Be My Hero (Forbidden Men #3)(20)

On the other side of the long counter, Mason dropped his phone from his ear and let out a long sigh. "Yeah. Pretty much," he confessed, looking more troubled than I'd ever seen him.

Worry gnawed at my stomach. I'd just decided Mason wasn't the anti-Christ and now this? According to Reese, if he had knocked up Mrs. Garrison, it wasn't because he'd wanted to be with her. But still, how could Reese stay with him after learning he'd fathered a child with someone else?

Even more shocking, I didn't want them to break up.

It was such a perplexing thought for me since I'd spent the first six months of their relationship trying to get them to do exactly that.

But they loved each other, they were good for each other, and they gave me hope that happily ever after existed. Or at least they had up until now.

"I had a feeling we hadn't gotten rid of her so easily," Reese said as she hurried toward her man.

I bumbled after her because, yeah, I felt totally out of place being seven months pregnant and pretty much wearing my PJs—a nightshirt and gray yoga pants—while inside a bar with a bunch of complete strangers. I mean, sure, every guy in the place was hot, but they were still strangers.

"I say, if a stake through the heart doesn't work, we try cutting her head off."

I rolled my eyes and gave a soft smile. Only Reese would say that.

Mason laughed as if relieved by the way his girlfriend was taking all this. But he just as quickly sobered and shook his head. "I am so . . . so sorry."

When I saw the hint of tears in his eyes, I had to blink and glance away because I'd never seen Mason anywhere near tears before. It was hard to watch him like this. Lately, I could not let anyone cry alone. I even wailed over those dog adoption commercials, and I totally wasn't a dog person.

Freaking pregnancy hormones.

Too-forgiving Reese merely shrugged. "Hey, if there isn't some insurmountable obstacle in our path, we wouldn't be us, would we?" But there was still a tremor in her voice, letting me know she was just as freaked out as Mason was.

He didn't seem to want to be forgiven quite so easily, though. He brought her hands to his mouth and shook his head. "You shouldn't have to deal with this. You shouldn't—"

"I think she was lying," I blurted out, unable to watch them go through this torture. I felt so strongly against the whole idea, I absolutely refused to believe this could happen to Reese.

Winded from chasing her across the street, I plopped down on a stool at the bar beside Reese. When I spotted a bowl of beer nuts, the pregnant munchies struck with a vengeance.

I reached for them, not even caring how much the salt in them was going to make my ankles swell. Already tasting the tart nutty flavor, my mouth began to water. But mere inches away from scooping up the biggest handful I could manage, I was shut down. Warm fingers wrapped around my wrist, stopping me while another hand yanked the bowl away.

Ack! My nuts! That yummy, yummy salt and—

I looked up, ready to lambaste whoever was keeping the famished pregnant chick from her food.

But the dark brown eyes of the guy staring back at me caught me totally off guard. Wow.

He was—

I didn't even know how to describe him. A surface description would be tattooed and pierced. There was a metal hoop caught in his eyebrow, and two right next to each other through the corner of his bottom lip. His tats spread down both arms, making him look like he was wearing long sleeves instead of a short-sleeved shirt and one colorful design flared up the right side of his neck.

He appeared to be a bad boy straight from the wrong side of town. But there was something not bad boy about him. He simply didn't look like the type who didn't give a damn about life. His deep brown eyes held too much compassion and vivacity.

Then he winked at me, confirming he was definitely no typical careless, brooding antihero. "Let me get you a fresh batch, Tinker Bell. Who knows what kind of filthy fingers have been in these all night."

Nice. My pajamas had just won me a stupid pet name. Go me.

I began to roll my eyes, but I stopped, my mouth falling open as he jumped over the bar. Like jumped over the bar, the same way Sam and Woody had done in all those Cheers reruns I'd seen. It was so hot I might've drooled a little.

After he tossed the old bowl, he pulled up a big box full and sprinkled out a new pile. Just for me. When he slid the untouched beer nuts my way with an indulgent smile, I continued to stare at him in utter awe.

That might've been the sweetest, most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for me.

But seriously, who was that sweet and thoughtful to a complete stranger?

I'd had plenty of guys be nice to me before when they'd wanted to get into my panties, but that was seven months of pregnancy ago. He surely knew there was zero chance of scoring with me now, and why would he even want to score with a pregnant girl? Maybe he was a total creeper.

I guess he could've been acting decent because I was so obviously knocked up. People did smile and hold doors open for me a hell of a lot more now than they had before. Even so, I was overwhelmed with how charming, yet totally suspicious his actions were.

Around us, the conversation continued, but I didn't hear a word of what anyone said. I was too busy caught in a staring contest with Mr. Considerate. He stared right back with a blatant curiosity that made my knees weak.

I had listened to Mason describe his coworkers to Reese when he'd first started. I knew of some guy named Gamble. He was the star football quarterback at the university where both Reese and Mason took classes. And then there was someone called Ten. There was also a Bick, or Rick, or Dick, something like that. He hadn't mentioned a fourth male coworker, though.