Page 40

THIRTY-TWO

HANNAH

I’m going to blame the way I folded and let Daniel do my job for me last night on the pregnancy. I was too tired. I am too tired. Constantly.

Before I got knocked up, I’d heard about morning sickness, swollen ankles, and strange cravings, but no one told me about the bone-deep, mind-numbing exhaustion. I walk around in a fog for nearly half the day. The other half, I’m horny as fuck.

Seriously. I’m sprinting through a sex scene that’s finally come to me after suffering from writer’s block for too damn long, and I have to clench my butt cheeks to keep from humping my office chair.

Yes, I’m doing work for one job while at another, but with as often as I field calls and put out fires after hours, Beckett owes me a few thousand personal minutes, so I’m cashing in a few now.

She pulses —no, delete that— she spasms —yes, much better word— around his huge, throbbing, pierced ? —

“Knock-knock.”

With a growl, I shut my laptop and glare at the person interrupting my sexy scene. Now that the mood has been killed, the scene will have to be completely rewritten. One day I’ll finish this book.

“Jasper.” I nod to the chair across from me and grip my armrests to keep myself from lunging over the desk and strangling him.

“You’re motioning for me to sit, but your eyes are telling me you’re planning my death—and it looks painful—so I’m not sure I should.”

“Sit the fuck down.”

With a grimace, he practically throws himself into the chair. “I just want to say that it wasn’t me.”

“Save it. Beckett warned you that you had one more chance.” I hold up a finger. “ One , Jasper. Give me one reason I shouldn’t call him right now and tell him you blew it. I have no idea how Daniel got the kid to agree not to press charges or how he got the bar to let you go without calling the cops?—”

He grins. The kid fucking grins at me. “Your boy is the man.”

I blink and shake my head. “My what?”

“Your boy. Daniel . Ya know, your baby daddy. He’s awesome.”

With a sharp inhale, I will my muscles not to lock up. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say those words—baby daddy—or boy—and we’re going to start over.”

“It wasn’t me.” He holds up both hands. “It was Leggs. But the kid freaked out and started crying, so I pushed him into a booth and tried to talk to the guy he punched. It was a big misunderstanding. But then the bartender got involved. I hooked up with her once, and it didn’t end well, and, you know, things just got a little”—he scrunches up one side of his face and scans the wall behind me—“confusing, if you will.”

“I won’t.”

“Listen, I just came in here to tell you that I’m sorry.”

“You’re what now?”

“I’m sorry. Daniel made a good point last night. It’s up to us to represent Boston, and I realize now that we’re doing a shit job of it.”

It takes all my willpower not to fling myself back in my chair and growl. Those are the words I’ve repeated time and again. He hears them from a man one fucking time, and suddenly, they’re brilliant. “What else did my brilliant boyfriend say?”

Jasper smirks. “He told us that if we didn’t respect the mother of his child, we’d be dealing with him from now on.”

My panties practically incinerate on the spot. Oh, that is so inappropriate when I’m sitting across from the fucking bane of my existence. “He said what ?”

Jasper leans forward. “Kid’s in love with you. You know that, right? Don’t fuck this up.”

I ignore that little dig because it’s way too on the nose. “I’m going to need you to repeat what he said, verbatim.”

I have a feeling I’ll be using it to get myself off during the next away stretch. Holy shit. I’ve never wanted to be anyone’s mother, but god, being the mother of Daniel’s child…yeah, that’s hot.

“He asked us what we thought of you. We all agree you’re awesome. The best. That’s when he made his first good point.” He scratches at the back of his neck. “He said we’re doing a shit job of showing you that, and if we respected you at all, we’d clean up our act. And then, like I said, he glared at all of us— practically made Leggs shit a brick —and said, if we didn’t respect the mother of his child—then he smacked his fist to his hand like this”—Jasper mimics the move—“we’d be dealing with him.”

Yeah, just as hot the second time. Would it be weird to ask Daniel to recreate the moment? Maybe stand over me and smack his fist into his hand as he demands respect for the mother of his child?

Oh god, the heroine of my work in progress should be pregnant, shouldn’t she? Is this hot? Do I think this is hot? Yeah, I really think it is.

“You’ve got to go.” I open up my laptop, and my hands fly over the keys. I don’t hear him leave. I don’t hear anything except the click-clacking of the keyboard as the story flows from my fingers.

“If we ever go three months without a girls’ brunch again, I’m going to revolt,” Lennox says as she holds up her drink.

“I’ll drink to that.” Sara taps her glass against Lennox’s and eyes me.

“I’m not the only one who’s pregnant.” I point at Ava. “She probably gave it to me.”

She giggles, green eyes sparkling. “It’s not contagious.”

“Maybe pregnancy isn’t, but you were walking around talking about your sex god of a husband, and I got so horny I fucked her”—I throw a thumb in Millie’s direction—“brother.”

Daniel’s twin gags, and I wink at her. I love us so much.

“Speaking of sex gods.” Sara grins. “I heard a certain daddy threatened the baseball players last night.”

I hiss out a breath. “Yeah, as head of PR, letting him handle it was definitely not the best move I’ve made.”

Sara cackles. “I’ve been using Brooks to do my dirty work for years. Why shouldn’t you?”

Millie nods. “My brother needs to be good for something.” She rolls her eyes. “Something that doesn’t involve his dick, at least.” With a groan, she drops her head back. “Did I just say that out loud? Hannah, look what you’re doing to me!”

I giggle. “But seriously, I should have handled it myself. It sucks being interrupted in the middle of the night, but that’s the job. I deal with emergencies. Even if I’m fucking over telling the imbeciles not to use their fists to have conversations— or their dicks .”

“Ugh, so true,” Sara agrees. “But I’m serious. You did yourself a favor by allowing Daniel to chat with them. Guys are annoying in that they only listen to other dudes.”

“Right?” I throw my hands up. “Jasper literally showed up in my office today and yammered on about how, when Daniel said they represent the city of Boston and that they’re doing a piss-poor job of it, it really stuck with him. Um, I say that all the time.”

Lennox licks her lips. “It’s a good thing Jasper is so freaking hot.”

Millie shrugs. “I prefer my men older.”

Sara cackles, and Ava nudges my foot. “But things are good with Daniel?”

There’s no tempering the smile that spreads across my face. I love coming home and finding him in my bed. I also love coming home and finding him playing games with Oliver. Or hanging out in the kitchen with Noah. In summation, I guess I just love coming home to him. Rather than freak out when he declared me his girlfriend, I all but melted. I want to be his girlfriend. I want to be his anything, really. I just want to be his .

And I don’t know when that happened.

Fine. Maybe that’s not exactly true. It began the night he wandered through Walgreens at my side, searching for pregnancy tests. The sensation only grew when he didn’t freak out about how my pregnancy would affect his life. He just handled the situation with grace and care—and in turn stopped me from freaking the fuck out.

Normally, I’m the one cleaning up messes, but despite his age and his playboy reputation, Daniel has never once made me responsible for his decisions. No, he’s constantly looking for—and finding—ways to make my life easier. It’s refreshing, and damn if it’s really hard to remain unaffected by all of it. So I’m choosing to uncomplicate things. I can accept that I’m going to fall for him, and I’m certain it will all be okay.

“We’re good,” I promise my bestie. “Honestly, my only complaint is that I never have time to write now.”

Ava tilts her head, studying me. “You’ve been working on your book again?”

I shouldn’t be surprised that my friends don’t follow the socials associated with my other career. Even so, it stings a little to get confirmation.

They cheer me on when I talk about what I’m doing. That should be enough, and I’m mortified by the reality that it’s not. It’s expected, really, that they’d be more curious about my relationship with Daniel and this baby than they are about my books. It’s a societal thing. We’re raised to believe who a woman dates and when she decides to have kids are the most interesting things about her. And while I certainly find Daniel and our baby interesting, I’ve kind of stumbled into this place in my personal life, to these things that are happening to me. Whereas my career as an author is something I’ve worked hard for. An achievement I’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into.

“Of course she’s writing again.” Lennox smiles wide. “And I for one can’t wait to find out which guy the sister ends up with. Or maybe it’s a why-choose situation.” She bounces in her chair. “Oh, tell me we’re getting Melina’d.”

“Why can’t it be Fitzed?” Sara asks.

I laugh. “This sister will definitely choose. Could you imagine how her older brothers would react if they found out she’d been surrounded by that many dicks?”

Lennox sighs. “Oh, but what a fun scene that would be.”

I’m smiling when my phone lights up on the table.

Daniel: Hi, dream girl. Hope you’re having fun with my sister and the girls. My dad asked if we were available to meet for dinner. What do you say? Want to meet the parents?

“Oh my god,” I practically shout. It comes out kind of like “ermeegawd,” though my friends all give me concerned looks, clearly getting the meaning.

“What?”

“Daniel just asked me to meet his parents.”

Ava huffs out a laugh. “You’ve met them before. I don’t get the big deal.”

“He just asked me to meet the parents,” I say again, my tone dead serious.

I glance at Sara. I can’t be the only one realizing this.

She’s doing the math, her face doing all the talking. Her mouth opens, her lips go limp, and then she drops her chin as she points at me. “Dude.”

I nod.

“Dude!” she yells again.

Millie shakes her head. “I don’t get it.”

“She’s meeting the freaking parents.”

“I know. He’s my dad. It’s not a big deal.”

Ava sighs like she’s catching on. Lennox nods in agreement.

“What?” Millie snaps.

“Lake fucking Paige is married to your father,” Sara whisper-yells.

Millie scoffs and picks up her water. “Yeah, that’s not news.”

“Lake fucking Paige is going to be my baby’s grandmother!” I shout.

This time, Millie’s mouth drops open too. “Oh my god, that’s too funny. I mean, she’s Vivi’s grandmother too, though.”

I shake my head. “Yeah, but you were all Lake is the devil when Vivi came into your life, so you didn’t get excited about it. I’m about to have dinner with Lake Paige because she’s my boyfriend’s stepmother.”

Sara shakes her head. “It never gets less shocking, no matter how many times we say it.”

Millie laughs. “You guys are ridiculous.”

Lennox gasps. “Did you just call Daniel Hall your boyfriend?” Her voice is far too loud for such a public place.

While I don’t have a problem oversharing with my friends, I don’t exactly want all of Boston to know my business. Although, at this point, the whole restaurant probably knows that Lake Fucking Paige is going to be my baby’s grandmother .

I arch a brow at Millie. “Earmuffs.”

She rolls her eyes, but she cups her hands over her ears and rests her elbows on the table.

“Last night, when Jasper called, Daniel said, and I quote…” I shake my shoulders and lower my chin so I can deepen my voice. “‘There is no way my pregnant girlfriend is going to get out of bed at ten p.m. to deal with some asshole in a bar.’ And when all I did was bat my lashes at him, he added, ‘And yes, I called you my girlfriend. You’re going to have to deal with it.’”

Lennox fans her face while Millie pouts, pulling her hands down from her ears. “You seriously made me cover my ears for that? I’ve heard you moan my brother’s name like a banshee in heat.”

With a lick of my lips, I fight a smirk. It’s no use. “And not only did I not argue with his terminology, but I made him say the word over and over until I came three times.”

“Oh my god,” Millie whines.

I smile at my boyfriend’s twin sister. “I warned you.”