When You're Ready (Ready #1)(56)

She was fearless. Well, so far at least.

“Didn’t you take care of him before hand?” she asked, confusing me.

I had no idea what she was talking about. Leah was a mystery I had never quite solved.

“Say what?”

“I take that as a no. You sent him in to meet your family, fully loaded? No wonder he’s a nervous wreck. The least you could have done was jacked him off before you left so he’d relax a little.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present, Leah Morgan, my best friend.

“You’re serious?” I said.

“Yep. Men are way calmer after they’ve cleared the barrel.”

“Oh my God. You are ridiculous. And by the way, Maddie is not that far away. She can probably hear you.”

“I know I sure can!” Logan interrupted us, speaking loudly from several swings down.

My pale skin tone had me turning the color of a tomato as Leah started heaving with laughter in her swing. She was laughing so hard she had to stop swinging all together.

“I really, really think you should take Leah’s advice on this one, babe. She’s a smart girl,” Logan advised with a crooked grin, still pushing an oblivious Maddie who was currently singing at the top of her lungs.

I rolled my eyes, still recovering from my massive embarrassment when my Dad opened the door and yelled, “Hey Clare, you’ve got company.”

I turned to see Colin and Ella come through the slider, right on time.

Logan looked at Colin and Ella before looking back at me confused, as I rose from the swing to greet our new guests.

“You invited my friends to your parents’ house?” he asked, his eyes taking on a younger, more rounded look than I’d ever seen, making me wonder what he looked like as a boy.

I nodded, and said, “They’re your family, Logan. I want our families to know each other.”

Taking one quick stride, I was immediately in his arms, completely engulfed in Logan.

“Thank you,” he said fiercely.

“Dude, it’s just us. No need to flipping cry or anything,” Colin joked over my shoulder.

“Flipping?” Logan grinned, turning around to arch his brow in question at his friend’s choice of word.

“Ah, yeah. Ella won’t let me swear in front of the belly anymore,” he confessed, placing emphasis on the word belly as if it were a name or a thing.

“She swears the little monster in there can hear us, and she doesn’t want our baby to have a sailor mouth like me. But that hasn’t stopped her from screaming like a banshee when we’re going at it like – ow!”

I covered my mouth, trying to hold back a laugh as Ella’s elbow found its way into Colin’s ribs.

“What the hell, I mean heck did you do that for?” he asked as if telling a crowd about his wife’s bedroom behavior is totally normal.

“You are impossible,” she huffed, folding her arms over her swollen belly. I could see a trace of a smile sneak its way up before she broke out giggling. Colin was a hard guy to stay mad at. He was just so damn cute. The few times Logan and I had gone out with them, I constantly wondered how the hell Ella put up with him. He was high maintenance, had an ego the size of Texas, and the body to back it up. Being a highly successful lawyer didn’t help. He never backed down from a fight. They complemented each other and obviously made it work.

My brother chose this moment to arrive and we all stood around and introduced everyone. When the women started cooing over Ella’s belly, the men disappeared to go do “guy stuff”. My guess was they were going to play around with the grill for a while, nurse some beers and then eventually throw around a football and talk sports.

“So Ella, how much longer do you have?” Leah asked, her nursing instincts kicking in.

“Two months. Two miserable, long months. Next time he tries to knock me up, make sure I do the math first. Being pregnant in the summer sucks.” Watching her sit in the hot summer heat, I could commiserate. Ella was tiny, barely topping off at five foot two inches, she looked like a dwarf standing next to Colin’s six and a half foot frame. But she was tiny, complaining that she had to shop in the kids department sometimes to find clothing that fit her. Right now, she looked like she was going to topple over. She had a giant belly and two little legs to hold herself upright and we all wondered how she was going to make it to the end without falling over.

“Maddie was born August 11th, so I know exactly how you feel,” I said.

Our baby conversation went on from there. We talked about everything from showers to diapers to breast pumps.

Leah, completely out of her element, excused herself and joined Maddie again who had now moved on to hula hoops. She kept swiveling her hips, but the stubborn hoop fell to the ground every time. Leah picked one up, trying to help, and of course mastered it in one try.

Since her night with Declan James, Leah was different. She said it wasn’t a big deal, but I think she’s still trying to convince herself of that. I tried bringing it up on occasion, but she always managed to change the subject or remind me that it was a one night stand, no big deal. But I think Declan was a much bigger deal than she was willing to admit.

“I wanted to thank you, Clare,” Ella said, bringing my attention away from Leah and Maddie and back to her.

“Why?”

“You’ve gave us back Logan,” she said.