They walked down the hallway and into the wide, open, eat-in kitchen. Raina and Penny sat at the dining table drinking coffee.
“Good morning. And here I was thinking I was up early,” Kay joked.
Raina moved over slightly so she could sit down. “This is my usual hour now that Jada has decided she really likes play time at three a.m. She always goes back to sleep a few hours later, but then I can’t go back to sleep.”
Kaylee winced. “Sorry. Hope went through that phase, too. I think she actually had her nights and days mixed up at one point.”
Penny looked between them uncertainly. “Now you guys are scaring me. I think I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“Me, too.” Ridley pulled out a mixing bowl from beneath the counter. “I feel like I cheated a little bit since I got to be a mom without going through those rough early years. That’ll all be changing soon.”
Kay got up and stood behind Ridley as her friend pulled out pancake mix, eggs, and bacon. “What can I do to help?”
Ridley handed her the carton of eggs. “I’m putting you on scrambled-eggs duty. I would ask Raina, but the last time she made breakfast I think we were in high school.”
Raina didn’t seem offended by her sister’s statement at all. “Hey, I’m good at stuff. Just not things that are useful most of the time.”
“We all have our talents,” Ridley replied, then turned to Kaylee. “So, I noticed you seemed pretty cozy with my buff brother-in-law last night.”
Kay was in the middle of cracking an egg and missed slightly, dumping little pieces of shell into her egg yolks. With a sigh, she accepted the fork Ridley handed her and fished the pieces out.
“We weren’t cozy. He was just keeping me company so I wouldn’t be alone. That’s all.”
Penny and Raina exchanged glances over their coffee cups.
“What? He was keeping me company. There was a lot of family stuff going on and I didn’t want to get in the way. I’m an only child, so I have no idea how this stuff works.”
“We didn’t say anything,” Raina drawled. “But if I had said something it would be girl, are you sure you can handle Eli?”
“No, there’s no Eli and me. There’s certainly not going to be any handling.” Heat rushed to her cheeks as she realized how that sounded. “No handling of anything. Definitely not… that.”
The other girls snickered, and Ridley fanned herself with an oven mitt. “Are you sure? Because it looked like you two spent a lot more time talking than he would bother with if he was just being polite.”
Kay shook her head frantically, trying to get her thoughts together. “If there’s anything there, it’s mostly on my side. Basically our whole relationship is me drooling after him and hoping he doesn’t notice.”
Penny got up and poured herself another cup of coffee. Then she took another look at Kay and poured her one, too. “You look like you could use this.”
Kay took a big gulp. “He picked me up,” she blurted after a moment.
“What?” Raina stood too and leaned against the counter next to Penny.
Kay flushed. “It’s just, when he came to get me. I was a little shaky and he picked me up. Like it was nothing.”
“Eli’s a take-charge kind of guy,” Penny pointed out. “He reminds me of Matt in that way. He doesn’t wait for you to ask for help, he just figures out what you need and does it.”
“Yeah, but it’s more than that. You guys are twigs, so a guy picking you up is no big deal. But I’m a big girl. Most guys don’t even attempt it. I’d be worried they’d either drop me or end up with a hernia. But he could actually lift me. Not that I should be surprised. He looks like he could lift me.”
Raina snorted. “He looks like he could lift a car.”
All four women sighed appreciatively. Kay remembered how the hard muscles under his shirt had felt when she’d been cuddled in his arms. Why had she told him to put her down? She should have enjoyed the experience while it lasted.
“You know, Kay, I really think you should be one of my birthing partners. Raina will be there of course but it makes sense to have another mother there.” Ridley whistled innocently as she whisked the pancake batter.
“That’s good,” Penny interjected. “It’ll give her an excuse to be at the hospital with Eli.”
“Oh, I couldn’t. I’m not family,” Kay mumbled.
Ridley put down the carton of milk she was holding. “We’re all connected in some way to that gorgeous, loud, wonderful family in there. So that makes us a family of sorts, too. And it’s the best o