Watch Over Me

by Sydney Landon

  “Well, he kind of deserves some crap after his comment to you. What was it again?” They both repeated, “Good deal, thanks for letting me know,” at the same time. “Come on, that was kind of an asshole reply, wasn’t it? Seems so out of character for him, though.”

  “Boy, this is one of those times you’d like to get drunk with your girlfriend, isn’t it?” Shannon mused. Before Gwen could reply, the front door opened and she heard Maddy and Megan’s voices reverberate down the hallway. Raising a brow, Shannon said, “I can’t offer you booze, but if you need a distraction, I got two who will more than do the job for ya.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dominic peeled the label from his second beer as he stared at the large screen television in the bar without really seeing it. He wasn’t even sure what he was doing here. He’d been feeling a cross between anger and betrayal, helped along by a good ole fashion case of panic when he’d taken off earlier. The whole crazy relationship between Shannon and Gage had been surprising, but kind of entertaining, until the whole revelation of the pregnancy. Now that he had not seen coming. Hell, they really hadn’t even discussed it since Gwen had texted him while he was in Charleston. He had been sitting next to Gage, who immediately advised him not to make a big deal out of it. So, he sent that stupid, fucking text, using Gage’s words. Damn, he’d regretted doing that, but he didn’t want to bring it up to Gwen on the slim hope that she had not thought it strange.

  The question on his mind tonight was why she had said she wasn’t pregnant if she was? Clearly she was if Shannon saw the positive tests. Gwen claimed she had just found out that morning, but that was days after she said the test was negative. What the hell?

  “Damn bro, couldn’t you have picked a bar a little closer? The traffic was hell getting here.” Dominic jerked around in surprise to see Gage standing behind him. He was at Flannigan’s, which was miles off the beaten path. He hadn’t actually had a destination in mind; he just drove until he was ready to stop. “I tracked your phone,” Gage added at his questioning look. “You know we have that enabled on all of the company phones, just in case.”

  “Shouldn’t you be with your new girlfriend?” Dominic asked sarcastically as the other man settled on the stool beside him. He waved a bartender over, signaling for a beer before speaking.

  “Nah, she had her hands full with your very upset girl. Why’d you take off like that? I mean, that’s like something I’d do.”

  “Why would she lie to me about that, Gage? I get that she might have been upset about it, but she plainly told me in that text that she wasn’t pregnant. Then just a few days later, I find out that she is, but she hasn’t said a word to me. She should have known I wasn’t going to lose my shit or anything. Hell, we both knew it was a possibility. Do you think she just wasn’t going to tell me at all?”

  “Come on, man, you live next door to her and work in the same building. I don’t think she intended to keep it from you. That would be damn near impossible. I think you’re overreacting. Gwen’s not the type of woman to be trying to play you. That doesn’t even make sense. She said it was negative the first time.”

  “Well, if it was a closed case, then why was she taking another test? She had to have suspected that something wasn’t right. Women don’t just randomly take pregnancy tests whenever they feel like it, do they?”

  “Hell if I know, Dom. You should go on back home and talk to your little mama.” Gage started laughing. Fuck. He wasn’t ready to talk to Gwen yet, and if Gage was going to be tossing out baby jokes all night, he was going to need something stronger than beer.

  * * *

  “Holy shit,” Dominic groaned as his head threatened to explode. Hell, he could even see the white light coming for him. This must be what death felt like. He could think of no other explanation.

  “Getting up today, princess?” an amused voice asked as he writhed in pain.

  Rolling onto his back and blinking until he recognized Gage, Dominic had his answer. He was in hell and Gage was his executioner. The asshole had turned on every light in the room, along with opening the blinds. Come to think of it . . . where was he? He was obviously on a couch, but not his. “What the fuck, man?” he grumbled as he tried to sit up.

  “You know, if Gwen could see you now, she’d be rethinking her feelings. Frankly, dude, you look like roadkill, and you smell even worse. I knew when you passed out in the bathroom at Flannigan’s last night that things weren’t gonna be pretty this morning, but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this ugly. And FYI, you owe me a visit to the chiropractor because I almost threw my back out carrying you to the truck.”

  “Where’s my bike?” Dominic asked, picturing it trashed or stolen.

  “I had one of the guys pick it up last night. He dropped it off at your place. Told him to bring the keys by the office this morning.”

  His head was hammering relentlessly as he tried to focus his sluggish thoughts. “How much did I have to drink last night?” he croaked out. His mouth felt like sawdust.

  “I think it’d be easier to ask what you didn’t drink last night,” Gage smirked. “I tried to cut you off, but you listened to your other friends over me.”

  Flopping back, Dominic asked in confusion, “What other friends?”

  Gage took a loud slurp out of the cup he was holding, making Dominic’s hair stand on end before saying, “Oh, you know, most of the bar. After you buy a few rounds of drinks, you get a lot of new buddies. I’m gonna say, though, I don’t think you should invite them over for Sunday dinner anytime soon because when you were falling in the urinal, I was the only one with your back—and a wad of paper towels. When I call your ass for a favor in the future, you better not hesitate or question me. Trust me, you owe me big.”

  “And Gwen?” Dominic asked. He’d probably drunk dialed her all night.

  As if knowing what he was getting at, Gage pulled a phone from under the chair cushion in the corner. “Don’t worry; I took this from you early in the evening when you started trying to bring your contact list up. I knew no good was going to come of that. I hid it when we got home because I was afraid of what you’d do if you woke up. That’s one way in which you didn’t make an ass out of yourself last night.” Gage laughed as Dominic weakly flipped him the bird. “Oh, guess what. I saved the best part for last.”

  “What?” Dominic asked, not sure he wanted to know if it was worse than what he’d already heard.

  “We have to go to Charleston this morning. You know how fun those road trips are when you’re hungover.”

  “You can’t be serious! They can’t all still be sick down there. We just got back.” His stomach was threatening to revolt at the thought of being anywhere near an interstate today.

  “It’s the Oceanix—Charleston. We’re meeting Asher Jackson there. He wants to show us around the resort and get a feel for what we can do for them. He was impressed when we met yesterday and is ready to make a change. His contract with his present security company is up for renewal next month so time’s an issue. It’s a big operation, and we’ll need to know what we’re looking at staff-wise like yesterday before we put a proposal together. We’re talking big time here, brother, if we pick up that chain.”

  “Fuck,” Dominic hissed, feeling like an idiot for getting wasted, especially during the middle of a busy workweek. He never did crap like that. Hell, he was just too old for it, not to mention the pain it caused. “I’ve got to go home to shower and change.”

  “We don’t have time. I let you sleep as long as possible. Go hit my shower. I left some clothes out in there. We’re pretty much the same size.”

  With no time to argue, Dominic got to his feet and staggered down the hallway toward Gage’s bathroom. He’d been to his friend’s apartment countless times, but he went straight to the door on the left and opened it to find—the laundry room. He couldn’t imagine that this day could get any worse.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Gwen went from feeling sorry for herself to ju
st being pissed as the red display on her bedside clock showed seven in the morning. She couldn’t believe that Dominic hadn’t showed up or called last night. What happened to all of the support he had promised her a few weeks ago? It seemed that now when it was crunch time, he was nowhere to be found. On the few occasions that she’d allowed herself to think of the “what-ifs,” she certainly hadn’t imagined Dominic taking off. For God’s sake, the man had brought her a bottle of folic acid and obsessively Googled information about early pregnancy. That just didn’t seem like the actions of a man who would panic.

  She was still spitting mad when she slammed out of her door an hour later. She debated stopping by Dominic’s apartment but figured he would already be gone to work by now. And truthfully, she refused to chase him down. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know where she lived. When and if he was ready to act like an adult and have a rational discussion, he could come to her. If she had to raise the baby alone, then she would. Heck, she could move back to Columbia where she’d have her family. She had options, but what she didn’t have was the will to chase another man who didn’t want any type of commitment. She wasn’t after a marriage proposal, but being a father was a huge commitment and as of yet, Dominic showed no signs of being ready to make it.

  As she was walking to her car, she saw that Dominic’s truck and his bike were still in his parking spaces. So, he was still home, after all. It was unusual for him to be this late going into work, and she felt a moment of worry before she shook it off. He certainly wasn’t concerned about her, that much was painfully obvious.

  Of course, as luck would have it, she ran into him outside of the coffee shop in the lobby for the second morning in a row. She had no idea how he had arrived before her. He was still a few feet away, wearing dark sunglasses, but she could tell by the stiffening of his spine that he had spotted her. Beside him, Gage waved, seeming relaxed and thankfully not hostile over their confrontation the previous day. She was debating making a run for it when Dominic said, “Gwen, we need to talk.”

  She dropped her eyes to the floor, counting to ten as she tried to control her temper. What she really wanted to say was, “Oh, so now you’re ready to talk?” When she looked back up, she noticed something strange. His pants were several inches too short. He was wearing his usual work attire of cargo pants and a company shirt, but none of it appeared to fit. His muscular chest, arms, and shoulders were always visible, but the shirt he was wearing outlined every taut inch of his upper body. Come to think of it, the pants were also formfitting. Heck, she had to pull her eyes away from his crotch. Those pants were like a spotlight on his impressive length. Oh God, she was staring. Gage was giving her a knowing grin, but she couldn’t tell if Dominic had noticed, thanks to his sunglasses. “I . . . er . . . have to get to work. Maybe we can talk this evening.”

  Dominic raised a hand, rubbing at his temple as if he had a headache. “I don’t know what time I’ll be back. We’re going to Charleston as soon as Mac picks us up.”

  “Charleston?” Gwen hissed out before she could stop herself. “You seem to be going there an awful lot lately.” She couldn’t remember Mac going that often when they’d been dating.

  “We live for that place,” Gage joked before pointing to Mac’s car pulling up out front. “Gotta go, bro. You know how cranky McKinley gets when we keep him waiting.”

  “I’ll call you tonight unless it’s too late when we get in. I really don’t know. But we need to talk.” They stood staring at each other for another moment. It felt weird not to at least touch in some way as they usually would. Dominic finally gave her a brief smile before walking off, still rubbing his head. I bet Kandi can make him feel better today, Gwen thought cattily. Maybe the other woman liked her men to wear clothes that were too tight. There was no way Dominic would be working a stripper pole in those pants, though. The seams would blow out within the first ten seconds.

  Gwen kicked her foot against the tile floor in the lobby. This was the second official day of knowing she was pregnant, and so far, nothing had changed. She didn’t feel any different and she had no idea where things stood with the father of her baby. Yeah, her life was going so well. It made her long for the days when her hardest decision was what flavor of Ben & Jerry’s to buy for her evening at home.

  * * *

  “Dom, either you packed on twenty pounds overnight or your clothes seriously shrank in the wash, man.” Mac grinned as he looked at Dominic’s too tight shirt.

  Gage, always one to volunteer too much information—except for his relationship with Shannon—stuck his head between the seats of Mac’s Tahoe, saying, “He got wasted last night and passed out at my place. We didn’t have time for him to go home and change this morning.”

  Mac shook his head as if not believing what he heard. “You got drunk? And on a school night? That’s not like you. What’s up?”

  “Well, Gwen is . . .” Gage began until Dominic put his hand up in the other man’s face.

  “Mind if I talk here, Chatty Cathy?” When Gage waved a hand for him to go ahead, Dominic pinched the bridge of his nose before saying, “Gwen’s pregnant.”

  Mac darted a look his way before pulling out into the Myrtle Beach traffic. “But I thought you said that she wasn’t. Didn’t you tell me that?”

  “He did, but then shit got real yesterday outside his apartment and he had a bomb dropped on him,” Gage piped in again.

  Dominic’s head was killing him and his body felt like a bus had hit him. He was ready to kill someone, and Gage was setting himself up to be a perfect target with his loose lips. “Shit got real all right, when I saw your boy back there sucking my neighbor’s face.”

  Mac’s hands twitched on the steering wheel, causing them all to yell in alarm before he quickly righted the Tahoe. “Gage, what the hell man? You caused this mess? Please tell me you didn’t hit on Gwen!”

  As Gage bristled indignantly in the backseat, Dominic continued, “Gage has been involved in a secret little affair with our neighbor, Shannon. As in the single mother, with two kids.”

  “Maddy and Megan’s mom?” Mac blinked. “Gage, that’s who you’re in a relationship with? That’s just—well, hell, I don’t even know what to say.”

  “Messed up?” Dominic offered. “Can you imagine the shit that will come out of their mouths now with Daddy Gage in the house?”

  “Hey listen, you nosy assholes,” Gage snapped, sounding seriously pissed off, “that’s my girl and her kids you’re talking about.”

  “Actually, we’re talking about you and not them,” Mac pointed out. “Come on, brother, we all sprout the F-word like it’s our national anthem. Plus you’ve screwed your way through most of the women in South Carolina and more than your fair share overseas. How are you managing to keep your mouth PG-rated and your dick in your pants?”

  “It’s not as if I’m incapable of being faithful to someone,” Gage defended. “I’ve just never found anyone who I wanted to be with—like that. But Shannon, she’s different. She makes me want to be better. She . . .”

  Dominic opened his mouth and pretended to gag. “I swear to God, if you say she completes you, I’ll have Mac pull over and throw you out of the car.”

  “Just because your life is a mess, big papa, don’t take it out on me. Shannon and I have it together more than you and Gwen do right now.”

  “Our boy appears to have a small point there, Dom,” Mac threw in. “You’re one of the calmest fuckers I’ve ever known. You stood behind me in Afghanistan more times than I can count with an M4 assault rifle in your hand, and I never thought twice about it. You’re complete ice under pressure—usually. Since you’ve been seeing Gwen, you’ve been all over the place. I mean, case in point, you’re wearing Gage’s clothes, which he probably went commando in without washing because you pulled a drunk. I’ve seen you drink a whole bottle of tequila and still be able to walk a straight line so I can’t imagine what put you down that hard.”

  “Don’t forget the part about lying
in piss—that was freaking disgusting,” Gage added.

  Mac shuddered. “I don’t even want to know the details. I’m just saying that I’m a little worried about you. I thought you were crazy when you started spouting words of love so soon, but I believe it now. Only something that life altering would have you so far off your usual mark. I have no idea what’s going on with Gwen and the pregnant or not pregnant thing, but you need to straighten it out. I told you in the beginning that she’s a good woman, and I don’t believe for a minute that she’s trying to bullshit you. I do think that you two have some serious miscommunication going on and a part of it is probably your listening to advice from everyone else instead of just figuring the shit out on your own like you normally would.”

  “That’s directed at me, isn’t it?” Gage grumbled.

  Mac ignored the question and continued. “Avie told me that you helped her out a lot while we were both trying to get ourselves together. That’s who you are, brother. You don’t overreact, freak out, and second-guess yourself. You told me after Gwen and I broke up that you’d wanted her all along. All right, guess what. She’s there. She’s having your baby. Are you waiting for an engraved invitation or what?” As Gage started laughing, Mac looked in the rearview mirror, adding, “And I don’t even know where to start with you. Single mother? You better be good to her, Gage, or I’ll kick your ass myself.”