Hooked by Love (Bellevue Bullies 3)

“What?” I ask, my heart jumping into my throat. “Can’t you just say yes and do it?”

He laughs. “Yeah, but I want to talk this through. Make sure you are making the right choice.”

“I am—”

“I’m gonna have Francesca text you where dinner will be. Six okay?”

“Um…” God, I don’t want to go. “Yeah, that’s fine. Avery gets off at five thirty, so that works great.”

“Wonderful, I can hug my new daughter-in-law,” he says with a cheerful laugh, and it just doesn’t feel right. Something is off. Fuck. “So I’ll see you soon, then.”

“Okay.”

When the line goes dead, I’m pretty sure I just agreed to meet with the devil.

When Avery comes out of the building, I smile and wave as she rushes to the car. Getting in, she slams the door shut before leaning over to kiss me. “I wrote the most gorgeous song for our baby.”

“Really?” I ask, kissing her again.

“Yes, it’s called ‘Heartbeat.’”

“You’ll have to play it for me.”

“Duh. Done.” She giggles as she leans into me. “It’s gonna be the first song I sing at the showcase, I think.”

“Still only want to be a songwriter? Don’t want to try for a record deal?”

She nods. “Nope, I love songwriting. I feel good about it.”

“Awesome.” I kiss her again because I can’t help myself.

When she backs away, she eyes me. “You okay?”

I shrug. “Yeah, tired,” I lie, but it isn’t really a lie. I am dead tired, but I don’t want to worry her with shit about my dad. “Listen, my dad wants to go to dinner to celebrate.”

“You told him?”

“Stu did,” I say with a smile as I pull out. “My dad called, and I confirmed.” I shade the truth a bit.

“That jerk,” she laughs and I shrug.

“No biggie. So if you don’t want to go, I’ll take you home. If you do, then it’s about ten minutes from here.”

She watches me for a second. “I want to go if you want me to, but you seem a little distant. Are you sure you’re okay?”

I flash her a winning grin. “Yeah, for sure, and I want you to go.”

“Okay.”

Sending her one more smile, I make the turn for dinner, but I still feel her looking at me. She’s been doing that a lot lately. Probably because I’m trying to handle everything and make sure she doesn’t have to worry at all. I just don’t want her to stress. She has to grow our baby and she has enough shit to deal with. School, internship, and her family. When they completely cut her off, she was devastated. Who wouldn’t be? But as her husband, I have to hold her up, and I’m going to do just that.

She won’t feel alone on my watch.

Or stressed.

No, fucking way.

Swallowing hard, I pull on to Broadway and then down into the Gulch to Kayne Prime, one of the best steakhouses in town. Pulling up to the valet, I get out and hand the keys to the guy as Avery waits for me at the bottom of the stairs. She’s smiling, her face bright, but all I can see is the little pooch her belly is forming. It’s usually so flat since she’s a little person, but today, she looks pregnant. And while it scares the shit out of me, it only fuels me to do better by her.