Chaser (Dive Bar #3)(70)

The twins chose this moment to zoom back into the room, their mom following at a slightly more sedate pace. Lena looked puffed just the same, cheeks pink and breathing fast as if the two small girls had led her on one hell of a chase. She collapsed onto a couch, giving us all a smile. “Nothing broken. Or at least, I don’t think they broke anything.” Then she frowned. “What did I miss?”

Every eye seemed to focus on me.

“Nothing,” I said.

Silence. From everyone except Mal, of course.

“Apparently Eric and Jean are doing the nasty. Not a surprise, right? The way those two look at each other … I mean, there are children in the room. Now we just need to find someone pretty to mess with Andre’s bachelor status,” said Mal. Because, as I might have mentioned previously, he was an idiot. “Look at you, man. You silver fox, you.”

Andre just smiled. “I’m not holding a baby like Eric. Start with me and I can and will come over there and hurt you.”

Still sitting on the floor, Jimmy hid his laughter behind a cough. He didn’t even bother to do it particularly well. Think I liked him even more for it.

“I’ll help,” offered Ben.

Mouth turned down, Mal sank into the corner of the sofa. “That’s just rude is what that is.”





CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Sorry. That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I asked if you’d like to come with.”

Jean looked up from where she was sorting out all of Ada’s stuff on her kitchen table. The empty baby bottles were taken apart and set beside the sink, ready for washing. Next came a couple of dribble rags and a bib, followed by the bagged dirty nappies. “It’s fine. I had a good time.”

Apparently these days I was too polite to call shit. But my brows rose just the same.

“No, really,” she said. “I did.”

“All right. What can I do to help?”

“Grab a seat and keep me company.” She filled the sink with hot soapy water and got busy cleaning the bottles, plastic nipples, and all those bits. Then they got placed in the microwave sterilizer thing.

Like I’d sit while she still worked. I bustled around trying to find something to do. “Chuck these in the laundry bag in the bathroom?” I asked, picking up the rags and bib.

“Thanks.”

Ada had conked out in the car on the drive home. She’d stirred when we lifted her out of the baby seat, but happily drifted off again back in her crib. All of the noise, people, and excitement had been a lot for a little girl. After the revelation, Jean had taken her over to Nell for a cuddle and they’d talked for a while. Hopefully their friendship was okay. It would survive. Nell just had a tendency to believe she knew best when it came to the people she cared about. But Jean could make her own choices.

And thank fuck she’d chosen me, even publicly, in front of everybody.

Hard to tell if she wanted to talk about it all or not. It’d been one hell of a day. I was still catching up with the changes. What it all meant. If everyone knowing something was going on between Jean and me meant anything at all. To say nothing of the small fact about Nell knowing something was going on between us—and what wrath she might currently be plotting against me. God, trying to figure it out made my head hurt.

While she popped the sterilizer into the microwave, I got rid of the bagged dirty diapers and then went and washed my hands. She finished up wiping down the counters and emptying the sink.

“You want those put somewhere?” I asked, nodding at the baby bags.

“Just in the corner over there, thanks.”

We worked in silence, sorting everything out. It was nice, peaceful, after all of the drama at Mal’s place. Jean’s apartment was pretty organized these days. Each week a little bit of her former control was being reclaimed, corner by corner, bench by bench, room by room. By now, everything was neat and tidy and in its place most of the time. We had that in common. Both of us liked our surroundings nice. How long it would last once Ada started crawling, we’d have to wait and see.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

I shook my head. “You?”

“No, not really. There was a lot of food.”

“Yeah, they have a habit of going overboard.”

She bit at the edge of her thumbnail. A definite nervous tell.

“Want to tell me what’s on your mind?”

Back set to the kitchen counter, she groaned. “I guess I’m still a bit embarrassed that all of that came out while we were there. Not that I mind people knowing. It just seemed such a stupid thing to come out, given—” She broke off and shook her head. “I mean, god, talk about making a scene. What must they think of me? Stage Dive, for heaven’s sake. I used to have their posters up on my wall. And you hardly ever get to catch up with your friends and I ruined it.”

“Hey, if Mal and Nell hadn’t stuck their noses in where they weren’t needed, none of that would have happened.”

“Mm.”

“Also, if Mal didn’t like you, no way would he have been stirring shit like that,” I said. “Playing matchmaker with us. Or whatever the hell he thought he was doing.”

The whites of her eyes seemed huge. “That’s what he does to people he likes?”

“You don’t even want to know how he is with people he hates.” I laughed quietly. “He pretty much harasses them into an early grave.”