“I think I can do that.” He tugged my hand until we were flush with each other, then our arms moved into their favorite positions: mine around his waist, his circling my shoulders. Warm lips pressed against my cheek, then my temple. “You look pretty, Mic.”
I’d made an effort. The lines were so blurred between us, I didn’t know up from down. Should I have been making an effort for Mo, my friend? Maybe not. But there was no denying he was more than that. I wasn’t ready to shove on a wedding ring and live the married life, but…I’d made the effort anyway.
Freshly showered after tonight’s concert, I left my hair down in wild curls. Makeup was pretty beyond me, but I wore a yellow tank top that hugged my tits and belly, and a pair of newly acquired maternity skinny jeans.
“Thank you.” I breathed in his ginger scent. “You smell good.”
A laugh rumbled out of him. “But I look like shit?”
“Fishing for compliments is unbecoming, Moses.” Patting his chest, I backed up a step or two, biting my bottom lip so I wouldn’t smile. “You look ridiculously good, and your bare feet make me think of sex.”
He dropped to his knees in front of me, sliding my shirt up to bare my stomach. “Your mom likes to torture me. Can you try to be a good influence on her?”
“Get off the floor and stop talking smack about me to the baby.”
“So mean,” he whispered to my bump before hopping up. “I heard something about pizza.”
Half an hour later, I’d traded my jeans for pajama pants, ditched my cute tank top for a baggy Unrequited T-shirt, and thrown my hair into a messy bun on top of my head. On the bed in front of me was the massive pizza Mo had ordered. He sat cross-legged on one side of the box, while I sat on the other, shoving a too-hot piece of pizza into my watering mouth.
“Tell me something true,” I said after I swallowed.
“Hmmm…” He wiped his mouth with a crinkled up paper napkin. “I keep wondering when I get to be on your Instagram.”
“Is this because Devon’s on there?”
“Maybe.” He practically unhinged his jaw as he took a huge bite out of his slice.
“There were five people between us.”
“Mmhmm.”
“So, the true thing you’re telling me is you’re jealous of Devon’s public presence in my life?”
“Mmm.”
“I’m not sure that’s an answer. But my answer to you is that account doesn’t represent my real life. That’s work and my travels. You’re part of my real life.”
“Okay.” He nodded, eyes down on the bed. “Then my thing that’s true is I’m relieved not to be on your Instagram and I’m gloating a little that Devon fucking Chambers is.”
“As you should be. He’s been super annoying since you stopped by the tour last week, asking every prying question he can. I’m not sure he even cares to hear my answers, he just wants to bug me.”
I grabbed another piece of pizza, and Mo watched me shove it into my mouth like a goddamn lady.
“Baby making you hungry?” he asked.
“Mmm-mmm,” I answered around a full mouth. “I like to eat all the food all the time.”
He chuckled, picking up another slice of his own. “Same. Which is why my ass is in the gym two hours a day.”
“Two hours? Huh, I wonder how that works when you have a tiny baby.”
He paused mid-chew, and for the first time since I told him the news, something like panic passed over his features. “Um…okay, I hadn’t thought about that.”
“To be fair, neither had I. I’m not in denial, but while I’m working and on the road, it’s easy not to think about what’s coming.” And far less scary, because fuck, I was about to have a tiny human in my life forever.
He tossed his crust back in the box. “Guess I don’t even have the foggiest idea of what’s coming. Never really been around kids or babies.”
“That’s a relief to me. Then you won’t know when I inevitably screw up.”