Nerdy (Unexpected Lovers, #2) - J.B. Heller Page 0,43

the apartment Bash and I just moved into.

“In the kitchen,” I yell back, unpacking a box of wine glasses that I won’t need to use anytime soon.

Storm is perched on a barstool on the other side of the counter, her big baby belly poking out from the bottom of her maternity shirt. She tugs at it and grumbles something about being sick of feeling like a whale.

“Hey, sexy mamas,” Lennon says, entering the room then plopping down on the stool beside Storm. “How’s it going, fatty?” she asks, giving Storm a side-hug.

“Fat,” she mutters. “I’m so over it. I hate this part of pregnancy. Everything hurts, and I just want it to be over,” she groans, dropping her head on Lenny’s shoulder.

Len shifts her gaze to me, an evil glint in her eyes. “See what you have to look forward to, Emmy? Aren’t you just sooo excited?”

I take the mature course of action and flip her off.

Storm has become the fourth member of our little group over the last few months, which makes me incredibly happy. I still feel like I was the straw that broke the camel’s back in her friendship with Jayla. But she assures me that’s not the case.

“Kins should be over soon. I reckon she’s got some big news,” Len says, popping a grape in her mouth from the bag Storm brought with her.

“Cool, cool, cool,” I mumble, placing the last wine glass in the cabinet. “Any idea what it is?”

Len shakes her head. “Nope.”

Turning to face Len and Storm, I rub my lower back. It aches like a bitch, and I’ve still got three more months of this crap.

“You should sit down,” Storm says. “Let Bash do the rest. There’s only, like, three more boxes to do anyway.”

I’m about to agree with her when she pulls a weird face. I frown, and Len jumps off her stool, her eyes wide and horrified.

“Stormy,” I say, rushing around the counter to be at her side. “What’s wrong? Is it the baby?” I ask, panic lacing my words and making my hands shake as I run them over her belly.

“That better be pee,” Lennon says. “I am not equipped to deal with childbirth.”

My eyes widen as they shoot to the floor where a puddle grows under Storm’s stool. “Oh God,” I mumble.

Storm’s hand wraps around my wrist. Our gazes collide, then she…smiles.

“Why are you smiling? Your water just broke!” I yelp.

She beams at me, and maybe insanity is one of the stages of labor.

“Because I’m going to hold my baby today,” Storm says just as Kinsley waltzes into the room.

“You’re going to what?” Kins blurts, the smile falling from her face.

“She just leaked amniotic fluid all over my favorite boots,” Len whines.

We ignore her.

I pull my cell from my pocket and call Bash who’s upstairs with Jake, getting the last couple of boxes from my old apartment. He answers on the fourth ring. “Hey, babe. Miss me already?”

“Storm’s water just broke,” I say, my voice wobbling.

“Oh shit, we’re on our way down,” he tells me. “Is she okay?”

I nod then realize he can’t see me. “The crazy bitch is smiling,” I say then hear Jake laughing in the background.

Not two minutes later, Jake and Bash come crashing through the door. Jake heads straight for Storm, wrapping his arms around her. “You ready, baby?” he says to her, a matching smile on his face.

What the hell is wrong with these two? She’s about to push an entire human being out of her teeny-tiny vagina. That is nothing to smile about.

Bash comes to my side, concern evident in his amber eyes. “You okay? You look freaked.”

“I am!” I yelp. “Why is she smiling? She’s lost her marbles, Bash. Is that going to happen to me?”

He laughs and kisses my temple. But he doesn’t answer me. Bastard.

“I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you Atticus and I are getting married?” Kins says from behind me.

I whirl around and gape at her. “Since when?”

She beams, holding her left hand out for me to inspect the crazy-big diamond on her ring finger. “Since yesterday.”

“Jesus H. Christ, everyone is getting married and having babies,” Lennon grumbles, snatching Kins’ hand away from me then examining the ring closely. “But damn, if someone gave me a rock like that, I might just consider jumping on the relationship train.”

Kins and I both give her the look.

Len rolls her eyes at us. “Kidding,” she says. “Relationships blow.”

Then Storm groans long and low, and