Page 19 of 40 and Flirting (with Disaster) (Silver Foxes of Black Wolf’s Bluff #5)

Nineteen

I ris had agreed to dinner at Lily’s house with her friends the following Tuesday night, for which she was grateful.

Hopefully it would keep her mind off her daughter.

And Jamie. Because now that they’d been together, he was even more dominant in her thoughts, but Jamie was working tonight and she couldn’t let him take up all her brain space—or her life.

She wouldn’t let any man take over like that again.

No matter how good the sex—and everything else—was.

“Iris!”

Claire’s squeal as she opened the door pierced Iris’s eardrums. She stuck a finger in one ear and jiggled it around. “Eh? What’s that you said?”

Claire laughed. “Sorry! A little too excited there, huh?” She opened the door wide, gesturing Iris in. “Lincoln comes into town tomorrow and construction at the resort has this week off, so I opted to close everything and do the same. I haven’t taken time off in ages. I’ve been buzzing all day.”

Iris gave her friend a hug. “I totally get that.”

“Good, because I’ll probably be just as loud when Erin gets here.”

“Maybe I’ll go see if Lily needs help in the kitchen.”

Claire’s laughter followed her down the hall, bringing a smile to Iris’s lips.

She didn’t know what she would do without these women who had gathered around her since the divorce.

So many of her friends had dropped off the radar as soon as they heard the news, as if divorce was contagious and they didn’t want to catch it.

Not Scarlett, though. They’d become close after working together at the Halloween event last year, and the other woman had pulled Iris into this circle as if she belonged here. By now she felt like she did.

Lily was putting together a charcuterie board when Iris entered the kitchen. “Ooooh, cheese straws!”

Lily grinned. “And Claire brought them, so you know they’re good.”

“What does she call them again? Cheese cookies?” Iris dared to reach for one of the small orange circles that were indeed shaped like cookies.

“Yeah.” Lily added pretzels to the tray. “She says that’s what her family always called them.”

“They’re delicious,” Iris said around a mouthful of fluffy, cheesy goodness.

“Yes, cheese cookies!” Erin hurried through the kitchen door, one hand supporting her bulging stomach, the other reaching for a cookie.

Claire snorted as she followed Erin into the room. “Maybe I should have brought more.”

“Yes!” Erin declared, mouth full of cheese cookie. “So we’d have leftovers to take home.”

Lily finished laying out the food while Iris poured drinks; then they all sat at the kitchen table to eat. It took no more than two bites for Lily to say, “So, Iris, anything you want to tell us?”

“Yeah,” Claire threw in, wiggling her brows. “Anything at all?”

Iris gave them both a frown. “Like what?”

Erin sat back in her chair, rubbing up and down along her belly as if it ached. “We want to know how Jamie was in bed.”

Iris choked on her sip of sweet tea. The table erupted in laughter.

It took a few minutes to get herself back under control. When she lifted her brows at Erin, her friend shrugged. “Hey, we were all thinking it; I just said it out loud.”

Iris eyed the other two women. “ Were we all thinking it?”

Lily looked abashed. Claire did not. “Of course we were.” She flashed white teeth at Iris.

“How in the world could you all know…?”

This time it was Lily who spoke. “You have that special glow about you.”

“I do?” Self-consciously she touched her cheek.

“You do,” Erin assured her, more serious this time, reaching across the table to clasp her wrist in a warm hold. “And it looks beautiful on you.”

Iris felt a blush rise to her cheeks. “Thank you. And…” She giggled at the three pairs of expectant looks aimed her way. “Everything went fine.”

“Fine?” Claire smacked Iris’s arm playfully. “Is that all we get, ‘fine.’”

“Yep.” She picked up a pretzel and, before popping it into her mouth, admitted, “All three times.”

Her friends erupted with hoots and hollers.

“I definitely miss the nights when three times were involved,” Erin said, continuing to rub her belly. A grimace twisted her mouth. “Yesterday my doctor recommended I have sex to start labor, and I just looked at her like she was crazy. I mean, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Right?” Iris chuckled. “Sometimes I think even OBGYNs forget that at the end of pregnancy, the last thing you feel is sexy.”

“More like a hippo,” Erin complained.

Lily reached for her friend, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. “You don’t look like a hippo. You look like the happiest woman in the world with the cutest baby mound ever. I know I’m really excited for this next chapter in your life.”

“Exactly,” Claire said. “We get baby time!”

“Why do you guys get to enjoy baby time and I am the one who had to go to all the trouble to produce the baby?”

Laughter rippled around the table. “Hey,” Lily said, “you’re the only one of us who’s going to go through this. We have to get our secondhand enjoyment somehow.”

“And we get to hand the baby back when it starts to cry,” Claire said. “Win-win!”

Erin grinned. “Y’all stop.”

“What does Carter think about things?” Iris asked. “And Thad?”

“Thad cannot wait. I swear, he FaceTimes me every day now that he’s home with his mom, begging to know when his little sister is gonna be here. He can’t seem to grasp the concept that nagging is not going to get me to go into labor.”

Iris shot her a sympathetic grin. “At least he’s a child.

My husband was the nag. By the time Adam finally arrived, I was exhausted just from all the many suggestions he had to get me to go into labor.

I swear I walked three miles a day, every day, for the ten days past my due date—at Kirk’s insistence. ”

Claire rolled her eyes. “You could’ve followed Erin’s doctor’s advice and just had sex every day.”

“As much as I would normally jump on that idea—and my husband”—Erin shifted uncomfortably in her seat—“I would really rather walk three miles every day at this point.”

Discussion turned to the new bakery and the work Claire was doing to get it up and running.

Portions of the new resort would be opening in two months, and Claire wanted Gimme Sugar Too to be ready by then.

Lily talked about issues with the city council, which Iris commiserated with.

They were due for another council meeting next week, an event Iris dreaded every month.

Kirk was still a member, so it meant not only seeing him every month, but sitting next to him since they had traditionally been assigned those seats together before the divorce.

It was nerve-racking and stress inducing.

Ever since the news of his engagement, she kept her fingers crossed that he would decide to leave the city council and focus on his new wife.

She wasn’t holding her breath, though; the past couple of months she got the feeling that he might stay just to get on her nerves. Because of course he would.

They finished eating and were taking their drinks into the living room to relax when Erin suddenly clutched her stomach, one hand reaching for the wall to steady herself. A low moan escaped her.

“You okay, Erin?” Claire asked, reaching for her friend.

“Just a hard one,” Erin said, voice strained. “These Braxton Hicks have been a bitch lately.”

“Are you sure that’s all they are?” Iris asked.

“Pretty sure.” Erin panted a minute longer, the strain on her face relaxing as the contraction eased off. With a deep breath, she straightened to full standing.

A gasp left her.

Claire was right back in there. “What is it?”

Erin looked down. “I think my water just broke.”

As one, they all looked down to see a wet streak along Erin shorts and down her leg. “Oh, sweetie,” Lily said. “I’ll get a towel.”

Claire looked to Iris, her eyes frantic. “What do we do?”

Iris grinned at the other woman. “We have a baby.” She moved to take Claire’s place at Erin’s side. “Why don’t you give Carter a call?”

Claire nodded, rolling her eyes. “Of course I should give Carter a call.” She relinquished her hold on Erin and rushed for the living room.

Iris stepped up to her friend. Erin met her eyes, her own filling with tears.

“What’s wrong?” Iris asked. “Don’t cry. It’s gonna be okay.” She reached to rub a tear from Erin’s cheek.

“I’m not ready,” Erin said, the tears coming stronger, more quickly.

Iris gave her a hug. “You’re more ready than you feel, trust me.

” She moved to stand in front of Erin, clasping her friend’s shoulders.

“I know it feels overwhelming right now, with the whole thing looming in front of you. But you’re both gonna do great, and your baby is going to be here in no time at all. You both will be fine.”

Erin soaked in the words like they were a lifeline. Then the next contraction hit. “Oh!”

Iris turned her toward the wall, guiding her hands up to lay flat against it. “Lean over a little bit, Erin. Let the wall take your weight.”

She rubbed Erin’s back through the contraction, murmuring soothing nonsense words that even she didn’t understand, knowing Erin wouldn’t really hear any of them, just the tone.

Already her focus was moving inward, concentrating on her body, on her baby.

The sight brought back so many memories for Iris, the moments she’d spent laboring to bring Adam and Krista into the world.

The thought of her daughter squeezed at her heart.

So much time had passed between their births and now, so much had changed, but that single-minded love that was born when your child was conceived never went away.

Iris coached Erin through the contraction, then handed her over to Lily to clean up a bit while they waited for Carter to arrive. Twenty minutes and four contractions passed before the squeal of brakes in the driveway reached them. Carter was at the door seconds later. “Erin?”

“Here!” The word was a harsh rasp as Erin panted through a contraction.

Carter rushed to her side, his lips meeting her temple, his arms wrapping around his wife and the belly that held their baby.

“It’s okay, just breathe.” He whispered in her ear through the long moments of squeezing pain, and when they passed, a little smile appeared on his face.

“Our baby’s coming,” he said more loudly, words full of wonder.

“She is,” Erin said. She straightened up. “We need to go.”

They bundled Erin into Carter’s car and watched the two of them back out, headed for the hospital. Nostalgia tugged at Iris as she imagined their next steps, the moment when Baby Deveraux would take her first breaths in this world. So much love and laughter lay ahead of them.

Claire, Lily, and Iris went back inside, poured some wine, and toasted their friends’ new beginning as they waited for news.