Chapter One
Linc
“Honey, I’m home.” Making a grand entrance, Linc threw open Dom and Corey’s front door, causing it to smack against the wall.
“There goes the neighborhood.” Corey hoisted herself to her feet and let Linc wrap her in a hug.
“Look at you. Holy crap, you’re huge.” Linc ducked when Corey took a swing at his head. “I mean, your belly. The baby has gotten so big.” It’d been less than three months since he’d seen his best friend’s baby momma, but man, that kid was growing.
Dom chuckled. “Life lesson. Don’t call pregnant women huge.” Linc took Dom’s outstretched hand and then pulled him in for a bro hug.
Linc made the sign of the cross over his chest. “And the good Lord willing, that’s a life lesson I’ll never need outside my sisters in this pack.” He wasn’t Catholic, but every little bit helped, right?
Keller and Molly came in through the back door, loaded down with grocery bags. “Hey guys.” Molly dropped the bags on the counter and then rushed over to Corey, hugging her.
Baze and Riley entered next through the still-open front door, carrying a case of beer each.
Dom grabbed the beer out of Riley’s arms and quickly shut the door. “Should we be letting one of our under-aged players walk around campus carrying beer? I’m thinking, no.”
Linc followed the crowd of people into the kitchen—well, more like he was following the beer. “Dom, you sound more and more like a parent every time I talk to you, man.” They’d been apart all summer, and Linc wasn’t too macho to admit that he’d missed everyone. Sure, he’d had a hell of a good time in the Caribbean, but still.
Dom scoffed and handed Linc a bottle. “Which isn’t too often these days. I don’t think I talked to you once the whole time you were gone. How was your trip?”
“It was amazing. The weather was perfect. The tequila flowed like water. Ear muffs, little one.” Linc put his hands on Corey’s belly, ignoring growls from both Riley and Dom. “And the women were fucking spectacular.”
Riley swatted Linc’s hands off of his cosmic baby sister and then knelt down next to Corey’s stomach. “Hey sweet girl, how you doing in there? I missed you.” The room got quiet. He stood and shrugged, his eyes on the ground. “What? I did. Have any of you ever spent the summer away from your cosmically linked little sister?” Everyone stayed silent. “No? Then don’t judge.”
Corey laughed and ruffled his hair. “We missed you too, kiddo.”
Dom scoffed. “Speak for yourself. I loved having both my girls all to myself for a whole summer.”
Riley raised an eyebrow at him in question. “Really?”
Dom broke into a smile. “No, not really. If I have to watch one more episode of The Real Housewives, I’m going to lose my mind.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Linc couldn’t help but smile. Partying in the sun, taking body shots off half-naked women for breakfast…all that had been great. But being back in Haxton, Colorado and gearing up for another year at St. Leasing was even better.
***
After dinner everyone was sitting out on the back porch, enjoying one of the last warm nights and the first of many cold beers. Well, everyone except Corey.
“I miss beer.”
Dom put his hand on his mate’s knee. “I know you do, babe.”
Linc peered at Corey over his bottle. “You don’t have that much longer to go, right? I don’t see how your stomach can expand any more than it already has. What are you, eight months?”
Corey looked past Linc. “Molly, would you mind?”
Linc ducked, but he was too late. Molly’s hand connected with the back of his head. He was kidding. This was his way, this was him being him. Making everyone laugh. He knew Corey was only like six or seven months along. Although, she really was massive.
Baze propped his feet up on the edge of Linc’s chair. “Hey, guess what I heard today?”
“‘No, you can’t put that in there, you sexual deviant?’”
Baze ignored Linc’s attempt at a hilarious joke and kept talking. “We’re getting a new school nurse.”
Corey clapped her hands. “Oh my gosh. I can’t believe we forgot to tell you guys. I know her. The new nurse. We grew up together in Forest Hill. I ran into her this summer when Dom and I went to visit my parents. She mentioned she was between jobs and I told her we needed a nurse.”
Linc leaned forward in his chair, his interest piqued. “A new nurse? What’s she look like? Is she hot?”
Baze shook his head. “Oh no. No freaking way, Linc. You aren’t allowed to sleep with the new nurse. Number one, it’s in the contract you signed after the last one was fired.”
“Contract? Come on, it was on a Moon Bar cocktail napkin and I was three shots in. I hardly think that would stand up in court.” Linc rolled his eyes.
“Doesn’t have to stand up in court, jackass. It has to stand up to the pack. And I don’t think I’m alone when I say, no. No nurse for you.” Baze grinned wickedly.
Keller put his arm around Molly and pulled her closer to him. “Yeah, man. After what happened with Brooks last year? I’m with Baze. No nurse.”
Corey raised her hand. “I’m with them. This woman is my friend and the last thing I want is you getting your man-whoring hands on her.” She pointed to Dom. “He’s with me too. Oh and him.” She gestured to Riley.
Linc crossed his arms over his chest, “Fine. I won’t nail the nurse. I bet she isn’t even pretty.” Please don’t let her be pretty. He had a weakness for pretty nurses. Well, he had a weakness for pretty girls in general.
Corey smiled, like the little devil she was. “Sorry Linc, she’s hot.”
Linc narrowed his eyes. “Is she? Or are you just trying to torture me?”
Corey smirked. “Go ahead, Dom, tell him.”
“She’s…I mean…she’s okay. I, uh…” Dom was talking to Linc, but he kept glancing back at Corey like he was afraid of her. Linc couldn’t blame him. Corey was a bit of a live wire.
“It’s okay babe, you can be honest. Tell Linc how hot she is.” Corey rubbed her mate’s back, reassuring him that she wasn’t going to go off the deep end if he answered truthfully.
“She’s smoking hot. And like the kind of hot you are into. Super flirty, lingerie model hot.” Dom peeked over at Corey; she was nodding her head in agreement.
Linc took a long pull off his beer. “I hate you both.”