Page 33 of The Baby Bargain
It's not that we aren't close. We are. We're just not feelings people.
"Honestly, you're doing us a favor." I motion to the empty suite in the back. "Half the shop's on vacation."
His dark eyes light upyou're so full of shitbut he still nodssure. "Then I'll keep an extra ten percent."
"Over my boss's dead body," I say.
"You'd rat me out?" I ask.
"He does the books."
"What's a little fraud between friends?" His shoulders relax with his smile.
Mine do too. It's easier teasing. A different way of communicating, I guess. "Maybe if you cut me in on the deal."
"You can take twenty percent of the extra," he says.
"When I'm taking all the risk?" I shake my headhell no. "Fifty-fifty."
The door to the office creeks open. My brother Wes and his best friend Griffin enter the main room. Survey the scene.
"Or—" Wes skips to the middle of the room. He leans down. Lowers his voice to a stage whisper, "You give me fifty percent so I don't rat you out." He winks at me. Then Forest. "You must have really fucked up some shit to end up here."
"You kidding?" He motions to the counter. Hunter's girlfriend Emma is sitting at the computer, working on the schedule. She's ten years younger than Forest, but he still smilescheck out the babe. "Best place around."
"Puh-lease." Wes shakes his head. "You're as miserable and alone as Chase."
"It's sad, really." Griffin joins us. "Like you had to bring him here so you'd seem less pathetic."
"You got me." I shrug. I don't mind the teasing. Hell, it's kind of nice, being a part of it.
"Only you're even more bitter than Forest." Griffin shakes his headit's sad really.
Wes chuckles and pats his friend's shoulder. "You gotta admire the guy's willingness to say whatever pops through his mind."
"You think this is what goes through my mind?" Griffin asks.
Wes nodsyeah.
"You don't know your best friend as well as you think you do," I say.
Forest nods. "Even I know Griff better than that."
Griffin nodshell yeah. "Right now, I'm thinking about the taste of my wife's cunt."
Wes rolls his eyes. "We can see the ring. We don't need the reminder you're married every ten seconds."
"Jealous your lady doesn't want to make it official?" Griffin asks.
Forest laughs. "She's holding out on you?"
"No. I'm respecting her desire to focus on her career." Wes shrugsjeez. "She's crazy about me."
Forest copies Wes'sthat's so sad head shake. "Take it from me, kid, if she doesn't want to make it official—"
"She does too." Wes throws his arms in the air. "I could call her right now. She'd say yes. Excuse me for wanting it to be special. And not the result of half a bottle of tequila." He refers to Griffin's Vegas wedding.
Which doesn't bother Griffin. At all. "Don't hate me 'cause you ain't me."
