Well Suited (Red Lipstick Coalition #4)(10)

I perked up, straightening on the stool where I sat at our kitchen island. “I like this idea. I like this idea a lot. Theodore and I could spend the next seven weeks getting used to each other.”

“I dunno,” Amelia said. “He already seems pretty used to the idea.”

This time, it was Val who looked accusatory. “That’s another thing. How the hell did you not tell us you slept with Theo?”

A hot flush crept across my cheeks. “Because it was a one-time thing.”

Val snorted a laugh. “I mean, they say it only takes once, but this is taking it to the extreme.”

“He smells good. We have chemistry. When we danced, I knew we would. So we went home together.”

They waited for me to finish.

“And that was it,” I clarified.

“Oh, that was not it,” Val said with the roll of her eyes. “How was it?”

For a second, I didn’t answer. I hadn’t had a wide variety of trysts, but he’d easily topped them all. Another reason to stay away.

If I continued to see him, I would become beholden to him. And if I gave him that power, I would lose control. That possibility scared me even more than the embryo in my uterus.

“It was exemplary,” was my answer.

“Why didn’t you see him again?” Rin asked gently.

“Starting off a relationship with a one-night stand seems irresponsible.”

“Well, now you’re starting one off with a baby,” Val said.

“There is no relationship,” I assured her. “Theodore and I won’t be romantically involved.”

Now Val was pouting. “Why the heck not?”

“Because I’m also not willing to be with a man simply because he fertilized my egg.”

A laugh burst out of Amelia, and she clapped her hand over her mouth.

“What? That’s what happened.”

“I know, but you sound like you’re talking about chickens. He’s the father of your child,” she reminded me. As if I didn’t know.

“There will be too many variables, too many emotions with the baby alone. We can’t get our hearts involved on top of that. It would be too messy to untangle.”

“Well, you might not have a choice,” Amelia said. “I was bound and determined not to fall for my fake husband, and look how that turned out.”

“I slept with Theodore once.”

“I know, but you never sleep with anybody, so he’s obviously special,” she argued.

“That’s not true. I occasionally sleep with people.”

Amelia rolled her eyes. “Biannual one-night stands barely count.”

“How so? I sleep with them, don’t I?”

“But you don’t like them.”

“I don’t like Theodore.”

Amelia’s face was as flat as a pancake. “I saw you two together. You like him.”

I shifted on my stool. “No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do,” she insisted. “And he likes you, too. I’m just saying, it might be harder to resist that than you think.”

“I thought you wanted me to move in with him.”

“I do. I just also want you to fall in love with him so we can be sisters-in-law.”

Rin shook her head. “I still can’t figure out how Amelia was the first of us to get married, and Katherine will be the first to have a baby. It’s like we’re living in Backward Land.”

“A baby,” Val said, smiling. “It just really hit me. You’re gonna have a tiny little baby with tiny little hands and tiny little toes.”

“You’re gonna get big and round and gorgeous,” Amelia added, smiling wistfully.

“I bet it has dark hair, a fuzzy little head,” Rin mused.

“Hopefully I don’t develop gestational diabetes or anemia. Or preeclampsia,” I said. “I have a lot of research to do before my doctor’s appointment. I’ll need to sign up for childbirth classes and a tour of the hospital. I’d really like to see a female reproductive diagram, too.”

“Sign Theo up, too. He said he wanted to go to everything,” Amelia reminded.

My frown was back. Because the thought of him suffering through The Miracle of Life with me made that twisting ache in my chest tighten again. I’d bet he wouldn’t even flinch at the sight of childbirth.

The thought was oddly appealing.

“Well,” I started, “I guess I’ll accept his offer.”

Amelia clapped, her smile bright and bursting at the seams. “I’m going to be right there with you the whole way. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried,” I assured her.

And with a healthy dose of research, that would cease to be a lie.





5





Modern Man





Theo Tommy’s smirk sent an urge through me to pop him in the nose.

“Don’t look at me like that, asshole,” I warned.

“You sly fucking dog. You slept with Katherine. I wasn’t entirely sure she liked anything outside of the Dewey decimal system and late fees. Never mind you.”

“Well, we’re both full of surprises. Somehow, you convinced Amelia to marry you.”