The Girl Next Door

by Emma Hart

  Not before a nap, anyway. Nobody liked taking a nap when they were turned on.

  I yawned and pressed my hand to my mouth.

  Kai put down his fork. “Why don’t you lie down, and I’ll put the cake in the fridge?”

  Another yawn answered for me. “I’ll lie down on the sofa.”

  “That’s not a real nap.”

  “Sure it is. Sofas are made for napping.”

  Kai stared at me as I walked over to the sofa, but he didn’t say anything. “Are we done talking about our fake marriage then?”

  “It was less talking, more arguing,” I replied, curling up under a freshly laundered, fluffy blanket. I nestled a throw pillow under my head and peered over at him. “ And yes, we’re done for now. I had a lot of cake and I’m tired.”

  “So you’re just going to go to sleep.”

  “Yes, I’m going to go to sleep. Like you said, it’s been a long day, and I still have to go to work tonight. There’s no way I’m getting through a six hour shift of serving drunk people alcohol on Ladies’ Night without a nap, okay?”

  “Ladies’ Night? That’s a thing?”

  “Kai.”

  “Sorry, sorry.” He held up his hands.

  I snuggled back down and closed my eyes. “You’re not going to stand there and watch me sleep, are you?”

  “I have no idea,” he admitted. “Now that Mrs. V is going to be going from door to door to tell the entire building we’re married and having a baby, I’m not sure I want to leave your apartment right now.”

  I sighed. “Fine. You can stay here.”

  “In a few months, you’ll be begging me to stay so you can get some sleep.”

  “Yes, but there isn’t a crying baby here right now,” I argued. “But there will be if you don’t let me take a nap.”

  “I told you to go to bed.”

  “I told you I don’t want to.”

  “Aw, look. We’re already arguing like a married couple.”

  I opened my eyes to see him grinning. “Fuck off.”

  “Come here.” He put down his cup and turned to the sink. He pulled down the blind, then crossed into the living room where he closed all the curtains, darkening the room substantially.

  Damn it. I hated it when he did nice things like that.

  It was harder to stay mad at him when he did.

  “Thank you.”

  “Scoot up a little.” He motioned for me to move, and I scrunched up my face, but did it anyway. He sat down in the spot where my head had just been and patted his lap.

  I rested my head on there, still with the cushion, and wriggled until I was comfortable. “Why am I sleeping on you?”

  “Because you won’t nap in your room and I want to watch TV if I’m being held hostage here for an hour,” he replied simply. “Don’t worry, it’ll be on super low volume.”

  I harrumphed and rolled over.

  Big mistake.

  My face was right in front of his abs, and my movement had caused his t-shirt to rise up, exposing the soft skin of his lower stomach. Including a hint of ab.

  “That didn’t go well for you, did you?” Kai asked, amused.

  “Not particularly.” I rolled back over and closed my eyes with another humph of annoyance.

  He shifted the tiniest bit. His fingertips brushed over my hair, more than once. He ran his fingers through my loose locks, brushing it all away from my face, stroking my hair in a rhythmic motion that was completely hypnotic.

  A shiver ran down my spine when he brushed a sensitive spot behind my ear, and he paused for the briefest second before he went back to the previous rhythm.

  It felt good—too good. It was the kind of gentle, casual touch that was designed only to be comforting, yet it was filled with the type of heaviness where you knew there was more than a simple caring feeling behind it.

  But I was too tired to dwell on my half-asleep thoughts.

  So I gave in and fell asleep to Kai stroking my hair.

  ***

  “You are so stupid,” Tori said, sipping on a margarita.

  Unlike everyone else in my life, my best friend had no qualms about drinking in front of me. Apparently, neither did my sister and her best friends.

  They were lucky I was working, or I might have drowned all four of the bitches in their drinks.

  “I am not stupid,” I insisted, wiping down the bar next to Tori.

  “I don’t know,” Saylor, one of Holley’s best friends and bookstore co-owners replied. “It’s pretty obvious.”

  Kinsley, the final member of their trio, nodded emphatically. “I wouldn’t know a chat up line if it slapped my ass and asked for my number, but I have to agree here.”

  I turned to Holley. “I suppose you agree with them all, too.”

  My sister shrugged. “I can’t say I care, if I’m honest.”

  “How can you not care?” Tori asked, leaning forward so she could see past Kinsley. “It’s so obvious. Men don’t just stroke people’s hair and let them sleep on their laps. Not to mention he stayed over the other night and literally cuddled her until morning.”

  I paused. Well, she wasn’t supposed to bring that up. “I fell asleep on him and he didn’t want to wake me,” I said quickly. “When we woke up it was easier for him to crash at my place and not wake his sister.”

  “That makes it a little harder to agree with you,” Holley admitted. “But I think I do.”

  “What? How?” Saylor asked. “How can you know all this stuff and not think for a second that he has feelings for her? This isn’t normal.”

  My sister shrugged. “I don’t know. This is hardly a normal situation. I mean, she’s so scared of our grandmother—”

  “Rightfully,” Kinsley added with a shudder.

  “—That she lied about being married. Plus, they’re neighbors. They’re friends, or they were friends before all this. Friends care about each other.”

  “Thank you,” I said, taking her empty glass to refill it with her favorite Merlot. I wouldn’t drown my sister today. “That’s all it is.”

  “You’re insane.” Tori shook her head. “Absolutely insane. He’s clearly got feelings for her.”

  I didn’t have to listen to this.

  “You’re insane,” I shot back, handing Holley her wine. “Do you hear yourselves? My sister is the only one talking sense, and that’s something I never thought I’d say.”

  “Thanks,” Holley said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  Saylor snorted. “Sure, okay, let’s assume that it’s completely platonic between Kai and Ivy.”

  “Yes, let’s do that.”

  “There’s one big issue with that assumption.”

  Tori grinned.

  Saylor looked at me. “You’re pregnant. Platonic relationships don’t get people pregnant.”

  Shit.

  That was a good argument.

  “One night stands happen in platonic relationships,” I started.

  Tori held up a finger. “I am here to corroborate that. They do.”

  “Fine, but it’s still valid to my point,” Saylor continued. “The relationship obviously isn’t completely platonic.”

  “She has a point,” Kinsley added, stirring a cherry around her glass with her straw. “I mean, my relationship with Holley is platonic, but we’re not accidentally having sex.”

  “Why did you have to use me?” Holley muttered.

  Kinsley rolled her eyes, tucking her dark brown hair behind her ear. “I’m just saying that there’s obviously something going on between you two even if you don’t want to admit it.”

  “No, I don’t,” I said, putting another pitcher of margaritas in front of them. “My life is crazy enough right now without adding anything else into it.”

  “You can’t use the baby as an excuse for everything,” Tori scolded me. “The baby has nothing to do with your inability to admit there’s something going on between you and Kai. You swore blind you weren’t going to have sex wit
h him that night and low and behold, you’re incubating his spawn.”

  “Do you have to put it like that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great.”

  “Stop fighting,” Holley interjected. “Yes, we all know Ivy has an issue with speaking the truth and being totally blind to what’s in front of her, but I don’t want to stress her out. Or make her cry. That happens way too easily now.”

  Yeah. She was here when I was dubbed the Volcano for my instant vomit response to coffee.

  I was a bit of a crier anyway, so now it was like, whoosh. Waterfalls. Over a butter commercial.

  I wish I were joking.

  “But she’s right,” Holley continued. “If she truly believes there’s nothing going on between her and Kai, then I believe her.”

  “You’re so full of shit even dung beetles aren’t interested.” Tori finished her margarita.

  Well, I wasn’t going to disagree with that, either.

  A customer at the other end of the bar motioned for my attention and I walked over to take their order.

  The truth was that I didn’t know what was going on between me and Kai. The more I thought about it, the more confused I got. All I knew was that he didn’t treat me like a friend, but he treated me as more than just someone who was carrying his baby.

  That was a giant gray area where a thousand edges all muddled together, and it was just too much for me to deal with right now.

  So I was going to be a grown up and ignore it until I really, really had to deal with it.

  CHAPTER TEN – KAI

  “Whoa,” Josh said, potting the yellow striped ball. “It’s true, then.”

  “You’re insane,” Colton replied, chalking the top of his pool cue.

  We were hanging out in the basement of Josh’s newly purchased house. He’d instantly turned it into a man cave, complete with a homemade pallet bar that desperately needed painting, a sixty-inch TV on the wall, and a pool table.

  And a sign that said no women were allowed.

  Never mind that he was still finding his cutlery out of the boxes in his kitchen—as long as this was sorted, it was all good in his eyes.

  We usually spent Friday nights in a bar, but we knew that Ivy, Tori, Holley, Saylor, and Colton’s sister Kinsley were hanging out in town again tonight.

  Last I knew, Ivy was not happy she’d been defaulted to the designated driver.

  I sipped from my beer bottle and shrugged. “Yeah, well, it happened.”

  “What are you doing about Ivy?” Colton asked as Josh missed his next shot.

  “What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m hardly leaving her to fend for herself.”

  “No, are you dating?” Josh leaned against the pallet bar and grabbed his beer. “Because the gossip grapevine says you’re getting married.”

  I sighed and explained the whole situation. “Now we’re stuck in this fuckin’ weird carousel where nothing moves forward and nothing moves back.”

  “Have you considered telling her you actually like her?” Colton questioned, potting his ball and flipping Josh the bird. “That might get you somewhere.”

  “I casually mentioned us dating earlier and she brushed it off.”

  “Ouch,” he muttered.

  Yeah, no fucking kidding.

  “She was in a bad mood,” I said. “I might have told her grandmother we got married yesterday morning.”

  Both of my best friends burst out laughing. “Fucking hell,” Josh said. “Why did you do that?”

  “It slipped out.”

  “Maybe you should have tried that a few weeks ago.”

  Colton hit him with the pool cue. “You’re welcome, man,” he said to me. “What are you doing now? You two?”

  “Winging it, I think. Mrs. V came over yesterday when we were fighting and dropped off a cake that was a cross between a wedding cake and a baby shower cake. Ivy got distracted, ate a shit ton of cake, then took a nap before work,” I explained. “I haven’t seen her since she left for work last night.”

  “I don’t get why you don’t just tell her,” Josh said, like he wasn’t harboring a crush on his best friend’s little sister.

  One that Colton knew nothing about, for what it was worth, and I wasn’t going to be the one who told him about it, either.

  “Because she’s gone fucking crazy,” Colton answered, potting the final ball of the game. “She’s pregnant, Josh. You don’t tell pregnant women anything. You feed them, pet their hair, and let them sleep.”

  That sounded pretty accurate.

  “What do you know about pregnant women?” Josh retorted. “You’ve been dating Amber for five years, haven’t proposed, and haven’t discussed a baby despite her telling you she wants one.”

  An excellent point.

  If Josh was making those, we were in trouble.

  “I don’t know,” Colton said, putting down the pool cue so he could rescue a beer from the fridge. “She can’t ask me for a baby if she won’t move in with me. I told her I’m not proposing until we live together and know we won’t kill each other.”

  “Didn’t you have to move out because Kinsley nearly killed you?”

  “Yeah, but she was a teenager, and I’m pretty sure she slipped while she was holding that knife.”

  “There’s a story I haven’t heard.” I laughed.

  Colton popped the cap of the beer and said, “When Kins was seventeen, I told the guy she liked she had a crush on him. Turned out, she’d already told him, and he’d turned her down because he was dating someone else. She was so fucking pissed at me that when I got home, she was cooking and waved the knife in my direction.”

  “Then she slipped and nearly cut off his toe,” Josh finished. “Or so she says. I think she was aiming for his tiny cock.”

  It was hard to believe we would all be thirty by the end of next year.

  No, really.

  We would be. And I was the only one even remotely grown up with my birthday coming in a few days—not that it made me the oldest. That was Colton.

  “Why don’t you move into Amber’s place?” I grabbed Colton’s pool cue and chalked it while Josh set up the table. “She lives in town.”

  “It’s smaller than mine,” he replied. “There’d be no point moving into her two-bedroom apartment when we’d ultimately end up moving into a three-bed place, which is what mine is.”

  He had a point.

  “Makes sense.”

  “What are you and Ivy doing? Who’s moving across the hall?”

  Josh chuckled.

  “Don’t go there.” I lined up the white ball and hit it into the pack, breaking it and sending balls across the table. “Eventually I assume we’ll have to either come clean or fake break up. If anyone asks right now, my sister is staying at my place so I’m keeping my apartment for her.”

  “I think you’re doing the right thing,” Colton said, perching on a barrel that was narrowly passing as a bar stool right now. “You need to find your new normal before you tell her you have feelings for her.”

  Josh shot him a look. “I think you should just lay your cards on the table. That’s what I’d want if I were her. It’s the easiest option.”

  “How is it the easiest?”

  “Because if it goes well, their relationship isn’t fake. Just the marriage. And if they break up for real, then they get their fake divorce and move on.”

  “Bullshit.”

  I hated to admit it, but as they descended into the pros and cons of me telling Ivy I had feelings for her, Josh had a point.

  Ivy was the one who’d told me that women didn’t like hints, and after that, I had actually told Amanda straight up that I wasn’t interested. She’d still tried it a few times, but she’d mostly given up.

  Maybe I needed to take her advice again and tell her straight.

  We moved onto other topics of conversation, finished two more games of pool and at least four beers each before Colton and I split a cab fare and went home. I wasn’t quite dr
unk but not quite sober, and thank fuck I didn’t have to work tomorrow, because the best place for me to go right now was bed.

  Until lunchtime tomorrow.

  By some stroke of a miracle, I managed to make my way up to my apartment without running into any of my neighbors. The conversation from last night filtered through my mind, but I brushed it away.

  That wasn’t a conversation that could be had right now. I needed the clearest head possible for that.

  I unlocked my door and froze. My sister was sitting on the sofa, glaring at me in a way that made her look uncomfortably like our mother. “What?”

  “Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

  I frowned, shutting the door. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve called you twenty times and you didn’t answer.”

  I dug my phone out of my pocket. “Fuck. It’s dead. What happened?

  “What happened?” Anna hissed, her eyes flashing. “What happened is that your pregnant fake wife had to leave her night with her friends because she felt unwell. She then came home, threw up for half an hour straight, then came over here practically on her knees because you weren’t replying to her texts and she was too busy throwing up to talk on the phone.”

  Guilt shot through my body. “Is she okay?”

  “Sure, after I called her doctor’s emergency number and was reassured it was likely just pregnancy sickness because the name ‘morning sickness’ is a joke,” Anna spat. “After I held back her hair and got her not throwing up long enough that she could take a shower, I quite literally force fed her some saltine crackers and put her to sleep in your bed so I could keep an eye on her because you were fucking missing.”

  “Shit.” I rushed through the apartment and into my room where, as Anna had said, there was an Ivy-shaped lump on one side of my bed. Her hair was fanned out across the pillows, and she was fast asleep, but she was paler than I’d ever seen her.

  I watched her for a moment, as her chest rose and fell, making the blankets move with each breath.

  Anna grabbed my shirt and pulled me back from the room, pulling the door over. “Don’t you dare wake her up,” she hissed. “It took her an hour to get to sleep because she felt so awful.”

  I pushed past her into the living room where I tossed my phone on the sofa. “Fuck. I’m a dick.”