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EIGHT

TANNER

“So let me get this straight. You slept with Millie, got her pregnant, and somehow managed to keep it a secret for seven weeks.” Ace picked an apple from the bowl and crunched into it.

I listed off each point he’d made in my head. “Yup, that’s about right.”

Wiping a drop of apple juice from his chin, he leaned back against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms. I waited for him to add more, especially as his stare was still leveled on me.

“What?”

He reached behind him and flicked on the coffee machine. “I honestly don’t know which is more unbelievable. That you got her, or that you kept your mouth shut. I had a hundred bucks on you telling the entire club before the bedsheets cooled.”

He had a point. I wasn’t known for keeping secrets, not that I couldn’t, obviously. I just got too excited. Everyone knew it, therefore I was usually the last to find out anything.

“How’d you do it?”

Sighing, I pushed out of the stool, circled the kitchen island, and placed two cups under the coffee machine. I could see Ace ruminating on exactly how I hadn’t told anyone about Millie to pay attention to what he’d been doing. He’d be waiting a while, because I still wasn’t quite sure myself.

I passed him one of the coffees. “The only way I can explain it is this, you remember when you and Payton first hooked up and it was supposed to be a one-night thing to fix your pitch?”

He nodded. “Yes, what about it?”

“It’s like that.”

Payton and Ace got together after he accused her of giving him the yips following (according to her) a less-than-stellar performance on his part during their first hookup.

His pitching went to shit, and he became convinced that the only way to fix it was to have sex with her again.

Somehow, he got her to agree to a do-over, though I can’t remember all the salient details.

One night led to another, led to another, and so on. Now they’re practically inseparable.

Anyway, I remembered him coming home after that first second-chance do-over, and the look on his face told me there was no way he was giving Payton up.

I slid back onto the stool and took such a large sip of my coffee I’d need to make another in a minute. “You didn’t stick to one night. You knew there was something there. ”

He scratched along his jawline, nodding in agreement. “Yes. Yes, I did.”

“This is the same. You know how long I’ve liked Millie, and she isn’t just any girl for me. That’s why I didn’t say anything. Because even without the baby, we have chemistry, and I didn’t want to jinx it.”

The coffee cup paused midway to his mouth, where a smile tugged his lips. “Dude, you’re gonna be a dad, I think you jinxed it.”

“Nope. I didn’t.” I shook my head. “And I only found out about the baby ten days ago.”

He dropped his head with a shake. To be fair to him and all the guys, they’d only known about the baby a couple of days, so the adjustment period was still in full flow. Every time the baby was mentioned, it was followed with a moment of silence while we all let the enormity of the words sink in.

“Shit, I can’t believe you’re gonna be a dad. Out of all of us I’d have put my money on Lux.”

Someone (Ace) had left a box of Cap’n Crunch on the counter, and I reached over to pour myself a bowl. It was still early enough that Lux wasn’t awake to make breakfast, so we usually had to fend for ourselves.

“You’re losing a lot of money this morning.”

“Yes,” Ace replied, passing me the milk before I asked for it. “Anyway, back to you and why you’re so calm.”

“I’m not.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Then maybe Holiday’s not the only one with the acting gene, because you look pretty damn calm. I would be freaking the fuck out.” He pulled the Cap’n Crunch back over his side of the counter and stuffed his fist into the box. “Does she know?”

“I had to tell someone.” I shrugged.

“What did she say?”

“That she’s excited to go baby shopping. Whatever that means.”

“Wait, do your parents know?”

“Not yet. Millie has an ultrasound in a couple of weeks and everyone says wait until after to tell people.”

“You’ve already told people.”

“More people.”

“How are you feeling about it?”

Putting my spoon down, I took a deep breath. There were myriad emotions running through me right now, most of them the reason I was up way earlier than usual eating cereal and mainlining coffee. It was probably something I should get used to.

“I’m not freaking out about the baby. It sounds stupid but it feels like this was supposed to happen.” My eyes flicked to Ace, where his expression confirmed that, yes, it was stupid. “But now I need to work on my plan to get Millie to fall in love with me.”

“What d’you mean?”

My Millie plan, something I’d had cooking in the background for most of the year, was my strategy on how I would convince her I was a guy worth taking a shot with.

I thought I’d nailed it, up to the point when she threw me out of her place.

And while I figured being totally honest with her—as I had the other morning—was what needed to happen, I knew it wasn’t enough.

“You know how she is with me. How she was with me, I guess.”

“Like a less cuddly pit viper?”

I huffed a laugh, spooning in a mouthful of cereal. “Yeah, exactly. And for whatever reason, I like that. This baby gives me a legitimate reason to speak to her every day and spend as much time with her as she’ll let me.”

“You need to get her to fall in love with you, and see you as the awesome guy you are and not just the father of her kid.”

“Exactly.”

“We can totally do that.”

“You think?”

Ace put down his spoon and rounded the counter, and before I knew what was happening, he’d wrapped his arms around me in a hug.

“Of course, man. This is the first Casa Grayskull baby. Your successes are our successes, and I’ll be damned if we don’t make Millie realize she’ll never get anyone better than you. ”

“Well, isn’t this lovely,” boomed Lux, appearing in the archway leading down to his and Parker’s bedrooms. I wiped away the moisture in my eyes before anyone noticed. “Does this happen every morning before the rest of us are awake?”

“Yeah, you jealous?” Ace shot back with a grin, making Lux laugh. “Nah, I walked Payton to work, and when I got back here, I found our expectant father staring out of the window.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “I was waiting for you, I thought you’d have been awake. ”

Lux paused mid-stride on his way to the kitchen. “Tan, buddy, one of these days you’re going to need to learn how to make breakfast yourself.” His eyes flicked to Ace. “You too.”

“Hey, I can make my own breakfast,” Ace grumbled.

“And so can I,” I replied, pointing directly to the half-eaten bowl of Cap’n Crunch I had made myself. “And that’s not what I wanted.”

“What did you want then?” Lux opened the fridge, pulled out a bottle of water, and stared at me expectantly. Ace was also staring at me, and I have to say I didn’t care for it. Far too much pressure. Oh, whatever.

Clearing my throat, I replied, “You know the bookstore you always go to? The one you met Radley in?”

“Brown’s? Yeah.”

My eyes flicked between them. Bookstores were Lux’s department.

While I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in a bookstore, he’d go and hang out in them just for fun.

I mean, who does that? Apart from Lux. He was also a bubble bath guy, like, to relax in, and not just to help with an injury with bath salts and shit.

Sometimes my bath salts had lavender in them, and that’s as far as I would go, and only because my sister was offloading all the beauty stuff she was sent every day.

“Can you take me?”

“You want me to take you to a bookstore?”

“I do.” I nodded firmly. My decision had been made. “Millie said she was going to buy some books, and I thought maybe I should buy some too.”

“What type of books?”

I lifted a shoulder as I glanced at Ace. “Pregnancy books, I guess. She didn’t give me the titles. Does your bookstore sell pregnancy books?”

I was certain that Lux was trying to hide a smile. “I’m sure it does, buddy. When d’you want to go?”

“This week? Tomorrow? Before practice? We fly out tomorrow night so I can take them with me.” Yeah, pregnancy books could be my new in-flight reading material.

“Why don’t you just order them online?”

The crease along my brow deepened. It hadn’t occurred to me to order them online, I kind of had a vision of seeing them all in front of me and knowing which ones to pick. But yeah, online was safer. I would look less like an idiot, and no one would know.

“You know, yeah, that’s a better idea. I’ll order them online. Nevermind.”

“Excellent, that means Weston has time to make breakfast.” Ace slapped his stomach. “I’m feeling waffles and eggs. I’m extra hungry this morning.”

I picked up my laptop and took myself over to the couch while Lux grumbled his way around the kitchen. Before long, the sound of batter being whipped up and the scent of fresh coffee filled the air.

“Here.” Ace thrust a new cup toward me and dropped down onto the couch next to me. “What’ve we got then?”

I turned my screen toward him.

“Holy shit, there’s so many. How do you choose? How do you know what to get?”

Exactly my questions, which is why my cart was up to $867. I thought this would be easy. I figured I’d open Amazon and there would be a bunch to choose from. I was suddenly glad we didn’t go to the bookstore because I’d have probably had a meltdown.

There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds .

I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “I don’t know. I just added a bunch to my cart.”

“Let’s see.” He clicked on the screen and nodded through the list as he read down.

“ Pregnancy for Dummies , yeah, that’s what I’d buy, Pregnancy Survival Guide , What to Expect When You’re Expecting ?

Didn’t they make that into a movie? You should just watch that, it’d be easier.

Maybe they made others into a movie too. ”

“You think?”

“Ask Holiday, she’ll know.”

“Good idea.”