“For what?”
/> “For misappropriating my favorite pair of underwear.”
“You can have it back.”
“Thanks, I’ll pass.” She crossed her arms under her breasts. “I have to be at work in a few hours.”
My fingers tightened on the handles of the popcorn, one for each hand. “Don’t you usually have Sundays off?”
“Most of the time, but with the holidays coming up, more people are asking for time off. Especially the ones with families. The single pringles like me usually offer to take up the slack.”
“But you have—” I fell silent before I revealed my hand.
It wasn’t as if I’d even thought of it consciously. Just my instinct was to say we were hers. That she was ours.
And no matter what kind of house we were playing temporarily, that just wasn’t true.
“Right. That’s nice of you.” I cleared my throat. “The baby is down for a nap?”
“Yeah. Full belly always knocks her right out. Well, not always. I’ve only known her since Tuesday.” She let out an awkward laugh then laughed for real when she realized Sadie had curled up on the mat in front of the sink to have private time with her shoe. “Give me that, brat.”
Sadie let her take back her sneaker then dropped her head to her crossed paws with a morose expression.
“Lord only knows where the other one is.” She shook her head as she dropped the sneaker on the floor. “I may be hotfooting it at the diner.”
“You could call in?”
Even as I asked it, I knew it was a stupid question. Gina had a policy that neither death or dismemberment could keep her from a scheduled shift. Since I had similar values, I admired her sense of responsibility.
Or I did normally, when I didn’t really want to spend the day with her and the kid and the dog. Just putting together popcorn garland and listening to corny Christmas songs and loafing around doing nothing. I didn’t get a lot of those days, and now with a baby, I’d be getting them even less—especially once I told my dad and Mason about the new addition to the family, along with Bonnie and John and August and all the rest.
They would want to meet her and get to know her and then there would be sitters and school and so many things I couldn’t even comprehend yet. Things I was not prepared for in the slightest.
I was on borrowed time. The jig was almost up. Soon, I would no longer be able to pretend I was the same Jared Brooks I’d been even a week ago.
With Thanksgiving imminent, today felt like a last oasis before my personal world went completely nuts. Of course I wanted to share it with Gina. Why wouldn’t I? I wanted to share everything with her.
Including your bed.
“If I called in, someone would have to cover for me.”
“Yeah.” I shook the popcorn harder as it started to seriously pop. What else could I do? I knew she was right.
“Besides, you wouldn’t call in yourself, so how can you ask me to?”
“Privilege of the penis?”
She hesitated for a moment. “Your penis has no privilege or sway here. Sorry, pal.”
Didn’t I know it.
“But I still have some time before I have to go.” She moved beside me at the stove and grabbed the handle of the other popcorn container, giving it a good strong shake. “So, we can do whatever you wanted to do if I called in, just faster.”
There was no way I could censor myself. “I prefer nice and slow.”
She stopped shaking the popcorn and took a deep breath. “Is that how you made that baby upstairs?”
My fingers curved around the handle until my knuckles went white. “That’s always going to be between us.” My voice was quiet.