Page 61 of Wicked Player

“No,” he grunted and shoved a bite of my mom’s lasagna into his mouth.

Next to him, Haley patted his hand. “He’s not upset about the game. He’s been like this all week.”

“Oh?” my mom asked. That got her attention. Marcia Hayes had superpowers for all things, dying to fix what was broken in her children’s lives. When Connor and I broke up, she randomly showed up at my apartment to bring me comfort foods because nothing cured a broken heart like a mother’s home cooking.

My dad, Ron, had held up a beer and scowled and said, “Any man who doesn’t see you’re the most precious gift on the planet ain’t worth your time, darlin’.” Like Blake, he was a man of few words. A vet in the Marines, he’d worked as a firefighter ever since he was discharged. He was now one of the battalion chiefs overseeing several forestations. He worked twenty-four-hour shifts several days a week and even when he wasn’t living half his life at the stations, he was always ready to roll out if a fire started. He breathed his job like it was his life and loved it only a smidgeon less than he loved his family.

And even if I was raised in a house full of boys, I’d had Dad wrapped around my finger since I could toddle into his lap and suck my thumb, resting my head against his chest.

Yeah. My parents and family rocked, even if they were a little bit overbearing, a whole lot in your business.

“There’s nothing wrong, Mom,” Haley said. She’d been calling my mommombefore Blake and she even graduated high school. That was what my mom insisted on and when Marcia Hayes declared something as fact, we learned early on to fall in line and go with it. “But Blake and I do have something to share. We were just waiting until Jaxon got here.”

He was gone. Again. He was usually the only Hayes outside my dad allowed to miss Sunday’s dinner due to his job having uncertain hours. But this was two months in a row which was something even he tried not to do.

“Jaxon has a job on the coast. Gone until it’s taken care of.”

Arched brows rose on my forehead and I turned to my dad. “Taken care of?”

He shoved a breadstick into his mouth and took a bite. “You know he can’t talk about it.”

As the owner of a security firm, he often couldn’t talk about his work, but that sounded ominous even for me. Whatever. I learned long ago that Jaxon was the black sheep of all of us. How he could survive the Hayes family and not be loud and obnoxious but stern and serious was beyond me. He took overprotective to a whole other level and more than one of my friends or boyfriends when I was younger was terrified of him at first sight.

To me he was just an overgrown snuggly bear. If that bear was ready to rip out your heart with his claws at any moment if you crossed him.

“News?” my mom asked. “Tell us. It’s good news, right? Like the best kind of news I’ve been wanting to hear since y’all said‘I do’years ago?”

“Yeah, Mom,” Blake said. His jaw jutted out.

“Really?” I squealed.

“Yes!” Haley nudged him with her elbow and her gaze whipped through the rest of us. “We’re having a baby!”

“Oh!” My mom jumped from her chair so quick it toppled to the floor. She rushed Haley and threw her arms around her. “Congratulations! This is the best news!” She shook Haley back and forth, grinning at my dad. “Isn’t this the best, Ron? We’re going to be grandparents!”

My dad grunted something that sounded like he was happy. I was stuck on Blake’s sullen expression.

“Why don’t you seem happy about it?”

“Because,” Haley said. “He’s terrified something bad’s going to happen. He won’t let me lift a finger. Won’t let me leave the house. Practically had a coronary when I was carrying a basket of laundry the other day.”

“Right.” I nodded. My brothers were notoriously overprotective. “Because women are dainty little creatures who haven’t been birthing babies since the beginning of time.”

“Yes.” She patted my mom’s arms still wrapped around her. “That’s pretty much it.”

“I’d take advantage of it,” Heather said. She pushed back from her chair and I followed her. We both pulled Haley to her feet and gave her a hug.

“This is exciting news! I’m so happy for you,” I told Haley.

She hugged me back equally fiercely. “Thank you. We’re excited. Aren’t we Blake?”

“Yup.”

I shoved his head. “Don’t be a grouch. You’re going to be a dad.”

“Yeah, and if it’s a girl, I’m royally fucked.”

He grabbed his beer and took a healthy swallow. I slapped him on the back of the head and turned back to Haley.

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