Paul
I can’t f*cking believe that I ever thought she screwed either of these guys. I reach out my hand to take Cody’s, and he grips mine tightly and looks into my eyes. “If you hurt her, I’ll have to take you out,” he says quietly so that only I can hear him.
It startles me for a second. I’m not sure how to respond. He’s not nearly as big as I am, but he’s serious and I have to respect that he’s trying to take care of her. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I murmur, looking for Friday to come save me from his gaze, but she’s sitting on the couch beside Garrett, her head on his shoulder.
I twist my hand to pull it from his grasp, but he holds tightly. “I might not be able to kick your ass,” he says, and he jerks my arm, pulling me forward until we’re chest to chest. “But I know people,” he goes on to say.
Okay, now I’m annoyed. “If you find someone big enough and there’s just cause, you should go for it,” I tell him. I squeeze his hand tightly until he winces, and I let him go. He steps back.
“Now that we have that ugly discussion out of the way,” he says, “it’s really nice to meet you.” He grins.
“You, too,” I grunt out. I still can’t f*cking believe he just tried to manhandle me in my own living room. I brush a hand through my hair, casting furtive glances in his direction.
Garrett smirks. “I thought you were going to teach him the two-step there for a minute,” he says, talking around a mouth full of pizza.
Cody’s eyes rake up and down my body. “He looks more like a swing dance kind of guy.”
Friday snorts.
“Shut it,” I murmur at her, but I can’t keep from grinning as I take the beer that Garrett offers me.
The room goes quiet for a second, until I can’t stand the silence anymore. “So, you knocked her up, huh?” I suddenly blurt out.
Friday’s face colors, and she looks everywhere but at me. “Paul,” she whines, closing her eyes tightly as she winces.
“Well, we hope so,” Cody says as he goes to sit down on the other side of Garrett. He takes Garrett’s hand and pulls it onto his knee. They’re so damn cute together they make my back teeth ache. “We’ve been trying to adopt for a long time, but it hasn’t worked out.”
“What are the chances this won’t work?” I ask. I might as well know what I’m up against, right?
Cody holds up his hands like he’s weighing something. “We have no way of knowing. Not until next week.”
“Chances are good, though?” I ask.
They nod.
“I hope it works out for you.”
They cast questioning glances toward Friday, and I can’t help but wonder what they’re thinking. I’ll ask her later, after they’ve left, I guess.
Sam comes out of the bedroom and stops, looking from Cody and Garrett to Friday and back. “Hell yeah,” he finally says. He lifts his hands like he’s praying to God and says, “Thank you for small miracles. And for putting Paul out of his misery.” He shoves my shoulder. “Glad they finally told you.”
I choke on my beer. “You knew?” I croak out.
“Well, yeah,” he says. “If you weren’t looking at them through that red haze of jealousy you got going on, you’d have seen it, too.”
I throw a wadded napkin at his head, but he just laughs.
The door opens, and Emily waddles into the room. Emily is married to my brother Logan, and she’s almost nine months pregnant. She’s so damn adorable with that pregnancy waddle that I can’t help but grin. Sam isn’t quite as smart as me. He laughs out loud.
Emily walks up behind him and threads her hand into his hair. She gently yanks, tilting his head back and looking into his eyes. “Are you seriously laughing at the pregnant chick?” she asks.
He holds up his hands as though he’s surrendering to the cops. “Not me,” he says.
She kisses him quickly on the forehead and shoves his cheek gently, and he makes room for her on the couch. She drops down beside him and sits back, blowing out a heavy breath. Sam lays a hand on her belly. “How’s my niece doing in there?” he asks. He leans down and talks to her belly, and she giggles, shoving him away with a hand to the side of his face.
“She’s fine. Still cooking.” She lays a hand on her basketball-sized belly and smiles.
Friday introduces Cody and Garrett, and Emily helps herself to some pizza.
“You want some water?” Sam asks.
“Yes, but I don’t want to get up,” she says. She bats her lashes at him.
He groans, but he gets to his feet and goes to get her a drink.
“Can you turn the TV on?” Emily asks. “They’re doing a news report on that band I played with last week.”
I flip the TV on and go to the channel she tells me to. She leans forward as she sees the lead singer of the band being asked questions.
“Turn it up,” she cries.
She listens intently while they talk with the lead singer. She’s pretty in a dead-of-the-night sort of way. It makes me want to wash all that dark makeup off her face to see what’s underneath. Kind of like I want to do with Friday. I’d love to see what Friday looks like without the red lipstick and the heavy lashes. I’d kind of like to see what she looks like without her clothes, too. Heat creeps up my cheeks when I catch Cody smirking at me. Apparently, I looked at Friday’s legs a little too long.
A grin tugs at my lips, and I shake my head.
“Busted,” he sings out.
Friday looks from him to me and back. “Who’s busted?” she asks.
Cody opens his mouth to answer her, but Emily saves me by butting in. “They asked me to record with them,” she says as she takes the remote and turns the volume back down.
That takes my attention off Friday. “Seriously?” I ask.
She nods. “I’m still thinking about it. They want me to tour with them, too, but I told them no.”
Sam shoves her shoulder, and she grunts and points to her belly. “Um, helloooo?” Emily sings. But she’s grinning, too.
The door opens, and Pete walks in. Damn, it’s like a revolving door tonight.
“I can’t believe you turned them down,” Sam says.
“Who turned what down?” Pete asks. Sam and Pete are identical twins, but anyone who knows them can tell them apart.
Sam points to the TV. “Em got an offer to tour with the girl band, Fallen from Zero.”
“Shut the f*ck up!” Pete cries. He throws himself over the back of the couch so that he lands with his legs across Sam’s lap.
“Watch the belly!” Emily yells as she covers it with her palm. He’s far from hitting her, though.
“That drummer is hot,” Sam says. He’s still watching the footage with no sound, since we play the TV with subtitles for Logan all the time.
“I would have thought you’d like the lead singer best,” Emily says, watching his face.
He shakes his head. “Not my type.”
“Not enough ass,” Pete tosses out. “He’s not into skinny chicks.” Pete looks over at Emily. “No offense, Em.”
Emily rolls her eyes and points to her very pregnant belly.
Sam shoots Pete a look and shoves Pete’s legs out of his lap.
Pete makes a move like he’s grabbing and squeezing. “Sam likes a girl he can hold on to.”
Sam’s face goes pink as he shrugs. “I like curves,” he says. “I can’t help it.”
Pete shoves him again. “He wants tits and ass,” he says, making that squeezing motion again.
“And a brain,” Sam says, holding up his finger.
“And an appetite,” I add.
Sam raises his brow. “I like to cook. So I like a girl who likes to eat. Go figure.”
Emily laughs.
Sam must feel the need to explain himself because he goes on. “I hate taking a girl to dinner and having her order a salad. Or having her tell me she can’t eat one of my famous cupcakes because she’s on a diet.” He shivers like he’s repulsed by the very idea of it. He draws an hourglass figure in the air with his hands. “I’ll take tits, ass, and thighs, please,” he says, as though he’s ordering dinner. “And, dammit, if there’s icing that can be licked off places, I want her to be able to partake without thinking about calories.”
“TMI, Sam!” Emily cries, covering her ears.
Sam laughs, so I throw a remote at his head. “Act like a gentleman,” I warn, because I feel like I should. But that shit’s funny as hell.
“I could introduce you to that drummer,” Emily suggests.
He pulls his lip piercing into his mouth and toys with it. “Let me think about it.”
The door opens again, and Matt and Skylar walk in, along with Logan. Matt is the next oldest brother, after me, and Skylar is his wife. She’s pregnant and almost as big as Emily since she’s carrying twins, even though she’s only seven months along. Their three kids walk in behind them. The little girls run to Hayley’s room to play, and Seth, their sixteen-year-old, pulls a chair from the table and turns it around backward, straddles it, and folds his arms over the back so he’s facing us.
I glance down at my watch. Hayley has been with her mom this week, but Kelly should be dropping her off soon.
I get up, and Sky sits down in my chair. Matt sits at her feet and takes the beer that Garrett passes to him. I sit down at the end of the couch by Friday and press my shoulder against her leg. I look up at her, and she looks down, appearing somewhat startled.
“You okay?” I ask quietly.
She nods. As long as she’s all right, I’m all right.
She’s kicked off those four-inch heels she wears, but she’s still wearing the fishnet stockings. I slide my hand around the back of her ankle and tickle the inside of it with the tips of my fingers. Her toes jerk, but she doesn’t move her foot away. She spreads her thighs about an inch and presses more tightly against my shoulder, and I can feel the air around her move as she takes in a deep breath.
So that’s what it’s like… Now I get how Logan, Pete, and Matt felt when they met the women they’d spend the rest of their lives with. Because I’d rather sit here and touch her ankle than I would f*ck any other woman in the world.
We listen to Pete tell a story about a boy he met at work and how he’s helping him through the system. Pete started a local buddy program, hooking ex-cons up with juvenile offenders. It gives the ex-con something to look forward to and someone to be better for. Many of them never had families, or they lost what family they had, so it builds a support network. Plus, it helps the kids hopefully stay out of future trouble. I am so proud of Pete that I could bust sometimes. But I know I can’t take any credit for him being the awesome man he’s become.
Suddenly, Emily shoves Sam’s shoulder. “Seriously?” she squeals. “Did you seriously just do that?” She covers her nose and holds her breath. “That is just foul.”
Sam grins. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sam,” I warn, trying to keep my voice firm. But it’s hard. “There are women here.”
He looks around like he’s looking for them. “Where? All I see are Emily, Friday, and Sky, and they don’t count as girls.” Sam gets up and goes to put his hands on Sky’s belly. She smiles and lets him. He glances up. “Did you feel that?” he asks, and he grins.
“Oh, I feel all of them,” Sky says with a sigh. “Four feet and four hands. And two rear ends sitting on my bladder.” She motions to Sam so he’ll move back, and she holds out her hand. “Pull me up so I can go pee.”
He laughs and helps her lumber to her feet, her belly coming up out of the chair before the rest of her.
Matt gets up and takes Sam’s seat on the couch, and Emily leans into him. “You doing okay?” I hear him ask her. He brushes her hair back behind her ear. Matt and Emily bonded when they first met, and he cares so much about her. And she feels the same way about him. I’m just glad Sky’s not jealous of the amount of care he takes with Emily.
“I’ll be better once she gets here,” Emily says. She lifts her feet onto the coffee table. “Look at the size of my ankles,” Matt turns her so that her feet are in his lap and starts to rub her instep. She smiles and closes her eyes. “I’ll give you ten minutes to stop that,” she warns playfully. Matt laughs.
Friday wiggles her toes, and I realize I’ve been sitting here rubbing the inside of her ankle for about ten minutes. I pull my hand back, kind of chagrined that I let it go on that long. Matt raises his brow when I catch his eye, and he grins at me. I flip him the bird.
Gentle fingers slip into the collar of my T-shirt and start to tickle the back of my neck. I lay my head on Friday’s knee and close my eyes. It feels good having her touch me. It hits so much more than my dick, which is where girls usually strike me. This time, it reaches deep inside and wraps around my heart so tightly it steals my breath away. I hope she never stops.
But then the door opens again and Pete’s girlfriend Reagan walks in, with my ex right behind her. Kelly freezes in the doorway when she sees Friday touching me, and I get up and go to her, although all I want to do is have my daughter launch herself into my arms while Friday stands beside me. I don’t want the feeling of being near Friday to ever go away. But now Kelly’s here, and it’s over.
Kelly lays her hand on my arm and says, “Can we go somewhere and talk privately?” She looks at the full room, which has all my brothers and Friday’s friends in it, and turns up her nose.
“About what?” I ask.
She purses her lips and nods toward my bedroom, so I heave a sigh, take her by the elbow, and lead her in that direction.
She closes the door behind us, and I flinch. I have an immediate need to open it back up, but I’m hoping she just wants to say something she doesn’t want Hayley to hear.
But then she opens her mouth.
“I don’t want my daughter to walk in and find you in bed with Friday,” she says, blowing a lock of hair from her forehead with an upturned breath.
“What?” I ask. How dare she?
She crosses her arms in front of her chest. Once, that would have immediately drawn my gaze to her boobs but not anymore.
“I mean it, Paul. You can f*ck her all you want, but don’t involve my daughter in it because we both know she won’t be around tomorrow. They never are.”
I hitch my hip against the dresser and lean back, trying to look relaxed, but I’m anything but calm. My heart is beating as fast as my tattoo gun does, and I don’t know where I might find my next breath. “You’re getting married,” I remind her. “Why do you care what I do?”
“I don’t care who you do. I only care if you involve my daughter in it.” She tosses her hair over her shoulder.
“What’s this really about?” There’s more to this than she’s telling me.
She bites her lower lip, and for once, I don’t want to pull it free and kiss her teeth marks away. She shakes her head. “It’s nothing.”
“Tell me, Kells,” I say. “We’ve never had secrets from one another before.” I motion from her to me and back. “That’s why this thing between us works so well.”
Suddenly, she buries her face in her hands and waits. When she lifts her head, her eyes are shiny. “I’ve never seen you with that look on your face, not when it’s not for me.”
“Oh,” I say. I scratch my head. “What look?”
She jerks her thumb toward the living room. “When I walked in, you had your head on Friday’s knee and you looked so peaceful.”
Friday makes me feel anything but peaceful. “So you were jealous?”
She nods, nibbling on that lower lip again.
“You’re getting married, Kells,” I remind her again. I push off my dresser and walk toward her, then take her in my arms. I pull her gently against me and hold her. But this time, holding her isn’t about heat or passion. It’s about friendship. It has been weeks since we’ve slept together, and holding her this close to me doesn’t even make my dick get hard.
Kelly wraps her arms around my waist and holds on tight for a minute. I stroke her back until she steps away from me.
“You okay?” I ask.
“I’m jealous,” she says, and then she sniffles. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. We’re still us. We’re still Hayley’s parents. We always will be.” I look her in the eye. “Don’t mess up a good thing, okay?”
“You have a house full of people tonight,” she says. She rocks back and forth on her heels like she’s uncomfortable.
“I know.” I smile. “Isn’t it great?”
She shivers. “It’s torture,” she says. “Too noisy, too smelly, and too many Reeds all in one place.”
That was the problem with me and Kelly. All the things I loved…she didn’t love them back. She didn’t like having my family around, and she didn’t want to have much to do with them. “I love every minute of it.”
“How does Friday feel about it?” she asks.
I shrug. “She seems like she’s at home. She just got here today. She’s renting a room.”
Kelly nods. “I get it.”
“What do you want from me, Kelly?” I ask on a heavy sigh.
“I guess I wanted everything to stay the same,” she says. But then she grins. “I know it can’t, though. I’m getting married.”
“You want me to walk you down the aisle?” I ask. I’m only half joking.
“Maybe,” she says. “That would be pretty fitting.”
“I’m open to it.”
She smiles at me. Finally. “We’ll always be friends, right?” she asks.
“The best kind.”
Suddenly, my door opens, and Hayley runs into the room. I reach down and scoop her up. She has icing all over her fingers and smears it across my shirt. I grab her hands and hold them out. “Has Sam been feeding you cupcakes?” I ask.
She shakes her head and grins. “He said to tell you no, it wasn’t him.”
Kelly snickers.
“Not funny,” I say to her, but I’m grinning, too. I put Hayley down and pop her gently on the bottom. “Go wash your hands.” She runs out of the room.
“I didn’t love you enough,” Kelly says. “I hated the noise and never getting to be alone.”
“I know.”
“I’m glad you didn’t let me break you guys up,” she says.
“I couldn’t.” They’re all I had until her. And they’ll be here long after she’s gone. I knew it then, and I know it now. What we had couldn’t last. But we got a wonderful daughter out of it. “I’m sorry,” I say.
“Sorry I freaked out,” she says quietly.
“It’s okay,” I say, even though it’s not. “We’ll find our way.”
She points to my shirt. “Hayley got you dirty.”
I pull a clean T-shirt from a rack in my closet, and Kelly walks out of my room. I lift my shirt over my head and put the new one on, still tugging it down as I walk out of my bedroom.
“You want to stay for some pizza?” I ask Kelly. I do like her. Just not the same way I used to.
She shakes her head. “Not tonight. Some other time?” she asks. She winks at me.
“Anytime,” I say.
She kisses Hayley good-bye and waves to my brothers. They don’t really like her so they barely give her the time of day. She doesn’t care.
When she’s gone, I look over and see Friday on the couch. I walk over to sit down at her feet, just like I was before, but she looks me in the eye and says, “Don’t even think about it.”
She looked so peaceful before Kelly got here. Now she’s not. Now she’s not peaceful at all. I’m afraid to push it because I get the feeling that if she got her fingertips near my neck now, she’d use those hands to choke me.
What the f*ck did I do?