“Jared’s still stuck on the dark side?”
“Yup.”
Liam took off, dark hair bouncing as he ran to the stairs.
I trailed behind Kellie, who was still snuggling Aiden, into the living room. Outside the picture window I could see Jared and Carter talking.
Please help Carter, God.
Hopefully he wouldn’t go running for the hills after this amazing welcome committee was done with him. I swept a hand over Aiden’s hair as Kellie shushed him, and pressed a kiss to his soft baby cheek.
“He got so big.” Only a month had passed since I’d seen Aiden, and Kellie had told me he was already reaching the about-to-crawl stage. Didn’t he just learn how to roll over?
“Mm-hmm. Babies do that, remember?”
My stomach dropped. Babies . . . I was having one of those.
Kellie looked at the stairs where Liam was holding a ninja toy in the air as he came down.
“I feel like it was only yesterday that Liam was this tiny,” she added.
“It was.”
“See, Aunta?” Liam asked.
The front door squeaked and Jared stepped through, eyes meeting Kellie’s, transmitting a secret message. Judging by her frown, she wasn’t happy.
My heart raced.
As Jared stooped to unlace his boots, Carter came in behind him.
“You gotta be kidding, man,” Jared said. “Three of the Chevy guys at work had to replace their trucks five years after they bought ’em and my Ford’s been running clean as the day I bought it, eight years ago.”
“Must’ve struck gold. I’ve never heard of a Ford lasting longer than three months without something breaking.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“A hundred percent.” Carter caught my eye and winked.
“They’re talking trucks,” I whispered, hope bubbling in my chest. Were they actually hitting it off?
Kellie shook her head, frowning harder at Jared.
Jared waved her off and said, “Come on, man, the meat’s not gonna grill itself.”
Relief washed through me as I took Aiden’s little chubby hand in mine, smiled wide, and chuckled.
“Your daddy likes my new man,” I said, all high pitched and totally ridiculous, but it didn’t matter. I bounced on my toes and blew a raspberry on his neck.
He giggled.
I did it again.
I loved my nephews more than life, and if it took me looking like a total clown to make them laugh, I would.
“Here,” Kellie said, handing Aiden off to me as she went outside with Liam hot on her heels babbling about the ninja.
Kellie returned grim-faced, marching upstairs, Jared following, head ducked. Liam was nowhere in sight.
Maybe Carter had talked some sense into Jared? Maybe Jared would help to sway Kel? Not that it would help when it was time to tell her why I was really here. Oh my gosh. A wave of anxiety swept through my system. I still had to tell Kellie.
A burst of little boy laughter sounded from outside and, still holding Aiden, I peeled back the curtain on the sliding glass door. Liam was doing some crazy ninja move on Carter out on the lawn, probably getting on Carter’s nerves, the same way he used to with Ren.
Perfect.
I opened the door to stop him, but Carter laughed, caught Liam’s leg mid-kick, and tickled his side. “Think you can beat a real soldier, tiny ninja man?”
“You not a soldier, you a chicken,” Liam shouted, between bursts of laughter, twisting and throwing a punch at Carter’s hip.
“Hey, Liam.” I balanced Aiden on my hip. “Let’s leave Carter alone, okay, bud?”
“He’s all right.” Carter threw him over his shoulder, still tickling him, like it was no big deal.
“Kel wants to talk to you, Lauren,” Jared said from behind me. “She’s up in our room.”
I swallowed hard. Nodded. Everything would be fine. It had to be. Jared reached for the baby, eyes lighting up when Aiden leaned toward him.
“Are you good out here, Carter?” I asked.
He was flat on his back with Liam karate chopping him from every angle. He shot me a thumbs-up and a killer smile.
“This is the most fun I’ve had in a while.”
My heart dipped in a complete swoon. I knew I’d lucked out that he wanted to give this relationship a chance, but he was a legit family guy too? How was this even possible?
Wow. I thought I was falling for him before, but this was getting dangerous.
“He’s amazing, Kellie,” I said, sitting on the hope chest at the foot of Kellie’s bed.
Kellie was pacing the floor in front of me, her hands clenched at her sides. Every time she glanced at me her disapproval hit like poisoned darts. But maybe I could fix this. Maybe, if Kellie saw that I’d found a good partner—a legit family guy!—to help me through this pregnancy, she wouldn’t be so embarrassed by my situation. Plus, I really liked Carter, and I wanted her to understand he was different. I had to make her see.
“He served in the military,” I added. “He’s so sweet, and he gets me in a way nobody else does. I’m falling for him, worse than I’ve fallen for anyone else. I think . . . I think he might be the one, Kel.”
“Whoa.” She shook her head, holding a hand up. “I’m not trying to be a witch, but aside from the military thing, I’ve heard all of that from you before. Tucker was so gorgeous, remember? And what about Prince Ren and his loaded family—he was also “the one.” A month into that relationship and you were convinced you guys would be a power couple one day.”
“That’s so judgy,” I mumbled.
Kellie couldn’t understand about Carter if she didn’t know the truth, and holding it in was like trying to hold on to a burning coal. But I was terrified of the moment the truth hit her. Seeing her disappointment, feeling her shame, hearing words of rejection pouring from the one family member I had left in the world. She’d finally leave me, like everyone else did.
“Lauren?”
One of the tell-Kellie practice runs with Carter ran through my head, where we hashed out what would happen if she kicked me out of her house and never talked
