Baby Daddies - Tara Brown Page 0,19

she’ll pick you. Just let her move in with you.”

“She won’t,” I say quickly with a lot of tone. “I thought the strong and independent woman thing was amazing. Now I’m begging her to be my housewife and let me take care of her.”

“I feel ya,” Brady mutters. “Speaking of which, where is Nat?”

“In bed. She’s feeling like garbage.” I point at the door.

“Great. I told her not to eat that cake. It was two weeks old.” He hands me the controller and gets up. “She doesn’t cook so she lives off whatever’s in the fridge and takeout. If I don’t make sure anything that could possibly be bad is junked out, she’ll eat it. She does a sniff test to determine if it’s rotten or not. It’s like she’s five.” He walks out as we chuckle.

Cap restarts the game. “In all honesty, Lori, if you like this girl don’t let her move away without telling her. It could make all the difference in the end.” His tone hints that there’s more to the story, and I wonder if he’s talking about his ex-wife. “You seeing her again soon?”

“Yeah, tonight. She’s coming to my place for the night.” I grin. “I’ll work at showing her how I feel.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

The puck drops and we become lost in the game, thankfully. Talking about my relationship before it has chance to become one isn’t my idea of fun.

7

Bad news

Monday, July 24

Jenny

I hurry into the doctor’s office in Midtown, a bit unprepared for my exam and shot. The appointment reminder woke me, and I literally dressed and ran out the door without saying anything to Lori. Now I’m feeling out of sorts, like I forgot something. But the reality is that all I need is my vagina and bank card.

Not having a job yet means I don’t know what day it is and sleeping over at Lori’s stupid mansion apartment all the time makes me feel like I’m living out of time. His world isn’t real, but it’s become my life since he refuses to stay at my place until I sort out the air conditioning situation.

“Hi, Jenny,” the office assistant greets with a smile. “How’s it going?”

“Oh fine, you know. Same old, same old,” I fib. “How are you?”

“Great. Here’s your sample jar. Fill that up and take a seat and Dr. Almer will be with you in a moment.” She beams and we both know when Dr. Almer will be with me is a crap shoot.

I grab the urine sample jar and walk to the bathroom, hating this part slightly less than the next part. At least I didn’t pee before I left so I don’t have to do that struggle pee to get an adequate sample.

When I’m sitting again, with my sample handed in, I pull out my phone and check my texts. Judith has messaged to call her ASAP.

I check the waiting room for the angel of death, because surely a pap and Judith in the same morning has to be a bad sign about how the day’s going.

Certain I have five minutes to call Judith, I call and hold the phone to my face.

It rings once and she shouts into the phone, as always, “Jenny! I was hoping you’d have time to get back to me.”

“Hi, Judith,” I can’t imagine what this call is regarding.

“How are you?”

“Oh good. How’s it going there?”

“Good, good. Your dad’s sixtieth is coming up at the end of August, and I want to have a big party. I talked to Josh a while ago and he’s going to come and bring the band, and I just realized I didn’t tell you yet. You left so early, I didn’t have a chance. And I was hoping you’d take care of the location for us. Maybe you have some connections for something fancy that can hold about seventy of us?”

Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes. “Yes, of course. I’ll figure that out.” Claire’s right. I absolutely can’t bear the thought of Judith thinking I don’t have it covered.

“Oh thanks, sweetie. I’d like it if you did the invitations too. You’re better at secretary work than me.” She couldn’t be more condescending. “I was surprised to see you in the news with Joshy. But I was confused. We couldn’t tell if you’re dating the actor or the hockey player or is Ben still kicking around?” She laughs as if the comments are all innocent.

“Oh, uhm, none of the