Third Chances (Men Of Manhattan #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,39
wife. I have to protect her. I have to be there for her. She wants to have kids. Did you know that? I can't have kids. I'm just going to screw them up like our parents screwed us up. Fuck." He ran his hand through his hair and looked back down at the floor.
He wasn't suffering from withdrawal. He wasn't getting cold feet. He was just stressed out. Really stressed out. And the funniest thing about that was that we were here for his bachelor party. He was the one that was supposed to be relaxing. I knew my brother really well. And despite what he might say, he definitely needed a hug right now.
I put my arms around him before he could even tell what was going on. I didn't even care how unmanly it was. Sometimes guys just needed a bro hug.
The elevator doors opened.
"Oh, excuse me," some guy said. "I'll just wait for the next one." He stepped back and looked the other way as the doors closed again.
I laughed and patted James' back. "That guy totally thought we were a gay couple."
James laughed. One of his real laughs, not the fake ones that I knew so well. I was pretty sure it was the first time he had really laughed since we had kidnapped him for this trip. And it was contagious. I started laughing too.
I released him from my hug. "You're just stressed out, man. Penny doesn't care about all the noise. She just cares about you."
James shook his head. "I know. But we're not married yet. I still have time to lose her."
My big brother always gave off the vibe that he was as tough as nails. But he was actually a big softy. "You're not going to lose her. Trust me, if she was going to leave you, she would have done it already."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"You're stubborn, obsessive, controlling, hot-tempered, possessive, jealous, egotistical, and you're probably extremely selfish in bed. She already knows all that and she's decided to stick around anyway."
"I don't think you know me at all."
I laughed and slapped his back as the elevator doors opened on the top floor.
"And despite all those terrible qualities, you're going to be a great dad. Because you'll be motivated to be better than our parents...who are clearly the worst. Besides, you're going to have kids whether you want to or not. I can't wait to be an uncle."
He laughed.
"Here's what we're going to do," I said as I opened up the door to our room. "You're going to get a drink from the mini bar and head back down to the pool to work on your tan. You have to look amazing when you get back to New York, since apparently Penny is thinking about leaving you. And you're going to spend the rest of this weekend relaxing and not stressing over anything. At this rate, you're going to have a heart attack before you turn thirty. You need to calm the fuck down and stop worrying about everything."
"Easier said than done." He flopped down on the bottom of his bed. He still seemed to be acting weird.
"Is there anything else? Maybe I should have used my snuggling card with you instead of Daphne."
James laughed and sat up. "I'm probably reading into nothing, but the past few weeks, Penny's been asking me a lot of questions. Like if I wish I was still a professor. It's like she's been trying to find a reason that I'm unhappy. It's unnerving. I don't know why she can't see how happy I am; how happy she makes me."
"Well, Professor Hunter, maybe because you're a ball of stress and hold it all in until you explode in an elevator and make strangers think we're gay."
He laughed. "Don't call me that."
"What's your deal anyway? You love when Penny calls you that. I saw your face when those girls called you Professor Hunter. It was like you hated it."
"I like when Penny calls me that. Not you. And not random people. I'm not a professor anymore. It's in the past. I want to keep it that way. I want to move forward. I just want Penny and me to be a normal couple."
"Normalcy is overrated."
He nodded. "I guess. But really, do you think Penny's getting cold feet?"
"No. Didn't I just tell you to stop worrying?" I pulled a small bottle of vodka out of the fridge and tossed it at him.