by Taryn Quinn
My Ex’s Baby
Crescent Cove Book 8
Taryn Quinn
eBooks are not transferable.
They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
My Ex’s Baby
© 2020 Taryn Quinn
Rainbow Rage Publishing
Cover by LateNite Designs
Photograph by Lindee Robinson Photography
Models: Travis Bendall & Kelly Kirstein
All Rights Are Reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First ebook edition: May 2020
Sign up for our NEWSLETTER for special updates.
Okay, so he wasn’t actually my ex.
August is my best friend’s older brother, and he just went with me to Macy and Gideon’s wedding. You know, friends with no benefits.
Then we ended up having sex at said wedding.
At the reception, not during the actual ceremony. Hello, I have some manners.
We agreed to not do it again. Until I thought I was pregnant. And instead of being upset, I was happy.
Except I wasn’t. Pregnant, that is.
Then I drunk dialed August and asked him to make a baby with me.
On purpose.
I wanted to take it back. To die of shame.
But the next thing I knew, he was at my door...
Author’s note: The hero doesn't start out as a single father, but practice makes perfect. My Ex’s Baby is a standalone romantic comedy with a HEA ending and no cliffhanger.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Bonus Shennnigans
Crescent Cove World
Taryn Quinn
Quinn and Elliott
About Taryn Quinn
Acknowledgments
A special shout out to one of our favorite Wenches, Stephanie Scrivens, for always being so supportive to us and our books. You’ve been here since the beginning, girl!
We love you!
Would you like to read about what happened between Christmas and New Year’s in the Cove?
We have a sweet, funny, and ensemble cast extravaganza of a bonus extra we wrote for our preorder folks.
If you’d like to read it before the start of MY EX’s BABY you can go HERE.
Sometimes we make up fictional places that end up having the same names as actual places. These are our fictional interpretations only. Please grant us leeway if our creative vision isn't true to reality.
For anyone who thinks they aren’t enough.
Know that you are.
Prologue
Fall - morning after Rhiannon’s birth
I needed some air. Just a few minutes alone.
I wasn’t used to all this peopling.
Ivy Beck, my bestest friend in all the world, had decided to have the most dramatic birth in the history of Crescent Cove—at least I was pretty sure it was. Right in the middle of Brewed Awakening’s library and craft corner. Luckily, the café had been closed for an impromptu ladies’ night. No alcohol for the ladies I hung out with lately, but we’d definitely been covered in glitter from our pumpkin decorating party.
I glanced down at my hands. I’d scrubbed most of the purple and pink paint and galaxy spray glitter off with the industrial strength soap at the hospital so I could hold Rhiannon for precisely seven minutes before Ivy demanded her back. I’d been there for her entry into the world—heck, my hand was still sore from Ivy’s freakishly strong hold. Then again, she did create vats of ice cream for a living, so I guess it wasn’t surprising.
Regardless, I’d been in the hospital all night. And I’d only gotten a precious few minutes with the little pink bundle of perfection. No one had wanted to leave Ivy alone until her husband arrived. Instead, we all took turns going in to sit with her, rotating through the waiting room like an actual princess had been born.
Rory, the princess’s father and song doctor-slash-producer, had officially arrived an hour ago, thanks to a private flight. Ivy didn’t even give him shit about using his status and money this time. Then again, there had been many tears since he’d missed the actual birth.
I’d agreed to be a coach with her brother, August, as a backup. I’d never truly believed I’d be tapped for the actual shindig. Especially with her overprotective husband trying to control every aspect of the last trimester.
“Kinleigh?”
I looked up.
“Could you help me post to Facebook again?”
“Didn’t you just post some pictures?”
“Well, yes. But these are prettier. Rhiannon’s all pinked up and sweet-looking. Isn’t she?” The older woman turned her phone toward me to show off one of the photos she’d snapped from the nursery. As Rhi’s grandmother and a queen bee herself, Annie Beck had been holding court in the waiting room between visits.
“Sure.” I stood and took her phone. She was entitled to her excitement, of course. I was just so tired I could barely see straight.
“Oh my God. Can we see her?”
“We heard what happened as soon as we got to the diner. Even Mitch let us go without bitching.”
Gina Ramos and her sister Gabby rushed in. They’d become quite tight with Ivy and I over the last few months. Of course the diner being right next door, as well as my usage of Hannah and Gabby’s food service—which I might or might not have used a freaking lot—could’ve had something to do with that.
But this was my chance.
I escaped down the hall while Annie showed them photos of the newest addition to the Beck-Ferguson clan. I got to use clan now because we had Irish people who’d actually been born in Ireland in the building. Rory’s parents were on the way and that would be another whole bag of crazy.
I followed the signs for the four seasons atrium on the swanky maternity floor. The hospital had been a revolving door of people at this point. Ivy was very popular in Crescent Cove.
And while all of them were amazing, the level of love, conversation, and merriment was exhausting. I’d been riding on adrenaline for… I looked at my Apple watch.
God, was that really the time? No wonder I was exhausted.
I picked up the pace when I spotted the glass door. It was chilly due to the endless panes of lightly tinted windows, but it was so much better than the waiting room decked out in pink and blue. Seriously, were those the only colors we could come up with in the myriad rainbow colors available to us?
A handful of nurses were clustered by the door. Some mindlessly scrolling on their phones, others quietly chatting. I took a left to find a quiet corner an
d slumped onto a bench. I lifted my face to the early morning sunlight struggling through the dense copse of trees, giving a lovely bit of privacy to the back of the building. We were in a new medical center just outside of town that catered to maternity and rehabilitation.
Huge, leafy plants were clustered around tables and weathered barrels were jammed with mums in half a dozen colors. I grinned at one of the trees decked out in flirty little bat lights. Macy, our resident Halloween obsessed café owner, would approve. I got up and pulled out my phone to take a photo of the lights so I could find them. They would be a perfect addition to my own shop.
A pair of battered boots stuck out just beyond the large white pot. I quickly backed up so I wouldn’t have to engage in any more polite chitchat, but I needn’t have bothered.
A light snore would be the only conversation.
August Beck had his ancient red hoodie pulled up to shade his eyes and his arms crossed as if he was chilled. Of course that only emphasized his ridiculous arms.
The ones I shouldn’t have been looking at.
Lately, he’d been the bane of my existence. His sister Ivy wasn’t only my best friend, she was also pretty much the sole member of my family. That phrase don’t shit where you eat had practically been created with me in mind.
And yet because we were alone, he was sleeping, and no one would know… I indulged a little.
His usually clean-shaven jaw was dark with stubble, which only made his stupidly perfect full lips seem even more tantalizing. No one knew how hard it was for me to ignore those lips. Especially since I shared an address with said lips—and they were attached to a distractingly attractive face. Even his lashes were long and lush. Where was the fairness? Add in the huge, mouth-watering body and my hormones had been on hyperdrive for well over a year.
I’d known him for far longer. I wasn’t going to lie to anyone, including myself, and say I’d never had improper thoughts about Ivy’s older brother. However, they’d been the fleeting kind that any woman had about an attractive guy.
Healthy.
Not obsessive in the least.
Until last year.
And it was all his fault. We shared the rent on a storefront on Main Street. Neither one of us could afford it on our own, but he took the bottom half and I took the top—Kinleigh’s Attic. I mean, c’mon, it couldn’t have been more perfect.
Except for the part where he was forever intruding on my space to fix things and making excuses to increase my security. Like it was any of his concern how I ran my business. He just kept showing up and taking over.
Now the scent of rain and sawdust made my girl parts get all tingly.
August’s scent.
And no amount of essential oils and incense got rid of it.
That part about his sister being my bestie? Yeah, that made things sticky. Well, actually, didn’t allow me to get sticky. Okay, ew…but relevant. Lately, all I could think about was mounting him on a pair of sawhorses at the back of his workshop.
The worst part was the little devil on my shoulder who kept whispering for me to just get him out of my system. Because most men never hung around long enough for me to get attached. Actually, no one had ever hung around except Ivy.
And that was exactly why I kept stuffing down these lusty daydreams. Even if facing my empty bed every damn night was getting harder and harder to do.
The door to the atrium slammed and August jerked awake.
Shit.
His sleepy eyes drifted down my body to where I clutched my phone before he arched an eyebrow at me. “You wouldn’t be taking pictures of me drooling or something, right?”
I laughed. “Bat lights beside you, actually. But it would make a good Instagram story. Drooling baby Rhiannon and Uncle Auggie are a matching pair.”
He sat up, stretched, and yawned so huge I could hear his jaw pop. “I’m so tired I don’t even care if you do.”
I dropped onto the bench beside him. “Same.”
He tucked his hands under his arms again and scrunched down beside me to my height.
I gave him a wary side-eye. “What?”
“Nothing. I’m assuming the revolving door is still going strong?”
“Only way I escaped.” I mirrored his crossed arms situation. It was better than curling against him like my traitorous body wanted to. Partially so I could sleep, but the other half of me wanted to breathe in his rain-scented cologne or soap and find out just how blessed he was behind those Carhartt work pants.
I needed an intervention.
Or to soak my head.
“Hey, maybe we can go home then?” He straightened and shoved his hood down. “Coaching is done now that Lucky Charms finally showed up.”
When Ivy called her husband that, it was usually with affection. Not so much when it came to August with his brother-in-law. “Don’t sound so bitchy. Rory feels guilty enough.”
August stood up with a grunt. “He shouldn’t have left her alone.”
“Don’t go in there and make him feel bad.”
He held his hand out to me. “No problem. I just won’t talk to him.”
I rolled my eyes. I paused for a moment before putting my hand in his.
The rolling low frequency hum started at my fingertips and sent shockwaves through my bones. Thankfully, I was alone in this problem.
What he did not know would not embarrass me.
I took my hand back and shoved them both into my pockets. “I can get a ride back with Gina.”
“No, I’ll take you home.”
“Your house is the other direction.”
“So?”
“You’ve been up all night. Obviously, you’re tired.”
“So are you. At least I got a twenty-minute nap.” He slid an arm around my shoulders and hauled me against him. “Ivy would never forgive me.”
“Can’t have that.” I curled my arm around his back automatically and got a full-frontal attack of his scent. Damn him. Most dudes would smell like gym socks after a night of stress-sweating through coaching a birth then spending the night in a hospital.
Life just wasn’t fair.
We managed to only get waylaid for a few minutes with his parents. Gina and Gabby had already gone down to the nursery to see the baby with Ivy. Part of me wanted to join them and see her again, but the other half of me was so done.
Watching Ivy and Rory with their heads together, whispering and crying, made my chest hurt for reasons I did not want to analyze.
I let August lead me out to find the sun had already disappeared. Living in a lake town gave us a front row seat to rolling clouds on a semi-daily basis. It just made the sunny days seem all the sweeter. Fall was crisp in the air, and I burrowed into my lightweight jacket.
Suddenly, he draped a hoodie over my shoulders, and I was literally shrouded in August’s scent.
Was swooning allowed if it was only in my brain?
When he opened the passenger side door to his truck, I finally snapped him into focus.
“You all right?”
“Just tired.”
Still studying me, he blocked the open truck door. His stupid shoulders were so wide and distracting.
“You want to get this show on the road?” My tone was sharper than it should have been, but he was crowding me and dammit, my resistance was low.
I was supposed to be the bigger person.
The smarter one.
Not that he probably noticed my heart rate skyrocketing and my need for a new pair of panties. Because goddess, it was ridiculous how twisted I was getting.
Breathe.
To steady myself, I grabbed the small nest of fluorite and amethyst I kept in an Art Deco glass locket I’d found last summer. I’d bought it to resell, but something about it had called to me. And I would’ve done just about anything to calm the hell down during Ivy’s pregnancy. As it was, I had a new person in my life with Rory, and my niece Rhiannon. Things had been changing at a rapid rate, and no amount of chill vibrations from
crystals were helping right now.
“You’re being weird.” He laid both his bear paws on my shoulders, his thumb skimming over the chain of my necklace.
I shut my eyes and counted to five. I knew he was just trying to be the sweet August I knew he was under the gruff and grumbles. He liked his space, same as I did. It was why we understood each other and had leaned hard on one another during Ivy’s whirlwind romance and pregnancy.
Maybe that was why I was having such a hard time.
Things would go back to—
My eyes shot open.
Dear goddess.
Warm, firm lips brushed along mine. His hands slid higher on my shoulders and up to frame my face. His eyes were closed so he couldn’t see my panic.
I couldn’t decide if I wanted to haul him closer or shove him away.
My heartbeat roared in my ears as he swiped his tongue ever so gently along the seam of my lips and panic got beat over the head by my rampaging lust. I went onto my toes and there was nothing but the scent of wood-soaked rain and Diet Coke-flavored August.
The best taste in the world.
I twisted my fingers into the front of his T-shirt and took everything. My mouth raced over his, and my fingers snaked under the hem of his shirt to his rock-hard belly. The just-right level of chest hair over rippling muscles made me want more. His skin was so warm and smooth that I wanted to spend all day finding every place that would make him shiver under my touch.
