Never Tied Down (The Never Duet #2)(47)

Days passed and we fell into a beautifully comfortable routine. Riot stayed at my house at night and in the mornings we drove to work together. We’d meet at the coffee shop during our lunch break and then our evenings were either spent apart for work reasons, or exploring LA together.

Riot texted his sister daily and she stuck to her “just fine” story, but couldn’t give him a date for when she was going back to work, which only fueled his fire. She told him she was staying with their parents for the time being. This worried him, but I tried to calm him by reasoning with him that it was better she was with family if she were actually pregnant. He would usually grumble inaudibly and remain grumpy for a little while until I found a way to pull him out of his funk.

Riot was at work late Saturday night shooting a night scene, which left me all alone at my apartment for an evening. Like I believed most girls did when their boyfriends were away, I was pampering myself. I had a masque on my face and I was soaking in my tub, enjoying the relaxing music playing from my phone.

My calm was harshly interrupted by my phone vibrating against the porcelain of my bathtub. I saw Ella’s name and quickly answered and turned on the speaker.

“Fella!” I said with a smile.

“Hey, Kal. Haven’t heard from you in a while, so I thought I’d give you a call. You sound happy, and also like you’re standing at the end of a tunnel.”

I laughed. “I’m in the tub and you’re on speaker because I’ve got goop all over my face.”

“Sounds awesome,” she said wistfully, and then I heard stupidly cute baby noises coming from her end of the phone. “I’m lucky if I can take more than five minutes in the shower before Mattie starts crying. And then she cries, and then I leak, and it’s just counterproductive.”

I couldn’t help but stifle a laugh, but I tried to be sympathetic. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay, just a tiny mom complaint. But it’s true, you sound happy.”

Suddenly it occurred to me that I’d spent the better part of two weeks with Riot and hadn’t told her yet.

“Yeah, about that…”

“Spill, woman,” she demanded.

“Riot and I are together.”

She was silent for a moment and I wasn’t sure if it was good silence or bad.

“Okay… and?”

“And things are good.” I offered. I knew between her and Megan, Ella was definitely the more even-keeled sister, but she was literally giving me nothing.

“Good, like, you talked and made nice, or good, like, you get to be horizontal with him?”

I laughed, feeling the pinch of the drying masque on my face. “Oh, we’ve been horizontal. Every chance we get,” I said, trying to waggle my eyebrows but getting nowhere. I heard clapping and whooping, and then I heard Ella’s mom voice and I knew she was talking to Mattie when she said, “That’s right, Auntie Kalli is gonna give you an Uncle Riot, and then Mommy and Aunt Megan get to look at him forever.”

Distantly I heard a distinct and strikingly male voice call out, “I heard that.”

“You better watch yourself,” I warned through laughter.

“Pshh. Porter’s an alpha. I’ll pay for that later, but I’ll enjoy it.” Then after a few seconds she said, more seriously, “Is it good, Kal? I mean, I know it’s good, but I mean, are the two of you good?”

“It’s wonderful,” I said, sounding just as sappy as I felt. “He was really great in the beginning, took it really slow, let me make all the decisions, and then we just kind of stopped being apart.”

“That’s the best,” she said, her voice knowing. “So, will he be coming with you for Thanksgiving?”

Oh crap. Thanksgiving. In two weeks.

“We haven’t talked about Thanksgiving. His parents live in San Francisco. I don’t know if he was planning to go up there or not. I’ll have to talk to him.”

“Okay, well, you’ve got a room here at the beach if you want it. We’d really like to see you. And Riot is more than welcome to come along. But I totally understand if you go to San Francisco with him.” She paused, then added, “But I have to say, Mattie told me yesterday that she’s starting to forget what you look like.”

Ah, the baby guilt trip. I didn’t really need one; hearing Mattie’s gurgles and baby talk through the phone was enough to make my heart hurt.

“That was low, Ella,” I laughed. “How are you doing?” I asked after a moment.

“Good. Great, actually. I mean, besides not having slept more than four hours in a row in six months, everything’s great. Porter’s work is slowing down a little now that winter’s just around the corner, but both the shops are picking up so it’s kind of perfect.”

“And how’s Megan?” Even as I asked the question I knew I should call her soon.

“She’s good too. Still in the honeymoon phase. Patrick just got a promotion. They’re thinking of selling their condo and buying a house. Just, ya know, life.”

“Yeah, life.” I sighed as I said the words, thrilled on the inside that for the first time in months, life was just life, and it was good.

“How’s your fancy job?”

“It’s not as fancy as you’d imagine, but it’s good. Riot is on the soundstage right next to mine and we’ve been able to spend lunches together, so that’s been nice.”