Lucky Baby (Crescent Cove 11)

“The baby can hear. She’s pretty lax about enforcement though.”

“Isn’t it like the size of a tadpole?”

“More like a fig. Fu—frick, I’m thirsty. Why did you have to ruin my soda with your existential crap?”

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the can out of his hand and used the tool on my belt to take care of the pop top. “Here you go, Big Poppa.”

He took it sulkily. “You need to warn a dude when you ask something like that.”

“Why? You must discuss these things at home. At least when you come up for air.”

“Not so much. It’s not a fad with Lu. Her spirituality is as much a part of her as her hair color.”

“I get that.” I set my guitar on the arm of my chair and reached for my beer. “I wasn’t joking around, man. I was serious.”

My best friend narrowed his eyes as he studied me, the firelight shifting over his face. “I see that now. Just caught me off guard.”

“Yeah.” I finished off my beer before crushing the can against my thigh. “Good time Lucky doesn’t have serious thoughts. What’s wrong with this picture?”

“I didn’t say that. I wouldn’t. I know you do sometimes. You must,” he added.

I had to laugh. “Yeah, so it’s not my usual. But in a town like this, if you pay attention you gotta wonder. Something weird is at play here. I mean, not everyone gets knocked up right away, despite what local lore says. But an awful lot do.”

“You think that’s fate?”

“I dunno. What led me here? I could’ve gone anywhere. And I landed in this place.” I set my can down in the sand and went back to playing the guitar, my thoughts circling like the lazy curls of smoke rising into the air from the fire. “Like how we got to be friends. That had to be meaningful.”

Even saying it made me feel like a Class-A asshole. We weren’t the types to explore our feelings. But with all that had been going on lately with Caleb coupling up with Lu and making a whole new life, I couldn’t deny things were different now.

It had to be. He was becoming a dad and a husband and all that went with it.

But what did that mean for me? I’d been at loose ends as I had so many other times in my life. Roaming from place to place, trying to see if this was where I was meant to be for more than a season or a year. But no matter where I’d gone or what I’d done, nowhere had ever fit until the Cove.

“Yeah.” Caleb rolled the sweating can between his palms as he gazed across the circle of chairs to where Ryan’s dude Preston was seemingly having an in-depth conversation with Butch.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about my girl leaving me to sit with another man, but I supposed I was glad she was making friends. Everyone needed them.

Even Ruby, no matter what she thought.

As the silence extended, I strummed harder, launching into Don McLean’s “American Pie.” I’d learned that one on the road too, and our surroundings seemed made for the singalong tune.

Not that anyone was singing. Not even me.

“Look, man, I wanted to talk to you.” My best friend leaned forward and set down his can in the sand before linking his hands between his knees. “I know stuff’s been…different.”

I kept playing.

“We used to hang out all the time. It wasn’t as if I was looking for that to change. We always had so much fun.”

My fingers slowed, eventually stilling. “I get it,” I said quietly.

And I did. I always had. I’d had lots of friends over the years, and no matter how nomadic their lifestyle started out, in time, situations changed. Dudes found chicks and had kids and made a family. It was the goal. No one wanted to cruise the bar scene forever.

Even endless pussy got old. I know, I’d had trouble believing it too.

“Yeah. I just wanted you to know, like to say it, that it’s not about you or our friendship. That’s solid as bedrock. Nothing will change that.” His Adam’s apple bobbed with his swallow in the low light. “I promise, Luc.”

I swallowed too, shocked to feel heat behind my eyes. I hadn’t known I needed to hear it. Big tough guy who didn’t do emotions. Why would I need emotional shit like that? I knew we were good.