Page 10 of Gunner

Skye grinned as Mitch backed away with Maggie, Autumns baby daughter in his arms and waved at Autumn. “That man is head over heels for you.”

“I know,” Autumn sighed, and Lacey laughed.

“I don’t think he’s the only one head over heels.”

Autumn blushed but didn’t deny it.

They had gotten ready to the sound of Nate bathing Nancy, and Noah calling out his times tables from the bedroom as Nate quizzed him. It was chaos and beautiful, and Lacey would give her right arm for a life like this. She continued applying her mascara as she considered how she would feel if she was carrying Gunner’s baby and found that while it wasn’t the ideal situation, she wouldn’t regret it or see it as a bad thing. If she was honest with herself and she always tried to be these days, she wanted to be pregnant.

As it was still light, the three women had decided to walk into town. The bar where they were meeting the others wasn’t far away. Nate had insisted they get a cab, but Skye had told him he was ridiculous and had seemingly won that battle, but as Waggs stepped out from his front door where he rented a room from Mitch, it became apparent that Skye hadn’t won, Nate had just beaten a tactical retreat.

“Evening, ladies, out for a stroll?”

Autumn cocked her eyebrow at the blond-haired man who was Eidolon’s field medic and had looked after Lacey after her kidnapping. He gave her a chin lift hello, and she remembered how safe he’d made her feel as he treated her. A gentle warrior with an air of calm he’d made her feel less afraid.

“Waggs, I see you got the short straw of walking us into town.”

Waggs held up his hands in surrender. “Just taking a walk.”

He fell into step beside them, and Skye took out her phone and texted someone.

“Nate is acting all innocent.”

Autumn shrugged. “They care. It’s hard to be mad at that.”

“I guess.”

They got to the door of the Gin bar and stopped, and Lacey glanced at Waggs. “Thank you for escorting us, but I think we have it from here, unless you want to join girl’s night for a dance?”

Waggs, the scary military-trained Special Forces soldier, practically blanched at her invitation.

“No thanks, I’m good.” With that he was gone, and giggling, she and the others were swallowed into the bar.

Lacey had never accepted so many hugs in her life. Evelyn, who was married to Alex, who’d been the fake priest when Carmine kidnapped her and demanded she marry him. Pax who was engaged to Blake, Callie and Taamira, who she knew really well and now partnered with. They were also dating Reid and Liam, respectively. A heavily pregnant Roz sat next to Astrid, who was stunning and could’ve easily been a model herself. Skye was talking to Ava, Lauren, and Lucy about a first birthday cake for Lucy’s daughter. Aubrey and Mara were out on the dance floor with Bebe, and Lacey was just taking it all in.

“Ladies, the gentlemen over there just sent these over.” A waitress set a tray full of shots on the table and Lacey looked around to where she’d indicated and laughed as she saw what could only be described as a horde of Special Forces husbands and partners watching the women they loved.

“How did they get out?” Lauren asked as she took the shot and knocked it back.

“The in-laws, I bet,” Skye said, knocking back her shot with a shake of her head.

Lizzie leaned in close. “Don’t worry, they won’t crash the party until we give them the green light. They know they get no monkey sex otherwise.”

Lacey giggled at the image of these men chomping at the bit to get to their women but holding back because they didn’t want to unleash their wrath.

“Ha. like I can do monkey sex in my state,” Roz grumbled.

“Quit whining, Roz. Everyone knows you love being pregnant.”

Roz just glared at Astrid. “I think I have a new assignment for you in Antarctica.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, we both know I would.”

“Roz, did you get the girls to look at the designs I sent you?”

Roz beamed and started telling Lacey what her girls Natalia and Katarina had thought about the designs, and Astrid mouthed her thanks to her.