My Ex's Baby (Crescent Cove 8)

“What baby convo in the car?” I demanded. It was about the only way I could act when I couldn’t get the idea of Rory and Ivy listening to my private conversation with Kinleigh out of my head.

“Look, I know you’re mad we overheard. We didn’t mean to.”

“Did you turn it off?”

Ivy cleared her throat again. “Not exactly?” A thud echoed across the speaker. Then another. “Look, I couldn’t find out the goods any other way. God forbid either of you tell me. So I took matters into my own hands.”

“And Rory’s hands.”

“I swear, he didn’t say one thing about you not hitting the mark when he did the very first time.”

I growled.

Kinleigh reappeared in the doorway, my ancient red sweatshirt dwarfing her as she clutched her belly. “So, uh, yeah, that might actually not be true.”

Twenty-Two

I stared at her before jerking to my feet. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sick. Tossed my cookies twice.” Kinleigh rubbed her hand over her mouth. “My boobs are sore too. Big time. I barely could stand when you touched—” She shut her eyes. “Whoops. Sorry, Ive. Blame the evening sickness. Maybe.”

I crossed the room to her, already forgetting everything but the reality standing before me. That the loveliest, most irritating, most perfect woman in the world was looking up at me with hope and nerves and emotion in her eyes. She lifted her hand to touch the spot behind her ear with her tiny ladybug tattoo and I had to swallow hard before I dropped to my knees. I couldn’t speak, so I just laid my cheek against her stomach and closed my eyes.

Someone let out a sob. I wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t me.

“Oh, Kin! Are you serious? Oh, God. This is literally the best news. Eeeep!” She broke the sound barrier with a cheerleader-worthy squeal. “I’m coming over. Did you take a test? Can we take it together? I’m coming. Don’t do anything until I get there.” A pause. “Make sure you’re both dressed. There are boundaries, you know.” Click.

I grinned up at Kinleigh, well-aware my eyes were wet. So were hers, that sunwashed blue that never failed to make my heart skip. “She gets excited.”

“I hope I’m not a disappointment. I’m pretty sure it’s a lock. But on that small chance I’m wrong…”

“How long?”

“What?”

“How long have you suspected?” With Kinleigh, anything could be possible—from an hour to a week to more. Her poker face belonged on the Las Vegas Strip.

She swallowed hard and scooped her hand through my hair, her touch so gentle that it eased the part of me that wanted to insist on hearing her every truth. “I haven’t taken any tests. I have one. I just didn’t.”

“So you can’t see the negative again.”

“No. More like I know it’s going to be positive, and once I see it in black and white, everything changes.” She swallowed audibly again. “I feel the differences in my body. I know, August.”

Staring up at her, feeling her utter certainty permeating into my bones, I knew too.

Holy fuck, I was going to be a father.

For real.

With shaking fingers, I pushed away the familiar cotton of my sweatshirt and undid the buttons on her button-down shirt to spread the sides wide. Her stomach was still so flat, the pale skin dotted with freckles. I pressed a kiss just above her navel and she sucked in a breath, quick and deep.

“It’s early for the practice to be kicking in,” she whispered, feathering her fingers through my hair again.

I didn’t hear her at first. I was too busy trying to see with my X-ray eyes if there really was a baby inside her. In the meantime, I was quite happy molding my hands to her belly to see if there was even the most minute of changes. Already I was beginning to know her body so well.

“You’re right,” I murmured, awed. “You are changing.”

Her eyes overfilled and a tear slipped down, splashing on the back of my wrist. I reached up to smear them away, finally really comprehending what she’d said. “Wait. You don’t think this is from—but it was negative. You took two tests.”