“First a baby, now you love me.” Nodding toward the door, he set his hand lightly at the small of her back in that gentlemanly way he had about him. “So if I’m reading this right, this is my window to propose?”
“I don’t know, Jeff. What kind of pizza are we talking? And I want to hear more about this cake.”
He leaned in close, so his voice was a low rumble just above her ear, so seductive she almost missed what he actually said. “I’ve got a yellow box mix in the car.”
FOURTEEN
His mother wasn’t speaking to him when Grant arrived. And, considering she’d been trying to set his pregnant non-girlfriend up with one of his oldest friends he could totally live with that.
It wasn’t like he wanted Darcy for himself. He’d spent the past two months making sure everyone who crossed their paths understood he didn’t. But did he want to see her set up with the guy who’d earned the nickname “Homer” in undergrad for all the “home runs” he scored on the female student body and a fair number of the faculty, as well. Sure Grant had grown up since then. Jeff had even set him up with a friend or two over the years.
But Darcy?
The mother of his child?
No.
The guy had been cool about it, too, shooting him a brief nod of understanding before ushering Jeff’s mom out for the evening, and leaving Jeff and Darcy with the house to themselves.
He’d gotten her a pizza, and even made her the cake as they talked about movies and food, the work she’d been doing for his mother. They joked about Vegas and he told her about Connor and the wife he’d met and married all in one night, sharing a few of the more colorful highlights of their romantic journey.
Darcy laughed until she cried listening to his account of moving heaven and earth to keep a monumentally intoxicated Connor from taking the classic “drunk dial” to plane-hopping extremes in his quest to win Megan back after a particularly rough patch. And like always, the sound of her laughter got to him like nothing else. It did something to the space in the center of his chest he wasn’t even aware of when he wasn’t with her. Made him wonder if there was anything he wouldn’t do to ensure he got to keep hearing it.
Darcy snuggled into the corner of the couch, her feet tucked up against the buttery leather as the last of her laughter subsided. “Honestly, Jeff, after all that I hope they name their firstborn after you.”
“Firstborn, hmm?” He stretched back himself, feeling the tension ease from his muscles. “You do that more now, too? Find yourself making reference to babies when you never did before? My V.P. suggested making it a drinking game, everyone taking a shot of espresso each time I drop the B word.”
And there was the little twitch at the corner of her mouth. The telling precursor to the smile she didn’t try to keep from him any longer.
“I guess maybe I do.” She met his eyes. “But it makes me happy to know I’m not the only one with baby brain.”
“I told you. We’re in it together.”
“Glad to hear you’re volunteering to share in the labor and delivery.”
He ran a hand through his hair, watching Darcy as a comfortable silence fell over them. Labor and delivery. It was hard to think that far ahead when she was hardly showing.