beside Riley and sat on my hands. "Thanks for the clothes, by the way."
"No worries." She reached out and poured a glass of orange juice for herself, and then one for me too. "How are you feeling? I hope you don't mind me overstepping a bit, but I arranged for an obstetrician to come over later tonight to check you over. Only if you're okay with it, though."
"Oh." My eyes widened with surprise.
Riley cringed. "Too far? That was too far. I just freaked when Beck said your brother had hit you and thought maybe you'd want to see someone—”
"No, you're totally right," I said, quickly cutting her off. "That was really thoughtful, thank you." I wrapped an arm around my stomach. It was such a stupid thing to do, like I could somehow physically reassure my pea-sized baby that I was doing my best to keep it safe. But it made me feel better, so whatever.
Relief flashed over Riley's beautiful face, and she gave me a genuine smile. "Good. Okay, cool. Well, he's going to come here to see you in about an hour. I figured you probably wouldn't want to go back to a hospital right now."
I grimaced, remembering the state of my hospital room when I'd walked out of there with Beck. There had to be repercussions for shit like that, didn't there? Police investigating or... something? Or did Delta just make that sort of shit disappear, never to be spoken of again?
Dante dished up plates of bacon and eggs for all of us and then several more, then handed plates directly across to Riley, Eddy, and I where we sat at the island.
"What the fuck?" a surly voice snapped from behind us, and my spine stiffened harder than steel.
Riley made an annoyed sound in her throat, then spun around in her seat with a vicious smile on her lips. "Well hello to you, too, D-man. You look terrible; you should shower."
I didn't turn around to look at him, but I could feel him get closer to me. Then he leaned over my shoulder and shoved the plate of food away from me with a hand covered in dried blood.
"She can't eat bacon, Dante. It made her vomit the other day, and cured meats contain too much salt and possibly harmful bacteria for early pregnancy." He delivered this gem of information with an edge of anger that immediately pissed me off. What the hell was he so angry about?
My jaw tensed, but I still wasn't bold enough to call him out on his shitty attitude, which led to an extended, awkward silence. Eventually it became too much for me, and I gave Riley a tight smile.
"I think I'll go back to bed until the doctor gets here," I told her. "I suddenly don't have much appetite anyway."
Her brow furrowed. "Fuck that. No way! Dylan isn't going to make you scurry back to your room to hide. If you can't eat bacon, we will make you something else." She nodded to Dante, who was already putting a fresh skillet on the gas burner. "As for you." Riley glared past me to Dylan—I assumed—and raised her chin. "Go shower, and don't come back in here until you can apologize to Brooke."
"Me?" Dylan sounded stunned. "For fucking what?"
"For acting like a goddamn caveman. For all your shitty parents’ neglect, you were still raised with better manners. Go and find them." Riley death-glared him all the way out of the room, and it wasn't until she spun back around in her seat that I let myself relax.
"Don't let him pull that alpha-male bullshit on you, Brooke babe," Eddy told me with a stern nod. "You give an inch, he'll take a mile. Put his arrogant ass in its place."
"I feel like I shouldn't be party to this conversation," Dante muttered as he cooked a chicken breast in the pan. "But I do love when you girls remind them who's boss."
Eddy and Riley both snorted a laugh, and Eddy slipped out of her chair. She circled around the counter and snaked her arm around Dante's waist. The look on his face when he turned to look down at her was pure adoration, and the way he kissed her gently said she was his whole freaking universe. It was all kinds of heartwarming.
"Get a room," Riley teased when their kiss turned heated, and she threw a piece of ripped-off toast at Dante's head. "Don't mind them," she apologized to me with a smile. "They're