The Girl Next Door

by Emma Hart

  “You do that, honey.” She saluted me, and I let Kai drag me out of the hall and into the cooler air outside.

  I hooked my arm through his and leaned into him. “Thank God for that.”

  “What advice did she give you?”

  I relayed her words.

  “Nice,” he drawled. “She’s a real peach.”

  “Oh, you have no idea. Have you ever watched Mean Girls?”

  “No. I don’t watch girly films.”

  “You watch True Blood with me.”

  “Yeah, but is that girly? There’s a lot of violence in that. If there’s romance, I need some violence.”

  “Don’t say that again.” I patted his arm. “People will get the wrong idea.”

  It took him a moment before he got it. “In my TV shows.”

  “Maybe add that on to the real sentence?”

  “Good idea,” he agreed, waiting for the road to clear before we crossed it. “It’s still early. Do you want ice cream?”

  I shook my head.

  “Don’t tell me Mabel got to you.”

  “No, but I bought two more cartons this morning, and it seems frivolous to buy some from The Waffle Cone when I can go home, take off these pants, and eat it half-naked on my sofa.”

  “Can I eat ice cream half naked on your sofa?”

  “No. You have to be totally naked.”

  “Can I eat you after?”

  “Depends. Is there chocolate sauce for that, too?”

  Kai burst out laughing and wrapped his arm around me. He tucked me right into his side, and he was still shaking from his chuckles. “Do you want me to trickle chocolate sauce all over you? Don’t you think that’s a little kinky for this early on?”

  “Yes, and the night I got pregnant was oh-so-vanilla.” My tone was as dry as dry could be as I referred to the night when he’d first spread my legs on the counter to lick my pussy, then bent me over said counter to fuck me before taking me into the bedroom to finish the night there.

  See?

  So, so vanilla.

  “Point well made,” Kai mused. “I guess it’s not so kinky after all then.”

  “Do we have to discuss this in public?”

  “You mentioned the chocolate sauce.”

  “Eh.” I guess I did. “No, sorry, I’m out of it.”

  “How? There was like half a bottle last night.”

  “Well, see, that’s a long story.”

  Kai glanced at his watch. “We’ve got a long time.”

  I guess I wasn’t getting out of this one. Shit. “After I was done throwing up this morning—”

  “You stopped this morning? I’m impressed. You were really going for it at one point.”

  I elbowed him. “You brought coffee over from your apartment! What did you expect? Me to start singing and dancing in delight? Gross!”

  “I’m going to remember you said that when there’s a crying newborn and you want a coffee to keep you awake.”

  “Whatever. Anyway, when I stopped, I took a nap, and when I woke up, I was hungry. Since I need to go grocery shopping—”

  “I did notice.”

  “—Shut up,” I added. “I went to the bakery and got some pre-made pancakes.”

  “How many?”

  “I don’t really want to answer that question.” I sniffed.

  “Ivy.”

  “Fine. Four. I got four large ones and I ate them all!”

  Kai chuckled. “Go on.”

  “I had strawberries and bananas so I ate four large pancakes with fruit and chocolate sauce and whipped cream and I don’t regret a thing.”

  “In what world is that a remedy for nausea?”

  I shrugged. “I really don’t know, but they tasted good. I was going to save you one, but then I remembered you woke me up at six-fifteen this morning so you didn’t deserve a giant pancake.”

  “What if I promise not to wake you up tomorrow morning? Can I have pancakes then?”

  “Yes. It’s your day off so you can get them.”

  “That wasn’t what I meant.”

  “I don’t really care what you meant,” I said honestly. “Next time don’t offer to get pancakes on your day off if you don’t want to get them.”

  “I didn’t offer.”

  “You absolutely did offer.”

  “She’s right,” Tori said from behind us. “I heard it. You offered.”

  “Where the hell did you come from?” Kai asked, grabbing the door to Bronco’s and opening it.

  Tori flicked her dark hair over her shoulder. “Oh, I often follow Ivy around town for fun. Make sure no strange men are trying to attack her, you know?”

  “And what would you do? Beat them with a book?”

  “Yes.” Tori slipped inside before I could.

  I shrugged and looked at Kai. “I told you. Books are underrated weapons.”

  He shook his head and followed me inside. It was quiet for a Saturday night, but that wasn’t too surprising considering there was a local band playing in one of the bed and breakfasts on the other side of town.

  Yes, my parents had the monopoly on bars in White Peak, but not hotels.

  “How did she know we’d be here?” he asked me as we approached the bar.

  “She didn’t,” I said brightly. “But she’s always here at this time on a Saturday night because I’m usually working and she likes my margaritas.”

  “Why aren’t you working?” Tori asked when we joined her.

  “Bingo.”

  “Ah, shit. Did they fight again?”

  Kai nodded. “Do you mean Rosie and Agatha?”

  Tori grinned. “Did she call her Hagatha again?”

  I snorted. “Agatha went crazy. It was hilarious. They were trying to fight but their canes kept getting in the way. I honestly don’t know why they let them play together. They have more than one session and they really need to get it sorted out.”

  “Preach that,” she muttered. “Are you going to make me a margarita or what?”

  I sighed and got behind the bar, sharing a knowing look with Sophie. “Is this how you felt when I just told you that you had to get the pancakes on your day off tomorrow?” I asked Kai.

  He grinned. “I’ll have a beer, please, sweetie.”

  “I’ll sweetie you,” I muttered under my breath. I handed Kai his beer before I set to fixing Tori’s cocktail.

  “I see the marriage is going well.”

  “I see you need to be quiet,” I said, shaking her margarita. “How’s your dating life?”

  “Non-existent, just the way I like it,” she replied. “My sex life, however…”

  “Is something I don’t need to know about,” Kai finished for her. “Trust me. Save that for your texts, would you?”

  Grinning, I poured the cocktail into a glass and passed it over the bar. I rang the orders up on a tab under Sophie’s card and, after grabbing a bottle of water for myself, rejoined Tori and Kai on the other side.

  “I’ll have a beer, Sophie, thanks.”

  I craned my neck at Colton’s voice. “Alone?”

  He looked past me and caught Kai’s gaze. “Disagreement with Amber.”

  Kai’s lips thinned.

  “What?” I asked. “You can’t have a silent conversation over me. I’ll cry.”

  “Are you really using your hormones to get your own way?” Tori raised her eyebrows.

  “I threw up for an hour this morning. You bet your ass I’m using my hormones to get what I want.”

  Kai shrugged.

  “Same old,” Colton said, taking his beer from Sophie. He downed a good third of the bottle before setting it on the bar. “She wants me to move in and doesn’t see the issue in us downsizing if she wants to have a baby. I think you guys gave her super baby fever.”

  Tori shuddered.

  I rolled my eyes. “Why does she want you to move in with her? It doesn’t make sense when your place is bigger.”

  “That’s the point,” he said, grabbing a
stool that had just been vacated before someone else could snag it. “She doesn’t want to move out, but neither do I. We’ve reached a stalemate of sorts.”

  “Sorry, man,” Kai said. “I know it’s been an issue for a while.”

  Colton shrugged. “I’ve been saving, too, for a house. Josh’s wasn’t too badly priced and there’s one for sale down the street, so I was thinking about making an offer. But if she won’t move, I don’t think there’s a point.”

  “Why isn’t there a point?” Tori asked. “If she’s not going to move but she’s going to demand you do all this shit, tell her where to go.”

  Yup. Tactful as always.

  “Tori,” I muttered.

  Kai looked between us. “I have to agree with her.”

  Well, shit. I was in trouble.

  “What?” he asked me. “She’s not wrong. Amber wants him to propose and have a baby on her terms, and all he wants is to be stable before he does that. Is that a bad thing?”

  “I’ve told you about these rational arguments,” I huffed. “I can’t argue them.”

  “That’s the point.”

  Colton finished his beer and got up, throwing a five-dollar bill onto the bar. “I’m going for a walk.”

  “You want company?” Kai asked.

  “Nah, stay here.” Colton waved him off at the same time he waved goodbye to me and Tori and headed for the door.

  Kai put his half-finished beer down on the bar. “I’m going after him. Are you okay to get home if I’m not back in an hour?”

  I stared at him. “I’m pregnant, not legless.”

  Tori grinned.

  “Okay, okay.” He leaned down and kissed me square on the lips.

  A blush rose up my cheeks, and I knew it was the kind of blush everyone within a square mile would see.

  “See you later.” He winked before he turned and rushed off after Colton.

  Tori wiggled her eyebrows. “Ooh, look at you. Are you making that fake marriage real?”

  I pressed my finger to my lips and gave her a wink of my own. “Maybe one day.”

  Probably one day.

  If we made it through the next nine months.

  Note to self: I really, really had to buy some more chocolate sauce… and pancake mix.

  EPILOGUE – IVY

  Six Months Later

  “Daisy?”

  Holley shook her head. “Too Disney. And our aunt’s name.”

  That was true. “Lily?”

  She nodded slowly. “I like Lily. It’s cute.”

  Okay.

  I wrote it in the ‘maybe’ column. “What about Poppy?”

  “Oh, that’s cute!” Kinsley yelled from atop her ladder. “My vote goes to Poppy!”

  We’d been holed up in their bookstore, Bookworm’s Books, for the last hour talking baby stuff.

  “Nooo,” my sister argued. “That’s the name of the troll in the movie!”

  “Great. If we call her Poppy, you’ll call her a troll all the time.” I scratched out Poppy. “What about Marigold?”

  “What are you giving birth to? A baby or a seventy-year-old grandma?” Saylor asked, putting two books down in front of me. “Here. If I have to listen to this painful baby naming session one more time, I’m going to tear out my hair.”

  I took the baby name book from her and stared at it. “I don’t know how this will help. Grandma is insisting on another flower name if I want to keep my inheritance.”

  “What is your inheritance?” Kinsley asked, stepping down from the ladder. “Has she ever told you?”

  “No.” Holley picked up the other name book and flicked to the introduction page. “It’s either going to be something grand or something like an allotment for us to never grow vegetables in.”

  I nodded along in agreement. “That is the general consensus. Problem is, neither me or Kai can find a flower name that we agree on. Lily is the only one, really, but I’m not sure I really like it.”

  “What does he like?” Kinsley asked, pulling up a chair to join us. She peered over at my notebook. “Ah. Does he really like Tegan?”

  “It’s actually the frontrunner,” I admitted. “We both love Tegan, but when we tried bringing up not using a flower name, Grams about had a stroke. A fake stroke, but a stroke nonetheless.”

  “It’s true,” Holley piped up. “She even tried to faint. It would have been far more dramatic if she hadn’t been sitting on the sofa at the same time.”

  Saylor snorted. “Why don’t you call her Tegan Rose? That’s close enough, and it’s your grandma’s name, so it’s not like she can complain too much. Just say you chose it after it.”

  Ding. Ding. Ding.

  “Saylor, you’re a fucking genius.”

  “That is the word on the street.” She touched two fingers to her temples and disappeared between the shelves, her blonde hair flowing behind her.

  I pulled out my phone and texted Kai.

  ME: Tegan Rose????

  KAI: If that’s someone off one of those reality shows you’ve been binging while on an ice cream high, I don’t know who it is.

  ME: For the baby. Saylor suggested it.

  KAI: Hang on.

  ME: Don’t tell me to hang on. I can’t hang on to my pee, never mind anything else.

  I wished that was a lie. A tiny body part was currently using my bladder as punching bag practice.

  If it was her head, I was sooooo getting the epidural.

  The bell above the door rang, and we all turned to look. Kai stepped inside with two bags from the sandwich place down the street and lifted them in triumph.

  “I brought food,” he said brightly. “Anyone hungry?”

  Holley pointed in my directly not so discreetly. “We’re hungry. She’s hangry.”

  “If I didn’t have to get up to punch you, I’d punch you.” I tossed a pencil in her direction.

  She stuck her middle finger in my direction as Kinsley called out for Saylor to come join us again.

  “What are you doing for your birthday next week?” Kai asked Kinsley, handing her her food.

  She wrinkled her nose up. “I don’t know. Nothing special, probably just some drinks and stuff with everyone.”

  “Yay,” I deadpanned.

  She laughed into her hand. “You can video me drunk rapping Kanye songs to blackmail me with.”

  I held out my hand. “Done.”

  She shook on it.

  “Who’s drunk rapping Kanye?” Saylor asked, reappearing. “Oh, God, is that the theme for Kinsley’s birthday? I’m not dressing up as Kim Kardashian again.”

  Kai grinned. “How did you pull off the ass?”

  “About fifty dollars’ worth of bubble wrap,” she replied dryly, sitting down.

  “She popped every time she sat down.” I unwrapped my sandwich with a giggle. “It was funny.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Yeah, no, thankfully not,” Holley said. “You said low key, right?”

  Kinsley nodded. “I’m getting too old to party all night.”

  “No, you can’t say that when you just promised me rapping videos,” I said, moving the books into the middle of the table so they didn’t get damaged.

  “She’s right,” Saylor said around a mouthful of tuna sandwich. “You can’t do that, Kins.”

  “Fine. We’ll see.”

  “I’ll bring the tequila,” I said brightly, then looked at Kai. “But you’ll have to buy it, ‘cause you know. People look at me weird.” I motioned to the beachball currently attached to my front and preventing me from tucking my chair under the table.

  He grinned, his eyes sparkling. “Done.”

  “When you two are done eye-fucking each other,” Holley said. “We need to get back to work. Have you figured out her name?”

  “I like Tegan Rose,” Kai agreed. “I think it suits her, and your grandma can’t complain too much.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.” I bit into my sandwich.

  Kinsley glanced at m
e, fighting a smile. “Hey, where’s Tori?”

  “Meeting with a new client.” Holley wiped her fingers with the napkin. “Some big website redesign or something like that. She said she’d stop by later with the mockups for our new logo.”

  “Thank God.” Saylor mirrored Holley’s movements. “I was starting to think she’d forgotten.”

  “My fault.” Kai held up his hands. “I had to pay her a hundred bucks to doctor some stock video clips to show Rosie our so-called wedding video. She was about to riot on the imaginary videographer Ivy made up.”

  I grimaced.

  “I still can’t believe you haven’t told her,” Kinsley said, gathering the trash from her lunch. “Is she really never going to find out?”

  I shrugged. “My mom still believes it, too.”

  “Does she?”

  “Yep,” Holley said. “It’s kinda sad, really.”

  Well, we could both agree on that. “I don’t see that they need to find out. We already played the narrative that we’d have a party when the baby’s born, so we figure we’ll just go off, get married quietly somewhere, then actually celebrate with everyone.”

  Kai shuffled uncomfortably. “We were going to tell them, but we just never did. It’s been six months and it seems unfair to tell them the truth when we know we’re going to get married for real eventually.”

  Saylor frowned and looked between us. “Have you actually asked her for real? Or are you both just assuming this is going to happen?”

  We looked at each other. “Assuming,” we both said at the same time.

  “We never considered that it wouldn’t,” I said. “After a few wobbly conversations and a Fred Flintstone moment.”

  “A Fred Flintstone moment?” Kinsley questioned.

  Holley shook her head. “Please do—”

  “I made her bed rock,” Kai replied with a grin, like he did every single time I brought up the Flintstone thing.

  Kinsley and Holley both shook their heads in despair while Saylor roared with laughter. She didn’t even say goodbye as she once again disappeared between the rows of bookshelves, but we could hear her laughing for ages.

  “Awful,” Holley said, getting up and grabbing a pile of books. “So bad.”

  Kinsley sighed. “You two are a match made in a romance novel, aren’t you?”