Page 38 of His Paradise

“This is worse than watching my house burn to the ground.” I groan, covering my face with a pillow as I slide sideways on the couch to lay down. Luna’s squeal followed by her excited giggle as she races for the stairs is what puts me into motion. I pull my cell phone out and call Alec.

He answers on the second ring, “Anybody dying?” He asks.

“No, but why are you up at four in the morning?”

“I could ask you the same thing. What do you want? My wife isn’t very patient and if I don’t get this banana split back to her in the next five minutes, I won’t get to eat it off her body when she changes her mind halfway through it.” I can hear the smirk in his voice.

“You are all depraved perverts. I need a contractor, a good one that can be quick.” I start pacing, excited at the idea of building our next home exactly how Nina would want. Her little comments about specific lighting, color schemes and everything else is at the front of my mind and I needed to get somebody started on this right away.

Jared and I were going to kill each other. Cramming the two of us in this house for four months was wearing everyone's patience down to slivers. Especially since jobs were slow, mostly moving weaponry and simple tasks that didn’t let us expend any pent up energy. While Luna and Nina are upstairs cooing over the nursery as they insist on painting the walls a pale lavender, Jared and I are tasked with unloading the furniture from the truck.

“I was just saying that I’m not surprised you drive an oversized truck,” I shrug, picking up the large box with the crib pieces inside. “I didn’t even make the big truck, little dick joke.”

Jared clamps his hand over it, slamming it back to the bed of the truck and blowing an irritated breath through his nose. He has decided to quit smoking before the baby gets here, and I was shockingly good at getting on his nerves.

“You lose speaking privileges, boy.”

“I’m not-”

“Not another word.” He cuts me off, yanking the crib away and stomping across the snow towards the front door. I can’t help but smile as Nina stands on the porch with her arms crossed and an irritated look trained on me.

“Stop poking the bear, before he beats you. Or worse, Luna gets her hands on you.” She warns me. Now that was a scary thought, Luna has become even more unhinged than before. I accidentally ate the last of her Doritos and she tried to strangle me with the bag.

“We should go out for lunch.” I change the subject, walking up to her until we are eye to eye with her two stairs above me. She shrugs, running her fingers through my hair. “You don’t want to help Jared put all the furniture together?” She teases.

“No,” Jared shoots me a glare as he brushes past us to close the tailgate. I shrug, grabbing Nina by the back of her thighs to wrap her legs around my waist and walk her backwards into the house. Just as I lean in to kiss her, my phone rings from my back pocket and I want to throw it at a wall. Nina giggles, dropping her feet to the ground as she pats my chest.

“What?” I snap, not checking to see who it is.

“We have a new mission, pissy pants.” Markus says, and I glance at Nina. She waves her hand towards the door.

“Have fun,” She kisses me, but it’s just a short peck and drives me wild. I don’t waste any time rushing for my car, excited that I might be getting a real mission finally. I was an idiot.

I pull up to the front of Markus and Alec’s house to a flurry of pink balloons and irritation that I can’t keep off of my face. Markus is standing out front with too many boxes, each one is open and revealing the explosion of baby shower decorations.

“Is this my mission?” I snap, rolling my window down. Markus nods, and I weigh the possibility of running him over with my damn car. “It’s for Luna, so get out here and put those pretty little lips to good use and blow these.” He grins, holding out a handful of balloons. I still don’t know how Isabelle hasn't stabbed him yet.

But I get out of the car, forcing myself to help with the decorations for her surprise baby shower.

Jared was going to hate it, which made me feel a little bit better.

Chapter thirty-four

Nina

Luna looks absolutely radiant in her puffy gray dress, with her bright hair braided away from her face. I smile with pride when I realize she has skipped foundation, leaving her scars on full display. They are a part of her, and another hint at the brave and beautiful woman I was currently watching scarf down canned cheese and banana peppers in the backseat of the car. She glares at me, “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“No judgment here, I ate vanilla ice cream with chopped jalapenos in it.” I shrug and she gags, waving me away as we pull up to Isabelle’s house.

“You better have a good reason for us wearing these fancy clothes,” she reminds me, again. I roll my eyes and don’t bother telling her to trust me for the hundredth time. She fights against the blindfold, but I worked too hard to keep her distracted for it to blow up now. When we finally come to a stop and I open the door, she doesn’t expect Jared to take her hand in his.

“Biggums?” She breathes, confused. He helps her out of the car, steadying her on her feet as he guides her to the front door and inside. I press a hand to my lips, trying not to laugh at the adorable way she waddles. Jared pulls the blindfold away and smiles as she looks around in wonder. Isabelle, Olivia and I are all standing in front of a table piled high with gifts, and another table stacked with all of her pregnancy cravings. The men vanish quickly, leaving us to laugh, cry and enjoy being together in a way we haven’t since everything happened with David.

I find myself extremely sentimental as I take my sister's hand in mine, squeezing tight while looking at my two best friends, both of them enjoying their pregnancy with a sense of serenity that I can feel myself sinking into.

By the time we are getting ready to leave, Luna is struggling to keep her eyes open and Isabelle is trying to rub her very swollen feet. Grayson offers to walk Olivia to her car, and I can see Percy clench his fists before he leaves the room. Isabelle catches me looking after him and waves me closer.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on the two of them. They’re both hopelessly in love with your sister. Unfortunately I don’t think it will work out for them quite the way it did for me.” She leans back in the chair, sighing as Alec kneels at her feet and begins massaging them.

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