The Girl Next Door

by Emma Hart

  A light flush actually colored Kai’s cheeks.

  Holy wow.

  Why was that hot?

  “I thought it was more appropriate,” he said after a moment, ignoring my sister’s amused, shit-eating grin.

  “Oh, nonsense!” Dad said, slapping him on the back. “Jasmine and Simon, please. Unless you’d like us to call you Mr. Connors?”

  Kai froze.

  “Oh, stop it,” I said to Dad, flicking a dishcloth in his direction. “He’s winding you up,” I added to Kai.

  “Do you fish?” Dad asked, ignoring me.

  “Uh, I haven’t in a while,” Kai said slowly. “But I used to go with my dad.”

  “Great.” He clapped Kai on the shoulder again. “I’m going this weekend. Why don’t you and your dad join me?”

  My eyes bugged, and Holley choked on her wine.

  Kai ignored us entirely. “Sure. I know he had a job booked this weekend, but it’s only a small one. He should be able to pass it on to one of the other guys. I’ll call him tonight and let you know.”

  “Sure. C’mere, let me get you my number.” Dad muscled him off to the back, muttering about fishing and how he knew the best spots on the lake for whatever fish it was he liked to catch.

  Thank God we’d inherited a house on the lake from his parents. I didn’t expect Dad, Kai, or Kai’s dad to be home the same day.

  “What just happened?” Holley asked, jerking her head to look between me and Mom.

  I grimaced, shaking my head.

  Mom sighed. “He found someone other than me to take fishing.”

  And just like that, it seemed like my parents had accepted Kai into our family.

  It was going to be so awkward when I had to tell them we’d broken up.

  CHAPTER SIX – KAI

  “My daughter is a terrible liar,” Simon said, pouring whiskey into two small crystal tumblers. “She likes to think she can fool me, but that ship sailed when she was sixteen and swore the size six boot prints on the porch roof weren’t hers.”

  I said nothing. I had no idea where this conversation was going, but I was already pretty sure I wasn’t going to like it, so I accepted the tumbler of whiskey without a word.

  “Jasmine likes to keep the peace. You might have noticed that her mother is what I would call, ah, slightly volatile,” he continued, sitting in the high-back leather chair in front of the large, mahogany desk, and stroked his dark gray beard. “She also has a tendency to ignore the obvious in the hope of keeping the peace.”

  Ah. Now I knew where this was going.

  “I know you’re not dating, much less engaged,” Simon said, cutting to the chase. “I also know it was Ivy’s knee-jerk reaction to her grandmother yesterday. You do know you don’t have to go along with it, don’t you?”

  I nodded. “Yes, sir. But if it makes it easier for her right now, then I’m happy to.”

  He raised one eyebrow. “You are? Don’t you have a dating life of your own?”

  “Not particularly,” I replied slowly. “But even if I did, she and the baby would be my priority anyway, making any dating life non-existent.”

  He leaned back in his chair and spun his glass so the amber liquid sloshed against the sides. “I’m not sure what to think about you.”

  “You can think what you like,” I said honestly. “Just know that I care about your daughter a great deal, sir, and if us pretending to be in a relationship makes this easier for her, so be it.”

  “I know.”

  “Know what?”

  “That you care about her,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine. “That’s more than a little obvious.”

  I grimaced. Apparently, everyone knew I had feelings for Ivy except Ivy.

  “Regardless of how I feel, this isn’t about me.” I kept my voice low. “It’s about her, and I’m not going to use this situation to push her into anything. I don’t want her to feel like this has to be real just because we’re pretending.”

  “I’m sure.” Simon scratched his chin. “Either way, I won’t let it slip. Not even to my wife, although I’m sure she’ll kill me if she ever finds out that I know it’s not a real relationship.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled, sipping the whiskey.

  I wasn’t a whiskey guy, but it was the only polite thing to do.

  Three knocks sounded at the door, and Ivy poked her head through. “Sorry, are you done? Mom wants you,” she said to her dad. “Something about that ‘goddamn Hillary and her toyboy’ being in the bar.”

  Simon sighed. “I’ve told her I can’t kick them out just because her arch-nemesis is bringing her new twenty-two-year-old lover in.”

  “Ew. She actually has a toyboy? She’s, like, fifty.”

  “As is your mother,” he replied dryly.

  “Yeah, but she’s not dating a college graduate,” she replied with the same wry tone. “Anyway, she wants you to get them out of her damn sight, and she’s sent me home.”

  “Why is she sending you home? You have two hours left of your shift.”

  “Because someone walked past me with three cups of coffee, and I vomited on the bar.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked, putting the whiskey down.

  “I’m fine,” she said brightly. “But I don’t think I’m ever drinking coffee again, so I guess I need to develop a taste for tea.”

  Simon pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is going to be a long few months.”

  “You think you’ve got it bad,” Ivy said, looking back at him. “You’re not the one who’s going to get cankles.”

  With that, she flounced out of the office, leaving the heavy wood door to swing shut behind her.

  Simon stared after her for a moment before he shook his head. Looking at me, he said, “Good luck. You’re gonna need it with her.”

  I grinned. I’d take all the luck I could get as far as Ivy Stuart was concerned.

  ***

  “Are you sure you’re fine?”

  Ivy froze, her lips puckered around the straw of her McDonald’s milkshake I’d driven into the next town to buy her at her request. “Kai, we’ve gotten a cab back home, then driven a forty-five-minute round trip for a McDonald’s. If I weren’t fine, your dashboard would know about it.”

  I grunted a noncommittal noise and pulled into the apartment parking lot. I parked in my designated spot, next to her car. “I know, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop asking.”

  She rolled her eyes as we got out. “What did my dad say to you?”

  “Talked about fishing,” I lied, juggling my keys. “I think we’re going to figure out a trip soon.”

  “Mm.” She sucked milkshake up the straw so hard she got a mouthful of air if the gurgling from the cup was anything to go by. “He knows this relationship is fake.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I know my dad. He doesn’t miss anything, but he wouldn’t dare tell Mom and Grams.”

  I sighed. “Fine, yeah, he knows. He told me he knew but he wouldn’t say anything.”

  She shrugged and dug in her purse for her keys when we reached our floor. “I figured.” She paused. “Hey… Do you want to come in?”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “I’m not asking you for sex,” she deadpanned. “Just… you know. Baby stuff?”

  “Really? You just threw up on your parents’ bar and you want to talk about baby stuff?”

  She huffed, and I swear she stomped her foot. “Fine. Tori’s on a date and my sister went to her friend’s house. I’m a little afraid I might throw up that cheeseburger and need someone to hold my hair. Since you got me into this situation, you’re up.”

  I laughed and wrapped one arm around her, pulling her into my side. “That’s as good a reason as any. Come on, then. I suppose it’ll stop me texting you in ten minutes.”

  “There’s that,” she muttered, nudging me with her elbow before she unlocked her door.

  I followed her inside and kicked off my shoes. “What do you wa
nt to do? Talk? Watch a movie? Sit in never-ending silence and play games on our phones?”

  “Are you capable of silence?” she asked, pulling two bottles of water from the fridge. “Judging by your endless texts, I’d say no.”

  I took the bottle she offered me. “Hey, if I didn’t text you and check up on you, you’d complain about that.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” she mused, cracking the seal on her water bottle. “I’m going to get changed into my pajamas. I won’t be wearing a bra, so don’t stare too hard when I come back.”

  “Are we at that stage already? This moved fast.”

  “Yeah, well, in a few months you’re gonna have a front-row seat to a human being exiting my body, so my pajamas is child’s play.” She turned and stalked off to her room, leaving me chuckling at her.

  And staring at her ass in her jeans.

  Jesus, it was one hell of a nice ass.

  “Stop staring at my ass!”

  “It’s your ass or your boobs,” I shouted after her. “You can’t expect me to ignore both!”

  “Nobody can ignore my boobs!” she yelled. “They doubled in size overnight! Pornstars are jealous of me, damn it!”

  “I’ll let you know in a minute!” I laughed to myself and sat down on her sofa, grabbing the remote on the way down. I loaded the Netflix app and chuckled when I saw the two profiles named Ivy and Holley.

  Who was paying for Netflix here?

  “I pay,” Ivy said, making me turn my attention to her.

  She was wearing a tiny pair of cotton shorts with sheep on and a faded tank top that looked like it came from some raving Noughties concert.

  And she was not wrong.

  Her boobs looked fucking great.

  “How did you know I was wondering that?”

  She shrugged, grabbing a blanket from a soft ottoman and pulling it onto the sofa with her. “You laughed. I pay for Netflix, she pays for Hulu. It works.”

  “Makes sense. I’d do that, but I wouldn’t put it past Anna or Liam to change my login and lock me out.”

  “Liam?”

  “My brother.”

  “Oh, I remember. Does he live nearby?” She snuggled down onto the sofa next to me, wrapping herself up in the soft blanket that was adorned with cartoon kittens.

  “He’s at NYU,” I replied, selecting her profile. “He comes back for the holidays and school breaks.”

  “What’s he studying?”

  “Not a damn clue. He’s changed his major three times. It’s why he’s twenty-four and still at college trying to get a degree.”

  She winced. “That’s some serious debt.”

  “No kidding. I think he’s only there so he doesn’t have to move back in with our parents.”

  “Are your parents that bad?”

  “No, they’re really great people, actually. They just believe in us facing the consequences of our actions without being mollycoddled.”

  “Is that why you texted them to tell them you’re having a baby?”

  “Technically, I told them you’re having a baby, but yes. It’s also why my sister is staying with me and not them.” I scrolled through Netflix. “What do you want to watch?”

  “Nothing with blood,” she replied. “Why isn’t she staying with them?”

  “They told her that her ex-boyfriend was a good-for-nothing asshole who was only using her for her job, but she didn’t agree.”

  “Was he? Using her?”

  “Oh, yeah. He got a job at the law firm she works at then screwed her secretary.”

  “Do you mean his secretary?”

  “Nope. Her secretary.” I hovered over a movie. “This one?”

  Ivy wrinkled her face up. “That looks like a horror movie. I don’t need any help not sleeping, thanks. It’s like that pregnancy test knocked down the dam. I peed four times between midnight and six a.m.”

  “Nice.” I scrolled again. “You’re going to make me watch one of those girly movies, aren’t you?”

  “Ooh, How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days!” She jerked and sat upright, hugging the blanket closer to her. “I love that movie!”

  Of course she did.

  “What about this one? What To Expect When You’re Expecting,” I said. “It looks fun and educational.”

  Slowly, she turned her head and stared a hole in the side of mine. “It’s like you want me to punch you.”

  “How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days it is.” I scrolled back to the movie.

  “Yeah. It’s fun and educational,” she shot back, eying me.

  I peered over at her, noting how she was trying to fight a smile. “I’d hate to burst your bubble, but you’re pretty stuck with me now.”

  “I know.” Sighing, she rested her head back. “But a girl can dream.”

  I shook my head and started the movie, putting the remote on the coffee table before getting comfortable on the sofa with her. Her thigh was pressed up against mine, and thank fuck I was wearing jeans.

  The last thing I needed right now was to feel her skin on mine.

  If I did, she’d have no use for those pajamas.

  I rubbed my hand down my face and tried to focus on the movie. I had no fucking idea what was going on and if I was completely honest, I really didn’t give a shit at all.

  Nor did I want to know what was going on. I was pretty sure I’d watched this movie before at some point in my life but I hadn’t understood it then, either.

  I glanced over at Ivy. At some point in the last twenty minutes of this mind-numbing movie, she’d leaned into me and was now almost sitting with her head on my shoulder. In fact, five more minutes and I was sure she would be.

  And judging by the way she’d wrapped herself into a human burrito, she’d probably be fast asleep, too.

  I was proven right in ten minutes. Ivy’s head was right on my shoulder, and she was breathing heavily. Her eyelids flickered, making her eyelashes brush against the soft skin of her cheeks, and she made a tiny noise that was somewhere between a snore and a whimper.

  Did I move her to tell her to go to bed?

  She looked so peaceful, so relaxed, and she’d had such a long day I didn’t know if I had the heart to wake her. It wasn’t real early either—it was already dark out.

  I looked down at her.

  She was so fucking beautiful.

  I had no idea how I was going to make it through the next few months without falling in love with her.

  It sounded crazy, but it was the truth. I already had these wild feelings for her, ones that just wouldn’t go away no matter how hard I tried.

  Keeping those in check was going to be so hard. Especially if she kept doing shit like falling asleep on me.

  I adjusted myself so I was almost lying on the sofa and gently raised my arm. Ivy whimpered as her head fell onto my chest, but it only took her two seconds before she wriggled and snuggled into me.

  What the fuck was I doing? I needed to move away from her, not lie on her sofa and hold her against me like some lovesick fucking puppy.

  It wasn’t about that, though, I told myself. She was pregnant with my baby. She needed someone to look after her, and right now, that was me. I wasn’t so stupid that I assumed what she was going through was easy.

  In fact, I knew it wasn’t. I could use Google, and I had used Google. I probably knew more than I should about the early stages of pregnancy, but I just wanted her to know that I really did care.

  It was easy to say you cared.

  It was a whole lot harder to show it.

  I didn’t want Ivy to doubt me for a second.

  I wrapped my arm around her and held her close to me. Her heavy exhales were hot against my chest, even through my t-shirt, and she nestled in even closer to me.

  There was no way I could move her.

  I was officially stuck here until she woke up.

  Judging by the way she was now drooling on my shirt, it was going to be a while.

  I reached out toward the coffee table. I was just a
ble to touch the remote, so I nudged it until I could get a full grip of it to change the dumb girly movie.

  I still had no fucking idea what was happening in it.

  I flicked through Netflix until I found a sports documentary that was more to my liking and settled down to watch it.

  Hopefully, Ivy would wake up soon.

  If she didn’t, I sure as hell hoped she wouldn’t notice my boner in the morning.

  CHAPTER SEVEN – IVY

  I was lying on Kai.

  The sleepy—yet shocking—revelation was enough to drag me out of the post-sleep haze, but it was the tell-tale sign of drool on his t-shirt that made this even worse.

  Great.

  Now he knew I was a drooler.

  My bladder was also fit to burst.

  Oh, God. I was going to have to wake him up.

  I tilted my head back, careful not to dislodge his arm too much. He was completely dead to the world, and the sunrise that was creeping through the windows cast golden shadows across his face that made him even more handsome than he was usually.

  Good God, this baby was going to be a beautiful one.

  If it had even half of Kai’s good looks, that was. Maybe it would have his bright blue eyes, or his dark brown hair that had hints of gold in the sunlight. If it was a boy, would it grow up to have his jaw? His smile? Or would he have my slightly crooked nose?

  What if the baby was a girl? Would she have his unfairly long eyelashes or my thankfully well-shaped eyebrows? Or would she have both?

  Maybe she’d have neither.

  That seemed to be how it worked.

  Men got the beautiful eyelashes, and women had to pay a beautician a pretty penny to get them.

  I sighed.

  “Ivy, if you need to move, then move,” Kai muttered, not opening his eyes. “But stop staring at me like I’m a jar of pickles.”

  “I need to pee,” I whispered.

  “Then go and pee,” he whispered right back. “What time is it?”

  “Sunrise.”

  “I was hoping for a more exact time.”

  “Too fucking early?” I offered, moving so that I was no longer lying on him.