Dylan couldn’t say if he’d ever been to a baby shower before, but he was fairly sure he hadn’t. He didn’t know exactly what they were supposed to look like, but he imagined the Walkers had a pretty good handle on it.

There were banquet-type tables set up in the backyard at Andy and Owen’s house, everything decorated in whites, pinks, and golds. Big, fluffy flower arrangements covered every surface, and where there weren’t flowers, there was food, and where there wasn’t food there were candles and big, glass beverage dispensers filled with lemon slices and pink lemonade.

He’d silently watched the women set up, only stepping in when he was asked. Lexi had broken away the second they’d arrived, working in perfect sync with her sisters, each of them having their own jobs, working well together.

Jenna arranged the cake Lexi had made in a little nook, along with flowers and a chalkboard. By hand, she’d written Beth and Logan’s names, the baby’s due date, and added a hashtag and social media symbols in the corner.

#HalloBaby, it said. Dylan marveled as every guest that arrived stopped and took note, giggling at the play on the last name Hallowell.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. Grant and Lincoln had arrived. He jogged to the front yard to meet them on the street where they’d parked.

“This place is the middle of nowhere,” Grant complained when he stepped out of his car. “What the hell are we doing here again?”

Dylan wished he knew but whatever Lexi had planned, she wasn’t sharing any of the details.

“I just keep hearing Jenna say, big mistake, and I can’t unhear it,” Lincoln added.

“At the very least, there’s food and Spencer brought a keg of his own beer,” Dylan told Grant, slinging an arm around his shoulder and pulling him into the backyard.

Grant blanched at the sight before him. “It’s all pink.”

“It’s a girl,” Andy laughed as she hurried by with a platter of sliced watermelon.

“It’s always a girl,” Spencer grumbled, dutifully carrying another tray of food. This one filled with condiments and things for a barbecue. “Every time a Walker has a baby, it’s a girl. Every. Damn. Time.”

Before long Dylan stood on the porch, surrounded by his partners and Walkers. Lexi stood arm in arm with Beth, both looking flushed and excited. They all chatted about the warm June weather and the end of Jenna’s softball season, the upcoming summer months, and of course, the impending birth of Beth’s baby. Guests milled about, talking amongst each other and popping over to say hello.

Lincoln was always an easy guest. The man could hold a conversation with a monkey and make it look easy. Grant, however, stood with his arms crossed over his chest, watching the byplay skeptically.

“I hear this is the place to pick up sexy, round, pregnant ladies.”

If the voice that came through the gated backyard entrance had been male, Dylan would have been on the defensive. However, the voice belonged to a woman. A tall, blonde woman that had a wide smile and an armful of gifts.

“You’re totally in the right place,” Lexi shot back, hurrying over. “Spencer, take this stuff and put it on the table.”

“Spencer,” the man in question mocked in a high-pitched voice, “do this. Spencer do that.”

He complained, but he did as he was told, unloading all the things from the blonde’s arms. The second she was free she held Lexi out by the shoulders and inspected her.

“You look like you’re smuggling a basketball under your shirt.”

“I am,” Lexi joked, grabbing the hem of her top. “Want to see?”

“Keep your shirt on,” Dylan warned, eyebrow raised.

The blonde looked at him and then Lexi again. “Well, he’s totally adorbs. I mean, Jenna sent me a picture so I knew, but wow.” She shot Dylan another look. “Way better in person.”

“Dylan, this is Kelsey,” Lexi said, introducing them with a laugh. “Kelsey, Dylan and his business partners—”

“Lincoln Greene and Grant Harrison,” Kelsey supplied.

Dylan exchanged looks with his friends.

“Not to worry. My people are right behind me.” Her eyes took in the group and landed on Beth. She held her arms open wide and they met in a tender hug. “Look at this glowing mama-to-be. I’m so glad to see you in real life. The phone screen doesn’t do you justice, Hollis Divine.”

Logan laughed under his breath. “You’ll never outrun that one, sugar.”

“I’m glad you could make it,” Beth told Kelsey. “I feel like we haven’t seen you guys in forever.”

“We’ve been busy, too, but when the baby comes, you’ll be seeing a lot more of us. Family is family.”

“Does this mean that all the Walker girls are now sexy mamas? Andy the sassy one, Alex all round and sweet, and Beth all gorgeous, waiting on this baby to be born.” The new voice that came around the corner was definitely male. Dylan turned to find two men at the gate, looking very pleased with themselves and happy to see Lexi. His annoyance suddenly skyrocketed.

“Watch yourself,” Logan growled at the newcomers, though he was smiling and the younger man was not even a little intimidated at his words. “You’re not too big that I can’t pound you into the ground.”

The man shrugged. “I’m more afraid of Beth than I am of you.”

They bantered for a minute more, everyone greeting each other with hugs and smiles. Lexi met Dylan’s eyes, her gaze darting to the gate, her smile widening. She took a few steps to the porch where he and his partners stood.

“Is this the part where I say abracadabra?” she asked with a wink, gesturing to the gate.

Not two seconds later a mountain of a man came into the yard, his arms thick like tree trunks. His eyes were translucent in the sun, his face stern and hard. There was a woman at his side and Dylan stilled.

She was small compared to the man but stood tall and confidently next to him. He recognized her instantly.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Grant murmured.

It was Julia Hawkins. Tech genius and the biggest name in the computer industry, strolling into the Walker’s backyard as if it were no big deal. The woman Grant had been trying to wheedle a meeting with for weeks but who was virtually untouchable.

The unlikely looking pair joined the group, the men greeting each other with handshakes, the women hugging Julia as if they were the all the best of friends.

“Cole and Tucker,” Lexi said, pointing to the two men that had entered first. “This is Dylan James and his business partners Lincoln and Grant.” She waited until they shook and pointed to Julia Hawkins. “This is Elliot Williams, Logan’s cousin and his fiancée, Julia Hawkins.”

“We eloped last week,” Julia said blankly, every head turning in her direction.

“You what?” Kelsey shouted.

“What the fuck, El?” Cole said, hands on his hips.

Elliot Williams looked down at Julia and the softening of his features was instantaneous. “I’ve been asking for almost two years, Cole. When the woman says, let’s go get married, we go get married, no questions asked,” he said simply.

“Um, we’ve been waiting on bated breath for two years for you to pick a date,” Kelsey said, her words directed at Julia. Dylan gathered they were close. “I was supposed to be your maid of honor. We were supposed to have a big thing out at the lake and have flowers and food and all the shit people do at weddings.”

“I didn’t want food or a big thing at the lake,” Julia said simply. “And I didn’t want anyone looking at me. I just wanted Elliot.”

“Don’t you blow me off with your sweet, little love logic,” Kelsey argued. “You promised me garter tossing and bachelorette parties.”

“Auntie Alex told me at my mom’s bachelorette party she pretended to be my mom and had a stripper grind his junk in her face.”

Conversation, good and bad, ground to a halt at Jenna’s words and everyone looked at Lexi.

“What?” She shrugged. “Andy wasn’t into it.”

“I might have liked that,” Julia added, her face nearly emotionless.

One thing Dylan had heard about Julia was that she was hard to read. Most people who had done some sort of business with her felt she was aloof or distant. His eyes cut to Kelsey. They also talked about her assistant, a bright bubbly woman who knew her boss inside and out.

“I was supposed to be your best man.” Cole also had his hands on his hips but instead of being angry with his brother Elliot, as Dylan would have assumed, he was glaring at Julia.

“You’re still my best man,” Julia told him.

“I think it’s great,” Tucker interrupted, wrapping an arm around Jenna and looking down at her. “Don’t you?”

Jenna nodded. “I do.” Her eyes brightened. “See what I did there? I do. Get it?”

“In case you were wondering,” Spencer leaned into Dylan, Lincoln, Grant. “Nothing ever goes as planned around here. Someone’s always throwing a wrench in the gears.”

Dylan glanced at Lexi, a wide smile on her face as she laughed at whatever it was one of the Williams brothers said, and then to Grant, who looked positively poleaxed. Lexi had just done the impossible, hooking Grant up with a connection he was otherwise hard-pressed to get on his own. Despite the accusations he’d hurled at her and the hurt she harbored, she’d put the ball in his court, helping him in a way that no one else could.

It was a nice gesture, and not entirely selfless. Lexi looked smug and completely pleased with herself, which tickled Dylan to no end. If things had been the other way around, Grant would lord that type of upper hand for as long as possible.

“Plans?” Lincoln murmured, eyeing the scene before them. “Who needs plans?”

Dylan looked to Lexi and the baby bump, her entire family and the friends surrounding them. None of this had been part of his plan; he’d never imagined anything for himself that even resembled the situation he found himself in.

He held his beer out to Lincoln and tapped his glass against his partners. “Who needs plans?” he agreed with a smile.

Alex loved remembering the looks on their faces when Julia had strolled around the corner.

Imagine her, Alexa Walker, small-town nobody being the one to facilitate a meeting between two big business mucky-mucks. Honestly, it was a weird day and the memory of that moment kept her afloat for the rest of the day.

She was getting so much attention, everyone looking to her and asking questions about the baby, but really it was Beth’s day. The baby shower was to celebrate Beth and Logan and #HalloBaby. Problem was, #HalloBaby was attached to her and so she was pulled into the baby-shower vortex.

She didn’t mind so much but she wanted to make sure the attention stayed on Beth and Logan.

Gently detaching herself from a conversation with her father’s next door neighbor and their friend Mike’s mom, Alex slinked out of the backyard and hustled out front, hoping for some peace.

“You’re not safe out here either,” Grant grunted, raising a glass to his lips.

He stood there with Spencer and Cole, all of them suspiciously close to the shrubs.

“What are you going to do? Jump into the bushes when someone comes to find you?” she asked, joining them.

“What are you doing?” Spencer countered. “Hiding from every old biddy in there that wants to guess the weight of the baby and win a jar of jelly beans?”

“Like, for real,” Alex marveled. “Someone asked me if they could pick me up to see how heavy I was.”

That at least had Grant’s lip twitching.

“I guessed six pounds, twelve ounces.” Julia came out front to join them, which wasn’t surprising since she was notorious for not liking crowds. She sidled up next to Cole, her hand slipping into the crook of his elbow. “Only because Kelsey made me fill out the paper. She says there’s no point in coming to a baby shower if you aren’t going to play games.” She looked up at Grant. “You have a business proposition for me.”

“I do,” he admitted, his eyes assessing. “I don’t have anything prepared because I didn’t realize you’d be here.”

“He’s been trying to get a meeting with you,” Alex supplied. “Guess he was just asking the wrong people.”

“I don’t like to make myself available.” Julia’s words were matter-of-fact. “But if you’re a friend of Alex’s, Kelsey says it’s worth a listen.”

“Now, I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say we’re friends,” Alex put in, taking a sip of her water. “In fact, Grant’s pretty entrenched on the anti-Alex team.” Her eyes cut to Julia’s. “I’m using you as an olive branch, Jules. Hope you don’t mind.”

Julia took a moment to digest but before she could say anything, Alex grabbed her hand. “HalloBaby has the hiccups.”

Julia looked equal parts fascinated and disgusted, her eyes narrowed in concentration.

“I’m not anti-Alex,” Grant said, finally getting a word in. “I had concerns for my friend, that’s all.”

“That’s all,” Alex muttered sourly.

“Tread lightly,” Spencer warned. “Alex has a hair trigger.”

“Go shit in a hat,” she shot at Spencer.

“Pitch it,” Julia told Grant, ignoring the rest of them.

His eyes never wavered from hers; he didn’t falter or need a moment to gather his thoughts. He just dove in, giving a detailed history of the group of men and women that were trying to lead a small tech company into the big leagues. He talked about their ideas about bridging the gap between healthcare providers and patients, and easily accessible healthcare. It wasn’t so much about getting doctor’s appointments or diagnoses, but answers to questions in a simple way, though software and communications technologies.

Towards the end of his pitch, Julia cut him off. “Email everything to Kelsey.”

Grant sucked in a breath. “That’s it?”

“Do you need something else?” she asked.

“Is this where you’re all hiding?” Dylan came around the corner, Andy right on his heels.

“Alex, everyone’s looking for you,” her sister said.

“I know. That’s why I’m out here and not back there.” At Andy’s disappointed look, she felt her temper flare. “Don’t look at me like that. I get to take a break. I’m not a goddamn show pony, Andy. I’m an actual human being that doesn’t want to be looked at all day and poked and prodded every second. You could give me a second to take a damn breather.”

Dylan stepped in front of her, blocking her view. “How about we take a walk.”

Her first instinct was to say that she didn’t want to take a damn walk, but she refrained. A walk was probably not a bad idea.

“Fine,” she muttered, sending her sister a bland look. “Is that okay with you?”

“Don’t be a brat, Lex. All you ever had to do was say you needed a minute,” her sister shot back.

“I need a minute.”

“You might need a few,” Andy said, flipping her the bird.

Alex cracked a smile at Andy’s gesture, which was basically the equivalent of a sibling high five in the Walker household.

Alex flipped her off in return. “I’ll take my time.”

A little bemused, Dylan slid his fingers between hers and led her down the sidewalk.

“This is probably the most interesting party I’ve ever been to. I’m almost sad my parents couldn’t make it.”

“We like to keep everyone on their toes.”

“You could have mentioned that you know Julia Hawkins,” Dylan told her casually as they strolled down the street she grew up on.

“I could have,” she admitted. “But it was fun springing it on Grant and Lincoln. I mean, really, which one of you would have thought to come to me to see if I could get you a meeting with her? None of you,” she said before he could answer.

“No,” he admitted. “It would have never occurred to me.”

“Elliot brought Julia to Beth and Logan’s wedding as his plus one a couple years ago. She’s cool. A little quirky but she’s got her own thing going on, you know, with the computer stuff. She’s freaky smart too. Like hanging around with a super-computer.”

“She has that reputation. How are you holding up here today?” Dylan pulled her closer, his arm resting on her shoulder as they strolled the neighborhood she grew up in.

“Um,” she hesitated. “Okay, I guess.”

“Hard to separate the baby and the parents at something like this.”

“Yes, it is,” she agreed. “I’m just trying to give Beth and Logan space to enjoy it, without everyone looking at me. Because even though the baby is with me, people keep asking about me, and it’s making me feel like I’m stealing her thunder. We’ve got enough problems without me stepping on her toes right now.”

“I don’t think she’s worried about that,” Dylan said gently. “She seems more concerned with making you feel like you’re included too. She had that chair next to her when she was opening gifts…”

“For Logan,” Alex told him.

“No, baby, I think that was for you.”

It had never crossed her mind that Beth would want her opening gifts at the shower. She’d assumed that empty chair next to her was for Logan. Instead, he’d hung back with his cousins, enjoying the show.

And she’d sat back, watching Beth open gifts alone.

“I’m such an idiot,” she whined, slapping the heel of her hand against her forehead and stopping them in their tracks. “I should go back.”

Without hesitation, Dylan steered them back toward Andy’s house.

“I was thinking you could take me on a tour of the new kitchen this afternoon,” he said. “You keep telling me all about it, but I want to see.”

“You should wait until it’s all done. Get a big Fixer Upper reveal.”

“What’s Fixer Upper?”

She glanced at him, taking in the full breadth of his confusion. “It’s a TV show.”

“About fixer uppers?” he assumed with raised brows.

“Yeah. Anyway, they had to tear out almost all the sheetrock in the downstairs because it was all scorched. So, it’ll be totally new. You should wait until it’s all done.”

He gave her a thoughtful nod. “But it’s all going okay? The insurance company took care of everything?”

“More than I thought they would. Everyone’s always talking about insurance companies giving them the run around and all the red tape they have to wade through. I called my company and after a few days, they gave me my own rep and a direct line to him. Ever since then, they keep finding loopholes that get me more reimbursement…” She stopped walking and dropped his hand, propping her hands on her hips. “You paid off my insurance company?”

The pieces all suddenly clicked into place as the words came out of her mouth. She’d only been covered for a certain amount of damage and a certain number of repairs. When they’d upped the coverage and even included some repairs that hadn’t necessarily been covered under her policy, she’d thought they were being helpful. Dylan hadn’t been around and she hadn’t thought much of it other than they were trying to be a good, honest company.

She watched him expectantly, his dark gaze watching her, completely unapologetic.

“Dylan,” she prodded.

“I wouldn’t say I paid them off,” he admitted. “Just added some zeros to your repair fund.”

“But you did it through them so I wouldn’t know it was from you.”

“Again, I was trying to help and then we weren’t speaking after the whole Grant incident.” He grabbed her hips and pulled her belly flush against him. “Besides, I couldn’t stand to see that old kitchen one more time. I would have burned it down myself if I could have, though I would have waited until you weren’t inside at the time.”

“I don’t need you to pay for that kind of stuff, you know,” she insisted. “I was waiting until I could do it myself.”

“Consider it a gift.”

“You know what I like for gifts? Classic rock on vinyl. Stackable rings. Cute aprons with funny sayings on them. People don’t buy each other kitchens, Dylan.” She tried to convey her feelings on the subject through her eyes, hoping he’d understand. Of course she wanted a new kitchen; she was well aware that hers was a nightmare. But she’d worked so hard on doing it herself, hoarding away money and gift cards, just waiting for the perfect time.

“Can I tell you something?” he asked, his voice soft, making her anger melt just a little. At her nod, he continued. “So far, your kitchen has cost less than half of what I make in one day in interest on my trust account.”

“In one day!”

“Half of what I make in one day,” he reiterated. “In interest, Lexi. And that’s not counting my investments or my salary at work.”

“I splurged,” she argued, trying to calculate in her head how much she’d spent so far. It had to be close to forty thousand dollars. That alone should have made her question the insurance company, but she hadn’t wanted to look that gift horse in the mouth. “I bought the commercial double oven. Carrara marble countertops.”

“You skimped on the cabinets,” he accused.

“There was a mix-up…” With a laughing gasp, she slapped his arm. “You switched my cabinets!”

“You needed the good ones, babe,” he said simply, laying his lips on hers. “You deserve the best of everything and that’s what I’m going to get you.”

She shook her head, partly at his high-handedness, partly at his underhandedness, and partly at her own naiveté.

“Vinyl records, hotshot. Stackable rings.”

“I can get you rings,” he said, his lips quirking up at the sides. “Big ones that come in little powder-blue boxes.”

“You better not step one foot into a Tiffany’s store, Dylan,” she argued.

“Okay. Instead, I’ll just make sure you get the best oven money can buy and the most beautiful hardwood floors. I’m not above wooing you through a remodel.”

“You can’t buy my love,” she told him.

The words came out of her mouth, but she wasn’t sure that was exactly true. She didn’t love him because of the things he bought, but the fact that he’d done something that meant so much to her, struck a definite chord in her heart.

Unruffled, Dylan chuckled. “I don’t need to buy your love. I earn that by giving you hot sex and foot rubs.”

He wasn’t wrong there either.

Neither of them mentioned the L-word that floated around them, noticeable but unobtrusive.

“I’m sorry, all I heard was hot sex,” she said, leading him back into the baby-shower fray as they reached the gate to Andy’s yard. “Did you say something else?”

As if she weighed nothing he scooped her up, her arms winding around his neck, and carried her into the backyard.

“You’re always distracted by the hot sex,” he chided. “It’s like you’re never satisfied.” His laughing eyes met her. “I guess I’ll just have to work a little harder tonight.”

Alex had no words, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth at the thought of anything hotter than what they shared in bed. The memories alone were enough to curl her toes.

“Time to go play dutiful sister,” he said, delivering her to a seat next to Beth, leaning down to whisper in her ear. “I’ll make sure to come up with a few new ways to make you scream tonight, babe.” He murmured a suggestion that had her staring into the eyes of Ms. Ross, the meanest woman in town, and blushing from the roots of her hair, her face hot.

As if she knew, Ms. Ross looked at Dylan and back to Alex, sending her a sassy wink.