I laugh, clamping a hand over my mouth quickly.
“You fucking suck, asshole,” he hisses before walking away and straight out the front door.
I’m still grinning when I go back to April. She’s asleep like I expected her to be, but even in slumber, she rolls toward me when I climb into bed with her.
Chapter 35
April
“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Em tells me with a huge smile.
“I’m excited,” I say, my tone not reflecting my words, making several of the girls chuckle. “What exactly are we waiting for?”
“Colton had to take a call before he could leave,” Sophia, Dominic’s daughter says. She’s married to Colton Matthews, a local police detective.
“Colton is going baby stuff shopping with us?”
I look around the room. Sophia is the only one who rolls her eyes as she rubs her very large stomach. The woman is due in a matter of weeks, but she still seems excited to be here, other than waiting on Colton. “Dad and Uncle Diego said that we had to have more men with us since so many of us were going.”
Nearly everyone is here. Simone and Gigi are across the street with a hoard of kids. Delilah has had problems with swelling in her ankles so she’s over there as well, helping from the sofa with her feet propped up.
“Colton, Cannon, Samson, and Lawson all have to go,” Sophia continues to explain. “Like those men have nothing better to do.”
“We’re here!” We all look toward the front door, watching as Max and Jasmine come inside.
“And Max,” Sophia mutters.
“Sounds like we’re going to have lots of help carrying bags,” I say with a smile. I like that the guys are planning to come. It means the questions and conversation with the girls won’t get too personal.
“Ready?”
I spin around to see Kincaid, Dominic, Itchy, Shadow, and Snatch walking toward us.
“Dad,” Sophia grumbles. “Uncle Diego? Why? You’re going to ruin all of our fun.”
The men chuckle.
Kincaid takes a step closer. “Complaining won’t change a thing, brat. Let’s go.”
Em steps into Kincaid’s side, as does Misty with Shadow, and we all head out, piling into a handful of SUVs like we’re going on a class field trip. I know none of the girls wanted to miss the trip, and I know they knew this is what would happen if we all decided to go out together, but it seems to be overkill. There are over twenty of us heading to Target, and I’ve been in the car when Nate has driven by that baby specialty shop Precious Dreams. There’s no way we’ll all fit in there. The shop owner is going to hate us. I just know it.
“We’ll hit Target first,” Dominic says as he climbs behind the wheel of the SUV I’m riding in.
Sophia smacks him on the arm from the driver’s seat. “Do not try to turn this trip into a mission, Dad.”
“There are a lot of people, Soph. We’ll never get done on time if we don’t stay organized.”
“Done on time?” Sophia scoffs. “We don’t have a done time. We’re going to be shopping all day long.”
“The game starts at three.”
“I guess you should’ve thought about that before you and your commandos took over our trip. The first place we’re going is the coffee shop. April likes the boba tea.”
“I don’t have—”
Sophia holds her hand up, making me snap my mouth closed.
“Ten-four,” Dominic says he pulls out of the driveway, heading toward town. “The one on Commerce.”
Sophia gasps, glaring at her dad. “Are you mic’d up right now?”
“It keeps us coordinated, Soph. Settle down or you’re going to end up in labor. You ladies are our most precious cargo. Of course we’d treat this like any other mission.”
My eyes sting with the concern in his voice, and I kind of like knowing the guys will be around to make sure we’re safe. I haven’t even gone back to work much less left the house since Cory showed up in town. I’ve been too afraid he’d find me again.
The coffee shop is just as hectic as I expected it to be with so many people walking through the doors. Some people got up and left as if they thought they were in danger, but some—mostly women—hung around watching the guys like they had a chance with them.
We drank boba tea, others sipping on lattes and coffee for over an hour, and I smiled more than once wondering if the women did it just to annoy the guys. The men however didn’t seem to mind at all. They kept to the side of the shop, letting us all sit together and chat. Every time a patron entered, saw the guys, and left, one of the men would go to the counter and buy another drink, as if they were supplementing the income the shop was losing by scaring away the customers. By the time we left, twice as many drinks as we needed were ordered and several of the guys walked out carrying pastry boxes filled with sweet treats.