mmm. I could get used to this.” Or at least, the baby could.
“It was originally going to be breakfast in bed,” he said.
“Ah, now you’re just spoiling me.”
“Actually, I was going to try to butter you up.”
I scrunched my nose.
“For what?”
“Okay. So I did some thinking last night--”
Sigh. I didn’t like where this was headed.
“Jake…”
“No. Listen. I did some thinking last night, and something occurred to me. We don’t know how we’d be together because we’ve never given it a real shot.”
“For multiple reasons.”
“Maybe. But it’s still true that we don’t know if we’d click as a couple because we’ve never tried.”
Okay. I really didn’t like where this was headed.
“I already told you,” I said. “No commitment.”
“I know. So that’s why I have a proposal for you.”
“I hope it’s not another marriage proposal.”
“It’s not. I want you to—and now hear me out--I want you to date me.”
“Date you?”
“Yes.”
“As in...date you?”
“As in, you’re already carrying my child so what harm can it do?”
“I’m not going to date you,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Well, for starters, because I’m carrying your child.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“Neither does dating you to prove that we shouldn’t be in a relationship.”
“Okay. Don’t think of it as dating. Think of it as...a science experiment.”
“I got a C-plus in Chemistry.”
“Yeah, well, right now, you’ve got, like, triple D’s.”
I snorted.
“Is this about sex?” I asked. “Because that’s something we should probably discuss.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I know that I’m carrying your spawn, but do you still want to...y’know?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What?”
“You’ll sleep with me, but you won’t go out on a date with me?”
“Technically, we never did much sleeping until that last time,” I pointed out.
“Okay. Let me rephrase.” He braced his arm on the counter next to me. “Hell to the no, Tori. I’m not going to have sex with you.”
“Why not?” I whined. “It’s not like you can get me more pregnant at this point.”
“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”
“And I can’t believe you won’t have sex with me.”
“Look, eat your eggs, Tor. I think you’re lightheaded. You’re not making sense.”
“I’m making perfect sense.” I slammed my fork down and got in his face. “You have no idea how many hormones are rushing through my body right now. Twenty-four hours a day. I’m horny all the freaking time. And now that I’m in the second trimester, I don’t even have morning sickness to distract me from it anymore. So man up, Brand. What are you going to do about it?”
He dipped his head and put his lips so close to my ear that I could feel the heat of his breath against my cheek.
“Not. Gonna. Happen.”
“Damnit, man. Your penis put this baby into me. Now your penis is going to have to deal with the aftermath.”
He threw his head back and growled.
“What?” I said.
“God, Tori. How do I show you—?” He paused and cocked his head to the side. He let out a low chuckle. His lip quirked up into a mischievous grin.
“What?” I said again. This couldn’t be good.
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said.
“Nope. No deals.” I crossed my arms. “Pants off, Brand.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” he repeated.
“Fine. Let’s hear it.”
“I will have sex with you. If you date me.”
“No deal.”
“Full access,” he said in a sing-song voice. “Whenever you want it.
“We’re not dating. Final.”
“All right.” He rested his perfect backside against the counter and crossed his legs at the ankle. He wore a pair of faded jeans with rips across the thigh. The way he was sitting, it left zero questions as to which side he was hanging.
So. Many. Hormones.
Arghh.
“Fine. One date,” I grumbled. “One.”
“Ten.”
“Sh’yeah right. Two.”
“Five.”
“Three, and I get to choose what we do.”
“Three, and you choose the first two activities. I get to pick the last date.”
“Deal.” I grabbed him by the tee shirt and reeled him in for a kiss. A sigh escaped as I pressed hot, needy lips to his. Holy crap, I’d missed this.
“Nope.” He placed his hands against my shoulder and pressed me firmly back down. “Not until after the dates.”
“Are you serious?”
“Serious as an unplanned pregnancy.” He stabbed the corner of my omelet with a fork and took a bite.
“Shut up.” I smacked him on the shoulder, and we both stood there laughing.
“Hey! What’s going on here?”
I turned, startled, at the same moment that Jake did, to the entrance of the kitchen. Where my brother Nate stood. Thumping a baseball bat against his open palm.
Thirteen
Jake
“Dude. Privacy much?” ye
lled Tori. She walked over to Nate and punched him in the ribcage.
“Sorry.” He doubled over and laughed. “But what’s Jake doing here? It’s eight a.m.”
“I called him,” said Tori, “to...fix the dishwasher.”
“What?” Nate laid the bat on the counter. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t want to bother you and Jen so early. And, um, Jake’s your land manager, so…” She shrugged.
I gulped. There was no way he was buying this.
“Tori.” Nate looked at her reproachfully. “That’s not what a land manager does. That’s something you should have called the building’s supervisor about. Or I could have sent a handyman. What’s wrong with it anyway?”
He walked over to the dishwasher and pulled it open.
“Nothing,” I said. “It was a fork caught on the bottom.”
Amazing how quickly the lie spewed out of my mouth. Part of me wanted to say, “screw it,” and tell him the truth then and there.
But what would I say?
Actually, I’m here because I’m flat-on-my-ass in love with your little sister. That would be your little sister who’s currently carrying my child. Did I mention the fact that I just bribed her with sex to get her to agree to go out on a date with me?
Yeah. That would go great.
Nate looked over at Tori and rolled his eyes.
“You called Jake over here for a fork?”
“It was a very big fork,” she said.
“I’m so sorry, man,” he said to me. “And for the future, repeat after me: ‘no, Tori. I’m not doing that.’”
“I’ll have to remember that.” I bit back the smile that was threatening to pop up.
“What are you doing here?” asked Tori.
“Glad to see you’re back to being your usual pain-in-the-keister self,” said Nate.
“I’m serious. Why are you here?”
“Calm down. I’m not staying. I’m headed to the batting range with Ethan. Jen asked me to deliver a message. She can’t make it to coffee today. She tried texting you, but you didn’t answer.”
Ethan was Jen’s best friend Annie’s husband. He was a good guy, but I was pretty sure he’d happily support Nate in taking a bat to my head when he found out that I’d knocked up his little sister.
“Oh. My phone’s on silent, I think,” said Tori. “And I needed to cancel anyway. I have a doctor’s appointment this morning.”