Chapter 27: Angel
“Hey there,” she said as she looked me over. “Been a long time. You look like shit,” she added with a grin.
“You look like you’re ready to drop that elephant you’re carrying,” I said with a grin as I hurried across the room to meet her. We hugged tightly, which was awkward because she was bigger than a house. “How many are in there?” I asked her as I stepped back.
“One,” she growled as she looked past me to glare at her husband. “The last one,” she added with a scowl.
“You say that every time,” Jer grinned as he looked back at his wife. “And then you’re demanding more babies.”
“I don’t demand,” she protested, and she looked at me with an eye roll. “I don’t demand, he’s just got a big—”
“And because my ears don’t need to be assaulted anymore, Chrissy, I think that’s enough.” Onyx looked between the two of us. “We need to work here. Are you okay to go to your room?”
“Wow, such a dick,” Chrissy snapped at him. “She isn’t a child. You aren’t sending her to her room, asshole.” Chrissy looked to where the stairs were. “Also, I’m not getting up those stairs and back down without offloading my kid, so if you don’t want my placenta on your billionaire carpet, I suggest we keep the pregnant people on this floor.”
Onyx didn’t react, but Jer was grinning openly, and I had to hide my own smile behind my hand. I’d missed her; it had been too long.
“He has a corner of the room where we won’t be in the way,” I said as I took her arm. “Onyx, can you bring us water?” I asked over my shoulder.
“Of course.”
“I need snacks,” Chrissy shouted back, and I saw Onyx wince and Jer nod.
“I got you, baby,” he told her.
Leading her to the other couch far from the kitchen, I helped her down, and then I lifted her legs and put them on the couch.
“Did you fly here?” I asked as I gazed at her swollen belly.
“God no, it would have been like a scene fromAliens, baby bursting out mid-flight, screaming, fainting, and that would just be Jer.”
I was laughing hard, and as I wiped my eyes, I smiled at her fondly. “I’ve never gone through it, but I’m pretty confident that’s not how it works.”
“True.” Chrissy grinned. “It would be epic if it was though.” She thought about it. “To someone else, obviously.”
“It would be horrifying,” I corrected her.
She shrugged and then beamed as Jer carried over a tray with crackers, sliced fruit, dried fruit, and some chips. Onyx was behind him with hot water and lemon, and chilled water for us both.
“I like this,” Chrissy said as she looked at me. “You’ve domesticated him?”
“Um, no, Onyx is . . . we, um, it’s—”
“Okay,” she said as she looked between us. “I get it.”
She did? Did I?
“She needs to nap,” Jer told me as he kissed his wife’s head. “Don’t fight it,” he cautioned her.
“I’m sorry,” I told her when they left us. “I didn’t mean to cause you so much trouble.”
“Puh-lease,” Chrissy drawled as she reached for an apple slice. “I have two toddlers, and I’m growing a full-sized human. You want to see trouble? Come to my house on a Saturday morning when Daddy’s in charge of breakfast. Then wait the twenty-three minutes before all the sugar kicks in and my entire household descends into madness.”
“It sounds perfect,” I told her warmly.
“It sounds like we need therapy,” she corrected me. “So, you andtheDevil, huh? Sounds like old times.”
“Um, no. He’s been helping me.” I reached for my hot water. “It’s a bit complicated.”
