Who's the Daddy (Crescent Cove 3)

I shook my head. I couldn’t think about that. We were just going to talk tonight.

As usual, I was getting way ahead of myself.

I jumped at the trill of my buzzer. “Get a hold of yourself, Kelsey.” Was my skirt too short? I tugged at the back. Had my ass actually grown too?

When the buzzer went off again, I rushed over to the security panel near my door. “I’ll be right down.”

“I can come up. And you should ask who it is first, Kel.” Dare’s gruff voice made my stomach flip. I shut my eyes and sagged against the wall. And him coming upstairs wasn’t a good idea anyway. We usually just yelled at each other and then got naked.

We needed to have a grown-up conversation and that required us going out in public. At least that was the game plan I was going with.

“Uh, right. Yeah, I’ll remember that. I’ll um…be right down.”

I grabbed my leather bag and jacket that matched my boots. It felt nice to be an adult and maybe I’d overdone it a little, but my life consisted of a teacher bag in rainbow colors to hide stains and paint. I didn’t have a reason to impress much, and I really wanted him to think I was pretty, dammit.

Not that it mattered. We’d done the deed while I was sweaty after moving, for God’s sake. He’d even…

I wasn’t going to think about what he’d done.

Especially between my thighs. Until I’d been screaming like a lunatic.

I squeezed my legs together and prayed I could tamp down the flood of out of control hormones that were making me increasingly more crazy. I wasn’t sure if the usual ones or the pregnancy ones were to blame.

Had it already been happening after Tommy?

I hung my head. Instead of the sweet flip of exhilaration I got from Dare, now I was twisting with unease. I didn’t want it to be Tommy’s. Not at all.

I huffed out a breath and straightened my shoulders. Nope, I couldn’t think like that. I’d know more after my appointment. And after tonight. Maybe.

Hopefully.

I locked up and rushed down the steps. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs, his startling blue eyes focused on me like two lasers.

“Oh, hi.”

He rubbed his hand over the top of his head. “Macy let me in.”

“That’s fine.” I glanced down at him and my stomach did a slow roll. He was wearing dark-washed jeans and a blue plaid shirt tucked in with a navy sport coat. He’d dressed up for me. “You cut your hair.”

He cleared his throat. “Wes needed a cut, so that means me too.”

“It looks good. You look nice.” I stopped on the second to last stair, which meant I was a little taller than him with the heels on my boots. I was so damn gangly and tall, it was nice to be with someone who was taller than me so I could wear something other than flats.

Well, except now.

But he didn’t move away. He didn’t make room for me. He tipped his chin up so we were eye-to-eye. “You’re so goddamn beautiful.”

I blinked. “I…thanks.”

He reached for my hand and pulled me down the last steps. “I thought we’d go to The Cove.”

My eyebrows shot up. “That’s expensive.” I hadn’t been in town long, but there were only a few fancy places within the actual Crescent Cove limits.

His eyes narrowed.

“Not that you can’t afford it, just wow.”

He lifted a shoulder. “You deserve better than a burger at The Spinning Wheel or a blue plate special at the diner.”