Rock Reclaimed (Rock Revenge Trilogy 2)

“Do I ever?” She moved to the dresser and dug through her jewelry case for her small gold hoops. Just the look she thought a prospective homeowner should project.

She pressed a hand to her fluttering belly. God, a homeowner. How very domestic of them. She’d never guessed they would actually buy a house. Like a true family with roots. A backyard, for pity’s sake. With a tree swing for their little—

Her belly fluttered again, and she touched it, frowning. Those were some serious nerves. Especially since she was happy and excited, not anxious.

Or she hadn’t been until just this very minute. Should…things be bubbling and shifting around in there? All she’d had for breakfast was her usual preggo meal of a bowl of oatmeal and her stupid half-caff mug of coffee. Surely that couldn’t cause gas.

Then again, pregnancy had a lot of weird symptoms. No wonder Lila had lived in mortal fear of getting knocked up with twins again. One in there was enough.

Better be only one.

“No, because my wife is a very wise woman. Jesus, come save me. Ian ran off after our take, but I just know as soon as he comes back, he’ll want to do another take of ‘Sinner’.”

“What’s that?” She plucked one of her earrings out of her jewelry box then rooted around for the other. Once up a time, she’d been so organized.

Pre-hurricane Simon. Not that she could blame him for her things being amiss. Minus the state of her lingerie drawer, since he liked to dig through there and see what new surprises she had for him.

“Song of Ian’s. It’s actually pretty decent.”

She slipped in the first earring. “Such effusive praise.”

“I helped. Well, as much as I could. British is awfully uptight about sharing with the class. He’s better with Deacon and Gray and Rory, but he acts like I’m out to thief his ideas or something.”

“I’m sure you were protective of yours when you started working with Nicky and Deacon too.”

“Back in the Stone Age? Not really, because I was drunk more than half the time. What are you doing?”

Margo stroked her belly and tried not to gasp. Again. She’d already done it enough for Simon to hear, despite her efforts to stay quiet. He was already obsessed with documenting every step of this pregnancy, so if he even guessed she might be—

“Oh, shit, I think the baby just kicked.”

“What? Are you sure? You better sit down. Or no, stand up! Should we call the doctor? Isn’t it too soon for—” He broke off and swore under his breath. “Fuck, I forgot where I was. We gotta tell people soon, Violin Girl, before something happens.”

“Like your big mouth blabbing all over town?” she asked drily, rubbing the side of her belly in circles. “I’m not even sure it’s that. Might just be gas.”

“What did I tell you about those apples?”

She couldn’t help laughing. “You’re ridiculous. I haven’t had any apples today. It’s really soon though for kicking. Like…really, really soon. So, maybe—” She sucked in a breath as that ripple in her side echoed again. “Yeah, not sure. That felt like a punch.”

“Hello, prodigy. Are you surprised?” His voice softened. “Fuck, I need to come home. I want to be there for this.”

“You can’t take off now. It might not even be anything.”

“But if it is and I’m not there for it? I vowed I wouldn’t miss a second of anything and this has been the biggest moment so far. Well, minus the picture. I have it in my wallet, you know.” He let out a little laugh. “I keep looking at it as if it’s not even real. How can this be our life, Violin Girl?”

Finally seeing her second earring, she picked it up and juggled the phone so she could slip it in. Good thing she had something to do, since her husband’s awed tone was making her choke up.

Damn hormones.

“I’ll make sure he or she saves some punches for Daddy.”

“Why am I certain of that?”

“Because you’re a smart guy. Now go to work. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sure you don’t want me to come with you? We barely got a chance to go through the place. If we’re thinking about making an offer, we should both go again.”

“This is just an impromptu visit. I just want to see if it matches up with what I remember or if I’m making it more than it was in my head. We’ll go again this weekend, you and me. See if it still feels like ours.” She smiled and peeked down at her nearly flat stomach. Well, as flat as it ever was. There was a slight swell, almost invisible. “Maybe the baby will weigh in too.”