“So?! Pregnant doesn’t make me handicapped.”
“Uh, yes it does.” I roll my eyes in Mick and Colin’s direction, but it doesn’t do any good; neither of them will look at me or her.
She hikes her backpack strap up higher on her shoulder. “Whatever. I’m packed and I’m ready to go and I know you are too. So let’s do this.”
I glare at Mick. “This is your fault.”
“How is it my fault?” He finally looks at me, throwing his hands up in the air. “You were the one blabbing every day this week about our plans. Just cuz she was sitting there staring at her damn book reader thingy doesn’t mean she’s deaf.”
“Exactly,” Alissa says, very satisfied with herself. “So I know everything you have planned, and I’m totally on board.” She changes her attitude in a flash, downshifting into pitiful pleading. “Please, Quin? I really want to help Teagan. She’s doing all this for me and all I’m doing is spongeing off her. I want to do something to contribute. I want to help her get her life back. Let me do this. I could be very helpful, I promise.”
The pregnant pleading is getting to me. Round bellies are like Kryptonite. I try to harden my soul and adjust my tone to make it meaner. I need her to hate me so she’ll just drop this nonsense and go away. “No. You’ll just slow us down.”
Instead of scaring her, I think I accidentally gave her false hope. She sounds way too excited. “No, I won’t, I promise. I’m perfectly healthy and everything is fine with the baby. And I’ve been in drama club for six years. I can totally pull anything off you need me to.”
“What do you think, Colin?” I look over my shoulder at him. I know what he’s going to say, so I’m using him to bolster my arguments. No one can stand having Colin angry at them. She’ll run to the bathroom crying.
“I think it’s a bad idea,” he says. He won’t look at either of us. Something very interesting on the ceiling has his attention. I think it’s a speck of lint. He’s so not intimidating when he does that.
“Who cares what you think?” Alissa says, the venom in her voice hard to miss.
I laugh without humor. “Whoa, pregnancy hormones … have any of those, maybe?” I’m hoping if I point out the obvious, she’ll see the error of her ways and stay home with her nose in another book.
She puts her second arm through her backpack straps. “Say what you want. I’m going, and you can’t stop me.”
“Wanna bet?” I say, walking towards the door. I really, really don’t like being strong-armed by a pregnant girl wearing argyle socks.
The three of us are nearly all the way out and the apartment is almost closed up again when her voice comes through the crack in the door. “I’ll tell! I’m calling Teagan now!”
“Goddammit!” I growl in a very loud whisper, shutting the door not quite all the way. “She’s going to fucking blow this before we can even get it started.” I give Mick the angry eyebrow. “This is your fault.”
“My fault? How is this my fault?”
“You’re the one who’s been all nicey-nice to her. She probably likes you.” I hate that a spark of jealousy flames to life over that little observation. He’s not mine. I don’t have any claim on his fine ass because my life sucks massive donkey dong at the moment.
He snorts. “Bullshit. And you’ve been nice to her too. I saw you putting her feet up yesterday and making her tea.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t rub those swollen feet, now did I? Unlike some people…”
Colin jerks his head back to us at that bit of news. “Dude, you rubbed her feet? What’s wrong with you? You like her? She’s fucking pregnant.”
Mick is disgusted with both of us. “No, I don’t like her. Not like that. But she’s pregnant and she has sore feet. Besides … she doesn’t have a contagious disease, Colin.”
Colin’s chest puffs out. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means. You avoid her like she has the plague or something. Why are you being such a dick about her, anyway?”
I put my hands out and place one over Mick’s face and one over Colin’s, smooshing their noses in. “Shush. Stop talking. I’m about to have a bitch attack and you two are likely to get seriously injured.” I sigh out heavily and let my hands slide off their chins. “Listen … wait out here. I’m going to go in there and talk to her woman-to-woman and explain to her very calmly and rationally how it’s not appropriate or helpful for her to come. Then we can leave, just the three of us.”
Mick laughs once. “Yeah. Okay. Let us know how that works out for ya.”
I ignore his mockery and go back into the apartment. I’m strong. I’m powerful. I can handle this pregnant chick with her shirt buttoned up to her neck and her pony tail pulled so tight she looks Chinese. Pfft. Walk in the park, bitches.
Alissa throws her phone up to her ear and says, “Oh, hello, Teagan? Hi, this is Alissa.”
“Get that stick out of your butt, Alissa. I know she’s not on the phone.” I drop into the armchair across from the couch. She’s standing in front of it, the coffee table between us.
She lowers her phone and puts it into her backpack. “I’m going with you guys,” she says in a softer tone as she lowers herself down into the cushions behind her legs.
“I need you to not go with us,” I say, also trying to go a little softer than I feel right now. Honestly, I just want to body slam her like I do with my younger siblings sometimes when they don’t listen, but her pregnancy makes that kind of difficult. I’ve never viewed being pregnant as having a superpower, but I’m starting to come around to that way of thinking.
“Please?” she says, “You don’t understand.” And then the tears come.
I thought I could hold out.
I thought I could stand up to whatever argument she had up her sleeve.
I thought I could be a badass mofo and put this tubby, swollen-ankled twat monster in her place.
I was wrong.
All her crap comes pouring out in a mess of tears and mucus goo and I don’t even want to know what else.
“I have nothing and no one!” she wails. “I’m powerless and penniless and completely without a compass in my life! There’s only one person in the entire world who cares about me right now and you’re going to help her and I need to do that too! I need to matter! I need to know I’m worth something … that I count! What kind of mother sits down on the sidelines while her hero is being dragged through the mud?! I can’t be that kind of mother! I have to do the right things and make up for this … this …” She can’t finish. There’s too much goo. Too much emotion.
I grit my teeth over and over, trying to keep feeding the anger that was helping me stay strong and thereby keeping her out of our plans. Her coup de grâce is too much, though. I’m powerless to stop this freight train of awful as she continues to spew words that are too pitiful to hear.
Her tone becomes suddenly very soft. Very clear. Very resigned. “The father of my child threw me away like a piece of trash. I need to know that I stand for something. That I am worth having around.”
The camel’s back? Yeah. It’s broken. That last straw was just a tad too heavy. I jump to my feet, pacing back and forth in front of the low table between us. “Fine. You want to go? Fine. You want to get in trouble, maybe get arrested and have your baby in jail? Fine. Fine! You’re the parent, not me! You’re the one who will be setting a terrible example for a brand new baby! You’re the one who will have a black mark on her life for all of eternity!”
She stands and smiles. “Yes. I agree to your terms.”
I stop and put my hands on my hips. “Those. Weren’t. Terms! They were dire warnings meant to scare you off.”
She tosses her pony tail over her shoulder. “I don’t scare off. Not anymore.”
I leave the room and go back out into the hallway because I don’t trust myself not to say the wrong thing.
“So, we ready to go?” Mick asks, his smile back full force.
I glare at him and say
nothing. I’m five seconds away from slapping someone and his cheek is mighty tempting. Damn, he is too cute for words. Hey … maybe if I did that he’d grab me and push me into the wall and start kissing me all over …
My fantasy is interrupted by a nightmare on spindly yet swollen legs.
Alissa joins us in the hallway.
Mick raises his eyebrows at me and then follows me down the stairs into the garage. When we get outside a few seconds before Alissa and Colin, he leans in and whispers, “I thought you were going to handle her.”
“I did. She was in drama club forever. She can help us.” I can’t look him in the eye.
“She cried, didn’t she?”
I huff out an annoyed breath. “Yes. Fuck me, she cried all over the damn place.”
“And the fact that she bragged about her drama club membership didn’t make you at all suspicious of those tears?”
I watch her coming out the door, Colin behind her with a sick expression on his face.
Alissa is walking over to Mick’s car, her chin held up and her eyes full of determination. She’s acting tough and confident, but I’m seeing something else now.
“Nah,” I say, for the first time thinking maybe this was the right thing to do, to let her come along. “She’s not acting.”
“Okay, if you say so.” Mick chuckles. “Man, you are too easy.”
I freeze on my way over to the car. “You did not just call me easy.”
He turns around to walk backwards, his hands held up in front of him. “Who me? Never. That’s the dead last word I’d ever use to describe you, actually.”
I walk fast to catch up to him. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, my heart picking up the pace a little. His expression is pure devilry and I love it.
He opens the door and gestures for me to get into the passenger seat. “You know exactly what I mean,” he says, waiting for me to get in.
I stop when we’re almost nose to nose, the door between us. “I’m not difficult.”
“You don’t think so?” he asks. His eyes are dancing with humor.
“No, I don’t.” I’m close enough that I can see sparse patches of beard stubble on his chin. I want to reach out and touch one of them and pet it, but I hold back. Touching him even once would be a mistake. I don’t think I’d ever come back from it.
“Well, you sure as hell ain’t easy,” he says, gesturing to the interior of the car with his chin. “Get in.”
Something about him makes me want to challenge everything he says. I should just do what he’s telling me to do, but instead, I give him some shit. “Make me.” A thrill shoots through me at my challenge.
I think he’s going to just say something back, give me some shit, but instead he moves. And he does it so quickly, it sends my heart into overdrive as I realize I just became prey.
I squeal as I leap sideways to get away from him, jumping into the passenger side of the car and sliding over the leather bench-seat away from him.
He leans in and grins. “That’s what I thought.” And then he’s gone and the door is shut between us. He smiles all the way around the front of the car, clearly proud of himself.
Way too proud, if you ask me.
That cocky smile fuels me into action. I can’t stand that he got one over on me. Leaning over to reach the steering wheel, I lay on the horn just as Mick is passing the front grill of the car. He jumps about a foot into the air and the smile disappears off his face for a few seconds as he tries to figure out what just happened.
I’m still laughing when the four of us pull out of the parking lot and head out to the highway.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M surprised to find that Mick and I like the same kind of music. And, oh my g-spot, does he have a great voice. He can sing anything. When we do a duet of Pink’s Just Give Me A Reason, my panties pretty much melt right off me. I’ve never sang with a guy before and it’s almost to the point of being intoxicating. The whole thing of Mick and me being a really bad idea and a non-starter is going right out the window.
Music is a seriously powerful aphrodisiac. My mind is going into all kinds of dark places. I’m ready to demand that he pull over into a rest stop so we can do it in a bathroom when Alissa leans over into the front seat.
“Pee stop. I have to pee,” she says.
It’s a sign. I was thinking Mick and I could do it at a rest stop and now Alissa needs a rest stop. I squirm in my seat as I imagine getting all hot and heavy with Mick in less than five minutes. Could it really happen? Should it happen? Would he be into it? Is there something seriously wrong with me that I’d consider getting busy in or near a nasty public restroom? Maybe, but I don’t care. I’m too turned on with my duet-induced fantasies and just looking at him sitting not two feet away from me to think properly.
I glance over and all I can see of his face is his right cheek, but even so, he is too sexy for words. His strong hands curl over the steering wheel, and a tattoo of a skull peeks out from under his shirt sleeve. His leg muscles strain the material of his jeans, and I really, really want to know what’s going on underneath it all. I am seriously sick over this guy and all he has to do to infect me is sing a frigging song. Oy.
“Side of the road?” Mick asks Alissa.
“Ew. No. I need a toilet. I’m pregnant, okay?”
I roll my eyes. “How often are you going to pull that card?”
“As often as I need to.” She leans back into the back seat and I know she’s smiling in self-satisfaction.
“I need to go too,” says Colin. “Take the next exit.”
I turn around and play frown at him. “Do you need a toilet too?”
He looks out the window. “Yeah. Whatever.”
I turn back around, very unsatisfied with his answer. All the spark is gone from him. It’s like riding around with a corpse in the back seat. A corpse and a pain-in-the-ass, high-maintenance, pregnant chick.
We all end up using the facilities and then Mick disappears around the back of the small building that houses the toilets. Curious what he’s up to, I follow him, finding him about twenty feet away staring out into an area heavy with trees.
“What’s up?” I ask.
He doesn’t answer, so I keep going, getting closer to him with every step. “Are you okay? Is she making you nuts? Are you finding your happy place out here?”
I draw even with him and nearly have a heart attack when he jumps to life and grabs me around the waist.
My hands go up to his chest to fend him off, but I’m not pushing too hard. “What are you doing?” I’m out of breath and I haven’t even moved yet, really. I don’t want to move. Maybe he read my mind in the car. Maybe he wants to get busy out here too.
“Gotcha,” he says grinning. He leans towards my face.
I do a half-backbend trying to evade him. I’m more confused than anything. How is it possible we’re both thinking the same thing at the same time and no one is there to stop us or shoot us or try to run us over with a car? What’s the catch?
“What are you doing?” I ask, trying to gain some time to get my head sorted out.
He leans back. “Trying to kiss you. It’s not going very well, though.”
My jaw drops open as I stare at his face. This can’t be real. I wonder if I should pinch myself awake or just go with this dream. I hope I’m not drooling on his car while I sleep.
“What?” He looks uncomfortable. He lets me go with one hand and swipes at his mouth. “Do I have something on me?”
I quickly reach over and pinch my hand. It hurts. Yay! Relief washes over me. I’m awake. He’s real. This is happening.
“No, stupid, you don’t have anything on you.” Except me. I grab the front of his shirt and twist it in my hands, shaking him a little when I have a firm grip. “I’m just … ergh.”
He leans over and gently slides his hand back around my waist again. “Is that a good ergh or a bad ergh?”
His face is getting closer
as I stand straighter and he leans more into me. I can feel the front of his waist pushing into mine and something is getting bigger and harder between us. I can’t help but push up against it a little.
“I think it’s a good ergh,” I say, my voice mostly breath.
He’s going to kiss me. I tremble just the slightest bit with anticipation. The warmth of his arms and hands seep through the thin material of my shorts and t-shirt. As we come together, his fingers slide up my back and pull me to him. My heart feels like it’s about to beat itself right out of my chest cavity.
Our one and only other kiss was a playful thing. This one is not. His lips come to mine softly at first but then become more insistent. His warm tongue is there too, sliding along with mine, touching my lips, my teeth, anything that gets in its way. It’s hot out here in the woods. Really hot. My nipples go hard and I press into him farther, reveling in the feel of his body up against mine.
A loud horn honking just behind us, makes us both freeze in place. With our lips still pressed together, Mick says, “I think we’re being paged.”
I smile, a slight breeze washing over my hot skin, making me shiver just a tiny bit. “I think we are too.” I can’t come up with anything sexier or cooler to say. I feel like a complete goof. I suddenly realize that I’m actually making out with a guy behind a bathroom. Could I be any lamer?
He smashes his lips to mine and gives me one last, loud kiss before pulling away. “Come on. Time to go fight crime.”
I push him away, trying to act all casual even though my heart is going too fast and I’m anything but chill. “Stop saying that. We’re not fighting crime. We’re just doing some recon.” Don’t trip. Whatever you do, don’t trip.
“Yeah, right.” He walks slowly, waiting for me, staying by my side.
I’m afraid he’s going to take me by the hand and turn me into a complete and utter loon as I stutter and flutter and go all red in the face, so I stay far enough away that he can’t. It’s torture to want him to touch me like that but know I can’t let it happen. I need to keep it together, not let this simple kiss get the best of me and turn me into a flaming idiot. There’s nothing less sexy to a guy than that, and I really want him to find me sexy.