Page 87 of Wicked Love

They all laugh and Rhodes slaps Penn on the back.

“I think Penn might be right again,” he says.

Penn tries to scowl, but he’s too damn proud to have Rhodes’ praise to pull it off.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I say.

“You already did that when you got her pregnant.” Rhodes laughs.

“I used a condom,” I mutter.

“How you like me now?” Rhodes sings like the pigeon inStorks.

It’s a line we’ve all sung from time to time, having watched way too many animated movies between us.

“How you like me now?” Penn echoes, giving me a smug look.

“You guys are useless,” I grumble, putting my hand on the back of my neck.

“Tell me it was at least a phenomenal night…excuse me, two nights…with Poppy,” Penn says.

“It was a phenomenal night…two nights,” I say rotely.

But then my lips crack, breaking into a smile and they hoot like a room full of frat boys.

I hold up my hand. “Settle. We can safely say that I was overdue, so...”

The words feel cheap and ring false. I hate that I even said that. But they all look at me knowingly.

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” Rhodes says, rolling his eyes.

“Poppy is special,” I say quietly.

I can’t help myself. I can’t leave that last sentence hanging like it didn’t mean anything to me that we had sex. It did mean something, both times…but night before last…that was groundbreaking for me.

For the past nine years, I haven’t once come close to changing my mind about staying out of a relationship. But Poppy…she makes me want to consider it.

More than that…I think I’m already invested.

She’s having my baby. I’m invested whether I want to be or not.

But the truth is…I want to be.

And that is seriously fucking with me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

WHY DON’T I INTRODUCE MYSELF?

POPPY

When I walk into The Fairy Hut, Tru waves and I head back. Everyone but Calista is there and she walks in behind me. I hug everyone and sit down, sliding the napkin onto my lap. Feeling eyes on me, I look up and Sadie, Tru, and Elle are all staring at me. They have these wide eyes and are so smiley, I laugh and then turn to look at Calista next to me. She squirms, giving me the same doe-eyed smile.

“What is it?” I ask.

“We know,” Sadie bursts out and then clamps her hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry, we were going to try to wait for you to tell us, but?—”

“The guys can’t hide anything,” Elle says apologetically. “And then I went to Luminary today and everyone was talking about it there...”

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