AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Cade?” Dylan is frowning at me, then she blinks a few times. “Why are you…?”
Charleigh looks between the two of us, an amused smile on her face. “Well, well, well.” It’s soft enough that it’s nearly a whisper.
“I didn’t… I couldn’t…” Once again, I’m screwing up my words. I settle with what I can manage. “Charleigh, Dylan’s dead on her feet. Let her go to bed.”
“It’s only eight,” Charleigh says, as Dylan answers, “I’m fine.”
I don’t want to be the overbearing asshole, and I struggle with the fact Dylan is clearly tired, even if she says she’s not.
I worry she didn’t nap today and while, sure, I was only here the one afternoon, I got the feeling that a nap was something she did often in her current state.
I worry that by running herself to the ground, she’s doing something to harm the baby. Can not listening to your body be dangerous for the baby?
“Charleigh is showing me the things she’s put together for the nursery,” Dylan says, and she can deny it all she wants, but the girl is tired. Her words slur; not much, but enough for me to notice.
Deciding I don’t have much say in what’s going on out here, I walk over to the third of four Adirondack chairs, the one closer to Dylan’s than to Charleigh’s.
“I haven’t had much say, but…” Dylan throws a look at our friend, and there’s a smile on her face.
“You’re the one who would rather be secluded in the woods,” Charleigh teases.
“It’s nice out here,” Dylan answers on a sigh and I would bet money that she’d like to close her eyes. “But now that, you know, everything…maybe I’ll head back to my place this weekend.”
I freeze at that.
How would that have worked? Would she have told me? Or would I have ended up here, only to find the place deserted?
“Where is that? Where do you live otherwise?” I make myself ask. I sure as hell hope that she lives somewhere in the Los Angeles area.
“Currently, I’m near Thousand Oaks. My family is in Montana though.”
My heart literally stops in my chest at what sounds like her thinking about moving back to her home state.
“I’ve done the nursery in your apartment. You’re not leaving,” Charleigh says and while she says it jokingly, I can hear the fear there too.
“I didn’t say—”
“You eluded to it, though.” Charleigh shakes her head. “You can’t leave me, Dylan.”
Dylan smiles, “I’m not leaving you. Yet.” She glances over at me, so quickly I would have missed it if I weren’t looking right at her.
“So you say,” Charleigh says teasingly but with enough skepticism in her tone to say she’s afraid of Dylan leaving for good, too. “I’m going to head to bed, I guess. I have to leave before the sun comes up, unfortunately.” She groans then, shaking her head. “My father…”
He likely scheduled another gig for her. He liked to keep her busy and out of trouble, not that she was a troublesome Hollywood kid. She and I did go through a phase in our early teens though, where we broke curfew.
And maybe smoked a joint or two at a park.
Nothing worth being labeled over, but enough for her to be placed on the “Hollywood Kids Gone Wrong” list a few times.
“You two behave yourselves,” she finished, reaching out to rub Dylan’s shoulder and shooting me a death glare.
Swear to God, that was a death glare.
Dylan watched her walk into the house, and before I could apologize for my lack of communication this week, she’s pulling herself up from her chair. I take her in, and my second head appreciates the new view. Dylan is in her short-shorts and tight tank top, with her belly proudly on display. My cock wants to be proudly on display too, if the blood rushing there is any indication. “I’m tired after all,” she says. “I’m going to head to bed. Charleigh’s in the room you used. It was the only clean one.”
“Can I talk to you?” I ask as I push myself to stand, ignoring the rush of emotions and the like.
“You’re the one who said I was tired,” she challenges.
