Proving Paul's Promise(12)

And therein lies the problem, Paul. I’m me. And that’s all I’ll ever be. The real me—the one he hasn’t met. He’ll probably never see her because it has been a really long time since I’ve seen her myself.





Paul

I can’t f*cking believe that I ever thought she screwed either of these guys. I reach out my hand to take Cody’s, and he grips mine tightly and looks into my eyes. “If you hurt her, I’ll have to take you out,” he says quietly so that only I can hear him.

It startles me for a second. I’m not sure how to respond. He’s not nearly as big as I am, but he’s serious and I have to respect that he’s trying to take care of her. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I murmur, looking for Friday to come save me from his gaze, but she’s sitting on the couch beside Garrett, her head on his shoulder.

I twist my hand to pull it from his grasp, but he holds tightly. “I might not be able to kick your ass,” he says, and he jerks my arm, pulling me forward until we’re chest to chest. “But I know people,” he goes on to say.

Okay, now I’m annoyed. “If you find someone big enough and there’s just cause, you should go for it,” I tell him. I squeeze his hand tightly until he winces, and I let him go. He steps back.

“Now that we have that ugly discussion out of the way,” he says, “it’s really nice to meet you.” He grins.

“You, too,” I grunt out. I still can’t f*cking believe he just tried to manhandle me in my own living room. I brush a hand through my hair, casting furtive glances in his direction.

Garrett smirks. “I thought you were going to teach him the two-step there for a minute,” he says, talking around a mouth full of pizza.

Cody’s eyes rake up and down my body. “He looks more like a swing dance kind of guy.”

Friday snorts.

“Shut it,” I murmur at her, but I can’t keep from grinning as I take the beer that Garrett offers me.

The room goes quiet for a second, until I can’t stand the silence anymore. “So, you knocked her up, huh?” I suddenly blurt out.

Friday’s face colors, and she looks everywhere but at me. “Paul,” she whines, closing her eyes tightly as she winces.

“Well, we hope so,” Cody says as he goes to sit down on the other side of Garrett. He takes Garrett’s hand and pulls it onto his knee. They’re so damn cute together they make my back teeth ache. “We’ve been trying to adopt for a long time, but it hasn’t worked out.”

“What are the chances this won’t work?” I ask. I might as well know what I’m up against, right?

Cody holds up his hands like he’s weighing something. “We have no way of knowing. Not until next week.”

“Chances are good, though?” I ask.

They nod.

“I hope it works out for you.”

They cast questioning glances toward Friday, and I can’t help but wonder what they’re thinking. I’ll ask her later, after they’ve left, I guess.

Sam comes out of the bedroom and stops, looking from Cody and Garrett to Friday and back. “Hell yeah,” he finally says. He lifts his hands like he’s praying to God and says, “Thank you for small miracles. And for putting Paul out of his misery.” He shoves my shoulder. “Glad they finally told you.”

I choke on my beer. “You knew?” I croak out.

“Well, yeah,” he says. “If you weren’t looking at them through that red haze of jealousy you got going on, you’d have seen it, too.”

I throw a wadded napkin at his head, but he just laughs.

The door opens, and Emily waddles into the room. Emily is married to my brother Logan, and she’s almost nine months pregnant. She’s so damn adorable with that pregnancy waddle that I can’t help but grin. Sam isn’t quite as smart as me. He laughs out loud.

Emily walks up behind him and threads her hand into his hair. She gently yanks, tilting his head back and looking into his eyes. “Are you seriously laughing at the pregnant chick?” she asks.

He holds up his hands as though he’s surrendering to the cops. “Not me,” he says.

She kisses him quickly on the forehead and shoves his cheek gently, and he makes room for her on the couch. She drops down beside him and sits back, blowing out a heavy breath. Sam lays a hand on her belly. “How’s my niece doing in there?” he asks. He leans down and talks to her belly, and she giggles, shoving him away with a hand to the side of his face.

“She’s fine. Still cooking.” She lays a hand on her basketball-sized belly and smiles.

Friday introduces Cody and Garrett, and Emily helps herself to some pizza.

“You want some water?” Sam asks.

“Yes, but I don’t want to get up,” she says. She bats her lashes at him.

He groans, but he gets to his feet and goes to get her a drink.

“Can you turn the TV on?” Emily asks. “They’re doing a news report on that band I played with last week.”

I flip the TV on and go to the channel she tells me to. She leans forward as she sees the lead singer of the band being asked questions.

“Turn it up,” she cries.

She listens intently while they talk with the lead singer. She’s pretty in a dead-of-the-night sort of way. It makes me want to wash all that dark makeup off her face to see what’s underneath. Kind of like I want to do with Friday. I’d love to see what Friday looks like without the red lipstick and the heavy lashes. I’d kind of like to see what she looks like without her clothes, too. Heat creeps up my cheeks when I catch Cody smirking at me. Apparently, I looked at Friday’s legs a little too long.