Expecting it All (Punishment Pit #7) - Livia Grant Page 0,25

play dolls with a baby."

"Some help you are."

"I can mix you a drink. It might help us not care so much." Lukus grinned.

"Brilliant." Derek continued to pace, rocking the baby as he walked in circles. He checked the diaper again. He tried to feed him a bottle. Nothing could make Michael happy. Derek placed another call.

Markus Lambert answered on the first ring. "Hey, I was hoping you'd call. You up for a game of poker? We could descend on Lukus at the loft for cards and cigars while the girls are off drinking punch. Hey... what the hell is that racket?"

"It's my son, of course. And it's too late for poker. Lukus is already here. We need you to get your ass over here to my house ASAP."

"Why? You having a stag party?"

"Nope. A babysitting party."

"I'll pass," Markus replied quickly.

"You can't. You owe me."

"Bullshit. For what?"

Derek's mind raced for some type of favor he could come up with. "For getting plugged with two shots in the chest last summer while I was protecting your wife."

Markus paused before uttering a soft, "Shit," under his breath. "You need me to pick up anything on the way over?"

Despite how worried he was about his son, Derek smiled before answering, "Nope. Just you."

They didn't bother with goodbyes.

Lukus stepped up next to him. "All right, I've decided I can't do worse than you. Give the kid to his Uncle Lukus." Derek was surprised that his friend would even attempt to hold the baby. The men awkwardly handed off the wiggling infant.

"Hold his head up," Derek warned.

"I'm not an idiot."

"Never said you were. And don't hold him out so far. Cuddle him closer to your body."

Lukus pinned him with a stern stare. "Do you want my help or not?"

Derek raised his hands up as if to surrender, and stepped back to see if his friend would have better luck. For a brief minute, he thought Lukus might be on to something when he was holding Michael up close to his face as he talked softly to his son. It settled him briefly, but then his crying resumed, even stronger.

Markus got there just in time to watch Derek strike out by trying to put the baby into the swing. Michael loved the swing when Rachel was there. Derek had no clue why he wasn't happy there now.

"He must be hungry. Give him your tit, Derek." Markus grinned at his own sophomoric humor.

"Very funny." Still, Derek gave the idea a shot, re-warming a bottle of breast milk and sitting at the kitchen table to try to feed Michael. When he'd drunk only one measly ounce, the baby's cries grew even stronger. The poor tyke was hiccuping from his exertion; snot dripping from his nose, making it hard for him to breathe. Derek was truly worried something was wrong.

The sound of Lukus's cell phone broke through the loud cries. "Mitchell."

Lukus had put the call on speakerphone. The voice of Ethan Walsh filled the room, almost drowned out by the wails of the baby. "What the hell's going on over there?"

"We need you to get over here, pronto. You're on babysitting duty tonight. I'll take the show," Lukus ordered.

Ethan snorted. "Like hell. That wasn't in the job description."

"It is now."

"Fine. I quit," Ethan retorted.

"Aw, come on! It can't be that bad."

"Says the guy who's begging me to come over to help. Who else is there with you?"

"Derek and Markus."

"Hey, you know what this reminds me of? It's like that old Tom Selleck movie. You know... the one where the mom left the baby on the doorstep. What the hell was the name of that flick?"

Derek knew, but there was no way in hell he was going to egg Ethan on. Markus ponied up the answer. "Three Men and a Baby."

"Right! Only in this case you could call it, 'Three Doms and a Baby.'"

Despite the heaviness of the moment, all three men in the room broke out laughing, which of course only made the baby cry harder.

"I was going to talk to you about a few promising resumes I got for the accounting position, but it can wait. I'll talk to you guys next week," Ethan shouted over the noise before dropping the call.

"What a pussy." Lukus didn't look happy.

He hadn't even put his phone back into his pocket before it started to ring again. All three men looked at each other with hope in their eyes that whoever was on the other end of that phone would come to their