Infamous Like Us (Like Us 10)

I lick icing off my finger. “Is that why there were like seven boxes of Fruit Loops in the pantry?”

Her smile brightens her eyes. “Thatcher went a little overboard. He’s terribly cute that way.” Remnants of heartache from nearly losing her husband lie inside her gaze, and I reach out and touch her hand in comfort. She clasps her fingers around mine, then asks Millie Kay, “You haven’t craved anything sweet yet, have you?”

“Me?” Millie Kay still seems surprised to be called on.

Jane tips her head with a Cobalt roguish smile. “Yes, you. Who else?”

“Sorry, Jane—it’s just…” She eyes me like I’m bigger-than-life Sullivan the Olympian and not just Sulli, then glances to Jane. “There are so many group dynamics between all of you, and I don’t know how I fit in sometimes.”

“That’s my fucking fault,” I say with a wince and pick my feet out of the hot tub. I cross my ankles and hold them loosely. “This is probably the first time the three of us are talking alone together.”

They both nod, but Jane’s smile grows on me. “A long time coming.”

I smile back.

I’m not showing at two-months pregnant, but with the Olympics finished, I’m more interested and concentrated on the road ahead, the things they’ve begun experiencing. And I hate that I haven’t really asked them questions until now. But I’m firmly in the camp of better now than never.

MK has been over the penthouse tons, but this trip is really the first time I’ve gotten to know her. Like how before the pregnancy, she’d been working at Lucky’s Diner as a cook.

“I wish I had a cereal craving,” she says, swishing her feet in the water. “All I want is meat. Specifically messy, spicy chicken wings. And I used to hate chicken wings before this one.” She stares down at her big belly, visible through a sheer coverup and red bikini.

Five-months pregnant, a month behind Jane—Millie Kay said she swelled around her ankles, and her cheeks are puffier than when we first met. With wispy blonde hair, blue eyes, and a heart-shaped face, she looks exactly like a heroine leaving the farm for a big city to fall in love.

So I was shocked to hear she’s actually originally from a small town in Iowa.

“Modeling agencies first ate up the whole farm girl backstory,” she told me. “But I barely got booked. They said I was ‘basic beautiful’ which is just another way of saying I look like every Instagram Influencer. Unmemorable.”

Fuck, I didn’t even know that her family are fourth-generation farmers and grow corn. Not until I asked her, but only after she dropped her breakfast burrito this morning and exclaimed, cheese and mice!

I’ve never seen someone turn so red. She could hardly look at my parents or aunts and uncles, like they’d judge her for fumbling a fucking burrito.

No one cared, but I realize to Millie Kay, they’re the famous “Core Six” and not just Ryke, Daisy, Lily, Lo, Connor, and Rose.

I glance at their pregnant bellies. “The carnivore and the cereal-vore.”

They’ll be best fucking friends.

Just like Moffy and Jane. And hopefully my baby will grow up strong beside them.

“Oh, for cute,” MK laughs into a smile. “I joked to Maximoff and Farrow that their little girl will come out eating chicken bones like Pebbles Flintstone.”

I wonder how different this experience must be for MK, being the surrogate carrying the Hale Baby (Farrow’s sperm and Jane’s egg).

“How’d you decide to be a surrogate?” I add quickly, “Sorry if you’ve been asked this a fuck ton.”

Jane is smiling at me. Maybe she’s happy that I’m finally getting to know MK.

“I kind of expect all the questions,” MK replies. “I was actually born via a surrogate. My mom had fertility issues after my brother was born, so she did the whole IVF thing to have me. Didn’t work out, so her and my dad decided to go the surrogacy route, and here I am.” She waves. “I pretty much had in my head that I’d pay it forward one day. Give the gift of life to another couple—or triad…or whatever, I’m not against polyamory.” Her face is bright red like this morning.

I really fucking like MK already. “I’m really the last person you need to be worried about saying the wrong thing in front of. I mess up my words all the fucking time.” I pause. “At least it feels that way.” Sometimes I wonder if it’s all in my head. If I’m just overanalyzing my social flaws and failures more than those around me.

She relaxes. “I’ve been single for a while, so I just bit the bullet and figured, why not now? I never thought the surrogacy agency would match me with Maximoff and Farrow.”

“You knew who they were?”

“I mean…” She blushes again. “Yeah.” Her gaze drifts around the yacht. “I still can’t believe I’m here, honestly. They’ve been so nice…” Her smile fades, then she glances warily at Jane.