Cease Fire (Blackbridge Security 9)

I was so engulfed in the attention Kit was showing me that I hadn’t really noticed her absence, and that makes me just as shitty of a friend.

Me: Have fun!

Beth: We always do.

I groan in frustration, a rush of breath leaving my lips as I press my head into the couch cushion.

My phone vibrates in my hand, but I don’t immediately look at it. It’s close to the time Kit will text with his morning bullshit, but I look down at it when it vibrates with the second notification.

Beth: You should have Brooks take you shopping.

Me: He’s busy this weekend.

It’s a lie. I have no clue what Brooks is up to this weekend.

Beth: Maybe Kit is free.

I narrow my eyes at my phone suspiciously, but I already know what happened. The Riggs family gossips like hens. Every single one of them. It’s how I was able to keep up with what was going on with Kit when he was in the Army. It’s how I know that even though they didn’t mention it last week, Becca and Jason are having problems with their oldest hitting his rebellious phase.

Maybe it’s not really gossip, but a family sharing and giving updates on the people they care for. With that simple text, I know that neither Becca nor Jason told Beth about seeing Kit and me together at the farmers’ market.

My phone rings in my hand as I’m trying to decide whether it’s best to just ignore the text or tell a lie. What’s one more at this point, right?

Since we were just texting, I have no way to justify not answering Beth’s call.

“Hello?”

“Sorry. I just don’t have the brainpower to keep texting.”

I chuckle, and I’m glad she’s not here because she would call me out on being fake.

“Speaking of Brooks,” she begins. “We saw him and that rock star at the airport last night.”

My blood runs cold. If she has discovered Brooks’s secret, then there will no longer be a reason for him to keep mine.

I shake that thought away completely. He knows I’d never tell his truth, and so long as Kit decides to continue on with the charade of Brooks being the father, he wouldn’t tell mine either.

“What rock star?” I ask, playing stupid, because I never mentioned seeing Archer Bremen during her wedding weekend.

“The lead singer of Lucid Unrest. He’s so fucking hot.”

“I’ll spank your ass,” I hear Spencer say from somewhere in the room.

His possession makes me smile, and I’m a little jealous if I’m honest.

“And?” I prompt, not proud for engaging in gossip, but that doesn’t keep me from asking for it.

I hate drama says the woman right in the middle of epic drama herself.

I roll my eyes, sick of myself already today.

“He looked pissed.”

“Brooks or Archer?”

“Both,” she answers. “Why didn’t you tell me he was working with that man?”

I haven’t told you a lot of stuff.

“He doesn’t really talk about work when we’re together.”

“Too busy getting naked, huh?”

I huff. Brooks is an incredibly good-looking man. After showing up at Blackbridge Security, I discovered all the men working there are insanely hot. But I never saw Brooks as more than Kit’s best friend.

“We just hooked up that weekend.” The lie burns my tongue.

“You know a lot of men find pregnant women crazy hot. Maybe when you start to show, he’ll be incapable of keeping his hands off you.”

“Not interested,” I mutter, wondering if Kit will have that reaction when my stomach starts to protrude.

I shake the thought away. From the silence this week, I doubt Kit ever wants to see me again.

A throaty growl is heard in the background on her end.

I ignore the flutter it gives me at the memory of Kit making that same sound when I was on my knees in the shower for him last weekend.

“So, they looked mad?”

“He should really be home with you rather than off traveling the world with a sexy rock star,” she says, her voice farther away than it was moments ago. I can tell she’s getting distracted with whatever Spencer is doing.

“He’s working, and we’re not together like that.”

“Maybe things will be different when the baby arrives?”

I doubt it.

“Maybe,” I say just to appease her.

“I can’t wait to see you two together next Sunday.”

I sit up straighter on the couch.

“Next Sunday?”

“At Mom and Dad’s,” she explains. “Dinner? You have to be there, Jules. You’ve been avoiding everyone since the wedding.”

Guilt swims in my gut.

“I haven’t.” I totally have. I don’t want them to read any part of the truth in my eyes or my behavior. “Plus, I don’t want to be the center of that week’s gossip.”

“You won’t be.”

“I will,” I argue. “I’m the thirty-five-year-old who got knocked up. It’s all people will be talking about.”

“Not to your face,” she says, and I can tell she’s making a joke, but it makes my skin itch knowing the truth. “Plus, I think Gannon and Jade are going to announce that they’re pregnant again.”