Play Me (Take a Chance 3)

“Call of Duty. Zach’s online with me.” Chris looked at him. “You play?”

“I do. I have a bunch of other games, too.” He shrugged, trying to look as if Chris’s answer didn’t matter. “You can play them if you want.”

Chris he

sitated, torn between his desire to look mad and his interest in the games. “Got the new NBA one?”

Garrett snorted. “Of course I do. I preordered it months ago.”

Chris’s eyes lit up. “Sweet.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his head. “Maybe we can play together. You know, once I’m moved in.”

Chris looked away from him. “Yeah. Maybe.”

He picked the controller back up and resumed playing. Garrett walked away, feeling a little bit more confident of his welcome here. Well, with Chris, anyway.

“You’re here,” Kiersten said, coming down the stairs. She looked gorgeous and fresh faced, even though she just wore yoga pants and a pink T-shirt that said, Warning: I’m an editor. “I thought I heard the door open.”

“Yeah.” He tossed his keys back and forth in his hands, feeling like an idiot for standing there looking up at her with nothing to say. Things were so damn awkward between them now. Apparently getting your friend pregnant messed things up. Go figure. “You can keep working. I brought reinforcements to help.”

He pointed over his shoulder just as Mike pulled up into the driveway. She looked outside, then nodded. “Right. I’ll, uh, get out of the way.”

She stared at him for another second, then headed back up the stairs. He watched her go, then called out, “Kiersten?”

She stopped, her hand gripping the banister. “Yeah?”

“This’ll get less weird, right?”

She gave a soft laugh, turning back to him. “My God, I hope so. Because we’re about to be around each other every day.”

“Yeah, we are. Morning and night.” Sounded like heaven to him. “So we might as well stop being so weird around each other. You’re pregnant. It happens all the time to people all over the world. Right?”

She cocked her head and blinked at him. He loved when she did that. It made her look adorably elfin. “I think most of them are couples. Or if they’re not, then they don’t move in together.”

“Do you want to be in a relationship?” He climbed the stairs, holding his breath.

Her gaze skated away from his. “I think we should stick to the plan.” She hesitated, looking back his way. When her eyes met his, his stomach twisted. For once, she looked uncertain. “Don’t you?”

He covered her hand with his, squeezing gently. “I think I’d love to be everything to you—if you wanted all of me. And could give me all of you. Otherwise, I can’t be anything except our baby’s father, and your friend.”

She bit down hard on her lip, nodded, and fled away from him. The sound of her door shutting upstairs made him flinch.

“So, guess that was a no?” he asked quietly, to no one in particular.

“Give it time. She’s starting to cave,” Mike said, his voice soft. “I can see it.”

Garrett jumped. He hadn’t heard Mike come in. “I highly doubt that.”

“Did you see the look in her eyes?”

“The panic and fear, mixed with the desire to flee?” he drawled. “Yeah, I saw it.”

Mike snorted. “Behind that. There was…uncertainty. That hadn’t been there before.”

“Since when are you the Oprah Winfrey of Vegas?”

“She retired.” Mike smirked. “Someone had to take her place, and I look damned good in heels.”