seen him so thrown. “Yeah. I’m getting that.”
“I am… ecstatic about you having my baby. I am obviously nuts about you, and I didn’t think you wanted kids and that would never be a deal breaker for me, but I’m not gonna lie, I fucking love the idea of us having a kid together.”
Now he was using his rare curse words to express his excitement about fatherhood.
Damn her ovaries!
He continued, “I also don’t know what you want from me, and I’m more than a little worried that you’re going to try to cut me out of this entire thing because… that’s kind of something you would do, Toni.”
She muttered, “It’s irritating how well you know me.”
“I have spent two years studying you in an ‘I’m trying to not be a stalker’ sort of way. I’m probably a little ahead of the curve on this.”
Why was he so damn attractive? He wasn’t just sweet and concerned Henry anymore, he was exhibiting a kind of aggression and protectiveness that she found damn near irresistible.
Ugh! She hated being a stereotype.
Toni turned to him. “I’m not going to cut you out, but don’t try to dictate my life. I’m not some wilting flower, okay? I may be older, but it’s not like I was looking to trap some younger guy into fathering my baby so I could satisfy a biological—”
“How fucking young do you think I am?” He glared at her. “I swear to God, you act like I’m a teenager sometimes.”
“I don’t know…” Her cheeks burned. “Thi-irty?” Please God, let him be thirty. He had to be at least thirty.
Henry threw his head back and laughed. “I don’t know whether to be insulted or flattered.”
“What does that mean?”
He leaned across the cab of the pickup truck, hooked his hand around the back of her neck, and pulled her into a mind-melting kiss. Toni completely forgot where she was and where they were going. She nearly threw her leg around him and humped him in the car, she was feeling so horny.
Hormones.
“Thirty.” He pulled away and tasted his lips. “You’re what? Forty-one?”
“Yes.” She glared at him as he put the truck back in gear.
“You’re such a cougar.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “A sexy cougar luring a younger man into your clutches.”
“How old are you, Henry?”
He turned to her with wide eyes. “So young. So innocent. Please don’t tell my parents I got you pregnant, Toni. They might ground me.”
“As soon as we get finished at Nico’s, I’m going to beat you up. I’m going to tell him he has to forgive the father of my future child; then I’m going to hurt you.”
He reached over and rubbed her thigh. “Just don’t strain yourself, okay? At your advanced age— Ow!” He burst out laughing. “Let go of my ear.”
“Nope.” She twisted his ear in a proven grip she’d used to torment all her boy cousins the moment they got taller than her. “I’m sorry, but you are going to have to die.”
“Stop.” He batted her hand away, grabbed it, and brought her knuckles to his lips to kiss them. He kept her fingers clutched in his and rested their joined hands on his thigh. “You’re so cute when you’re mean. Your freckles stand out more, and I want to kiss your nose.”
She refused to stop glaring. “How old are you, Henry?”
“I’m thirty-four.” He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “Cougar.”
“Oh.” Toni blinked. “That’s only seven years younger than me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I guess that’s not that much.”
“I guess not.”
Nico sat on the couch in his office, looking like he’d just been smacked in the face with a two-by-four. “Okay. Let me get this straight…”
Toni was perched on the corner of Nico’s desk, and Henry was sitting in an office chair next to her. “We kind of threw a lot at you,” she said. “Take your time.”
Nico blinked. “You’re pregnant?”
Toni and Henry exchanged a look.
Toni said, “That’s the part that’s throwing you off?”
Nico spread his hands. “I didn’t think you wanted kids.”
“I didn’t not want them, it just didn’t happen. I’m not anti-kids. I love kids.”
“You love being an aunt. Being an aunt is not being a parent.”
“You think I don’t know that, dipshit?” Toni rolled her eyes. “Was it a surprise? Yes. Am I happy about it?” She took a deep breath. “I think so? I’m getting used to the idea. I feel better about it now that I know Henry’s not freaked out.”
“Well that doesn’t surprise me,” Nico said. “But you…”
“What about me?” Toni