“I just saw her feet. Why is she under the blankets?”
I couldn’t help it. I began to laugh. I had to push my face into the mattress and try to stifle my amusement. Stefano slid his hand under the blanket, pinching my leg to stop my laughter, but it somehow only made the situation funnier.
“Oh, right. She came back. She was really cold. I tucked her in. She’s—ah, she’s asleep. So, we need to be quiet.” He emphasized the words, pressing on my leg.
“Huh. Do you have cereal?”
“Pretty sure I do. Yep. You go check.”
“Stefo, are you okay?”
“Um, yep. I’m good. Go, buddy. I’ll be right there.”
“You’re breathing funny, and it looks like you’re sweating. Maybe you got a cold. You should ask my mom to take your temperature.”
“I just did,” I whispered, the laughter beginning to escape again. “He was pretty hot.”
Stefano pinched me again, but this time, I heard the amusement in his voice.
“Good plan.”
Theo’s voice got closer. “I could stay with you until Mom wakes up.”
“No, it’s good. You go look in the cupboards. If you don’t find what you want, I’ll go get McDonald’s,” Stefano said, sounding desperate.
“Oh, I like McDonald’s better.”
“Great. Go get dressed, and we’ll go.”
The sound of Theo’s hurried footsteps met my ears, and I began to chuckle. The blankets were thrown back, and Stefano loomed over me. “You found that funny?”
“I found you funny. All panicked that Theo might join me under the covers and ask what I was doing.”
He scrubbed his face. “I need a lock on the door.” He swung himself off the bed. “I don’t think I could have recovered if he’d found you.” He pointed a finger at me. “And you weren’t helping.”
He dragged on his jeans, muttering about kids and boundaries. Women and early morning blow jobs without locks.
He tugged a shirt over his head, combing his fingers through the mess of hair on his head.
I sat up, letting the blankets fall away. “At least you weren’t stuffed under a pile of blankets being suffocated and pinched.”
He stared at me, then lunged. I was under him in seconds as he kissed me. “I’m going to stuff you with something else later until you scream my name. You are too goddamn sexy for your own good.” He kissed me again, then pushed away.
“I gotta take our boy and get food.”
Our boy. Hearing him say that made my heart smile. “Do I get an Egg McMuffin?”
He rolled his eyes, heading for the door. “Maybe.”
“Stefano,” I called out, waiting until he stopped and looked at me. “I love you.”
A wide smile broke out on his face. “Egg McMuffin, it is.”
Later at the garage, Charly shuffled in, not even trying to disguise her inability to move well. She sat down with a long sigh.
“How you doing?” I asked.
“I think I’ll be in labor soon. My back is aching like crazy.”
I smiled in sympathy. “Can I do anything?”
She shook her head. “It feels better if I walk around. You okay?”
I nodded. “Everything is great,” I assured her. “If I can’t find something, one of the guys usually knows where it is.”
“Like the bathroom?” she asked with a smirk.
“What?”
“Theo tells me Stefano forgot you were in the bed this morning.” She lifted one eyebrow. “He said you were asleep under the blankets with your head buried.” She leaned forward. “The question is, buried where exactly, Gabby?” She paused. “He told me Stefano was all sweaty and hot too. He’s worried he has a cold.”
I burst out laughing, and she joined me. “Oh my God, you should have heard Stefano’s voice,” I whispered. “Two octaves higher than usual. Completely panicked. Bribing Theo with an Egg McMuffin to leave the room. It was hilarious.”
Charly chuckled. “I can only imagine.”
“He was adorably flustered.”
“Despite everything going on, I’ve never seen him so happy,” she said.
“Despite everything, I’ve never been so happy,” I admitted. “He is so good to Theo. To me.”
“He is one of the good ones.”
Brett walked down the hall, poking his head into the office. “Ladies, you’re doing okay?”
We both assured him we were fine, and he kept walking.
“There’s another good man,” I observed.
“The best.”
“Is there, ah, something between him and Kelly?”
Charly sighed, pushing her hair off her shoulders. It was loose today, the red bright under the lights.
“I don’t know. Neither of them will admit it, but I get the feeling there’s something.”
“He looked at her yesterday like he wanted to eat her.”
Charly nodded. “She disappeared last night right around the same time he did. When she reappeared, she looked, ah, worked over, if you know what I mean. But she insisted she was out for a walk. He never came back to the house.” She leaned closer. “I think they were ravishing each other in the stock room.”
I waggled my eyebrows. “I noticed a few things out of place this morning. Like they’d been shoved aside in haste.”