After giving the guy the call-in a book of different fonts, I walked back over to where the girls were talking, and Trish smiled wide at me. “Hey buddy, great girl you’ve got here!”
“Yeah, isn’t she? You gonna stay and watch, babe?”
Harper turned and after a brief look at me, looked down to the ground. “No. I need to go meet Bree. I’ll see you at home.”
“All right, let me walk you out.” As soon as we were outside and next to her SUV I pulled her into my arms again. “Thanks for coming, they’ve all missed you.”
Nodding twice, she started searching through her purse.
What the hell? “You okay?”
“Not really. No.” She sighed heavily and finally looked up at me. “I don’t like Trish.”
“What? Trish is awesome.” I swear her and her girlfriend should switch places, she acted just like Brian, and if she didn’t look like a Suicide Girl, I would swear she was a guy. “Why don’t you like her?”
“It might have been the fact that she refused to return my greeting, or that she let me know she was going to “take care” of you while I’m not around.”
I laughed and squeezed my arms tighter. This was just another thing I loved about Harper. She didn’t bullshit the way some girls did. If she was mad, she let you know. And while I didn’t like that she was uncomfortable, I’m not gonna lie. It felt real good knowing she was jealous. “Aw, Princess, she’s just joking with you. You don’t have anything to worry about. She’s gay.”
“I promise you, she isn’t.”
“Yeah she is; she told me yesterday.”
“Okay, Chase. I really do have to go, I love you. See you when you get home.”
Kissing her soft lips, I pulled away slightly to catch her gaze. She still look worried when I brought one hand up to cup her cheek. “Cheer up baby, I love you, too.”
I watched her pull away and walked back into the shop. Catching the call-in’s attention, I took him back to my station, where Trish was still sitting.
“Dude.” She smiled and jerked her head toward the door. “Your girl is head over heels in love with you.”
The corners of my mouth tilted up. Feeling was definitely mutual. “I’m a lucky man.”
“I’d say, even pregnant, she’s f**king hot.”
Brian, Jeff, and the call-in all grunted agreement, and I glared at them before teasing Trish. “You got your own girl, so stay away from mine.”
She shrugged and jumped off my counter to go help people who were done looking through art on the wall, and I gestured for the call-in to sit in the chair. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter Thirteen
PULLING MY VIBRATING cell out of my pocket, I checked the messages and saw there was a text from Trish. I suppressed a groan and silently prayed shit wasn’t hitting the fan at the shop. This was my first night off since Princess and I had gone to the bed-and-breakfast well over a week ago. And I wanted nothing more than to finish hanging out with my family and take her to bed.
Trish: Hey buddy . . . gf is working graveyard 2nite. Wanna come over 4 dinner when I get off?
“Are you kidding? Of course we did! That lady was hilarious, there was no way we weren’t giving her money.” Standing up from the table, Breanna started showing us a dance this homeless lady had been doing earlier when she was out with Konrad. I laughed and tapped out a quick text back to Trish.
Can’t, sorry. Spending time with Princess
“Chase, you should go find that woman,” Dad said on a laugh. “She would probably teach you to dance for a few bucks.”
I snorted. “At least I don’t look like a dying fish when I dance.” I glanced at him meaningfully, and he started laughing at the same time Harper gasped loudly and gripped my arm.
“You okay?” I turned to look at her, and she was looking straight down. Looking at her line of sight, I couldn’t see anything wrong and looked at my parents, who seemed just as confused as I was.
“Say something, Chase.”
The hell? I leaned closer to her, trying to look into her eyes, “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”
Harper started laughing and glanced at me quickly before looking straight down again, “He’s kicking! He’s kicking whenever you talk!”
Oh my God. My knees hit the ground, and I pushed my way in between Harper’s legs while letting my hands cover her rounding stomach. My heart was racing, and I had to take two deep breaths before leaning in close, my nose almost touching her belly. “You kicking Mom?” I kept my voice low, and said slowly, “C’mon, Gummy Bear, Daddy wants to feel you kick, too. I love you so much—” A light nudge hit my hand, and my head shot back to look at my princess. “Oh my God!” Bringing my head back to her belly I swear I fell in love with our son even more while I continued to talk to him. Each time, I was rewarded with a soft nudge, and I couldn’t help but laugh shakily at how amazing it was.
Mom, Dad, and Breanna all took turns feeling GB kick, all while I spoke softly to him. Once Bree was done, I went back to kneeling in front of Harper, but I didn’t feel him kick again.
“I think he rolled over,” Harper whispered, and I stood up, pulling her with me to capture her lips with mine. “That was incredible!” She laughed against my mouth, and I smiled.
“My thoughts exactly.” Without looking back at my family, I grabbed her hand and started towing her toward the stairs. “ ’Night, everyone.”
Harper giggled and turned to wave. “Good night!”
They all called out good nights, but I didn’t slow down for anything. As soon as we were in my room, I shut the door and locked it before pushing Harper up against it. “Babe—” I growled against her mouth, and she leaned away, running her thumb over my lips.
“I know, Chase. I love you, too, so much.”
“That was amazing. Thank you, Harper. Thank you for our son, thank you for loving me.”
“Always,” she whispered, and brought her mouth back to mine, our lips moving against each other slowly.
Lifting her shirt over her head, I dropped it next to us and immediately went for her bra. Her hands started undressing me as I pulled down her tight workout pants. She had just gotten the button on my jeans undone and was going for my fly when I removed her hands and turned us, walking her back toward the bed. After laying us down, I made a trail from her lips to her ear. “Let me love you tonight, Princess.”
Without waiting for a response, I kissed and sucked my way down her body, lifting her legs so her feet were planted on the bed, and her knees were bent. Trailing my fingers along her wet folds, she sucked in air and whispered my name. Hearing Harper say my name that way—seeing the way her head would fall back and body would arch off the bed when I ran my tongue over her heat, and feeling as her body tightened and shuddered around me as she came—was perfection to me. And that perfection was mine.
“COME ON, GUMMY BEAR, you gotta wake up for Daddy. Kick for me, buddy.”
Harper laughed softly, and her hands went into my hair. “I’m telling you, babe, he’s asleep. He’s not gonna wake up.”
“You’ll wake up for Daddy, won’t you? You don’t want me to go to the party; you want to kick the crap out of Mom’s belly while I talk to you, don’t you?”
Still nothing.
I sighed and ran my nose back and forth across Harper’s stomach. Graduation was on Sunday, so the guys at my house were throwing one last Friday night party . . . and I didn’t want to go. I’d started working a lot more back when Harper and Brandon were dating, so I hadn’t even been to a party in who knows how long; and it just didn’t interest me anymore. Besides, Princess wasn’t going, so if she wasn’t going, I definitely didn’t want to go. She’d been pushing me out the door, saying I needed a good weekend with my friends, and, as a last attempt, I told her that if I could get GB to kick for me, I didn’t have to go. But five minutes of talking to her swollen stomach, and he hadn’t so much as rolled over.
Harper tugged on my hair gently, and I reluctantly stood up. “Go to the party, Chase. Have fun.”
I grumbled, but cupped her cheeks and kissed her soundly. “I’ll be back later tonight.”
“Just have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Shaking my head, I kissed her forehead and unlocked my truck. “I need you in my arms when I fall asleep tonight, Princess. I’ll text you when I’m on my way back here.”
Ignoring the urge to turn my truck back around to go be with her, I reasoned that at least I could grab the solitaire engagement ring I’d bought Harper last week. I had everything planned to propose after graduation on Sunday, and it felt like the next day and a half would drag by. Princess was always saying she didn’t need to be married just because she was pregnant. But what she wasn’t getting is that I couldn’t wait to marry her. I wanted to be with her forever and didn’t see the point in waiting to start my life with her.
I’d just gotten done showing Sarah and Brad the engagement ring before stowing it away in my desk and locking my room back up when my phone started chiming. Trish. I sighed and opened up the texts. Almost every night over the last two weeks, she’d tried to get me to come hang out at her apartment either after work or for the night when she wasn’t working. She said her girlfriend was always working graveyard shifts, and Trish was cool and all—but I knew Harper still couldn’t stand her, so I’d continued to say no. You’d think after two weeks of that she’d get the hint. Apparently not.
Trish: U should come keep me company. I’ll make you dinner
Can’t. Sorry
Trish: :( u gonna make me spend another night alone?
Where’s your girlfriend? Graveyard shift again?
Trish: . . . yep
Sorry dude. Having a party at my place. Catch you Monday
Shoving my phone back in my pocket, I made my way through the house toward the kitchen. Drew and some girl I’d never seen were doing shots, and I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, working hard not to shake my head at everything happening in the house. I couldn’t remember how I’d ever found these entertaining. But I was already counting down the minutes until I could go back to my parents’ house. I’d already been here for almost five hours, and I figured if I gave it another hour, Princess wouldn’t think I’d missed out on anything because she wasn’t here.
Brandon walked past me to grab a beer out of the fridge, and I tensed when he came back to hop on the counter next to me. We hadn’t talked in almost a month, but when he didn’t immediately try to hit me, I started to relax a bit.
“What’s going on?”
“Not much,” he said gruffly, and took a long drink. “Think I’m gonna go hide in my room soon. These just aren’t as fun as they used to be.”
“Agreed. I’ll be going to my parents’ in a bit. You going back to Arizona as soon as the year’s over?”
“Nah. Mom bought a house in Carlsbad, she and Jeremy move here in a week.”