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“He’s working.”
“Right. While gallivanting around LA. Wasn’t he on some magazine last week?”
“Meeting with rockstars is part of his actual work, Aug. Not sure why this concept is so difficult for you to grasp.” Ivy made a face. “So can you watch her or not? Actually, never mind. I know you’re on lunch, Kin, but maybe you can—”
“I’ve got her,” we said in unison.
Then we stared at each other.
“We’ll figure it out,” August said after a moment, his voice low and rough. “Go.”
“You’re sure?” Ivy grabbed her purse off the counter and stuffed her phone inside. “I’ll try to be quick.”
“Don’t forget the whipped cream,” I said over my shoulder.
August’s sour expression made me giggle even in the center of my own personal chaos. Which was not helped by the idea of alone time with Ivy’s brother with a rosy-cheeked baby between us.
Not in the slightest.
“You know it, sister.” Although the phrase was one Ivy had said a million times before, somehow it hit different. “Thank you both! Back soon. Bye, baby girl!” The door closed behind her as Rhiannon kept right on sucking in baby contentment.
“She’s pretty much the perfect child.” I reached out to stroke her cheek. “They’re so lucky.”
“Uh-oh,” August teased. “You’re not getting baby fever, are you?”
“Goddess, no.” I jerked back as if the baby had become radioactive.
She hadn’t, but August and his possibly too talented penis might as well have been.
“Happens to the best of us when confronted with an absolutely perfect kid. Right, Rhi-Rhi?”
The baby blinked up at him and kept right on drinking.
“Do you have baby fever?”
He didn’t laugh as I’d expected him to, just shrugged. “Kids are cool.”
“Oh, sure, you think they’re cool because you have the easy part.”
His eyes zeroed in on my face, and my nipples did a double-barrel salute through my raspberry-colored sweater. His gaze dropped and he licked his lips. “Not so easy from where I’m standing, Kin.”
I didn’t know what he meant, and I was too wiped out right now to analyze it. “Not a picnic on this side of the kitchen either.” All at once, my bladder reminded me I had other things to take care of. As did my racing heart. “Excuse me a second.”
“Sure. Is everything okay?”
“Fine. Perfect.” I hurried out of the kitchen before he could be sweet and make me cry. I wasn’t normally that sloppy, but right now, nothing was normal.
As soon as I closed myself in the bathroom, I checked my underwear. I already knew what I wouldn’t find.
Nope, no easy outs for me today.
Or hard ones, since I couldn’t decide what the hell I wanted.
Closing my eyes, I leaned my head against the wall beside the toilet. Tears hovered far too close. Except now I wasn’t even sure why I was about to cry.
I’d always wanted kids. The husband part had gone out of focus a few years ago, but the kids portion of the equation had never quite managed to fade no matter how often I shoved the idea into the background. Juggling business and motherhood wasn’t easy. I was practical enough to realize it would be hard to do both well alone.
And of course I would be alone, because when had I been anything but? Once or twice, I’d thought I might have met someone special who would stick around.
