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I nod, taking a sip of my freshly delivered margarita. “I know, and I love you for that. We’ll see. It could take a bit for me to get pregnant anyway, and I still have to fight with the bug, Cricket, for my spot.”
“You’re not leaving Boston, Katy,” Vander tells me in no uncertain terms, sipping on his tequila.
“I have no plans to. Let’s take one thing at a time. Hopefully, all of this is a non-issue.” I stand and kiss the top of each of their heads. “I’m going to the bathroom before the food comes. Do me a favor? While I’m gone, both of you take some deep breaths. You’re wound tighter than a nun’s asshole.”
I grab my purse, head around the bar area toward the bathroom, and push through the swinging door. I do my business, wash my hands, and reapply my lip gloss. I’m freaking starving, which reminds me. Opening my purse, I pull out my phone and check my blood sugar reading from my continuous glucose monitor.
One hundred and thirty-four. Not great, but not bad. I dial up my short-acting insulin to six units, clean an area of my stomach with alcohol, and then inject myself with my pen.
I put everything away and head back out, only to nearly bash into the man standing outside the women’s restroom. “What are you doing here?”
Bennett is leaning against the opposite wall, his expression firm despite his casual pose. “Coincidence. I was at the bar.”
“At the bar,” I parrot, mentally cringing. “So you overheard…” I raise my eyebrows, waiting for him to finish that for me.
“Everything you said to Owen and that other guy,” he confirms, and my stomach plummets into my feet. Pushing away from the wall, he stands before me, his hands in his pockets, but his breathing is short and choppy, telling me there’s more going on here with him. “They’re very protective of you.”
“Yes. They are.”
His glacial eyes stay locked on mine. “I’m glad you have that, Katy, but are you sure there isn’t more going on between you and either of them?”
My nose scrunches up in disgust. “Um. No. Gross. Owen is my best friend, and Vander is like a big brother, though he’s younger than me by about seven years even if he looks much older. Trust me, they’d be throwing up on the floor if you asked them that. Just because we’re male and female doesn’t mean sex is on the agenda for us. Loyalty isn’t a game we play at. It’s in every pulse of blood in our veins.”
He blinks, a bit startled by that declaration, but if he overheard us, he needs to know it goes both ways.
“And you haven’t considered using them as donors?”
My eyebrows shoot up. “My cousins?!”
He shrugs. “They’re not blood.”
“No, but they might as well be for how I think of them. Owen is famous in this city as the eldest grandson of the Fritz family and that’s not something I want for my child after all Rory has gone through with the media, but more than that, the thought of having a child with either of them grosses me out.”
Another step, his expression is so stoic, so closed off. “I shouldn’t be as happy about that as I am. I had the same reaction when I found out you weren’t married to Owen.”
I narrow my eyes even as I crane my neck to see his face. “What does that mean, Bennett? What are you doing right now?”
He chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. “Something I know I shouldn’t be doing. I’d like to talk to you about something. Would you be willing to come to my house with me? Just to talk.”
“I’m here with my?—”
“Family,” he finishes for me. “Yes, I know. But this is… well, it’s important. Potentially for both of us. But it’s not for public ears or consumption, and that includes your family.”
I hesitate, unsure what to make of this, but then he’s practically against me, his hand on my arm and his eyes beseeching mine.
“Please, Katy. Please. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important. I have a lot to say. A lot to explain.”
I search his eyes, and despite his pleading tone laced with a hint of desperation, the rest of him is shuttered up tight. It’s… strange. Almost like he’s forcing himself to remain detached, and it’s a struggle for him.
It piques my curiosity even more. “Okay,” I relent because I think he had me at hello, which isn’t great, but whatever. “But we should take food to-go. I already ordered, and I just took my shot.”
He nods. “Give me five minutes and I’ll meet you outside. If you would…” He releases a heavy breath. “I’d rather you not mention to your family that I’m here or that you’re leaving with me. If you’re okay with that?”
“Are you planning to murder me?”
He coughs, laughing at the same time, and it’s like a peek of sunlight breaking through storm clouds. “Definitely not.”
“I’m safe leaving here with you and not telling my family who I’m leaving with or where I’m going?”
