Warrior (First to Fight #1)(49)

With Ben’s family still happily chattering away in the kitchen, I take Cole upstairs to put him down for a nap. I’m drifting in and out myself when I hear a knock on the door. I ease myself out from under Cole’s body and tug a spare afghan around me, careful not to jostle my shoulder.

When I reach the foot of the stairs, I see Ben at the front door and beyond him Sofie and Jack. Oh, crap.

Sofie and Jack in the same room is bad by itself, but adding Ben to the mix is a surefire way for things to blow up now that they aren’t bound by social niceties.

I wince as soon as Jack’s eyes come to me. “Explain.”

“Well, come in. Don’t make Sofie stand outside.”

Jack glances behind him, looks Sofie up and down, and turns back as though he didn’t see her. I resist the urge to roll my eyes. I don’t know what it is between those two, but they need to get over it or get back together before I wring both their necks.

When Jack doesn’t make room, Sofie pushes her way inside. She immediately comes to my side. “Hi, Cole’s dad! So nice to finally see you in the picture.” She waves to Ben, who’s closing the door behind a still-steamed Jack. “But I didn’t realize he came with a party. What’s going on?”

“Why don’t you come in the kitchen? I’ll make everyone something to drink. Ben’s mom made lasagna and there’s enough for a football team. You can make yourselves a plate.”

Ben stops me by the entrance to the kitchen with a hand at my waist. I look up at his face, steadily ignoring the way my body reacts to his closeness.

“I’m going to go check on my parents. You okay here?”

“Yes, I’m not a child.”

He presses a short kiss to my lips and I raise a hand to his chest—to pull him closer or keep him at a distance, I’m not sure. His guerrilla-style tactics are hell on my resistance.

I ignore that and the looks on Jack and Sofie’s faces as I pull out tea and some extra plates. They might not want to eat, but I’m suddenly overcome with the urge to stuff my face, if only to keep from their inquisition.

“Uh,” Sofie starts. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say around a bite of garlic bread.

“Too bad,” Jack says. “A few days ago, the two of you were barely speaking and now he’s walking around your house like he owns the place. He’s my friend, and I love him, but what the f*ck?”

“Keep your voice down, Jack.”

Sofie nods. “I have to say, I agree with Jack.”

I narrow my eyes at my supposed best friend. Jack is supposed to be the enemy, and she should be on my side. What the hell?

“About time you agreed with me on something.”

“Don’t start.” Sofie turns back to me. “Spill.”

I rub the dull ache in my temple. “I was the one who was shot here. Shouldn’t you guys be giving him a hard time?”

Jack stops his furtive study of Sofie and looks back at me. “Don’t pull the injured card. I didn’t put up with a year of your wishy-washy bullshit for things to change and you not even tell me.”

“It’s not wishy-washy bullshit, Jack. Ben is just here so he and Cole can get to know each other. I feel safer with him here since the shooting. That’s all.”

“Oh, so he knows he’s Cole’s dad now?” Jack asks quickly.

I study him suspiciously for a beat. “Yeah. The news blabbed all about it while I was in the hospital and, you know…he was there, so…” I trail off, once again feeling like crap and not liking the way all of that went down.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Sofie says, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“We’re fine, really.” I glance back up toward my bedroom, where Cole sleeps peacefully. “I just hope we continue to be so lucky.”

“I’m going to go have a talk with Ben,” Jack says before grabbing his tea and bee-lining for the huddle of people outside.

“By ‘talk with Ben’ he means he’s going to go grill him about his intentions.” Sofie’s eyes linger on Jack a touch longer than necessary.

I groan. “Okay, I am over this conversation, Sof.”

“That’s too damn bad. You gotta catch me up here. So he found out he’s the baby-daddy at the hospital and what now? He’s shacked up here?”

“I don’t know, really. He says he’s here because he’s freaked out about me getting shot. My plan was to have him be a part of Cole’s life. But he seems to think we should just pick up where we left off.”

“And you don’t want to?” she asks, picking apart a piece of garlic bread.

“I have enough on my plate right now, learning the whole Mom thing and then going back to work. I don’t know if it would be a relationship out of necessity or based on real feelings. Does he just want to be with me because I’m the mother of his kid? It’s completely out of order. Not to mention that there is some lunatic going around shooting at me. I’m still trying to find out the cause of all this mess.” I gesture with my bandaged arm and wince at the tenderness. “A relationship with Ben isn’t part of the plan.”

Sofie’s eyes trail back to Jack, who is talking to Ben outside. “Yeah, well, love doesn’t always follow the rules, Liv.”