by Phoebe Mills
“I’m glad you decided to come.” Abby glanced at him, smiling as if he hadn’t just been fantasizing about having her in his arms again. She wore jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, the thin cotton molding to her curves like a second skin.
He cleared his throat and adjusted their canvas chair totes slung over his shoulder, trying to steer his thoughts back to just-friends territory. “Me too. You guys do this a lot?”
She shrugged, keeping pace as they walked down the rocky path toward the shore where laughter and chatter rose above the sound of the ocean. “Not as much as we used to. We still manage to get out a handful of times a year, but it’s been hard to maintain. Everyone’s busy with their spouses or kids.”
Carter studied her in the fading twilight, the setting sun casting a glow on her skin, her red hair catching fire. There was no disguising the wistfulness in her voice. Yep. She definitely still wanted a family, badly—something he actively shied away from.
He averted his gaze from her and looked out at the ocean spread before him, breathing in the salty air. Though the mountains in Vegas were certainly appealing, he couldn’t deny that the ocean, beautiful and deadly at once, had always called to him like none other. “So are you trying to tell me that you guys don’t have raging parties down here all the time anymore?”
At that reminder of how they’d spent every weekend possible during their senior year of high school, complete with an ill-advised cliff dive or two, Abby threw her head back and laughed, the sound bright and vibrant and piercing straight through his chest. He’d missed hearing it, and now that he’d gotten to spend more time in her presence than he had since high school, he could admit that he’d missed her. They may have broken up and not been a couple anymore, but that didn’t mean he’d suddenly stopped caring about her. She’d been one of his closest friends, and then, suddenly, they were done.
“We had fun, huh?” Abby turned toward him, her eyes bright as she gripped his forearm. “Oh my God, do you remember the time when we nearly got caught by the sheriff?”
Carter chuckled quietly, his head tipped down as he nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Nearly shit my pants I was so scared.”
While it was legal to have a bonfire on the beach, underage drinking…not so much.
“Well, it all turned out fine. We only had to hide out for an hour or so.”
Carter’s gaze met hers, and he knew he couldn’t hide the way his had heated. She looked up at him, her lip caught between her teeth, and it was clear she remembered exactly how they’d filled that hour hiding out. He’d never been more grateful that he kept an emergency condom in his wallet than he had been that night.
“You guys made it!” Savannah jumped up from her perch on a folding chair and ran toward them. As soon as she was close enough, she threw an arm around Abby’s shoulders and leaned in. “My overbearing brothers and their jackass friends are driving me crazy.”
“Friends who you’ve said more than once are hotter than sin.”
“And your point?”
Carter chuckled, lifting his gaze to take in exactly who was here. And, sure enough, three of Savannah’s four older brothers sat around the bonfire—somehow none of them had changed a bit in the eleven or more years since he’d last seen them—laughing and joking with a handful of others he vaguely recognized but couldn’t name.
Abby bumped her hip into Savannah’s. “They just want to keep you safe.”
“They just want to keep me from having fun is what they want to do.” Savannah rolled her eyes. “And someone needs to tell them I’m twenty-nine not twelve, and they can stop with their overprotective bullshit.”
Abby laughed. “Maybe that someone should be you.”
Savannah pursed her lips, sliding her brothers a look out of the corner of her eye. “Whenever I tell them anything, they do the exact opposite, just to irritate me. Older brothers’ prerogative apparently.” She leaned forward, meeting Carter’s gaze around Abby. “Would you ever do something like that to Becca?”
He laughed. “Have and do. Quite frequently, actually. Like you said, older brother’s prerogative. You guys made our lives a living hell when we were younger, so it’s only fair that we return the favor tenfold.”
Savannah narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, I see you’re of absolutely no help. I hope you at least brought the good beer.”
He held up the six-pack he’d grabbed before Abby had swung by to pick him up, and Savannah brightened as she plucked out a bottle.
“For me? Thanks!” She turned and headed back toward her chair, immediately getting pulled into an argument with her brothers and a few others, one guy glowering at her more than the others. She’d always been able to hold her own around them and their friends, though, and that still appeared to be true.
“I see nothing has changed in regards to that,” he said, tipping his head toward them.
Abby laughed. “Nope, not even a little. It’s actually managed to get worse, if you can believe it. In case you haven’t noticed, Savannah doesn’t do well with people—namely men—telling her what to do. And that goes double for her brothers and their friends, especially Noah.” Abby lifted her chin to the guy Carter had noticed shooting laser beams Savannah’s way.
He opened his mouth to ask what that was about when Marco’s booming voice interrupted him.
“Hey, man!” Marco waved from where he sat in a canvas chair. His wife, Gia, was perched on his lap, and their dog, Ollie, sat at their feet, tail thumping against the sand. “Glad you could make it. What kind of beer did you bring me?”
“If I’d known this was for everybody else and not just myself, I would have brought more.”
“It really has been a long time since you’ve been back here. Sharing is caring. Isn’t that what you teach the kids at the Sunshine Corner?” Marco asked Abby.
Abby grinned up at Carter. “He does have a point—sharing is caring.” And with that, she placed the six-pack she’d brought among a collection of various alcoholic beverages and grabbed a different bottle of something else entirely. “Anyone else need another?”
Once Abby had delivered the requested refills, she and Carter set up their chairs in the large circle surrounding the bonfire, greeting the dozen or so people he knew by name and being introduced to a few of the others he hadn’t been able to place, including Savannah’s brothers’ friends. Every single person there tonight, with the exception of him, was a Heart’s Hope Bay lifer. People he’d known in one way or another since at least kindergarten.
This place truly did suck you in and hold on tight.
“How’ve things been going? You get what you needed to your client earlier this week?” Marco asked, taking a pull from his beer.
“Yeah. I had to iron out some kinks working remotely, but I’m getting used to it. How about you? You hire anyone yet?”
“That depends—are you sticking around?”
Carter chuckled quietly and shook his head as he opened a beer for himself. “When are you gonna let that die?”
“Probably when you stop being such a stubborn ass and agree to work with me.”
“Stubborn’s in my bones—you know that.”
Marco laughed. “Well, we need to do something. Carlos and I are both working our ways toward divorces. Isn’t that right, babe?” Marco glanced up at Gia, who was completely ignoring him, instead talking with Abby and Savannah over his head.
Carter turned toward the girls, his eyes landing on Abby as she laughed with her friends. The firelight danced in her eyes, her face cast in flickering shadows. His head was already stuck in the past after their reminiscing earlier, and the mingling scents of the fire and the ocean just placed him further back. She looked so beautiful against the night sky, it was all he could do not to haul her up against him and finish what they’d started the other night.
“And then I took that briefcase of money and set the whole damn thing on fire,” Marco said.
Carter made a hum of acknowledgment, his eyes still locked on
Abby, before he snapped his head toward Marco. “What?”
With a low laugh, Marco said, “Damn, man, I’ve been feeding you complete bullshit for a solid three minutes now, and Ollie has licked your hand at least twice. Something else got your attention?” Which might as well have been a rhetorical question for the knowing lilt in Marco’s voice as he smirked at Carter.
“I don’t know what you mean.” Carter avoided his friend’s gaze and reached out a hand to Ollie, rewarding the dog with some ear scratches when he nuzzled into Carter’s touch.
Marco leaned over, wrapping a hand around Gia’s hip as she continued chatting with the girls. “Don’t play me like an idiot. A blind person could see how much you’ve been staring at Abby since you guys got here.”
“That’s the beer I’m looking at. She’s right in front of it.”
Marco let out a loud boom of laughter. “If you were looking at beer like that, you’d have bigger problems than just wanting to sleep with your ex-girlfriend.”
Sleep with? Yeah. That and a whole lot more.
Carter flicked his gaze up to Gia, who was still engrossed in her animated discussion with Abby and Savannah on the versatility of tacos, then met his friend’s knowing stare. “Just because I want to doesn’t mean I’m going to. I do have some self-control.”
Marco whistled low and leaned back in his chair. “Goddamn, I thought it’d take a lot longer to get a confession out of you.”
Carter rolled his eyes and took a sip of his beer, not wanting to even justify that with a response.
“Okay, all right…I’ll stop giving you shit.”
“No, you won’t.”
Marco laughed. “You’re right. But you’re still here for, what, a couple weeks?”
Three. He still had three weeks, give or take, left in town, depending on Becca’s doctor’s orders. Carter had kept a mental tally of his remaining time, and the funny thing was, he wasn’t sure if it was because he was savoring what little he had left or because he was anxious to get back to his real life.
“Something like that,” Carter murmured.
“So why not have a little fun while you’re home?”
Carter’s brows lifted. “You think Abby and I could just have a little fun, with our history?”
Marco lifted a shoulder. “Why not? As long as you both know what it is—and what it isn’t—going into it…”
He couldn’t deny the appeal of filling his remaining time in Heart’s Hope Bay while warming Abby’s bed. Just the brief thought had him shifting in his seat.
A tap on his left shoulder had him twisting away from Marco and to the person who’d so completely taken over his thoughts in the short time he’d been back. “Do you want it?” Abby asked, the roaring fire light making her eyes dance.
Did he want it? Hell yes, he wanted it, with every fiber of his being. Whatever it was, if it was coming from her, the answer was a resounding yes.
“Yeah,” he managed.
Her lips curved, her smile sweeping over her mouth slow like molasses, and he realized he may need to drive them home tonight because she was just this side of tipsy. She pushed something into his chest, and he grabbed it instinctually, glancing down to see what it was. Another beer.
Abby hadn’t been asking him if he wanted her, but rather another drink. And if that wasn’t a bucket of ice water on his fantasy about following Marco’s advice, he didn’t know what was.
“How about you, Gia?” she asked, waving a bottle toward her friend. “I haven’t seen you have even one, and I brought your favorite!”
“No, I’m good.”
Savannah snorted. “You’re good? Since when do you not want one of these? We’ve been friends for five years, and I’ve never once known you to turn down anything from Burnside Brewing.”
“Well, actually, it’s not that I don’t want it. It’s that I can’t have it.” She paused, taking a deep breath as she brought a hand to her stomach. “I’m pregnant.”
There was a heavy beat of stunned silence before chaos erupted. Savannah and Abby jumped up, pulling Gia out of Marco’s lap as they hugged and squealed and—yep—he watched as Abby swiped away a happy tear or two.
Carter turned toward Marco, offering him his hand and slapping him on the back. “Congratulations, man. You’re gonna be a daddy. What the hell!”
Marco chuckled, nodding as his attention was snagged on his wife while she celebrated with her closest friends, Ollie leaping along beside them, desperate to get in on the fun. “I know, right? I can’t believe it.”
“I didn’t even know you guys were trying.”
“We definitely weren’t. You know how crazy things are at work, and now this. Gia’s been freaking out because it wasn’t in the plans yet, so we’re completely unprepared.”
“Good thing you’ve got nine months to get your shit together.”
Marco grimaced. “Seven, actually. She’s already eight weeks along.”
Carter whistled lowly. “Still, you’ll get it done. You planning to take time off after the baby comes?”
“I’d like to, but I’m not sure it’ll be possible with how things are going now.”
“Better get a help wanted sign up in your window real quick.”
Marco pinned Carter with a look, his eyebrow raised. “Any chance this will make you take pity on me and finally come work with me?”
Carter laughed outright. “Not a chance.”
Chapter Nine
A few days later, after Gia’s weekly art class had finished up, she hung around the Sunshine Corner with Ollie by her side and just…watched. Absorbed everything she possibly could. Abby had never seen her friend quite so excited and scared at the same time. She knew Gia and Marco hadn’t planned this, but that didn’t stop her friend from being over the moon at the idea of a new baby.
“So, I figured the best thing for me to do is make lists,” Gia said, brandishing a leather-bound notebook and an assortment of different colored pens—Staedtler Triplus Fineliners, Abby’s favorite.
Savannah, Jenn, and Abby all laughed as Hilde simply shook her head. Gia’s list-making abilities rivaled even Abby’s, which rivaled Ryder Carroll, the inventor of the bullet journal himself.
Gia opened the notebook and skimmed over the contents. “I’ve got one started for what to pack in my hospital bag, what I want on my playlist, what to do before the baby arrives, items that we want on the registry, things I need to research, and what I want on my birthing plan…Am I missing anything?”
“Maybe to take a breath,” Savannah said dryly.
Gia shot her a grin. “You know this is how I deal with stress. Lists are soothing for me. So, if I make enough lists, maybe I’ll feel like I know what I’m doing and that my life isn’t completely spiraling out of control.”
“Hey,” Abby said soothingly at the tinge of panic in Gia’s voice, rubbing a hand down her back. “Everything’s fine. Your life is not out of control. This is just a little speed bump in your five-year plan that decided to come along in two. You guys wanted kids, right?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“But nothing. So it happened after you’ve only been married for a couple years instead of the five that you originally planned. You just don’t have quite as much time to prepare as you would have liked.”
Gia laughed before promptly bursting into tears as Ollie nuzzled his snout into her hand, attempting to comfort her. She accepted the tissue Savannah offered and shook her head. “Oh my God! What’s wrong with me? I’m like this all the time. My emotions are absolutely off the rails. Marco doesn’t have any idea what to do with me. I’m laughing one minute, yelling at him the next, and then breaking down in tears. I’m giving him whiplash. Even Ollie doesn’t know what to do with me. Is this normal?”
Savannah raised her hands and split a look between Jenn and Hilde. “That’s all you guys.”
The two women shared a knowing smile before Jenn said, “Not only normal, but completely expected. I was a disaster the
first trimester. And the second. Aaaaand…the third. I think Lori was at her wit’s end by the time Brayden came.”
Everyone chuckled and even Gia managed a laugh through her tears.
“Honey, you’re doing just fine. You are more prepared than any person I’ve known. Except maybe Abby.” Hilde shot Abby a wink before focusing again on Gia. “You just need a little confidence is all.”
“But that’s the problem—I don’t know what I don’t know. Teaching art here is the most I’ve ever interacted with kids, and I don’t think this baby is going to come out able to walk and talk and wipe its own butt.”
“Oh, sweetie…” Savannah said. “It’s cute that you think four-year-olds can wipe their own butts.”
“Oh my God, see? I have no idea what I’m doing, and that’s what terrifies me the most. Like, how am I supposed to know if we should let the baby cry it out or not?”
“Well, that’s an easy one,” Savannah said. “You don’t have to do either—just invite the Baby Whisperer over to put that baby to sleep in the first place, and they won’t make a peep until the morning.”
“I volunteer my services anytime,” Hilde said with a sage nod.
Gia shot her a grateful smile. “Okay, that’s one less thing to worry about, but what about everything else? Cloth or disposable diapers? Store-bought baby food or make our own? I don’t dare ask in any of the forums I’m part of because the moms on there are freaking terrifying.”
“You do whatever is right for you and Marco,” Jenn said with a shrug.
Gia tapped her pen on her notebook, her mouth dropping open. “It can’t seriously be that easy.”
“Oh, it’s not.” Hilde laughed. “You’re going to second-guess yourself every step of the way.”
“And then you’re going to have to deal with the unwanted and unasked-for opinions from everyone in the world who thinks they’re an expert on your kid,” Jenn said. “Not only that, but all their messages will be mixed, too. Take breastfeeding, for instance. People will make you feel awful if you can’t—or choose not to—while at the same time shaming you for doing so in public. Um, babies don’t just eat at home, you know?”