Mine To Keep (Love By Design 7)

It felt weird leaving the hospital after having spent so much time there with Remington and Ethan. Using comp time, I’d switched out a shift with a buddy on my squad so I could be there if she needed me. I wasn’t sure what that meant. We barely knew each other, but I cared about her, and in a way felt responsible since I was the one who drove her in. I already fielded a ton of questions from my chief who made me promise I wasn’t going to piss him off later because I got into a fight with a rising star football dick. I figured it was better than him warning me away from Damien Hart this time. Baby steps, I told myself.

My phone rang and I picked it up, getting into my truck. “Hey, Evan.” It was Kristen and that was a shock. I had just seen her not that long ago in Remi’s room and impromptu baby shower. She was beginning to lose that charm I admired with her nagging calls and advice I didn’t need. Bad enough, I was the son of the town preacher, and Remi was probably having Ethan’s baptism at my dad’s church. I didn’t need Kristen trying to move from friendly-ex-on-good-terms to surrogate sister.

“Well—” Before I could ask her what she wanted, she cut me off.

“Stop. I’m happy with Damien so leave it alone.” She thought I wanted to talk about dick-face, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

“What? I wasn’t going to comment on your douche boyfriend.” I really wasn’t, but if Kristen was going to go there, I could only hold back so much.

“Uh huh, sure. Anyway, I’m calling because we want to talk about Remi.” I didn’t catch everything she said at first.

“Uh huh? And who exactly is we in this?” I let the phone cradle in my shoulder against my ear as I turned on my truck, letting it idle.

“It’s girl code, nothing personal, but since I had your number already, it was decided that I should be the one to call you.”

“About?” Obviously, I still wasn’t getting it.

“Your intentions toward Remi. She has a son now, and we all saw how you looked at her,” she said like everyone was already privy to my business. These ladies might not have an official sewing circle, but they might as well have been broadcasting like the radio.

“I looked at her?” Of course I did, but I didn’t think that was what Kristen meant.

“Uh huh,” Echoed through the phone with a handful of distinct voices.

I sighed. “No crime in looking is there?”

As for my intentions, I had no idea what was going on. I liked Remi well enough, but I didn’t know her. We weren’t causally seeing each other—far from it—and we weren’t dating. Kristen made me sound like some kind of MILF pervert. Now I was pissed. This was nobody’s business.

“Yes, Evan. You looked at her with longing, and if you are serious about stepping up to the plate, you need to know what happened before you came along.” She enunciated as if I were a toddler unable to follow along.

Now wasn’t that the crux of things.

I heard discussion and arguing in the background. I assumed the tribe was meeting in their coven or whatever plethora of females did together besides trips to the bathroom, and that’s why they were calling me now.

“Are you with everyone?” For some morbid reason, I needed to know who was sitting in on the girl council.

“Mostly. Lia ran off to develop the pictures she took, and Louisa had a hair appointment. I’m here with Taylor, Winnie, and Carmen. We were about to get Kiara’s take on this. She should weigh in on this since David is Remi’s boss.”

Right, because that made any fucking sense and they all had a say in what I did or didn’t do with Remi, who was a full-grown adult.

I drawled, “May I address the Women’s Council?”

“You may, Officer Rooney.”

“Fuck off.” I enunciated back in case my stance on this wasn’t explicitly clear.

“Seriously, Evan? No,” Kristen snapped while several voices gasped.

“This is between Remington and me. I don’t think your friend would appreciate you girls butting in. We’re adults and I’m not discussing this with you.”

The girls argued back and forth on the other end of the phone, and while I knew they meant well, this was none of their business. I didn’t want to share Remi with the world and if she was mine, I wouldn’t at all, but she wasn’t and there we were navigating some uncharted territory.

“But…”

“No buts. You realize, you have this uncanny superpower to create drama where there is none, now knock it off,” I demanded, more angry with her than I probably had ever been even when we’d broken up.

Kristen huffed, refusing to give this up. “Evan, you can’t string her along.”

“I’m not stringing her along. You know me, for Christ