Page 34 of The Mafia Bachelor

“It was not too many plants!” Adi protests.

There’s a snort of laughter from someone, and I meet Kill’s gaze again. Covertly. And there’s a secret between us that hums.

“It was. Is,” Jessa holds up her hands as though to present this absolute fact. “And Rhys was in love, and wanted to trade something with his lovely assistant whose biological clock was ticking loud enough to be heard in the Antarctic.”

“Don’t you mean the Arctic?” Callie tilts her head.

“Definitely not. This was worldwide.” Jessa widens her eyes, laughing softly.

“Oh god, I’m so embarrassed.” Adi hides her face in her hands. “I’m just a meme around here.”

The giggling from one girl escalates.

“Ella is losing it already,” says Callie pointing her thumb at the girl who’s laughing well before the punch line.

“She is.” Jessa shrugs.

“I’m desperate to know!” Katy exclaims.

“Adi wanted to get pregnant,” Jessa says calmly.

A baby. I told Kill I’d have five children with him. My gaze slides to Kill, who has his hands in his pockets and a slight smile on his face. I blush and look away. Adi puts her hands over her bright-red face and groans.

Jessa continues, “And Rhys caught her online, buying⁠—”

“I don’t know if we should retraumatise everyone with this story again?” says Callie, deadpan.

“Turkey baster!” Ella manages to get out between snorts of hysteria.

“What?” Katy asks.

“What’s a turkey baster got to do with it?” I ask quietly.

“I understand the site was called Sperm To Go, with the number two.” Jessa nods meaningfully.

“That’s not true,” Adi holds her hands up. “It was⁠—”

“Hence the need for…” Jessa makes a swooping up motion with her hand that sets Ella off into a fresh round of laughter.

“Turkey baster!” says Ella again, gasping out the word between fits of giggles. She’s laughing so hard she’s almost sobbing with it.

“Why didn’t you use a syringe?” asks Callie, head tipping to the side.

“Oh my god, shh,” Jessa interjects. “Do not ruin any more innocent items for me. I already use a turkey baster once a year⁠—”

Callie’s eyes gleam. “For⁠—”

“For basting a turkey, you mad woman,” she cuts her off.

“Can we stop talking about the most mortifying moment of my life?” Adi says, cringing.

“She wanted a baby, and his deal was that she had to come to events with him because we’re all so unbearable.” Jessa totally ignores Adi’s plea.

“That isn’t what he said,” Adi interjects.

“It was what I meant,” a male voice calls from another part of the room, and everyone laughs. Canary Wharf, from the airport too.

Jessa grins. “But he’d stupidly started telling her the name, and got as far as The London Ma⁠—”