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“A ‘hello’ would be nice.”
I suck in a deep breath. “Hello.”
“Could try looking at me.”
Lips pursed, I lift my gaze and repeat the greeting but he doesn’t look any less displeased. He looks…I can’t put my finger on it. There’s too many things going on in that pretty little head, behind those pretty but tired eyes. They only get worse, more tumultuous, as they slide down my body, coming to a rest on my huge belly, and the sheen that overcomes them, the way they brighten, is exactly why I needed to leave. I can’t think when he looks at me like that. It’s my biggest weakness, that look.
I watch his fingers twitch before his hands form fists that he shoves into his pockets. If I were a better person, I’d let him cop a feel like he’s clearly itching to do, like he’s done so many times before, but I’m not feeling particularly accommodating. I’m tired and I’m sore—God, am I sore—and I just want to go to sleep, preferably in a bed that isn’t ten feet away from someone who makes my already unstable emotions go haywire.
Who makes the baby in my belly wriggle and kick like mad, like she knows her daddy’s here.
Traitor.
“I’m staying at Willow’s tonight,” I force out. “The house is all yours.”But if you bring the hot blonde in my house, I’ll fucking end you.
“I’m not staying,” he says, flooding me with equal parts relief and disappointment. “I have a game.”
Ah. there it is. Pissy, resentful anger. What a fun little trio for a gal to experience. “Cool.” I nod briskly. “I guess I’ll see you when I’m in labor, then.”If I ever go into labor.“Unless you have a game, of course. Or a date. I’ll try to time it around your busy schedule.”
Something close to outrage but weirdly similar to hurt fuels his scoff. “I’m not dating anyone.”
I snort my disbelief.
Cass takes that personally. He gapes at me, visibly confused and annoyingly frustrated. “Pen is myfriend, Sunday. Penelope Jacobs. Luna’s sister.”
“I know who she is.” I know they used to bang on a regular basis. How outrageous of me to assume that, once back in the same area code, they picked up where they left off.
Incredulous, Cass advances, one hand on his hip as the other braces against the wall behind my head, trapping me. “Then you know she’s married?”
“I—” My mouth snaps shut. I did not know that.
Fuck me, this is what I get for being mature and not yapping about my hurt feelings; one conversation with the girls would’ve resolved this.
“Yeah.”
“Well,” I huff, flustered and desperately trying to hide it. “Whatever. Don’t worry about me. You can do whatever you want with whoever you want. I know how much you’ve given up already.”
He tries to hide his flinch, but I’m too close to miss it. “I should never have said that.”
“Yeah.” I laugh, bitter as all hell. “You quietly resenting me is so much better.”
“I never resented you, Sunday. I felt a whole lot of things about you but resentful is not one of them.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, my only defense against the dark, serious ones abusing my every emotion. With a quick shake of my head, I try to back up, I need space, and it’s incredibly inconvenient when the wall at my back impedes me. “I don’t wanna fight.”
Like I said before, I just want to sleep. Or just lie down in general. Maybe take a bath to soothe the achy cramps giving me hell the past couple of days. Cramps that have suddenly gotten a whole lot worse, suddenly seize the lower half of my body with an incapacitating intensity.
Vaguely, I register Cass saying my name. I know his hand is on my shoulder but I barely feel it, too busy feeling something else. Something remarkably familiar, something that reminds me an awful lot of…
Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
“I’m in fucking labor.”
50
CASS
“Are you serious?”
