Page 30 of Keeping Zita

“You’re pregnant,” Casper reminded her in a low, emotional voice.

“And?” Laryn demanded. “I’m not helpless. Never have been and never will be. I’m also not fragile. I’m not going to break if someone grabs me or pushes me around. I love how protective you are, Tate, but I’m not going to be happy if you spend my entire pregnancy treating me as if I’m made of glass.”

“I know, but⁠—”

Laryn held up a hand, palm toward him. “No buts!” she declared.

Zita couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped.

“Thanks, guys,” Sage told his friends.

“No need to thank us,” Buck said. “Besides, the bartender was the one who actually took out the trash.”

“Not that we wouldn’t’ve, but we were more concerned about making sure that fuckhead didn’t put his hands on Laryn,” Chaos said.

“Are you guys good?” Buck asked Sage.

“Yeah,” Sage told his friend.

“You going to have a problem on set after this?” Edge asked.

Zita wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or Sage, but she answered anyway. “I don’t usually see much of her. She’s either in her trailer or on set. Unless she falls and conks her head on the floor and requires medical attention, I should be able to keep my distance.”

“Good. What about you, Obi-Wan?”

“There’s no reason for me to be around her. I’ve mostly been talking to Logan and the set directors, script people, the director, and the costumers.”

“Hopefully she’ll be too humiliated to seek him out again,” Mandy said, a bloodthirsty kind of satisfaction in her voice. “I know I would be.”

Zita wasn’t too sure. Carmen was a product of Hollywood. She drastically overestimated her own appeal. The thought that Sage honestly wasn’t interested was a concept so foreign, she couldn’t comprehend it.

Unfortunately, she would probably twist everything that happened tonight into some sort of scheme on Zita’s part to keep her and Sage apart. She hoped not, but she wouldn’t be surprised if Carmen became even more desperate and determined to get Sage into her bed.

Doing her best to push the thought away—she’d never been the kind of person to stress about something she had no control over—Zita tried to relax. It helped that Sage’s arm was on the back of her chair, and she could feel the heat from his thigh seeping into her own leg, which was touching his.

They stayed another hour, laughing and joking with his friends. Several people sent over free drinks for the table, which Mandy and Zita ended up consuming most of, since the men were driving and didn’t want to be impaired, and Laryn was pregnant.

By the time everyone decided to head home, Zita was a bit unsteady on her feet but happier than she’d been in a long time. She had fun tonight. She loved meeting and getting to know the people who were closest to Sage. And Mandy and Laryn were fun to be around, and she’d clicked with them in a way she didn’t usually with most women.

After they’d all stood, Mandy gave her a long, heartfelt hug, which felt amazing. Before meeting Sage and his friends, it had been forever since Zita had been touched by another human in a way that wasn’t casual or a part of her job as a medical professional. Her family was very affectionate, but she didn’t get home to Indiana to see them often enough, something she made a mental vow to remedy as soon as she could.

When it was Laryn’s turn to say goodbye, she also hugged Zita, but it was a little more reserved, which went with the tough exterior the mechanic projected to others. Zita couldn’t help but hold on to her a second longer as she said into her ear, “I’ll see what I can learn about live-in nannies, to help you out when the time comes. I’ve got some connections, and I swear I’ll find you a good one.”

When they pulled apart, Laryn stared at Zita for a long moment before nodding.

“It’s going to work out. How could it not when you have these amazing friends who all have your back?”

“Friends who’ll all be on the same deployment I will,” Laryn reminded her.

“Well, you’ve got me and Mandy too. And while I have no idea where I’ll be by the time you have that baby, or when you’ll be deployed for the first time after giving birth, I’ll do what I can from wherever I am to help you.”

“Why?”

Zita shrugged. The alcohol she’d consumed was swimming in her bloodstream, making her a little more mushy than she usually would be after meeting someone for the first time. “Hell if I know. I just know that Sage is a good man. I respect him, and you’re someone he would obviously throw down for, which means you’re good people. So I want to help.”

Laryn smiled. “It sounds so weird to hear Obi-Wan referred to as Sage.”

Zita grinned back at her. “It’s weird for me to think of him as Obi-Wan. I haven’t even seen the movies.”