Page 47 of Delayed Penalty

“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Just try to keep it on the down low until we have a chance to announce it tomorrow. It’s not that I’m hiding anything, I just want to be able to tell everyone in person, and truthfully, I’d just like to be able to do it all at once after it’s all taken care of.”

“You got it,” Trevor says as we start walking toward the girls. “I’m proud of you, man. You’re going to be an amazing dad.”

“I hope so.”

“I know so,” Trevor say, so confidently that I’m starting to believe it.

When we walk backinto the apartment, Kelly is on the couch watching a movie while Luna is side eyeing her from the other couch.

“Looks like you two still haven’t bonded.” I laugh as Avery practically runs back to Luna who’s obviously just as excited to see her.

It’s fucking cute… and almost makes me wonder if there’s a way we’d be able to keep Luna… I wish.

“Nope. She thought about it when I was eating pepperoni and cheese, but she wasn’t quite brave enough to get close, so she was shit out of luck. I told her she could sit her pretty butt on that couch until you guys got home.”

“Was she being too pushy, Luna girl,” Avery says as she snuggles up to Luna, looking back over at her sister who looks shocked at the two of them. “What time do you have to leave?”

“No specific time. I actually don’t have to be at work for two more days and I don’t have to get the kids till then either.”

“That’s sort of perfect,” Avery says, looking over at me. “You see… we’re kind of going to get married… tonight.”

“What the fuck?” Kelly says, looking between Avery and I like we’re crazy. “I feel like I’ve missed something. Either that, or you two have lost your damn minds.”

She might not be wrong, but fuck it… luckily for me, I’m going to let Avery take this one because I’ve got a couple of things to get ready before tonight and Luna is going to be my helper.

“I’m going to let you two hash this out a bit while I go run a couple of errands with Luna.”

Avery looks over at me and I can tell she’s relieved.

I get it. There’s something about these conversations that sometimes it just needs to be one on one.

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

Chapter Eighteen

Avery

The second he’s out the door with Luna in tow, the Kelly Inquisition has begun.

“What are you doing right now, little sister?” she says, sitting up on the couch crisscross like she’s ready for a debate.

“Uh, I… I think I’m trying to figure out my life and right now, this seems like the easiest way to do it.”

“How do you figure?”

I dive deep into everything that Peter is doing, fill her in on the doctor’s office and then the conversation I had with Harris about his coach. I think she’s more pissed than Harris was about the doctor’s office run-in, but she’s also a little impressed with the way he handled the situation.

“It’s not that I need Harris to pay for the appointment, it’s the way he was so willing to help me get out of Peter’s clutches by offering to front the cost. He was being protective, making such a bold move in front of Peter, especially claiming me and our baby. I don’t know, it was…”

“Hot,” Kelly interjects.

“My God, it was so hot,” I groan. “Especially because you could see the look of defeat in Peter’s eyes—only for a secondbefore he covered it with rage. But I knew he couldn’t and wouldn’t do anything to me because Harris was there.”

“So, that’s why you think this is a good idea? Why you think getting married will help this situation and not just put you into a big, complicated web between your two exes, one of whom you’re now having a baby with?”

“Truthfully? No. I think once it’s done, once I call our parents, and Peter realizes I’m no longer hiding our breakup… I don’t think he’s going to want to bother me at all.”

“But he went to his coach. Aren’t you worried about that?”

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