Just the Tip of the Iceberg: Mile High Matched Books 1-3

by Christina Hovland

  The elderly brigade moseyed off to do whatever they planned to do with around a hundred condoms and thirty-plus ovulation test strips.

  And a ridiculously large Pixy Stix—walker lady grabbed a blue one right by the register.

  “I’m not sure what to say right now.” Heather’s shoulders slumped. “She’s totally going to call Jase and tell him. Then she’s going to call his mom. His dad. His sister. His brothers—even the one deployed overseas.”

  Marlee tried to pretend that this was all a dream. She closed her eyes and, in her mind, she was happily sipping a vodka tonic at Brek’s Bar, listening to the cover band, and cuddling up against Eli’s side. No pregnancy scare. No condom disaster all over the drugstore floor. Just a relaxing night out with her friends.

  Unfortunately, when she opened her eyes, she was still at the drugstore. Lothario was not defiling anything, but she needed to remember to grab his vest next time so they could do it sans condom disaster.

  Also, she was still probably pregnant. Still definitely not sure how she’d ever tell Eli if the test came back positive. And still totally unsure what she was supposed to do from there.

  “Okay. Where do we do this?” She lifted the basket from Heather. “We cannot go back to Eli’s place. Definitely not my house.”

  Scotty had probably de-dildoed the trees, but he would definitely ask too many questions if she showed up to use the bathroom with a basket full of pregnancy tests. Questions he’d relay to her dad, who would then blow a gasket (or ten).

  So the question remained, where the heck were they going to go so she could take a dozen pregnancy tests in peace?

  “I have a babysitter. If I show up at home, there’s no way the baby will let me leave again,” Velma said. “And depending on how this goes, we’ll probably want to leave again.”

  Okay, so Eli’s place was out of the question. Scotty’s wasn’t even a question. Velma’s was a no go. There was no way Marlee was taking pregnancy tests in the bathroom of Brek’s Bar. First of all, because it was a bar and that seemed like not the best place to do it. And second, because Eli was probably there.

  Crap.

  Eli was probably there. He was expecting her to be there. Which meant he was probably worried.

  Marlee grabbed her cell from her bra.

  Double crap.

  He’d texted her three times. Called twice.

  She didn’t particularly want him to know she was living her own personal freak-out of epic proportions. She also didn’t want him to worry.

  Thus, the problem with being Marlee in that moment.

  What was a girl to do in the middle of a pregnancy scare? Marlee did the first thing that came to mind. She pushed the button on the side of her phone until the screen went black.

  Now, Marlee wasn’t an idiot. She absolutely understood that this wasn’t solving anything. But at the same time, right then, it seemed to solve everything. So she went with it.

  “Let’s go to my place. Dean’s out with a client tonight.” Claire tossed a couple of condom boxes into the basket.

  Marlee raised her eyebrows toward the haul.

  “My treat.” Claire grabbed a mascara, tossing it in with the rest.

  Heather sauntered toward the cash register, grabbing a giant Hershey’s bar and a can of barbeque Pringles along the way.

  Marlee followed with a basket filled with way more pregnancy tests than anyone could possibly pee on in one night, two boxes of condoms, a Voluminous Mascara, and a gigantic blue Pixy Stix. The last one only because it seemed like something Babushka would do. And Marlee was now sworn to be the new Babushka.

  Velma, Claire, and Lothario followed close behind. Marlee didn’t turn to see what they were carrying.

  They did the cash register thing, loaded up in Velma’s Prius, and darted off to Claire’s.

  Marlee peed on a shedload of sticks.

  She lined them all up on the counter. Her heart beat against her chest wall, thumping so loud Eli could probably hear it across town. Her mouth went dry. Her knees started to buckle. She lowered herself to the edge of Claire’s kickass soaking tub, and she waited until the results rolled in.

  A dozen tests all came back with the same result.

  Then she texted her best friends.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Where. The. Hell. Was. Marlee?

  They’d had plans to catch up at Brek’s. So far, he was the only one catching up. There was no Marlee to be found.

  No Marlee picking up her phone.

  No Marlee answering his texts.

  Which meant an Eli who was getting more and more concerned by the second.

  “You said they all took off together?” Eli asked, swiping his thumb across the rim of his untouched beer.

  “Said it three times now.” Brek mixed up what appeared to be two fingers of whiskey on the rocks. “Didn’t change in the last twenty minutes.”

  “They weren’t with Babushka?” Eli was pretty sure Babushka could get Marlee to do anything at this point.

  “Nope.” Brek shook his head.

  “You’re still not the least bit worried?” Eli wasn’t an especially jumpy guy, but he was officially in a relationship, and call him crazy, but once they’d sealed the deal that afternoon, his nerves went haywire.

  “Nope.”

  “They’re supposed to be here.”

  “Yep.”

  “They’re not.”

  “Nope.”

  This was ridiculous. Eli was ready to be a search party of one if he had to be, since no one else was taking this seriously. Well, no one being Brek. He had no idea where Jase was, and Dean was meeting with clients.

  He just needed to find her, check in, and make sure she was okay. Then he’d be better. The silence felt louder when Marlee wasn’t there.

  “Uh-oh.” Brek glanced at the door.

  A crackle lit the air in the bar. The kind of crackle that usually preceded life-changing news.

  Eli turned, hoping it was Marlee.

  It wasn’t Marlee.

  Jase shoved through the masses. He sat his ass on the bar stool next to Eli. “Heather’s pregnant.”

  Say what? Eli didn’t say anything, just stared at his buddy. They were dropping like flies—marriage, parenting… Pretty sure they’d all start driving matching minivans.

  “She’s pregnant and she hasn’t said anything to me.” He pointed to a bottle of Jose Cuervo. “I’m gonna need a hit of that before I go home and she delivers the news. Officially.”

  “How’d you find out she’s having a baby if she hasn’t told you she’s having a baby?” Eli asked.

  “Babushka. She’s planning a bridal-slash-baby shower and she’d like to know if we want to do girls only or girls and boys.” Jase scraped a hand down his face.

  Oh, well. That sort of made sense. In a world where nothing made sense.

  “What did you decide? Because if you make me go to a bridal-slash-baby shower, there better be fuckin’ beer.” Brek grabbed the bottle of tequila from the backlit shelf.

  “I didn’t know you were trying to get pregnant,” Eli said. Although, given the fact Jase wanted a shot of tequila, maybe it wasn’t so planned.

  “We were waiting until after the wedding. Not long after. But after.” Jase tossed back the shot Brek had poured. “It’s not that I don’t want a kid. I just don’t want to deal with planning the wedding and planning for a baby all while wrangling the insanity that is my family. I like my insanity in nice tidy boxes. All separate from each other.”

  “It’s not that bad.” Brek leaned against the bar top. “The planning a baby and a wedding. Velma and I did it.”

  “Your family is not my family. You have a very sane mother. Velma has two totally normal parents. Have you met Babushka? My mother? My sister? You might as well call in the ringmaster now, because my life is about to become a full three-ring circus.”

  Eli had met them. Jase was right. He was fucked.

  “How’d Babushka find out bef
ore you?” Brek asked.

  “Said she caught Heather taking pregnancy tests at Rite-Aid.”

  Eli had heard the stories of Velma testing for a baby in the bathroom stall at Target. At least now he knew where Marlee’d gone. Why she hadn’t responded.

  She’d been too busy helping out a friend.

  Jase would be a great dad; Eli had no doubt. Just like Brek. And Dean, if that’s what he and Claire decided they wanted to do. Eli? Eli was barely ready for his first real relationship. Did he want kids? He let that thought ferment in his mind.

  Maybe.

  Yes.

  Someday.

  If it was a little girl and she looked like Marlee.

  Shit.

  This is why he didn’t think too hard about things like this.

  He was two inches away from nailing down his restaurant. This was his dream, and he was finally following it. He wasn’t going to screw it up by losing focus.

  “This is gonna be awesome,” Brek said with a grin. “Let’s hope your kid is blessed with the beauty that is Heather and not…” He gave Jase a once-over.

  Jase gave Brek the finger.

  Eli smiled down at the bar top. His phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. Marlee. His chest went warm.

  “Mar,” he said into the receiver.

  “Hey.” She sounded breathless. “Sorry. I had to go with the girls. I was thinking I’d just head home from here.”

  “Where are you?” he asked. “I can come get you.”

  She’d left her car at the apartment. He’d seen it when he ran home for a quick change of clothes before meeting-not-meeting her at Brek's.

  “Already called a car.” Her voice got muffled as she said something to someone in the background. “I’ll see you at home.”

  His gut turned funny when she called his apartment home. And not in the sour way. In the warm way his chest had also felt when he saw she was calling.

  Fine. Eli liked that Marlee referred to his apartment as home.

  Yes, he was making progress.

  Marlee was pregnant with Eli’s kid. A dozen pregnancy tests confirmed it. So she resolved to do what any sane woman would do when faced with the knowledge she carried the baby of Eli Howard.

  Marlee: I’m not telling him yet.

  Becca: Ever?

  Kellie: I’m really bad with plans, but even I know this is a bad plan.

  Sadie: Hang on. I’m calling you.

  Becca: Conference call?

  Kellie: Don’t leave me out!

  It’s not that Marlee wouldn’t tell him.

  Of course, she would.

  Marlee: Today just isn’t the day to bring this up.

  Not on the same day that he finally opened up to her and decided that maybe they shouldn’t look toward a future that only included the demise of whatever it was they had.

  Marlee: He just needs some time to adjust to things before I throw this in the mix.

  She would simply give him a bit of time to adjust to the fact that there was a them. Then she’d tell him about the baby so he could adjust to the fact that there was a them.

  She did her best I’m-pregnant-and-everything-is-fine saunter through the breezeway to the apartment. Her Sadie ringtone started going off right as she reached the door.

  “Hey,” Marlee said into the receiver.

  “You have to tell him,” Sadie said gently.

  “I…” Marlee’s voice cracked.

  “Are you okay?” Sadie went into concerned friend mode. Concerned friend mode was a lot like concerned lawyer mode, but without the threat of legal action.

  “No.” Marlee sat on the concrete bench surrounded by a flower patch in the courtyard outside the apartment. The flowers were long dead, the concrete cold as winter started to creep into fall.

  “I’m in trouble,” Marlee murmured, her throat getting thick at the acknowledgement. Lothario hopped out of the purse, snuggling his head against Marlee’s thigh.

  Sadie went quiet. “I know.”

  “I think I’m falling for your brother.” And by falling for him, Marlee meant she was pretty sure she was all in with him.

  Sadie sucked in a breath. “Well, given everything, that’s not so bad.”

  “He’s Eli. And he’s started opening up to the idea of a relationship. He wants to go slow, try it out.” Absently, she stroked the top of Lothario’s head.

  “Do you know how long we’ve all hoped he’d get over his shit and find someone?”

  Actually, given that she and Sadie shared everything, Marlee did know that Eli’s family hoped he wouldn’t always be alone.

  “I’m pregnant, Sadie,” Marlee whispered. “This is happening.”

  When the tests had come back positive, she couldn’t say the word. She understood how Eli felt about the “married” word. That’s how she felt about the “pregnant” word. Velma had seen the tests first, so she’s the one who told Heather and Claire.

  “I’m coming home,” Sadie announced. Marlee could practically see her pulling out her suitcase and throwing in clothes. “Like now.”

  “That’s not—”

  “I’m coming home.” Sadie’s words were final. “I’ll just stay with Mom this time. We’ll get things settled.”

  Marlee’s heart dropped. Sadie knew Eli as well as anyone—better than anyone. She wasn’t coming home to console her brother when he found out he was going to be a dad. Marlee sucked in a broken breath. Sadie was coming home to scrape Marlee off the floor when Eli broke what was left of her heart.

  “Okay,” Marlee said. “I’ve gotta go inside.”

  “I have your back,” Sadie said.

  “Do you think there’s any chance Eli might come around on this?” Marlee asked, hopeful. Needing some kind of reassurance.

  There were times in a girl’s life when she needed her friends to be straight with her. There were times when she needed them to blow hot air and assure her everything was going to be fine—even if fine was a relative term.

  Right then? Marlee didn’t know exactly what she was looking for from Sadie.

  Sadie didn’t respond right away. Which said everything that Marlee already knew.

  “I’ll call you when I land tomorrow,” Sadie replied, not addressing Marlee’s actual question. The line went dead.

  Marlee pressed the cell screen against her forehead.

  Then she pulled herself up, scooped her dog into his purse, and marched to the door. She’d just put all this out of her mind until she absolutely had to face it.

  That wasn’t this night.

  She stepped inside. Eli sat on the sofa. He scowled at his phone. Then he glared at an open notebook in front of him. Then he scowled back at his phone as though willing it to ring.

  “Hi.” Marlee put the purse down so Lothario could hop out and go snuggle with Eli’s shoes. Look at her, sounding perfectly normal even when things were not normal at all.

  “Hey.” He didn’t pull his eyes from whatever weird ritual was going on with the cell. It looked like something she would’ve done when she was fifteen and really wanted Bobby Martino to call her back.

  “I’m sorry I missed you tonight.” She sat next to him on the couch. Not super close, but not weird far either.

  “Jase told us what happened.” He kept his focus on the phone.

  No glance toward her.

  Shit.

  He knew.

  She swallowed hard and cleared her throat, fidgeted with the hem of her dress.

  “Kids are good.” He shrugged. “Glad it’s not me, but good for them.”

  What?

  He glared one final time at the cell before glancing at her, his stone face melting a bit with the movement. “Jase’ll be a great dad.”

  “Jase told you he’s going to have a baby?”

  “Jase told us Heather’s going to have his baby.”

  Shocked silence was becoming a thing that night.

  “Oh yeah?” she asked as nonchalantly as she could manage, what with the cu
rrent night’s activities and now this.

  “You ran into Babushka at Rite-Aid?” he asked.

  “Uh-huh.” To put it mildly.

  “Babushka spilled. She’s got the baby shower practically all planned to go along with her bridal shower.”

  Damn. Damn. Damn.

  “Did he talk to Heather?” Because something told Marlee he’d had the Babushka conversation but not the Heather one.

  “Not yet.” Eli dropped back against the couch. “He was waiting for Heather to tell him.”

  Marlee sucked her lips between her teeth. Jase had no idea and neither did Eli.

  Eli’s phone rang. He immediately grabbed it, accepted the call, pressed it to his ear, and said, “Eli here.”

  Then he got scowly again.

  “Totally understand. Don’t worry about it. Thanks again.” He hung up the phone.

  “Problem?” Marlee asked, grateful for a reprieve from the Heather-Babushka pregnancy discussion.

  “Three waiters are out for tomorrow’s gala. They’ve got the flu. I can’t come up with replacements, everyone’s booked.” He dragged a hand over his face. “I was on a skeleton to begin with to save money. Now, I’m gonna be cooking and serving.”

  “Is that even possible?” Marlee asked.

  “No.” He dropped his forearms to his knees.

  He needed help. Help for a solvable problem. A problem Marlee could assist with. She may have been not-so-great in his kitchen, but she had done fine when she served at his other events.

  “I can do it,” Marlee said.

  His scowl lightened. “You don’t mind?”

  “I like you. I like people. I like your food.” She gave him her best let’s-not-talk-about-babies-anymore smile. “I think I’m probably overqualified, if anything.”

  “That’d be amazing.” His hands held out, he gripped hers and pulled her so she tumbled against him on the sofa. Then he pressed his forehead against hers in a move that made her knees turn melty and her stomach flutter.

  “I can call Velma, Heather, and Claire. I bet they’ll help out if you need it. The guys, too.”

  “I don’t want to bug ’em.” Eli’s eyes heated, his fingers massaging her temples. The right amount of pressure eased a headache she hadn’t even realized was brewing.