Holding You Close (Ex-Con Duet 4)

“Hello, can I help you?” Belinda asks nicely.

“I’m looking for Everleigh Blackwood,” she sneers.

Oh shit, this can’t be good. The woman’s flaming red hair is perfectly curled at the ends, and her green eyes pop against her pale skin. There’s a big shiny rock on her left ring finger, and I have a gut feeling I know where this is going.

“I’m Everleigh,” she announces next to me. She stands and waits for the woman to stalk over.

Before any words are exchanged, the woman slaps Everleigh across the face. Gasps echo through the room.

Just as I’m about to yell at the woman, she speaks up.

“You homewrecking whore! You slept with my husband!”

Yep, that’s where I thought this was going.

Everleigh holds a hand to her cheek and furrows her brows. “I did not!”

I lean over and ask, “Who’s your husband?”

“Eric Hudson,” she replies.

My eyes widen in shock as I direct them toward Everleigh. “You slept with the bodyguard?”

Everleigh shrugs with a guilty expression. “Well, yeah. But he wasn’t wearing a ring. I didn’t know he was married!” she defends.

“Well, he is!” the woman exclaims. “Perhaps you should ask a man before jumping into bed with him.”

“Perhaps he shouldn’t be sleepin’ around then,” Everleigh counters.

The woman lowers her eyes up and down, then scoffs. “Perhaps you should cover your body, and you wouldn’t be temptin’ a spoken for man.”

I snort at her sexist comment, and she scowls at me.

“I think your anger is directed at the wrong person here,” I say kindly. “Eric should be to blame.”

As much as I’m grateful for his help, he’s not innocent in this.

“Don’t worry. He’ll get what he deserves,” she spits out, then storms out as fast as she entered.

“Everleigh!” I scold again.

Gemma waddles over with frustration in her eyes. “How could you do that?”

Everleigh shrugs. “I was bored.”

“Then knit a sweater!” Gemma grits between her teeth. “You don’t sleep with a married man.”

Everleigh clears her throat. “I didn’t know he was married, y’all,” she announces to the room of onlookers. “Totally not my fault. He should’ve said something.”

“To be fair, I don’t think any of us knew,” I say. “He never mentioned it to Noah or me.”

Gemma’s shoulders relax. “Me neither. After the death of his girlfriend last year and how devastated he was, I’m surprised he jumped into another relationship so quickly.”

Yeah, that is kinda odd.

I make a note to ask Noah and Tyler about it later.

“Okay, back to the game, everybody…” Belinda claps her hands, drawing people’s attention back toward her.

Three hours later, the shower finally comes to an end. Noah and Tyler arrive to help load all the gifts into their car and pack up everything.

“You ladies have fun?” Noah asks, wrapping his arm around me. “Did you stay off your feet?”

I groan with an eye roll. “Yes, I behaved.”

“She really did,” my mom adds with a grin. “I made sure of it.”

“Well, thank you, Dianna.” He flashes her a charming smile.

“I don’t know how you managed it, but I swear you have my mother wrapped around your finger,” I tease as he leads me to the car.

“It’s the Reid charm, baby.” He leans in and tilts up my chin. “Took a while to work on you, but…” He lowers his eyes to my stomach. “Worked eventually.”

Chapter Eighteen

NOAH

The furniture we ordered arrives today, and I can’t wait to get it set up. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been carefully packing everything at Katie’s place since she’s on light duty. Though I moved in after we found out she was expecting, we haven’t formally discussed me living with her in the new house. She’d probably freak out if I didn’t, so I don’t think it’s needed at this point. While I’ve loved staying here, this was always Katie’s space, and it never really felt like home to me. I’m just glad we’ll be able to have a clean slate and make the new house ours together.

Now that I’m getting more side jobs to fix or build things and work less at the gym, I’m making more money and can finally contribute to the mortgage and everything else. It feels great knowing I can take some of the burden off Katie, though it still doesn’t seem like enough.

Katie’s been staying off her feet at work as much as possible, and I make sure she rests when I’m home. I’ve loved being on this journey with her and watching her belly grow. Feeling the babies’ movements and kicks have been the greatest joy I’ve ever experienced.

“Excuse me? Sit your cute ass down, woman.” I wrap my arms around Katie as she stands at the kitchen counter, mixing pancake batter in a bowl. “Let me make breakfast,” I whisper in her ear. “Then feed it to you naked in bed.”

She smirks, shaking her head. “I’m allowed to stand to make food,” she tells me. “Plus, you’ve been doing so much. I feel useless.”