Them (Him #3) (19 page)

“Did your parents ever want any more kids?”

I shrug. “I don’t think so, or at least they never mentioned it.”

He gives my hand a squeeze. “I always wanted a brother. Brian was one of the reasons I hung out at your house so much in the beginning. I wanted his brotherness to rub off on me.”

“And here I thought I was the sole pull,” I joke.

He lets go of my hand to swing his arm around my shoulders, tucking me close to his side. “Once I was smart enough, you were.”

I wrap my arm around his waist. “Took you long enough. I had a crush on you from the moment I saw you.”

He makes a mock flip of his hair. “How could you not?”

In those days, Will was the guy every girl in our school crushed on. He didn’t see me as anything more than a best friend until years after we had known each other. In some ways, he fought against his attraction to me, terrified that if things didn’t work out between us romantically he would lose me forever.

It’s sad that he was almost right, that our own mutual immaturity had separated us for so long. He hates it when I fuss over what might have been. There’s a guilt I carry with me for leaving him all those years ago. I can admit we were both at fault, but in my mind I own the lion’s share of it. I was the one who ran. That’s a mistake I’ll never make again.

Stepping through the front door, I sigh as the air conditioning hits me. July in Georgia can get ‘cooking eggs on a sidewalk’ hot with an added layer of outdoor sauna-level humidity. The ice cream helped, but I’m soaked with sweat and need a shower.

The heat doesn’t seem to bother Logan. He gets a glass of lemonade and decides to mow the front yard since he’s already sweaty.

I’ve only been in the shower long enough to put shampoo in my hair when Will joins me, making me yelp in surprise. When I first started showing, I was terrified Will would think I looked fat. Once my morning sickness passed, his inability to keep his hands off me dispelled that fear.

Showers in particular seem to be his favorite. He’s fascinated with my growing belly and doesn’t seem to mind the fact that I’ve gone up two cup sizes in my bras. He would happily spend hours lathering body wash up and over all of me.

He sits on the bench, shifting me till I stand in front of him, the water streaming down my back. With gentle, soapy hands, he strokes me until my knees start to buckle and I have to place my hands on his broad shoulders to hold myself up. It’s then that he turns me away from him, easing me down until I’m full of him.

With one hand in my hair, turning my head so he can take my mouth with his, and his other hand gently kneading my swollen breast, he moves in and out of me. I’ll never get enough of him, the gentle command he has over my body. I ignore the water streaming down my face and over our mouths as we kiss.

His hand moves from my breast to between my legs, stroking me until I gasp his name against his mouth. It’s as if his name from my lips unleashed the power he sought to restrain. He bucks beneath me, both hands now vise grips to my hips as he pulls me downward to meet each upward stroke. My hands cover his as I hold on. Moments later, he groans his release, his arms lifting to wrap around my chest and hold me close as he catches his breath.

He buries his face in my neck and kisses me there. Neither of us moves to stand, both content to let him stay within me for as long as we can. If there wasn’t the chance of Logan coming to look for one or both of us, Will probably would have moved us right from the shower to the bed. Being responsible adults sucks sometimes.

“Surprise!”

I look up, my mouth dropping open before spinning to smack Will’s chest. “You knew.”

He grins, leaning down to kiss me before Sawyer hugs me from behind.

I turn, doing my best to wrap my arms around her. “Are Jared and Pascal here, too?”

She pulls back, nodding, a Cheshire-like smile gracing her face. “They’re camped out at Mama Price’s but are coming over here for dinner after your shower.”

I turn back to Will and glance back and forth between the two of them. “How?” I don’t wait for an answer before I point my finger at Sawyer. “I talked to you yesterday.”

She is clearly better at keeping secrets than I am.

She just laughs and happy-dances in front of me. “Best surprise ever, am I right?”

I lean forward to kiss her cheek. “Best ever.”

She loops her arm through mine and pulls me into our streamer and balloon-covered living room. My mom, Will’s mom and Christine all stand to hug and greet me.

“You guys shouldn’t have done this.” I spin, looking at all the gifts and baby-themed decorations around the room.

“My co-workers threw me a shower and we knew that since you’re all by yourself work-wise, it was up to us to make sure you didn’t miss out on all the fun.” Christine nudges Sawyer with her elbow. “Sawyer planned everything.”

She shrugs and her eyes meet mine. “You go all out for your best friend, just like you did for me.”

I sniffle as my eyes well and, not trusting my voice, mouth a thank you.

Her eyes crinkle, then she looks over my shoulder to where Will and Logan stand. “Go hang with Jared and Miss Muffet for the next couple of hours. We’ll try to save you some cake, but it looks amazing so I’m not gonna make any promises.”

After the party, the boys come back to the house. Will and Jared man the grill while I get to hang with Sawyer.

“You guys need to move to New England,” she moans, fanning herself.

“It’s not that bad,” I argue.

“Right.” She lifts her arm and points to her armpit. “I was outside for five minutes and I’m sweating my ass off.”

“It’s the humidity,” I explain. “It makes it feel worse than it actually is.”

“Will it still be this gross at that laser thing?”

Before I can answer, Logan dashes into the living room. “We’re going to the laser show at Stone Mountain?”

Sawyer cringes since she knows it’s supposed to be a surprise.

I shoot her a look before turning to face Logan. “We are.”

He pumps his fist into the air. “I’ve always wanted to go.”

“Sawyer and Jared have never been, either.”

His brow’s furrow. “Is Pascal coming?”

I shake my head, glancing at Sawyer’s daughter, who is playing on the rug in front of us. “The music can get loud and it won’t end until after her bedtime, so Mama Price is going to babysit her.”

He drops to the floor and crosses his legs in front of him. “You are going to have fun with Mama Price,” he murmurs to Pascal.

She grins up at him and offers him a block.

“Thank you.”

Sawyer motions for me to look at her and once my eyes meet hers she mouths, ‘He’s so sweet.’

I nod and mouth back, ‘I know.’

Before long, Logan gets up to go hang out with Will and Jared.

As soon as he’s out of the room, I turn toward Sawyer. “He’s amazing.”

“Did you see how cute he was with Pascal?” Her question is clearly rhetorical.

“I know. He’s a great kid. He offers to walk Rascal every day and is a huge help around the house.”

“How’s he dealing with everything?”

I shrug. “He was seeing a therapist every week, but at her recommendation he’s going to be going twice a month now.” I pause to look at her. “That has to be a good thing, right?”

She nods. “Sounds that way. Are you still thinking about adopting him?”

I lean forward to put one hand on her knee while smacking my forehead with my other hand. “I completely forget to tell you. I blame these pregnancy hormones; I swear I can’t remember anything these days.”

Neither of us says anything for a minute until Sawyer laughs. “So, what’d you forget to tell me?”

I cover my face as I laugh. “God, I’m such a mess. Okay, we talked to Logan about it and we
are
going to adopt him.”

She moves forward to wrap her arms around me. “That’s fantastic news.”

I curl my arms around her back as my eyes start to sting. “We were so nervous he wouldn’t want us to.”

She gives me an extra squeeze before leaning back into her seat. “Why would you think that?”

I dab at my eyes and look up at the ceiling as I blink tears away. “We were wondering if he’d think we were trying to replace his dad.”

“Oh, honey,” she whispers, squeezing my knee.

“It turns out he was scared we wouldn’t want him after the baby came.”

She shakes her head, pressing her hand to her chest. “That poor boy.”

“I’m trying not to cry,” I grumble before taking a deep breath.

Sawyer waits patiently while I pull myself together.

“He just fits us, you know?” She nods, so I keep going. “He skateboards and plays lacrosse with Will, but he also grocery shops and watches my movies with me and we go for walks just the two of us sometimes with the dog. I’ve heard people talk about how difficult teenagers can be, and maybe he’s trying extra hard to be good because he’s scared we’ll send him away.”

“He has to understand by now that you guys would never do that,” Sawyer argues.

“I hope so.”

Before I can say anything else, Logan comes back into the room.

“Dinner’s ready.”

So our northern friends won’t melt, we eat in the dining room. Will told Logan we were leaving for Stone Mountain as soon as his mom got to our house. After the third time Logan asked where she was, Will mock-threatened to leave him at home if he asked one more time.

Logan did his best to not laugh. Sawyer and I fail, though, and giggle. Will as a disciplinarian? He shoots me a look and it only makes me laugh harder.

When the doorbell rings, Logan leaps from his chair, exclaiming, “She’s here. Let’s go!”

“That’s an order if I ever heard one,” Jared remarks, pushing his chair back.

Will quickly clears the table while Sawyer picks up Pascal from her travel booster seat and together, we go greet his mom. She only has eyes for Pascal, her smile from ear to ear as she reaches for her.

Sawyer puts her arms around my waist and says, “Yep, you are going to be covered babysitting-wise once Baby Price is here.”

I hadn’t ever thought of it before, but her comment makes me wonder what they do since Jared’s dad lives in Colorado and his mom is in Alaska.

Sawyer is eerily observant to my inner musings and answers my unspoken question. “We have amazing neighbors who love to babysit whenever we need a break.”

I don’t say it, but I wish we lived closer. I can’t fault her for not wanting to move out of her grandmother’s house, though. If Atlanta wasn’t home for us, I could see Will and me moving to New England. On second thought, Will hates cold weather, so maybe not.

Once Sawyer points to where all of Pascal’s things are, we head out. Jared sits up front and since she’s the smallest, Sawyer rides in the middle of the back seat. At every red light, Will and Jared play air guitar to whatever song is on the radio while the rest of us laugh at them.

Logan pulls out his phone to record them, threatening to post it to YouTube. By the time we’ve parked, I don’t even care about the laser show. I’ve already had one of the best days of my life just having all of my favorite people around me.

Will