Page 138 of Feels Like Home

“What?”

She stands up and clutches her phone to her chest then looks down at it again and sighs. When she meets my eyes, she smirks. “Remember those pictures of that guy with his baby in the sling against his chest wearing that insanely sexy leather jacket and aviators?” Her smile is so broad, and her eyes aresparkling.

“What? What picture?” Tess and Carly bothask.

I smile, knowing exactly where she’s going with this. Because that picture made women’s ovaries explode all over the place. And yeah, I’ve thought about it. Just a few hundred times. He’s already a hot dad to his boys. But they’re teenagers. Picturing Andy with a baby? I basically had to chase my ovaries to England, where they explodedto.

“It was going all over Facebook! How did you not seeit?”

“So, you can be all judgy of Facebook when people are posting status updates, but not when someone is posting a picture of a hotguy?”

“Ofcourse.”

“Ohhotdamn,” Tess says. “Have mercy.” She’s looking down at her phone and looks up with wide eyes and fans her face. “I’m thinking maybe you should ban him from doing… that.” She points to herphone.

I’ve thought the same thing,too.

I see how some of the women in our town look athim.

I’m notblind.

“Holy crap, that picture is panty melting.” Carly’s eyes are a bit unfocused as she stares at it then clears her throat. “So, back to you guys. Is heexcited?”

“Umm, yeah. He is. At first? I think he kind of freaked out. He made me pee on a dozen sticks. He went to Walgreens and bought every kind he could then stood in the bathroom with me while he made me chug down bottles of vitamin water to get me topee.”

“Quite the bonding experience.” Laurengiggles.

“Right? Nothing says love like using the facilities in front of eachother.”

Lauren, who sat back down on the couch, sits up straight and stares at me. “Wait. Did he do it,too?”

“Do what?” I ask dumbly. I can’t believe I slipped up like that. No, that’s a lie. I can totally believe it. I would never be able to keep the baby’s sex a secret when we find out. I’m about as bad as Josh andBarrett.

“Pee?”

“Why would hepee?”

“To make you feelbetter!”

I gasp. “How did youknow?”

She points at me. “Ha! I knew it. He totally peed on a stick, didn’the?”

I burst out laughing, wishing I could denyit.

“He had to brace his arm on the wall to make sure it aimed in the right place!” I shout through mylaughter.

We all fall over, tears coming out of my eyes when I think about that night. I was so worried, and he made it a game. He calmed me down and eased myworries.

“Oh, bless his heart,” Tess says, her hand covering her chest. “He’s such a sweet guy. I can just picture hisgrin.”

When I finally stop laughing, I sit back up on the couch and tuck my feet under my butt. “It was sweet. He got down in front of me while I was trying to pee, holding up a bottle of water with a straw in it, encouraging me to keep going, telling me not to worry or be embarrassed. Then he said, ‘We got this, yeah?’ When I started crying, he kind of nudged my knee and said, ‘My turn. Let me do it this time. I wanna see what it’s like.’ I laughed so hard, I peed. Right then. I was so horrified, so he said he would pee on the stick, too. The whole thing is so gross, but it’s a good memory. By the time we had used all of the tests and only one came out negative, obviously being his, we didn’t have much of a choice but to accept it. He smiled at me and repeated, ‘We got this, yeah?’ and I knew wedid.

“He was a little concerned about his boys, and how they would take it. But they’ve been wonderful. And they’re all pretty sure it’s a girl, even though we really don’t know, yet. And now Andy is just this super protective, caring, even more affectionate man. Especially after everything that wentdown.”

“Oh man. You’re blushing! The sex is hot,huh?”

“Carly!” I laugh. “Seriously, not even the same person.” I can’t help but smile at her, though. “Okay, you’re my people. So, yeah. The sex is uber hot. Which isn’t easy since he has the boys, but since Bri isn’t home, we have a little more freedom at my house when he’s over. The stamina that man has… it’s both exhausting andinvigorating.”

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