Page 32

PARKER

SEVEN WEEKS LATER

“ Babe, hurry up.”

My eyes scanned over my closet shelves until I found the sneakers I was looking for, sat down, and pulled them on. Scout walked out of the bathroom, towel wrapped around her with a toothbrush in one hand and a mouth full of paste.

“What?”

“We need to hurry up.”

Her brows dropped, and she turned and left without another word, only to return thirty seconds later, this time holding a hairbrush. “Your appointment isn’t for two hours. It’s not going to take me two hours to get dressed.”

Tugging her hand until she had no choice but to sit on my lap, I wrapped my arms around her, reveling in the heat of her damp body, fresh from the shower.

“I know, but this appointment is a big deal. And you never know, we might get there early and they see us being punctual and bump us up.”

Scout twisted herself until we were face to face and I took the moment to soak her in. I’d never get enough of looking at her. We’d entered the height of summer, and in the last few weeks, freckles had erupted all over her forehead, down her nose, and across her cheeks like tiny little sprinkles of happiness.

That’s what she was to me, happiness.

Her hair was now almost long enough that she could tie it back without any of it escaping, but I took the opportunity to tuck a lone strand behind her ear.

Her mouth rolled as she tried to hold in the smirk, but I could see it twitching on her lips. “Bump us up?”

“Yes,” I replied, nudging her nose with mine. “Bump us up. Which I, for one, am all for. The sooner we get to the docs, the sooner she can give me the all clear and sign me off, and the sooner we can get back here so I can show you exactly how much I’ve been missing you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. Two months, Davison. It’s been two months.”

“It’s been seven weeks ,” she shot back, with an eye roll. “Barely a month and a half. And we can’t come back here, we have to be at work, remember?”

I groaned; work had temporarily slipped my mind.

It was true, we did have to be at work. It was the Lions for Dogs game today, something Scout had been working hard on, and in my temporary position as bench warmer, I’d been given the responsibility of posing with all the rescue puppies looking for homes, and signing autographs. Scout was super excited about it, too, because since she’d made the decision to pull out of the interview, she’d thrown herself into her current job and was once more loving it. Today was her day as much as mine.

Holiday was still begging Scout to come and work for her, but for the moment, Scout was happy, therefore I was.

“Okay, but then after work we’re coming back here. Because that seven weeks has felt like a lifetime, and I’m not waiting a second longer.” My lips ghosted along her jaw, tasting her skin. “Don’t pretend it’s not been a lifetime for you too.”

Out of habit, her neck tilted, allowing me to breathe her in; the clean scent of the soap she loved, the toothpaste lingering on her breath, the earthy tones of her shampoo—all of it sending me into a tailspin. I wasn’t lying, the last seven weeks really had felt like a lifetime. A torturously long lifetime of having Scout next to me, and this, right now with her sitting in my lap, was the closest I’d gotten to being able to touch her without the worry of causing myself some real permanent damage.

I’d learned my lesson the first week home.

I’d been in hospital for three days. After the second, I’d been allowed to walk, allowed to use the bathroom, and two of the five tubes attached to me were removed. I was sent home bandaged up like an Egyptian mummy, with a list of rules, including no sex and no strenuous exercise, but I wasn’t complaining.

It felt logical to me that while I might not be able to have sex, that didn’t mean Scout had to miss out. I was only human, and I wanted to make it up to my girl and there was no harm in getting creative. I could still make her come, right? Wrong . It hadn’t occurred to me I’d still get hard the moment I laid eyes on Scout’s naked body and slipped my fingers inside her silky, dripping pussy, but I had.

And what had started out as a day full of promise, had ended back in the emergency room with a scolding. Thankfully Dierdre wasn’t on duty.

After that, we enforced a sex sabbatical for both of us, which turned into the most prolonged case of edging on record. It no longer felt like my balls were on fire every time I caught her scent or brushed my lips to hers. Even when I deepened our kiss to taste her, explore around her mouth, I could cope, but the fire in my balls was now happening for an entirely different reason.

So, yeah, I wanted to get to the doctor as early as possible, and based on the way Scout’s breathing had shallowed, I’d say she did too.

“Think about how good it’s going to feel, Davison. It’s been seven long weeks. My dick will be so hard for you, so fucking hard …”

The second my fingers inched underneath her towel, she jumped from my lap and ran into the bathroom. “Okay, you win. Let’s go. We’ll get you bumped up.”

“See,” I grinned at myself, “that’s the enthusiasm I was after.”

“Can we get coffee on the way?”

“You bet,” I called to her. “In fact, I’ll go and make you one right now to take with us.”

I wondered if a hop, skip, and jump counted as strenuous exercise as I wandered out into the living room to find Ace and Lux in the kitchen.

“Big day today, bud.” Ace grinned, peering up from his cereal as I flicked on the coffee machine.

“It sure is.”

“Do we need to warn the downstairs neighbors that all the banging they’ll hear tonight isn’t a construction project?” Lux chuckled.

Ace held his fist out to pump. “Nice.”

I showed the pair of them exactly what I thought of their joking by flipping them off. Seven long weeks of jokes hadn’t just worn thin. It was see-through. “Where’s Tanner.”

Lux shrugged. “In his room, maybe. Haven’t seen him yet.”

“He’s not come in for breakfast?”

The pair of them shook their heads.

“Weird.” I pulled the milk from the fridge. “I figured he’d be up, he’s been so excited for today.”

“Your sign-off?”

“No, idiot, the dogs thing.” I frowned. “He’s not stopped talking about it.”

“Only because he’s front page of the charity calendar,” replied Ace, pouring another bowl of Cap’n Crunch out and focusing back on reading the magazine laid out in front of him. “He’s probably doing his hair, making sure he looks his best for all the puppies. It’s your turn to wake him up anyway.”

I glanced at the clock. He really should be out by now. We had a rule on game days—if he wasn’t with us, last one out of the door had to check Tanner was awake. He had a bad habit of oversleeping, and the last time it happened, Coach reamed us all out.

“Okay, I’m going to check.”

Tanner’s door was closed when I reached his room. “Tan, you up, buddy? I’m making coffee?”

No answer. Knocking didn’t result in anything different either. I pressed my ear to the door, carefully . I’d been caught out before listening at Tanner’s door when we thought he’d overslept, and was subjected to hearing things I could never unhear, but this time it was silent.

It was no use walking away either. Like the wellness checks they implemented in Vegas, we needed proof Tanner wasn’t in his room. He could sleep through an earthquake.

Bright sunshine sliced through the gap in the door as I opened it. Pushing it wide, I found his bed unmade, which meant he was either in his bathroom or he’d already left the apartment—something he’d never do.

“Tanner?” I called out again. “Tan?”

“Find him?” Lux asked when I walked back to the kitchen.

“No.” I shook my head. “Can you call him? Maybe he went in already?”

“No one’s that excited about dogs,” he replied, hitting Speed Dial on Tanner’s number.

The three of us waited for him to pick up, only it rang out.

“This isn’t right. There’s no way he would have left without us, he’s slept in his bed. Can you two go and get ready, we need to find him.”

Ace drained his cereal, placed the bowl in the sink, and jogged down to his room, the opposite direction Lux had gone. I’d finished the coffees for Scout and me, and was grabbing an apple when the elevator pinged, and out walked Tanner.

“Hey! Guys, he’s back…” I called out loud enough for them all to hear me. “Bud, where’ve you been? We called you.”

He could have been mistaken for a robot for how still he was. I watched as he walked to the couch, his face a mask devoid of expression, and sat down. When the bright morning light caught him, it only highlighted how pale he was.

I perched on the coffee table opposite him. “Tanner, what’s going on? Are you okay?”

For the first time since he’d walked in, he focused on me instead of looking into the distance. While I waited for him to speak, he removed his cap, slowly pushed his fingers through his hair, and sat forward. “Millie’s pregnant.”

My inhale was so sharp, the bite of apple I’d just taken was sucked into my throat, where it lodged. Panic ensued. Not that Tanner noticed, he was back to staring into space while I tried to cough out the apple—it didn’t work. I tried to scratch it out, I tried anything I could to loosen it because I couldn’t breathe .

This is how I would die, by Tanner telling me the girl he liked was pregnant with another man’s baby.

Somehow, I managed to stand up and throw myself against the edge of the couch. Where the fuck was everyone else? Why had no one else rushed out to see where Tanner had been? I’ll tell you why, because they were all selfishly going about the same business, whatever the fuck that was, as I fell onto the back of the couch over and over.

I was about to give up hope when the apple projected through the air, landing by Tanner’s feet, and I collapsed to the floor, coughing and gasping for oxygen.

“Tan…fuck…” I crawled to where he was still sitting. It was only when I arrived back in front of him that he seemed to notice that I hadn’t been there for the past minute.

He blinked at me. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I croaked, picking up the apple and launching it as far as I could into the kitchen and out of my sight. “Are you?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What happened?” I turned back to the kitchen, where the fuck were Lux and Ace? “Guys? Can you come here? It’s urgent.”

Lux appeared first, typing away on his phone, while Ace sauntered down from his bedroom holding a coffee cup. Both of them frowned when they saw me on the floor.

“What’s up? Are you okay?

“No,” Tanner and I answered in unison.

Ace stopped by the couch. “What are you doing?”

“Tanner has something to tell you, but can you put the coffee down first?” I wasn’t about to get sprayed with it, and our housekeeper was already annoyed with the amount of spillages she’d had to get out of the rugs.

Ace frowned but placed the coffee on the table. I turned to Lux, who looked equally confused.

“Okay, Tan. Go.”

He paused and took a deep breath. “Millie’s pregnant.”

Ace’s mouth dropped, and my eyes flicked to Lux. “Did you know about this?”

He shook his head, again mirroring Ace’s expression. “No. No, I didn’t. Does Radley know?”

“No idea.” Tanner shrugged, and a smile spread across his face. He was clearly in denial.

Ace dropped down and swept him into a hug. “Man, I’m so sorry.”

I started to mentally plot out how we could ride through this storm together, how we could support Tanner, because fuck me…if this had been me, and Scout had gotten pregnant with Rangers Douche, I don’t know what I would have done.

There was still a smile on his face when I turned to him, but Lux got there first. “Tan, why are you looking so happy?”

Slowly Tanner eased himself from Ace’s grip and peered at each of us in turn as his smile stretched from ear to ear.

“Because it’s mine. Millie’s pregnant with my baby. I’m going to be a dad.”

W ant to know what happens with Tanner and Millie? Their book is out in June, and you can preorder now .

Read on for the first chapter.