“Whoa. What are you talking about?”
Reg rolled his eyes and flopped onto the bench opposite me. “You and Thor, the lumberjack. I know.”
My jaw dropped. “That’s not it, and how—how do you know what you think you know…? Which you don’t know, just so you know.”
“Wow.” He snickered. “This is kind of fun. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you turn that many shades of pink in less than ten seconds.”
“Ha. Ha. You’re wrong and?—”
“I’m a cop, Dex. It’s my job to know what’s going on in this town. Make that all four towns in the Four Forest area. I swear I haven’t been spying on you, but patrol cars sweep the streets to make sure all is well, and…your SUV has been spotted in the dead of night in the lumberjack’s driveway and his has been spotted—well…usually across from and diagonally parked on your street. Muldoon mentioned something about him parking his bike in your garage, too. But before you get on a righteous soapbox about an infringement of privacy etcetera, etcetera, the officers who reported the info to me aren’t the type to blast it through town. And neither am I. Your secret is safe.” He cocked his head curiously. “Is it a secret?”
Shit. I should have known.
“I guess not,” I huffed irritably.
“Hey, what’s the big deal? You and me…we’re fine.”
“I know, I know. Yes, I like Viggo and we’re…yeah. But that isn’t my news.”
Reg lifted a brow. “Oh?”
I closed my eyes for a beat and took another drink. “Remember the surrogate I told you about?”
“The Swedish artist?”
“Her name is Freya. She’s pregnant…due at the beginning of December.”
“Congratulations!” Reg whooped. “You’re gonna be a dad!”
“Yeah. I am.”
He jumped up, pulled me to my feet, and hugged me. “I’m happy for you, Dex. Very happy.”
“Thanks, I’m…thrilled.”
“You should be. Tell me everything.”
I gave Reg a basic rundown of events and apologized for not letting him know sooner. “I just had to be sure this was real.”
“I get it. Are you sharing this news widely?”
“Well, I figured I’d start by telling the guys tonight. And I’ll let Janey and the crew at the donut shop know.”
Reg snorted. “And Janey will tell Layla, and everyone in town will know by tomorrow.”
“I think I’m okay with that.”
“Good.” He perched on the table. “Does your lumberjack know?”
I wrinkled my nose. “He’s—we’re not…it’s just sex, Reg. Great sex, but just sex.”
“Got it. Well…?”
“Yeah, Viggo knows. We met through Freya.”
“Ah! That makes sense.”
“I don’t know about that, but…it’s good. We understand each other. Neither of us is interested in anything serious. The baby is my only focus, and once he or she is here…that’s it for me.”
