John Gideon showed up first, driving his handyman truck. “I didn’t know if the help you needed required tools.”
“Nope, just manpower. Womenpower would be better, since they’re fundamentally more skilled at these sorts of things, but all of them are busy.”
“All of them? Like in town?”
“Close enough.”
“I’ll have you know, my wife says you will never get free coffee for keeping law and order again since you interrupted our Sunday.”
I shrugged. “There’s that stack of coasters now where people pay it forward with free coffees. I’ll just live off those.”
Sadie came barreling down the
hall to leap all over my friend. Handily, he crouched to hug her before she could knock him flat on his ass. That was a special skill of hers, evidently.
After a couple of moments of thorough petting, she wandered off, probably to keep watch on the sleeping baby.
I’d gotten so lucky with all three of my girls. I smiled and tucked my fists under my arms.
Three. I’d gone from Gina coming over now and then to hang with Sadie and I to having a houseful of love.
And I was officially sipping the sappy stuff, so that was enough of that.
John shook his head as he shed his coat. “Here I thought you were a man of the people. Instead, you just want freebies.”
“Freebies through wiles or intimidation. It’s how I live my life.” I clapped him on the back and led him into the living room. “How’s the family?”
“Good. Kid’s growing like a damn weed.”
“Do they ever stop hitting five milestones a week? It’s incredible how fast they advance.”
If John thought the question was odd, he didn’t say. “No, in my experience, it’s pretty constant. Especially at that age. Once they get to about—” He frowned at the whimper coming from the baby monitor on the coffee table. “It’s true? Are you serious?”
“Can you define the question?”
At the baby’s cry, John lifted a brow. “Macy said scuttlebutt indicated you were carrying around a reindeer baby like a fashion accessory last night when Gina took a spill. I figured there was an explanation, since you never told me. Added to that, you once claimed I was your best friend.”
“I was drunk,” I told him. “It’s a very rare event and makes me loopy.”
“Hmm.”
“What else did Macy hear about last night?”
“That there was some kind of scamming going on to make her lose the Gina-and-the-Sheriff-are-they-or-aren’t-they official betting pool.”
“There was no scamming. She was premature and I wasn’t and we provided proof.”
He held up a hand. “I’m glad for you and all, but too much information. It’s about damn time though. You and Gina were overdue.”
“We were, and thanks. Now I’ve got to convince her to marry me. You have any tips?” My voice sounded conversational—I hoped—but in my head, I was screaming like a teenager in a slasher flick.
How had I gotten to this place so fast? Other than being madly in love with her forever and madly in denial.
Sex had officially hurtled me into reality. I adored that woman.
John scratched his beardy chin. A lot of the men in town were already going into our hibernation looks for winter, myself included. “I’m not here to judge,” he said slowly. “But isn’t this sudden?”
“Not really. I tried to do the math in my head, but the best I could come up with was that I’ve been falling for her since about six days after we met.”