Heartbreaker: A Filthy Dirty Love Novel
Grey’s head snapped around to Maddox, eyes wide. “She’s pregnant?”
Maddox smiled. “Just three months now.”
“Congrats, man.” Grey yanked Maddox into him, smacking his back in a rough man-hug. “You’re going to be a father.” He leaned away, giving Maddox another hard smack on the back, grinning from ear-to-ear. “My mother will be so pleased.”
“I’m sure she will.” Maddox laughed.
Grey looked at Joss again before leaning back against the post, folding his arms. “You know, a year ago I never would’ve believed this would be where you ended up.”
Maddox began flipping the burgers, one by one. “Doesn’t it make you wonder where you’ll be a year from now?”
Unusual softness filled Grey’s eyes. “I’ll probably be right back here, holding onto your sweet babe while you’re flipping burgers for your new rookies.”
“Or you’ll be holding onto your wife,” Maddox offered.
Grey snorted and shook his head. “Nah, buddy, the domesticated shit is for you, not me.”
Maddox smiled and glanced down at the burgers cooking on the grill. Once, he’d thought along those same lines, too, and now he knew all it took was one woman to blow that thought into a hundred pieces. He hoped Grey found what he had, but he also wasn’t planning to get all gushy and tell Grey that either.
When he’d flipped some of the new patties, he began taking off the cooked ones from earlier and placing them on a serving plate. He kept two off to the side, and called to the crowd, “Burgers up.”
“I’d better grab one before they’re gone. These people are like vultures,” Grey said, rushing forward and making himself a plate.
Maddox laughed to himself and added a couple of buns to the two burgers he’d kept aside and then approached Joss and her parents. She was laughing at something her mother had said, but when she caught sight of him, she smiled as he set one burger on Joss’s plate and another on her mother’s. “Dinner’s up, ladies,” he told them.
Joss’s father snorted. “Better stop it, Maddox. You’re starting to make me look bad.”
“Well, sir.” Maddox straightened and shoved his hands into his pockets. “You’ve got quite the head start on impressing your ladies. I need to catch up.”
Her father chuckled softly as he rose from his seat. He squeezed Maddox’s shoulder in a familiar embrace Maddox had grown to enjoy this past year before heading off to fetch his dinner.
“Oh, I’d better get another drink, too,” her mother said, rising from her chair. When Maddox reached for her wineglass, she added, “You don’t need to spoil me all the time, Maddox. I’ve got this.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled, letting her take the glass from his hand.
Once she’d headed off to fetch her drink, Maddox took her seat, pulling it closer to Joss. “Doing okay, sugar?” he asked, stroking her cheek.
Her nose scrunched, and she frowned at her burger. “I think you’d better take that away from me.” Her concerned eyes came to his, mouth pinched tightly.
Swiftly, he grabbed the plate and moved it behind him, not in the direction of the wind. “Burgers are on the list of what you can’t eat?”
“Apparently,” she said with a sigh, placing a hand on her lower belly. “Honestly, at this rate, our kid is going to be a vegetarian.”
“That will never happen,” Maddox said seriously with a firm shake of his head, placing his hand on her belly. “My son will like eating meat as much as he enjoys hunting for it.”
Joss gave him a sweet smile, placing her hand on top of his. “And how do you know we’re having a boy?”
“I don’t, of course, but I have a feeling.”
“A feeling, hmm?” She stroked her fingers across his hand, looking up at him through her lashes. “But what if it’s a girl, will you be disappointed?”
He chuckled softly, rubbing her belly. “Of course, not. That just means I’ll need my shotgun for other reasons than hunting.”
“You’re not going to threaten our child’s crushes.” Joss frowned at him.
He smiled. “Wanna bet?”
Joss barked a laugh, and he loved that laugh. So happy. So free. So perfect. So his. “You’ll never change, will you? Always the broody, alpha guy?”
“No,” he said, “And you forgot something on my title, didn’t you?”
She hesitated. Then chuckled again. “Sex God.”
“That’s it, sugar. And you know why I won’t change?”