Baby Daddy Wanted (Crescent Cove 5)

“How did you even get down there?” Macy demanded. “You were just sitting up here, now you’re down there.”

“I can move, okay? How do you think I got knocked up in the first place? Back up.” Rylee pointed at Mrs. Gunderson, who was trying to close Rylee’s rather indiscreetly splayed legs. “Childbirth is fucking natural, all right?”

I slid a glance at Murphy. “Sometimes I wonder if Macy influences her or it’s the other way around.”

His lips quirked as he nodded at Rylee. “She’s about to go into labor if she isn’t already. You should go sit with her. You’re the voice of reason.”

“How the hell do you know that?” At his raised brows, I hung my head. “I hang out with Macy too.”

“She’s got that look about her. Your calmness will help.”

“Okay, if you say so.” I’d no sooner risen that Rylee let out a wail.

“I want Gage here. Not any of you people. Just Gage and my sister. Where is my sister?” Rylee gripped Macy’s arm and twisted her neck to try to see around the growing crowd. “Did she leave me to the wolves?”

Macy heaved out a breath and tried to move away from Rylee. “If I’m a wolf, can you stop breaking my damn arm?”

“No. I need you. I love you.” Rylee turned her head and sobbed into Macy’s shoulder. “There’s a wild animal in my uterus and it. Is. Going. To. Kill. Me.”

I cleared my throat and glanced at Murphy, who appeared surprisingly smug. “Is the universe trying to tell me to back away while my womb is still blinking its neon No Available Rooms sign?”

“More like maybe you shouldn’t turn down the drugs if they’re offered to you.”

I let out a laugh, earning Rylee’s narrowed-eyed wrath. She was quite fearsomely beautiful, like a warrior princess with a swollen belly. “You stole my sister’s baby and left her for dead.”

Macy patted Rylee’s head as if she was a cranky toddler. “Ignore her. Her husband is on his—”

The café door swung open hard enough to ne

arly fly off the hinges. “Rylee.” Gage’s panicked shout echoed off the walls as his gaze swung to and fro until he located his now weeping wife on the floor in the reading nook. “There you are. Are you okay, baby? Baby, are you okay?” He rushed toward her with all the drama of a soap opera entrance right before the camera panned away.

Rylee sobbed and reached for him, holding on tight as he swung her up into his arms.

Which was sweet enough to have a few people dabbing their eyes—even me—until Rylee grabbed him by his ears and pressed her forehead to his, speaking loudly enough that Gage’s brother Dare could probably hear her next door at the auto shop.

“If this baby kills me, I’m going to haunt you for the rest of your natural born life.”

Dare picked that moment to step into the café and motioned to Gage, who hadn’t so much as paused while his wife was hurling death threats.

He had to be used to it by now, I was figuring.

“Truck’s at the curb. We’ll—” Dare paused at the sight of Murphy holding his son without his wife anywhere in sight. “Hi, who the hell are you?”

Well, that proved that everyone in Crescent Cove didn’t actually know everyone else. I’d wondered.

“I’m Murphy Masterson. I work on Gideon’s crew among other things.” Smoothly, Murphy rose and held out a hand without losing his grip on the now restless baby. “You must be Dare. I’ve come into the auto body shop a time or two but usually dealt with Gage or one of the other guys.”

Dare shook his hand and took possession of his baby with the confidence of a man with two sons. “Pleasure. Where’s my wife?”

“I’ll go get her,” I said quickly. “She’s in the john. I mean, ladies’ room. Be right back.”

Dare nodded and turned to Gage, who was muscling Rylee out the door with Macy right behind him. Rylee had gone strangely silent, which probably had something to do w the stain on her pretty light blue pants.

The baby would be here soon. Murphy had been right.

I gave him a brief smile and squeezed his arm before hurrying to the bathroom. I knocked on the door and only heard the hand dryer blowing from inside. I knocked again. “Kelsey? It’s Vee. Your sister needs you and your husband’s here.”

Nothing.