about my farting. Friends don’t let friends do that.”
“Yeah, thanks for that, sis,” Suzy added. “I’ve just finally got past you doing Nick in my house, now I have to scrub your bodily function issues out of my head as well. But, back to Ella. Claire is right. It’s nothing to be upset over. Heck, I do that in front of Gray sometimes even when we aren’t having sex. I find they like it a lot when it’s completely out of the blue. I will add though, make damn sure you remember the cleaning lady’s schedule.” Visibly cringing, she added, “Whew, color me awkward. Now when she comes, she yells from the front door for five minutes just in case I have my hand in my pants.”
When everyone stopped laughing, Emma said, “Consider yourself lucky, at least you have someone to watch you. The last time I had any action, parachute pants were still in style. At this point in my life, my hand and I are seeing each other exclusively. All that’s left for me is to subscribe to porn sites and buy a dozen cats.”
Giving Emma an evil grin, Suzy said, “If we helped Ella not only land a man like Declan, but do herself in front of him, I think we can easily find you a man. Hell, everyone here dates someone from work. How about the stud that you work for? If he’s Declan’s brother, he must have some kink in him somewhere.”
Emma stuck her finger in her mouth in a gagging gesture. “Please don’t even say that. I couldn’t possibly imagine doing anything to him that doesn’t involve death or dismemberment. He is a complete ass wipe. When he isn’t bitching about me putting cream in his coffee and almost killing him, he’s complaining about me stapling his papers the wrong way.” In a perfect imitation of Brant’s voice, she said, “‘Emma, do you see something wrong here? How am I supposed to read this report with the staple so close to the first line?’ I will admit, I had a severe case of PMS that day and was tired of him picking on me, so I grabbed the papers and pulled them apart, then lined them up on his desk. I could tell he was really chapped over that, but he simply raised that annoying eyebrow at me and said, ‘How clever, Emma. Your job performance is simply amazing. You are a true asset to Danvers.’” Then, remembering the owner’s wife was in the room, she winced, “Sorry, Claire.”
Claire laughed. “Don’t worry about me. On girl’s night, I’m not Mrs. Jason Danvers, I’m just Claire. Unless you are insulting my husband, everything else is fair game. If it makes you feel any better, Chrissy did spit up all over his jacket the last time he was at the house. Jason and I laughed our asses off when he left. The expression on his face was priceless. I thought he was going to be sick right there on the spot. Instead, he walked out holding his jacket as far away from his body as he could.”
Emma held her sides as she giggled, “Oh my God, I can imagine. I’m surprised he didn’t call me and insist I come clean his jacket for him. Ella, you are so lucky you got the better brother. If I fingered myself in front of Brant, he would probably call the cops!”
Ella doubled over laughing. Now that the spotlight was off her, she was glad that she had opened up and gotten some reassurances from her friends. Even though Declan had seemed to love her loss of inhibitions, she had been more than a little embarrassed after the fact. She was relieved to hear that this was apparently normal and that she hadn’t turned the corner from eager lover to tramp. She had told Declan she was going home tonight after she left Beth’s, but she was now tempted to surprise him. Maybe there was a few more firsts that he wouldn’t mind helping her with.
Declan shifted uncomfortably as the woman across from him continued to sob. His life was starting to resemble a circus. He never knew what the next act was going to bring. Ella was out with her friends and he had been looking forward to some down time. Of course, a few hours into the evening and he had been pacing around, restless and at loose ends. When his phone rang, he was surprised to see Julie’s name on the ID. She had wanted to give him the name of the doctor she was using for the paternity test as well as his appointment time. She had also asked for his address so that she could send him some photos of Evan. He had thought that a bit strange since he was likely to see her again soon, but didn’t question her further. Now here he sat watching a woman he barely knew sob. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Lifting tear soaked eyes, Julie gasped out, “So sorry, Declan, I . . . shouldn’t have come here.”
He had the desire to reply, “No shit,” but thought better of it. He had no idea what the problem was. She had been crying since the moment he opened the door. The only thing he had managed to get out of her was that Evan was fine and at a friend’s house. “Julie, uh, is there someone I can call for you?” If possible, that seemed to make the crying worse. But he was a guy and he had no idea how to handle something like this. Maybe he should call Ella. She would definitely be better at this than him.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, the crying tapered off into sniffles and she dug a wad of tissues out of her purse. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Declan,” she sniffed. “I had no business coming here.”
Even though he completely agreed with her, he took pity on her because she did look embarrassed. “It’s fine Julie. Are you okay now?”
Giving a self-conscious laugh, she said, “If you’re scared I’m going to cry again, I promise, I’m cried out.”
Even as he felt like he had to ask, he desperately hoped she wouldn’t answer. “Is something wrong?” When she ran a hand through her hair and was quiet for a moment, he started to think she was going to ignore his question . . . no such luck.
“I had a fight with Graham.”
“Graham? Oh yeah, that’s your fiance?”
She looked surprised for a moment, but then gave a small smile. “Oh, that’s right; I mentioned him to Ella. Yes, we are engaged. He um . . . shit, I shouldn’t be telling you of all people this, but he’s upset about you coming into our lives.”
It was Declan’s turn to be surprised. “Your whole issue tonight is over me? Evan doesn’t even know I’m his father so why would your . . . Graham have a problem with it?”
Almost as if she didn’t want him to think badly of Graham, she began with, “He really is a great guy, but this has thrown him for a loop. He has always accepted Evan and me as a package deal. I think he sees himself as a father figure to him. Suddenly, with you coming into the picture, he feels threatened.” Almost sheepishly, she admitted, “I think he is afraid I have some kind of feelings for you which is absurd. He knows it just happened the one time and that I never saw you again, but he’s afraid that it will happen again now that you are back.”
Releasing a loud breath, Declan shook his head saying, “That’s crazy. I’m sorry that this has caused problems in your life, but I’m not sure how I can help you. I’d be happy to tell him that he has no worries there, but it’s doubtful he is going to believe me if he trusts you so little.”
Julie cringed, “Ouch, you don’t pull any punches do you?” When he opened his mouth to reply, she cut him off. “No, you’re right. This isn’t your problem even though it involves you indirectly and yes, he should trust me enough to know that he doesn’t have anything to worry about.”
When the doorbell rang again, Declan rolled his eyes and hoped that it was someone selling something. Some Girl Scout cookies would be way better than a hysterical, sobbing female. When he opened the door, Ella threw herself into his arms, legs around his waist before he even knew what was happening. Obviously not seeing Julie, she gave him a suggestive wink and said, “I thought tonight you could touch yourself while I watched. I’ll be happy to help though, if you need it.”
He was wrong, things could always get worse. Any other time, that offer would have landed Ella squarely on her back in about two seconds flat, now he was just dreading her finding out that they had an audience. “Um, Ellie . . . baby, I have company.” It took a moment for his words to hit home. He knew the second they did because he felt her body stiffen in surprise. As her legs went slack, he let her slide down off of him. When she slowly turned around and noticed Julie for the first time, she looked both surprised and uncertain.
“Oh, hi, Julie. I . . . uh, didn’t see you there.”
As she studied Julie’s red, puffy face, and wet eyes, Ella seemed to grow even more uncomfortable. Declan put his arm around her reassuringly. He could appreciate the fact that walking into something like this might be a little unsettling to Ella and he wanted to let her know without embarrassing Julie that there was nothing going on here. “Ellie, Julie was upset and needed someone to talk to. I wasn’t expecting you this evening. I mean, of course I’m glad to see you, I just thought you were having a girls’ night.” That sounded lame as hell, even to his own ears. What he really wanted to do was push Ella toward Julie and make some excuse to leave. This was one of those times when he wished he smoked so he could use needing to run out for cigs as an excuse to escape. He
