“No! I can’t just tell them right now. I’m not ready.”
“Too bad. You have to talk to them. The longer you wait, the worse it’ll be.” She didn’t even wait on me to close to car door before she pulled back on the road and headed towards Steele Lumber. “I can’t believe you got knocked up by Julian Steele.”
I shouted at her as I slammed the car door shut. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“And leave me with the responsibility of telling Julian? Yeah, right.”
“You’re making this worse!”
“That’s impossible.” She looked over at me and sighed. “I mean, it’s fine. Things are fine.”
“I’m so glad you’re taking me back. I can’t wait to get out of this car and get away from you. I’m so mad at you! You were the least helpful you’ve ever been!”
Kara laughed, and it eventually got me, too. When we were both laughing, she pulled over again and turned off the car. “I thought you were a bratty teenager again for a second there.”
I wiped my eyes, suddenly crying. “I just feel like I made so many mistakes. And then I came here to start something different. I don’t even know what I wanted, but just something better than being alone in the city. Now I’ve made a mess of this. What am I supposed to do?”
“You haven’t made a mess, Mal. You’ll sort it out with the guys and things will be okay. Better than okay because you already have a family with them. They just don’t know it yet.”
“Everyone knows I’m sleeping with three guys at the same time. Did you really know that was going to happen when you set me up with Isaac?”
Stroking my cheek and pushing my hair back out of my face, Kara smiled. “I had an idea. Everyone does know that the brothers prefer to act as one. They also know that they haven’t had anyone special in their lives since that twat Grace. I guess I thought they’d be good for you. A man for every occasion. And god, I have to believe the sex is everything. Not that you’ll tell me anything about it.”
“I can’t go out in public. Do you know how it feels to know that everyone knows I’m having wild sex with three brothers at once?” I cringed. “I have three holes, Kara. There are three brothers. You do the math!”
She’d just taken a drink of her coke and spewed it all over the windshield of the car. With a screaming laugh, she looked over at me and then down at my crotch. “Oh, my god!”
I groaned. “Kara! That’s what I’m afraid everyone is going to do!”
“No. No! They won’t.” She giggled. “They won’t!”
“It doesn’t even matter. The guys aren’t going to want to touch me after I tell them about Hank. I’m going to be known as that twat Mallory around town. Which is somehow a demotion from Mallory who takes it up the ass.”
Kara was crying then, laughing so hard that she was squeezing her legs together and grabbing at my arm. “Stop! I’m going to pee on myself!”
Hank started screaming along in the backseat, his happy screams just as ear-piercing as his angry screams. I sighed, defeated. “You can pee at the office if you head back that way.”
“Fine, fine.” She started the car and drove back to the office, still laughing as she did. “Go in there and tell them now. I’ll be there, so if things go poorly, I’ll get you out. Not that I think they will.”
I waved her away. “Just go pee. I’ll figure this out myself.”
She hurried inside, leaving me to get Hank and my food from the car. I’d just eat inside without Kara. My food would probably taste better if I wasn’t being laughed at while I ate it.
I walked in and dropped my food off before walking over to peek into Blake’s office to see if he was in. He was at his desk, looking at his computer, when he spotted me. I smiled and waved. “Just seeing if you were in.”
“Come here, baby.” He pushed away from the desk and patted his lap.
I chewed on my top lip and moved closer to him. “You call me that like you’ve known me forever.”
He smiled and pulled me down, gently since I was still holding Hank. “Wishful thinking, maybe.”
I felt myself blush and turned so I could wrap my arm around him and press my face into his neck. I really hoped that he would be able to get past what I had to tell him. Hank yanked at my hair, and I found myself even sadder when Blake gently pulled my hair out of Hank’s fingers.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Mal.”
“See, Mal! I told you he wasn’t going to freak out.” Kara strolled into his office and grinned at us. “Why wouldn’t he be excited about finding out Hank is Julian’s—”
“Kara!” I shot out of Blake’s lap and stood next to his desk, rigid. I’d startled Hank, and he started a slow cry that grew bigger the longer I didn’t soothe him. I couldn’t, though. I was too busy panicking about how Kara had just dropped the bomb on Blake for me.