Fireball (Cheap Thrills 1)

Frowning, I scanned Olivia. I could see some weight gain, and she was a little less wrinkly, but apart from that she seemed fine. Why was she going to a baby clinic? Ellis was thinking the same thing because he asked her the question.

“Oh, it’s a voluntary thing. You can go and meet other parents and get your baby checked over. It’s going to be strange just being me when they’ll probably all be in pairs, but oh well.” The words didn’t mesh with the look on her face as she said them though.

The hoops I was planning to make Ellis jump through diminished slightly when he said what he said next.

“I’ll go with you so you’re not on your own. I’d love to find out more about her development and what to expect in the future. Maybe you’ll be able to set up one of those mommy meet things where y’all meet once a week for coffee while the babies sleep. I saw a poster at the hospital about them.”

She’d only just started shaking her head when I screamed, “Yes, she’ll go with you.” waking up my niece and getting a glare from my sister, flared nostrils and all.

Did I regret doing it? Hell no. Instead, I got up, picked up the booby milk, and walked through to the kitchen singing Red Light Special – in tune, unlike some people – feeling her eyes burning into my back.

One day she’d thank me for it.That night…

I was just putting my hair up into a messy bun when the door went. Jose had taken Olivia home an hour ago after repeatedly telling me how she was going to kill me, and all the inventive ways she was going to do it in.

Could you even die from getting your tit slammed in a door repeatedly?

I’d decided to go to the diner in town for dinner, so at least I was wearing pants when I answered it. Not wearing them while I was at home wasn’t something I did often, at least not before I moved to this heat it hadn’t been. In this heat though, bras and pants were pure torture so if I could free-boob it, I did.

I was even more grateful for the pants when I saw Dave on the other side as I opened it, making the same mistake that Jose had hours earlier and not checking the camera feed. Freaking karma. Not saying a word, he leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the lips, his arm circling my back and pulling me into him as he did it. It might have been brief, but when a man can make you forget your legs without using any tongue or fingers…

Pulling back, he gave me a soft peck on the nose and set me back on my feet. “Hey, baby. Thought I’d come get you.”

Color me confused – well, whatever color confused was. “I thought I had three days to prepare? You kept telling me four last night, and then Jarrod passed me the directions to Scarlett Treasures to buy clothes from it.” It was like I was speaking in basic English or code, but my brain was still frazzled from the kiss.

“Yup, but I’ve got a surprise for you. One I know you’ll love.”

Seeing how eager and excited he looked, I let out a breath and decided to just go for it. “Ok, let me pick up my purse.”

He didn’t try to follow me into the house while I did it, instead waiting by the door while he did something on his phone. When I walked back to him, he looked me up and down and frowned making me freeze in place.

“You need to change.”

What the…? “Into what, a butterfly?”

Shaking his head, he nodded at my lower half, confusing me even more. “You need to put shorts on.”

Looking down at my jeans I didn’t see anything wrong. I was wearing my cool ripped ones which had ended up this way thanks to a night of insomnia after Mom got diagnosed and a loose thread (there may even have been some nail scissors involved too). Needless to say, one thing led to another, and I had the coolest pair of jeans I’d ever seen – and they did great things for my ass and thighs. Slimming, lifting, tight things to them. So I didn’t want to change out of them.

The look on his face did something strange to me though. He looked like he didn’t want me to change, but the shorts served a purpose for what he had planned so he had to get me into them. This is where the strange came in – I’d fought the guy for my own reasons and he’d proven twice that he wasn’t going to take no as an answer. So wasn’t it time I just said yes to something instead of ending up like one of those women who just had to be awkward all the time?