Page 38 of Keeping Promises

When I return from the kitchen with two water bottles, I bring a spare chair with me since I offered Hadley to sit in mine. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s better than the ones in the kitchen, and it’s the least I could do to make her feel comfortable in this small space. After all, she did bring me lunch.

To say I was shocked to see her here would be the understatement of the year, but I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t like seeing her randomly drop by unannounced.

“Is this okay? Me stopping by?” she asks as she distributes the food from the bag. It’s as if she could read my thoughts. “I wasn’t sure you would even be here. I know sometimes you have to meet with clients.” She begins to ramble—one thing that I have learned about her is that when she is nervous, she does that.

She also does this thing with her bottom lip… and that does all sorts of things to my cock when she does it, so I’m happy she’s not doing it now.

“No, it’s totally fine. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

“A good surprise? Or…”

I place my hand over hers and run my thumb back and forth on the soft skin to reassure her. “A good surprise.”

Hadley tries to disguise her smile as she looks down at her burger, but I know bacon is her go-to food lately. She takes a bite of the burger and makes a loud moan that shouldn’t be in the least bit sexual, especially since it looks like she’s making love to that burger alone, but there is a shift in the air that has happened recently. Hadley is beginning to stir feelings in me that I didn’t even realize I had. Maybe it’s cheesy and fucked-up because she is carrying my child or something. But either way, the sounds she’s making has my dick straining against the zipper of my dress pants. Work is the last place I want a hard-on, but he doesn’t seem to care.

I close my eyes for a moment and imagine what I could do to her body to make those sounds, which doesn’t help the situation below. When I open my eyes, hers are closed as she enjoys her bite before they finally open again. Her baby blues are sparkling and as bright as the Caribbean Sea. Guess baby is happy.

My stomach begins to churn as I think about what the future holds.

“Is there something wrong with your burger?” she asks, popping a french fry smothered in ketchup in her mouth. I glance down and realize I haven’t taken a single bite yet. It’s her fault for distracting me.

“Sorry, I was just distracted with work.”Not by you enjoying your food so much.“How’s your burger?”

“So good,” she moans again with a mouthful of food. When she sets the burger back down on the wrapper, I see a drop of ketchup on the corner of her lips.

I smirk and make a soft noise that makes her narrow her eyes at me. “What? Do I have something on my face?” I smile because, yeah, she does. Her tongue darts out to swipe it; however, it goes to the other side.

“Here.” I lean in and swipe my thumb over the spot and bring my thumb to my mouth, sucking the remnants off it.

Her eyes zero in on my mouth, and she swallows thickly. Did my cubicle suddenly shrink in size? I adjust my shirt’s collar that is beginning to soak up the sweat dripping down my body.

Hadley clears her throat. “So, I was planning to go to the baby store later and get a jump start on registering. I know we don’t know the gender of the baby yet”—she rests her hand on the top of her stomach—“but I figured basics are basics whether it’s a boy or girl.” She nibbles on her bottom lip, and there it is. “I was thinking maybe if you were free that maybe you would want to go with me.”

“Sure.”

“Okay, cool.”

We enjoy the rest of our lunch chatting about random things such as my brother’s upcoming nuptials and how things are going at the salon. Once we both finish eating, I walk Hadley to the elevator and make plans to meet at Baby Emporium at 5:30.

* * *

There is a slight autumn breeze blowing by the time I arrive at Baby Emporium. Hadley waits right by the doors with two cups in her hands. The breeze blows her hair in her face, and I can’t hold back my chuckle as I approach and watch her try to get it out of the way with both her hands full.

“Need some help?” I offer.

She huffs. “Yes, my hair keeps getting stuck in my lip gloss. If I had known it would have become so windy, I would have put my hair up before I couldn’t.” She holds up the two cups as if offering up an explanation. “Here, can you take these?”

I accept the two white cups from her as she gathers her wavy blonde strands in her hands and secures it with a hair tie from her wrist into one of those messy bun things.

“Thanks.” She smiles softly. “I hope it’s okay. Another hairstylist and I were chatting at the salon, and she said when she and her husband did their baby registry, they made a date out of it and brought milkshakes to the store.”

Is that what this is—a date?

She catches herself with a small gasp. “Not that this is a date or anything. I mean a friend date—that’s a thing, right? I’m sorry, this is all so weird.”

“Hey, relax. It’s just me. There’s no need to put a label on whatever this is. It’s just two people going shopping.”

“With smoothies.” It’s adorable the way her entire face lights up. I hand her one of the cups. “I didn’t know what you would like, so I just got two of my usual order.”

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