The Girl Next Door - Emma Hart Page 0,59
was hilarious. They were trying to fight but their canes kept getting in the way. I honestly don’t know why they let them play together. They have more than one session and they really need to get it sorted out.”
“Preach that,” she muttered. “Are you going to make me a margarita or what?”
I sighed and got behind the bar, sharing a knowing look with Sophie. “Is this how you felt when I just told you that you had to get the pancakes on your day off tomorrow?” I asked Kai.
He grinned. “I’ll have a beer, please, sweetie.”
“I’ll sweetie you,” I muttered under my breath. I handed Kai his beer before I set to fixing Tori’s cocktail.
“I see the marriage is going well.”
“I see you need to be quiet,” I said, shaking her margarita. “How’s your dating life?”
“Non-existent, just the way I like it,” she replied. “My sex life, however…”
“Is something I don’t need to know about,” Kai finished for her. “Trust me. Save that for your texts, would you?”
Grinning, I poured the cocktail into a glass and passed it over the bar. I rang the orders up on a tab under Sophie’s card and, after grabbing a bottle of water for myself, rejoined Tori and Kai on the other side.
“I’ll have a beer, Sophie, thanks.”
I craned my neck at Colton’s voice. “Alone?”
He looked past me and caught Kai’s gaze. “Disagreement with Amber.”
Kai’s lips thinned.
“What?” I asked. “You can’t have a silent conversation over me. I’ll cry.”
“Are you really using your hormones to get your own way?” Tori raised her eyebrows.
“I threw up for an hour this morning. You bet your ass I’m using my hormones to get what I want.”
Kai shrugged.
“Same old,” Colton said, taking his beer from Sophie. He downed a good third of the bottle before setting it on the bar. “She wants me to move in and doesn’t see the issue in us downsizing if she wants to have a baby. I think you guys gave her super baby fever.”
Tori shuddered.
I rolled my eyes. “Why does she want you to move in with her? It doesn’t make sense when your place is bigger.”
“That’s the point,” he said, grabbing a stool that had just been vacated before someone else could snag it. “She doesn’t want to move out, but neither do I. We’ve reached a stalemate of sorts.”
“Sorry, man,” Kai said. “I know it’s been an issue for a while.”
Colton shrugged. “I’ve been saving, too, for a house. Josh’s wasn’t too badly priced and there’s one for sale down the street, so I was thinking about making an offer. But if she won’t move, I don’t think there’s a point.”
“Why isn’t there a point?” Tori asked. “If she’s not going to move but she’s going to demand you do all this shit, tell her where to go.”
Yup. Tactful as always.
“Tori,” I muttered.
Kai looked between us. “I have to agree with her.”
Well, shit. I was in trouble.
“What?” he asked me. “She’s not wrong. Amber wants him to propose and have a baby on her terms, and all he wants is to be stable before he does that. Is that a bad thing?”
“I’ve told you about these rational arguments,” I huffed. “I can’t argue them.”
“That’s the point.”
Colton finished his beer and got up, throwing a five-dollar bill onto the bar. “I’m going for a walk.”
“You want company?” Kai asked.
“Nah, stay here.” Colton waved him off at the same time he waved goodbye to me and Tori and headed for the door.
Kai put his half-finished beer down on the bar. “I’m going after him. Are you okay to get home if I’m not back in an hour?”
I stared at him. “I’m pregnant, not legless.”
Tori grinned.
“Okay, okay.” He leaned down and kissed me square on the lips.
A blush rose up my cheeks, and I knew it was the kind of blush everyone within a square mile would see.
“See you later.” He winked before he turned and rushed off after Colton.
Tori wiggled her eyebrows. “Ooh, look at you. Are you making that fake marriage real?”
I pressed my finger to my lips and gave her a wink of my own. “Maybe one day.”
Probably one day.
If we made it through the next nine months.
Note to self: I really, really had to buy some more chocolate sauce… and pancake mix.
EPILOGUE – IVY
Six Months Later
“Daisy?”
Holley shook her head. “Too Disney. And our aunt’s name.”
That was true. “Lily?”
She nodded slowly. “I like Lily. It’s cute.”
Okay.
I wrote it in the ‘maybe’ column. “What about Poppy?”
“Oh, that’s cute!” Kinsley yelled