Call Her Mine (Harmony Pointe #1)- Melissa Foster Page 0,37
watching your hot little bod moving around my house.”
She rolled her eyes, but there was still fire in them. “What else have you lied about?”
“Uh-oh,” Piper said.
“Nothing. I swear,” Ben said. “And this wasn’t really a lie; it was a hopeful coercion.”
Aurelia lowered her voice and asked, “Does B have more than four potential mothers?”
He heard one of his sisters inhale sharply.
“No. Jesus, Aurelia. I’d never lie about something like that. I just wanted you to stay with me, that’s all. Look, the cooking thing started as a joke. The first time I realized you had no idea I could cook, I was going to tell you after you made breakfast, but then I realized it bought me more time with you. And yeah, I took advantage, and I’m sorry. I’ll cook breakfast for the next year to make up for it.”
“Next several years,” she said defeatedly. “And if you lie to me again, about anything, your ass is grass.”
He drew her into his arms again, glad to see she was smiling, and said, “I change diapers. If I were really an asshole, wouldn’t I have found a way out of doing that?”
She banged her forehead against his chest. Then she looked up at him and shook her head. “You’re a pain.”
“I know.”
“And you’re making breakfast today.”
“I figured. Do you forgive me?”
She sighed and nodded.
“Damn, I’d have bargained for a lot more than that. Do my laundry, wash my car, do dishes forever,” Piper said, making everyone laugh.
Ben pressed his lips to Aurelia’s, and she pulled away quickly, her gaze darting to his sisters. Still holding her, he followed her gaze. As much as he’d wanted to keep Baby B a secret until he knew if she was his, seeing his sisters loving her up made him all kinds of happy, and he knew they were just as excited about him and Aurelia. He’d caught enough of their innuendos over the last couple years to know they’d assumed the two of them had hooked up or would eventually end up together. “Any of you have a problem with me and Rels being together?”
Talia was holding the baby now, and she said, “You’ve always been together.”
“I think it’s great,” Willow added as she scrolled through her phone.
“I can’t even imagine who else would put up with you.” Piper waved to Aurelia’s bedroom and said, “We set up the playpen, and I showed Aurelia how to convert it for the changing area and sleeper. You should be all set, and it’s portable, so you can take it to Ben’s. I’ve got a baby swing and a stroller in the truck. Want to get it now, or after breakfast?”
“What’d you do? Buy out the store?” Ben asked. Reality hit him with a dose of sadness. “She may not be mine, you know.”
“Like I said yesterday, any woman who leaves a baby at a guy’s house is probably pretty sure he’s the father,” Piper said. “But you keep living in the Land of Denial, Benny boy.”
“She’s right,” Talia said. “I have to go to work, but I have a question. Why are you looking for the mother if you don’t even know if you’re her father?” She hugged the baby one more time and handed her to Piper.
“I can’t just sit around not doing anything,” Ben admitted. “And honestly, I’m pissed at the idea of someone leaving her alone. Forget the disruption to my life. What if something had happened to her? And Vic needs her immunization records. What if she hasn’t had any shots? He said she needs more soon. It’s just . . .”
“It’s the right thing to do,” Aurelia said. “He has a right to know who the mother is and why she gave her up. If the baby is Ben’s, then he’ll have to explain that to her one day, and if she’s not”—she looked at Ben with sadness in her eyes, and he knew in that moment that she was becoming just as attached to B as he was—“then social services will need to know so when she gets adopted her history isn’t a mystery.”
Piper held B protectively against her chest and said, “She’s not being adopted. She’s Ben’s. I know it.”
Willow’s phone rang, and as she answered it, she said, “Oh, yay! It’s Bridgette on FaceTime.”
Bridgette’s voice rang out. “Let me see her!”
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Ben glared at Willow as he took the phone from her hand and met his youngest sister’s wide, excited eyes. Behind