Players, Bumps and Cocktail Sausages (Silence #3)(54)

Damn. Busted. I smiled too wide. “Coming up!”

Ducking back in the kitchen, I made our drinks, listening to Oakley and Holly laugh at Marcus chatting about Everleigh’s latest gymnastic mishap. The kid just did her own thing.

Marcus adored her and her I’ll-jump-off-whatever-the-hell-I-like attitude, even more now he’d given up hoping she’d follow in Oakley’s footsteps and be Olympic material. Oakley was very disciplined, but now I knew it was because she’d needed something else to focus on through the abuse.

I carried our coffees through to the reception.

“Hey, man,” I said to Marcus. “Want a drink?”

“No thanks. I’ve got a class in five.”

Holly hadn’t told him. He definitely would have said something.

I put the drinks down on the desk and wrapped my arm around Holly’s shoulders.

“Me and this one are having a baby,” I said, earning an elbow in the ribs. She stared at me with her jaw hanging open.

Marcus looked between us, silently taking in our news.

“What?” he exploded. “When? How? I didn’t even know you were together.”

I winced. Everyone was going to assume we were together, and it never made me feel any better when we had to tell them our child was the result of a few no-strings nights.

“Oh,” Marcus muttered, noticing our sudden awkwardness and catching on. “Wow, Holly, I didn’t know you had it in you girl!”

“What, to have random, meaningless sex,” she said, blushing and scowling at the same time.

“Meaningless,” I repeated.

I’d had meaningless sex too many times to count in the years between me and Abby first breaking up, and this last – and final – separation and never before had the word made me feel lousy. What the hell is wrong with me?

She shrugged, squirming under my arm. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, just that we’re not together or anything.”

“Well, as interesting as this conversation is,” Oakley said, grabbing her coffee, “I should check my emails.”

She walked into her office, and I turned my attention back to the woman that just called sex with me meaningless.

“As fun as this domestic is I’ve got to set up for class.” Marcus left too, and we were alone.

I raised my eyebrow. “So it was meaningless.”

She sighed. “No. I just explained, and you know what I mean. It was hardly our wedding night, Jasper.”

“That’s not the point. I just didn’t think that was how you saw it.”

“We used each other. That’s what casual sex is.”

“Yeah I know it is, but I didn’t think...”

“You’re bloody impossible, you know that?” She pulled away and walked around to her desk. What have I done now?

“Holly?”

“Don’t. All you want is no-strings sex so don’t complain when that’s exactly what you get.”

“I’d hardly call this no strings. You’re fucking pregnant!”

Her head whipped back as if I’d slapped her, and I groaned. “I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t resent you or this situation. I want our baby, but let’s face it, neither of us planned it, did we.”

I slowly stepped closer to her, weary that she might be mad. My choice of words were not my greatest. She didn’t move, so I wrapped my arms around her back.

“That came out wrong. Can we just forget the last few minutes happened, please?”

“Sure,” she replied, and I knew I was forgiven because she hugged me back. “This is going to take work, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.” We were still practically strangers, and we were having a baby together. There were many disagreements to come, but we’d get there – we didn’t have a choice.





Chapter Twenty-Three


“He’s gonna hate me,” I said, sitting in Holly’s living room as we prepared to tell Brad that I was the father of Holly’s baby.

“He might be angry, but he won’t hate you.”

“Of course he’s going to hate me and ‘might be angry’ is the-”

“Alright,” she snapped. “I was trying to help and calm your nerves, but fine, he’s going to want to castrate you. Happy?”

I threw my hands up. “No!”

“Jasper, get a grip.”

I stood up. This was going to go badly. There was an unwritten rule about mates’ sisters and not only had I crossed that line – more than once – but I’d also got her pregnant. I didn’t regret what happened with Holly. I’d never wanted anything as strongly as I’d wanted to be with her those nights, but I should have spoke to Brad about it so it wouldn’t affect our friendship.

“Why have you started pacing?” she asked.

“Are you kidding? I’m about to tell a mate I knocked up his sister!”

“We did this. You didn’t do anything on your own.”

I pointed at her. “Let’s open with that.”

The front door opened.

“Holly?” Brad called out.

“We’re in the living room.”

“We’re?” Brad said as he walked in and spotted me. “Jasper, hey man, how’s it going?”