AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh my God,” Charlee sputters beside me, her fingers tightening around mine. I turn to look at her, her wide brown eyes dragging over my body before landing on my face. “Claire…”
I twist back to the doctor. “I…I’m sorry…what’s the…what are you…” I shake my head, trying to clear the fog. Clutching my stomach, I lick my lips. God, I feel awful. These nerves are rotting my stomach. “What are you saying?”
“You’re pregnant, Claire.”
Keeling over, I release the contents of my stomach all over the shiny linoleum floors.
***
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Avery
“Fucking brutally hot, bud,” Wyatt complains, jerking the knot of his tie down and popping the first three buttons on his shirt. “Why the fuck did we walk?”
“Because it’s only a ten-minute walk from the restaurant,” I remind him.
Fuck, he’s not wrong though. It’s scorching today. August is coming in hot, and at this point, I’m just counting down the hours to 4:00pm tomorrow, when Claire and I take off for the cottage like we’ve already done a handful of times this summer. She loves it up there, floating around in the water all day, staring up at the stars all night, and I love making her happy.
“I’m gonna drain at least three beers during this meeting.” Wyatt polishes off his bottle of water and crushes it between his hands, tossing it in a nearby garbage can on the street. Shifting his sunglasses down his nose, he squints up at the sun before fixing them back in place. “We’re calling Jacob. He’s picking us up after this. I’m not fucking walking again.” He adjusts his junk. “I’m sweating in places a man should never sweat unless he’s balls deep in a beautiful woman.”
Chuckling, I tug open the door of the brewery and watch as he pushes by me with a sigh of relief.
He smirks at me over his shoulder. “First one to see Claire gets the first kiss.”
“I don’t fucking think so,” I say, but bark out a laugh when Wyatt tears up the stairs with me hot on his heels.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Julie, the receptionist, greets us with a smile. “You two are way too happy for ninety-three degree heat.”
I flash her a grin. “I’m always happy here. There’s free beer.”
“And free office sex,” Wyatt adds with a wink.
“Hey, fuck off, would you?” I flick his ear while Julie covers her laugh with a cough.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” She turns back to her computer, her voice low and teasing when she continues. “I’m getting good at pretending I don’t hear some of the things that happen around here…”
“Oh, shit,” Wyatt whispers over my shoulder as he follows me down the hall to Claire’s office. “Julie’s totally heard you two having sex.” He shoulders me out of the way and bursts through her door. “Claire Bear, I get the first—hey, where is she?”
“Maybe she’s not back from lunch yet,” I say, but frown when I notice her messenger bag is gone.
We amble on down to the conference room and Wyatt makes a beeline for the drink station, cracking the top off a beer and forgoing a glass as he downs half of it with a smacking sigh.
“Hey Ave,” Dex calls from behind me, clapping a hand on my back. “Wyatt,” he murmurs, eyes twinkling with humor as he watches Wyatt polish off the rest of his beer. “Thirsty, buddy?”
“You have no idea. Avery made us walk here after lunch.”
“Where’d you eat?”
“Ardo.”
Dex dismisses Wyatt with the wave of his hand. “That’s, like, ten minutes away, tops.” His eyes land on me while he boots up his laptop. “How’s Claire feeling?”
My beer stops its path to my lips, hanging there in midair with my hand. “What do you mean?”
Dex blinks up at me. “I mean, she took off like her ass was on fire this morning, saying she had to go back to the doctor’s. Took Charlee with her. Charlee called an hour later and said they weren’t coming back.”
“What? She’s not coming back?”
