Baby Daddies - Tara Brown Page 0,88
know it, I hear the elevator. Lori walks in, freshly showered, carrying his bag, and looking like the loss was a hard one. I’ve been catching snippets throughout the evening so I’m ready for the bad news.
The girls perk up seeing him coming in. He smiles, unable to fight giving us all that grin. “Ladies.” He nods. “Let me get my bags put away and I’ll come and meet you all.” He hurries down the hall toward the gym where he keeps his nasty-ass bag of gear.
“Oh my God, he is so cute.” Claire whistles. “Day two hundred and forty-one without sex and you bring that to the table for me to stare at?”
We all laugh.
“What did I miss?” he asks when he comes back into the living room.
“Nothing.” I stand and give him a kiss. His hand grazes my belly that is no longer flat. It’s getting bigger by the second, something that now seems to fascinate him. “Sorry about the loss.” I turn to the girls, pointing as I say their names, “Claire, Yvonne, Rachel, Missy, Muriel, and of course you know Sukii.”
“I’m sure she’s gushed about me, but I’m Lori.” He lifts his hand in a half wave and winks at Sukii. “How’s it going?”
“Good.” She blushes. “How’s Cap?”
“Good,” he lies. It’s so obvious it’s not funny.
“I know he’s back together with Sandy. I saw it on TMZ. They’re dating again.” She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. I’m glad for him.”
“Right.” Lori presses his lips together, not saying another word on that though I know he thinks it’s going to end again. Cap’s already miserable.
“A girl who knows you started working at the firm,” Sukii says with a grin. “Helaine Kamahi. She’s one of our new lawyers.”
I laugh at the awkward expression on his face. Sukii and I are both aware of who she is to Lori and what his parents wanted for him and Helaine.
“Cool,” he offers one word and a slight glare.
“She seems nice. Says she knows Carson quite well.” Sukii winks and Lori’s face reddens more.
“So you’re best friends with Brady Coldwell?” Rachel rescues Lori from Sukii’s teasing and asks in a way that suggests she might also know him.
“Yes. Well, him and Matt and our friend Carson.”
“And Sami,” I say with a chuckle.
“It must be so strange hanging out with Sami Ford,” Muriel adds.
“Yup,” I admit. “She is intimidating.”
“Indeed,” Sukii agrees but it doesn’t rescue the flow of the conversation. Adding Lori has made it weird. “But on that note, I should get going. Stan has me coming in early tomorrow. Another Liam debacle.” She rolls her eyes and stands.
“Surprise, surprise,” Lori mutters.
“Oh me too.” Claire gets up and the rest of them join in.
We kiss and hug and say goodbyes, and I promise all future girls’ nights will be held at my place.
When they’re gone, I walk back into the living room to find Lori standing and grinning in the middle of the room.
“What?” I ask, suspicious of his good mood after the loss.
“I had a crushing loss. It makes me emotional. You have to be extra nice to me. Remember we made that deal?” He walks to me.
“I’m tired,” I say.
“You’ll perk up.” He kisses me as his hands start undoing my jeans. “Damn, this is tight.” He looks down as he snaps them open, revealing the red welt on my belly where the waistline sat. “What is this?”
“I have to get some new clothes.” I rub the indent and notice it’s a little itchy. I start to scratch but he stops me.
“Scratching leads to stretch marks.”
“Is that true?” I hold my hand over my indent.
“The article I read said it is.”
“Oh my God. I’ve been scratching all the time.” I pull my pants down more to stare at the bump. “Can you see any?”
“No.” He laughs and drops to his knees. “Let me get a better look.” He kisses my stomach and cups it with his huge hands. “How are my boys?”
“Josh says girls.”
“Josh is high.”
“Was high. He says he’s been clean for two weeks. He even went to a couple of meetings to see if that was a fit for him.” I drop to my knees too and face him.
“I don’t want to talk about your brother.”
“Wanna eat Ben and Jerry’s and I’ll be super nice to you tomorrow?” I lift an eyebrow. “When I got home from work today, I noticed Millie had refilled the stash.”
“Did she get Caramel Hat Trick?” His eyes widen.
“She did. And we agreed we