“There he is. White Strand’s newest bachelor officially off the market according to the gossip mill. And he’s got a baby on the way.”
Danny closed his eyes for a moment before turning to find Bryce and Zane standing at the top of his driveway wearing black rimmed sunglasses with the word “Team” on the left lens and the word “Groom” on the right. Stars decorated both lenses. They had their arms crossed over their chests and dubious grins on their faces.
“Not sure if we should congratulate you or do an intervention,” Bryce added.
“Could you take off those ridiculous shades?” Danny tossed the rag aside.
“We could,” Zane said.
“But what fun would that be?” Bryce did a quick adjustment of his sunglasses, keeping them firmly in place atop his nose.
“The fact that you two even have sunglasses like that worries me.”
“So it’s true?” Zane asked in disbelief.
“Yes and no.” Danny had been waiting for Zane and Bryce to show up. He’d probably have visitors and pies or something all day long thanks to Mrs. L. He sat on the end of the sawhorse and launched into the story. Or most of it. The guys didn’t need to know that for the minute Liv had cake on her face he’d imagined other places he could lick frosting off her body.
Danny had brought Liv into their fold when they were kids and Zane and Bryce thought of her like one of the guys. He wasn’t sharing anything she wouldn’t share herself. The three of them had talked about her before. But for some reason that eluded him, this time felt different. His chest tightened as he talked, like this discussion mattered more than any of the others.
Which just proved he had no clue what the hell he was doing. Liv wanted him to change his carefully planned present and future. But more than that, she was asking him to redesign their friendship, a relationship he liked exactly the way it was.
“Man, this goes way above and beyond friendship,” Bryce said with admiration—and doubt—in his tone.
“Dude, I know what Liv means to you,” Zane said, “but I don’t think you realize what’s in store for you. I just lived through nine months of pregnancy with Sophie. The emotional rollercoaster, the cravings, the being turned on all the time.”
“Bro, it’s Liv, I’m not—”
“I don’t mean you. Sophie was so horny I could barely keep up. She used that brain speak of hers to explain the change in her hormones and it made me so hot I—”
Danny held up his hand, palm flat. “We know what Sophie’s smarts do to you.”
“Seriously man, pregnant women cannot get it enough,” Zane added. Like sweat wasn’t already trickling down Danny’s back.
Olivia had mentioned she was sorry for interfering with his sex life, but he hadn’t for a second considered hers, not until the open marriage comment.
“Hang on a minute,” Bryce said, taking off the sunglasses. Finally. “You guys didn’t discuss sex during this marriage, did you?”
“There’s nothing to talk about. Sex would ruin our friendship.”
“But it’d save you from a severe case of blue balls.”
Danny rubbed the back of his neck to stave off the pinches accumulating there.
“And premature arthritis in your right hand.” A line creased Bryce’s forehead. “You jack off right handed, right?”
“Shut up,” Danny said.
“You need to talk about it, dude. Or, better yet, forget talking and just do it. Did I ever tell you guys I had a dream about Liv once where she—”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Bryce laughed. “Yeah, no talking necessary.”
“It’s not that simple,” Danny said. He clenched his jaw, all of a sudden mad at himself for agreeing to this unfair plan and mad at Liv for asking it of him.
“No, it’s not,” Zane agreed. “But given what I know about pregnancy, she’ll want it as much as you—”
“You both seriously want me to punch you in the faces.”
“There’s a much better way to work out that aggression.” Zane fought a smile, the ass.
Danny stood. “I’m glad this amuses you. You guys can go now.”
Last night he and Liv had decided to head to the courthouse to do the deed. Best friends with a marriage certificate, she’d said. A little piece of paper wouldn’t change who and what they were to each other. Right?
It just turned him into the two things he’d sworn off when he got his CHM diagnosis: a husband and a father.
“We should probably warn you that news travels fast in this town,” Bryce said.
“No shit.” Danny liked it a lot better when Bryce and Honor were the main topic of discussion.