Page 3 of What if It's Us

“At any rate,” Layken chimes in, “Marlee’s considering it. So maybe you should make your move, Ledge.” She wags herbrows. “We’re at a wedding. It’s beautiful here in New Orleans and everything around us is so romantic.” She gestures with her head. “It’s the perfect opportunity for you to sweep her off her feet.”

“And what am I supposed to say, exactly?” I rap my fingers on the table. “Hey Marlee, heard you want to knock yourself up. Care if I join in?”

Ella slaps her hand on the table, her eyes bulging as she glances at Corrigan and Layken. “Oh. My. Gosh. Ledger! You could totally be her baby daddy!”

What?

I rear back. “I’m sorry, what in the holy fuck did you just say?”

“Bro!” she says with a giddy grin. “Be the baby daddy. Donate the juice. Jizz in a cup and serve it up! Whatever you’ve got to do. This could be epic!”

Corrigan giggles beside her. “Oh, my Gosh! That would be adorable! Ledge and Marlee co-parenting! You guys are both hella attractive so your babies would be so stinking cute!”

My brows practically shoot off my face. “You think I’m going to walk over to Marlee Remington and offer her a cup of jizz? What, like it’s the soup of the day?”

Everyone laughs softly. Even Bear who is sitting quietly at the end of the table chatting with Zeke Miller, the Red Tails’ goalie.

“Well, maybe don’t say it like that,” Bear advises. “But she knows you’re a good guy and you’ve never given her reason not to trust you.”

“Yeah.” Ella nods. Her eyes move over what she can see of me from where we’re seated. “And there’s no question you’re hot.”

“Watch it Mrs. Blackstone,” August chides.

She cocks her head and rolls her eyes at her husband. “What? It’s true. We all know it.” She gestures to me with her hand. “Ledger is a gorgeous human being. He’d make pretty babies.”

So, I’m the team pretty-guy, is that it?

There’s silence around the table for about ten seconds and then everyone nods.

“She’s right,” Corrigan says.

Layken swoons. “Seriously it could be the sweetest romance story in history. Tell her you’ll give her a baby and then she falls in love with you.” She covers her heart with the palm of her hand. “So stinking sweet.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” I roll my eyes. “I mean you’ve come up with some far out there ideas over the years but offering my spooge to Marlee Remington and fathering her child takes the cake.”

Not to mention I’m probably the last guy who should be fathering children.

Griffin shrugs in response. “Well, you could just hook up with her and have a one-night-stand kind of thing and give it to her the old-fashioned way. Who knows, maybe after she’s had a night with Ledger Dayne, she’ll forget all about being a single mom and beg to have your babies.”

“You guys! I am not fucking Marlee Remington,” I very nearly shout but I rein in my emotions so as not to make a scene. “I am not knocking her up and I am certainly not fathering her children,” I say, finally laying down the law.

Though I’m not sure who I’m trying to convince—them, or me.

I’ve had a thing for Marlee for way too long and now, hearing that she wants to have kids…dammit. It’s putting my mind into a tailspin.

I’m not good dad material. I’ve known that for as long as I can remember. But the thought of someone else fathering Marlee’s future baby…fuck.

I don’t like it.

That could break me.

“Okay, okay,” Layken concedes. “But you could at least go ask her to dance.”

“What?”

The DJ starts up the music and announces the happy couple’s first dance. As Oliver and Scarlett begin spinning around the dance floor, the DJ asks the entire wedding party to join them. That means all of us who were groomsmen, like me, who didn’t come with a date, need to find a dancing partner fast.

“Don’t worry, you guys,” Bear says, rising from his seat and fixing his tie, “I’ll ask Marlee to?—”

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