Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
“You’ve been holding out on us.” Landry smiles.
“Leave them alone,” Rowan tells her husband.
“What did we miss?” Reid asks, leading the pack of the rest of our friends and baby Coral to enter the kitchen.
“Did you all know about this?” Landry asks them, pointing at us.
“Yep.” Foster nods.
“What? How?” Landry demands.
“I pay attention.” He shrugs.
“I had my suspicions,” Bellamy speaks up.
“Me, too.” Rowan smiles.
“Same,” Corie tells them.
“Not me.” Amanda grins. “But I’m happy for you all.”
“Hey, where’s Ethan?” I ask her. She’s always hanging out with us without her husband. “You know he’s welcome, right?”
“Yeah, he’s working on a big case.”
“He’s always working on a big case,” Bellamy says accusingly.
“He’s trying to make partner,” Amanda says, but not really in his defense, just explaining.
“Well, next time, you need to drag his ass with you,” I tell her. She nods, then the timer goes off on the oven.
“What’s that?” Landry and Reid ask at the same time.
“I made brownies,” I tell them. I tap Baker’s shoulder to get him to step away so I can hop off the counter and get them.
Instead, he turns, kisses my lips softly, then swivels and steps away, pulling the brownies out of the oven. My eyes find Corie’s, and she nods, grins, and waggles her eyebrows.
“They need to cool,” I tell Landry as he makes his way to the stove to get a closer look.
“I like them warm.”
“They’re hot, not warm. You’ll burn your mouth.”
“Worth it,” he says, eyeing the pan.
“Until you can’t kiss your wife because of the pain,” Baker tells him.
“Yeah, I think we’ll let them cool off a bit,” Landry says, stalking back to where Rowan is standing and tossing his arm over her shoulders.
“So, is this officially official?” Reid asks, taking Coral from Bellamy.
“Yep,” Baker answers.
“Cool.” He nods, and that’s it.
The people closest to us have easily accepted that we’re together. Just as if it was always meant to be, and maybe it was. I’ve always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and maybe, just maybe, losing my job was meant to happen. That journey of unemployment led me here, to a man and his little boy whom I’ve known for a while, but never considered could become more to me.
And they do. They mean so much to me, and I’m still scared of losing them. Losing this incredible group of people as my friends and the connection we have as a group, but I won’t hide behind that fear. Instead, I’ll embrace it and face it head-on, and hope like hell this ends in happily ever after.
Yeah, I can see Baker and Camden being my happy—hell, they already are—and my ever after. I’d love that, but this is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’ll take each day as it comes.
“Any special requests for pizza?” Baker asks.
A few requests are called out as he pulls his phone out of his pocket and places the order. We all move to the living room to settle in and wait for the food to get here. Baker has his fingers laced with mine, and when he sits down in one of the recliners, he pulls me onto his lap.
I glance around the room. Corie’s on Knox’s lap, Rowan is on Landry’s, Bellamy is on Reid’s, and Foster is making faces at Coral, the sound of her baby giggles filling the room.
Something about this moment feels right.
“Right where I want you,” Baker whispers, and my heart melts.
I don’t have a chance in hell of resisting this man. I don’t know what’s next for us, but I do know that I’m in for whatever it is. My mind plays out visions of what we could be, what our future might look like, and damn, do I want it.
Chapter Seventeen
Baker
* * *
This feels right. Sloane in my arms is what I’ve been missing. Her. She’s the missing piece. My friends—our friends—didn’t bat an eye at seeing us together. Not that I expected them to. But I know Sloane, and she was worried about how we’re going to weave the old us into the new us with our friends, and it’s simple. We just do.
Camden starts to babble over the baby monitor, and Sloane jumps off my lap. “I’ll go grab him.” She’s already bouncing toward the steps before I can tell her that I can get him. Instead, I remain seated with a dopey smile on my face.
“I like this,” Corie says, waving her hand in my direction. “But you hurt her, and I’ll kick you in the balls.”
I chuckle. “Duly noted. I don’t plan on hurting her.”
“Baker, this is messy,” Rowan adds softly.
I shrug. “The last almost three years of my life have been messy. This is… more.” I let my admission hang in the air.
“Are you happy?” Foster asks me.
My smile grows, because how could I not be? “Euphoric.”