Chapter Seventeen
“KURT HAD TO fly back to New York for a book signing.” Leanna bounced her little boy, Sloan, on her hip. At just over a year old, he was the spitting image of her, with brown hair and the prettiest hazel eyes Parker had ever seen.
Parker was glad she and Grayson had seen Kurt earlier in the week, when they’d gotten together at Pete and Jenna’s beach house for dinner. She and Grayson had been spending the early-morning hours consuming each other instead of food. But they’d made a concerted effort today not to get sidetracked by mind-numbing kisses and spend time with their friends at Seaside. She was glad they’d come. It was fun seeing everyone working together, cooking, and taking care of each other’s babies.
“Too bad Blue and Lizzie and Hunter and Jana couldn’t come. They said they were busy.” Sky picked up a sippy cup from the deck and set it on the table. Grayson had given her a hard time about giving everyone framed copies of their front-page kiss—including, it turned out, each of their friends—but Sky had taken his complaint in stride. A kiss like that should be memorialized.
“They’re busy in bed,” Bella said.
The guys nodded in agreement. Parker wondered if they’d known that’s why she and Grayson hadn’t joined them for breakfast before today.
“You have sex on the brain,” Leanna said to Bella. “They’re probably…”
“In bed,” Sawyer said. “Which is where we’d be if I didn’t have a training session in twenty minutes.”
“Whatever,” Leanna mumbled.
“Why do you always deny that people have sex?” Jenna asked. “We had to rig your bedroom window so we could close it from the outside. Remember?” She turned to Parker and said, “She and Kurt always forget to close the window. It was like listening to the porn channel.” She waggled her brows, and Leanna turned bright pink.
Parker could only imagine how embarrassing it would be if she or Grayson had neighbors. She’d only slept with a few men, but she’d always been a silent lover. Grayson brought out sides of her she’d never known she had. Including the warm and squishy feeling moving through her now at the sight of her big, virile man bouncing his adorable year-and-a-half-old niece, Bea, on his knee. Bea’s dark hair curled up at the ends, and her smile lit up her blue eyes as she giggled anew with every bump of Grayson’s knee.
“Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling.” Everyone turned toward the automated voice coming from the other side of the road, where a short-haired woman was poking at her cell phone.
“What was that?” Jenna whipped her head around.
“Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling,” sounded again, and the woman poked at her phone again.
“That is Bella in action.” Leanna pointed at Bella, whispering in a harsh tone, “You have got to stop this. Seriously. Theresa turned us blue last year as payback for your pranks. Heaven knows what she’ll do next time.”
Parker realized this was another one of Bella’s pranks.
Bella was busy breaking up little pieces of a muffin for her daughter, Summer. “What makes you think I did anything?”
“Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling. Your lover’s calling,” sounded again, and Bella stifled a laugh. Theresa stormed inside her house and slammed the door.
“You changed Theresa’s ringtone?” Jenna laughed. Then her face went serious. “You know she has no clue how to fix it, right?”
“You should probably fix it,” Amy said. “Not that I don’t love your pranks, but what if she’s in a store and it rings?”
“Ugh.” Bella pushed to her feet. “Fine, I’ll go fix it, but you know what this means, don’t you?”
“That you’re lying and you won’t really fix it?” Amy teased.
Bella crossed her arms, shaking her head. “No, that this is it. The pranks were the last link to our carefree years. What’s left? Getting old and gray and fat and boring?”
“You’re only thirty-four,” Amy reminded her.
“Down!” Summer demanded.
“You’re not hungry?” Bella asked, holding up a piece of muffin. “Auntie Leanna made this especially for you.”
Summer shook her head, sending her blond ringlets swinging against her cheeks. Bella reached for her, and Caden said, “I’ve got her. Why don’t you go help Theresa? I promise, babe, I’ll never let your life get boring.”
Bella rolled her eyes. Caden whispered something to her that made her turn beet red.
“I’m going!” Bella bounced down the steps.
Caden lifted Summer from her high chair. “You guys know she adores Theresa. She wouldn’t prank her if she didn’t.”
“We know,” Jenna said. “And now she’ll probably pull more pranks in hopes of getting even more sexual favors.”
“Lucky me.” Caden smiled and lowered Summer to the deck. The moment her feet touched down, she was off and running, which caused Amy and Tony’s daughter, Hannah, to squeal with delight and fight for freedom, too.
“Of course you want out.” Amy lifted Hannah from her high chair and kissed her cheek, setting her down to chase Summer. Pepper, Leanna’s dog, popped up and followed the girls. “Where Summer goes, Hannah follows.”
“Which will be torture when they’re teenagers,” Tony added.
“Not this one,” Grayson said, kissing Bea’s cheek, then lifting her into the air. “Pete’s going to lock her in a closet as soon as she discovers boys.”
“Gway!” Bea shrieked.
Gway. You’re too cute.
“Bea!” he teased, and pulled the baby down to kiss her chubby cheeks, earning more sweet giggles and melting Parker’s heart.
“He will,” Jenna said to Grayson. “But I’ll have the key.”
“Keep dreaming, babe,” Pete said. “She’s not dating until she’s thirty.”
“Don’t worry, Jenna,” Sky said. “You can give Bea to me and Sawyer when she’s a teenager. We’ll raise her right.”
Sawyer’s dark eyes narrowed. “What makes you think I’d let her date? I’m right there with Pete. Thirty sounds about right.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “But Sky believes in experiencing love as it comes, and we all know we women eventually get our way.” She jumped up as Jessica and Jamie came out of their cottage and headed toward them. “Hey, guys!”
Experiencing love as it comes. That was so similar to Grayson’s thoughts on their real lives being right that moment, whatever that moment might be. It must have come from their father.
“Did we miss breakfast?” Jamie carried their son, Dustin, who had been born around the same time as Sloan. Dustin had hair as black as his father’s and eyes as blue as Jessica’s.
When Dustin saw the mayhem on the deck, he thrust his hands out and bounced up and down in Jamie’s arms. “Pu, pu, pu!”
Jamie set him on his hands and knees, and he crawled over to Pepper, who slobbered his cheeks with puppy kisses.
“How can you stand it?” Parker loved babies, although she had little experience with them. “I’d spend all day making them giggle.”
Grayson lowered Bea to his lap, his eyes honing in on Parker. “I’m not sure you’d get much acting done.”
“Who cares?” Parker looked around the table at the high chairs, colorful plastic toys, wet wipes, sippy cups, and other baby paraphernalia. She was surrounded by the sounds of toddlers giggling and running along the deck and Pepper’s nails tapping out his sentinel path.
“This is what life should be about. A gaggle of kids, surrounded by friends, and—” She realized everyone had gone silent, save for Hannah and Summer, who giggled as they snuck down the deck stairs backward. Tony stood watch at the bottom of the steps. “Anyway, acting is great, but this would be nice, too.”
On that little reveal, all eyes shifted to Grayson, who was still staring at Parker like she’d just revealed she was a long-lost princess. Thankfully, the others chose that moment to begin cleaning up from breakfast, causing a flurry of activity. She and Grayson pushed from their chairs, but he was still giving her that look.
“What?” she finally asked.
“Nothing. I just figured…” He shrugged. “I didn’t expect to hear that.”
Neither did I, but it’s true.
Bea pulled his hair, breaking their connection, and Jenna lifted her from Grayson’s arms.
He waited for Jenna to leave, then guided Parker away from the others. “So, you want a gaggle of children?”
“One day. But isn’t it too soon to talk about this? We aren’t even talking about what’s real, like where we both live. Not that I want to jump into that, but…” She paused, not knowing where she was going with that thought, because part of her wanted to talk about everything, but a bigger part of her didn’t want to think about the harsh reality of their lives being on opposite ends of the country.
He searched her eyes, his own serious—and slightly annoyed? “You’re absolutely right. It’s too soon.”
A confusing wave of disappointment swamped her.