Page 171 of The Head Game

“Helllooo. Are you home, asswipe? I thought you had the hearing today. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be in town? I drove by and saw a fancy car. I assume that’s Nico’s—”

The man standing in the doorway froze.

Nico blinked at him.

That definitely wasn’t August.

They looked similar but that was not the guy Nico had been living with.

No one moved for a moment.

“Let me guess,” Skylar said drily, breaking the stalemate. “You’re Julius.”

His face lit up. “Holy shit, you’re Skylar Hanley.”

“Nico, I am going to kill you for this,” she hissed under her breath. “Kill you so dead you wish you’d had brain surgery all over again. Without anesthesia.”

“I didn’t do it!” he protested quietly. “I don’t know why he’s here but it wasn’t me.”

“Yeah, right.”

Skylar turned to look at Julius, pasting on a fake smile. “Sorry. Nico’s a little out of it right now. And August isn’t home. He had the hearing-thingy today. You’re his brother, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” He looked gobsmacked. “Julius. You, um … wow.”

She tried to get up but struggled, falling onto the sofa with a little whomp.

Julius held out a hand. “Oh, here, do you need help? It must be difficult so far along in a pregnancy.”

“No I don’t need help,” she snapped. “And I’m only seven months!”

She huffed and struggled to her feet. “There. See.” She rubbed her lower back. “I can do it myself. I’d be fine if this couch wasn’t so low.”

“Are you sure you’re not dealing with PGP or SPD?” Julius asked earnestly. “Do you have a lot of stiffness in your hips?”

“Well, yeah. This baby is rearranging all of my bones and organs. Of course I’m stiff.”

“No. But see there’s these conditions. Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain or symphysis pubis dysfunction,” he said earnestly. “You might have that, especially if you’re experiencing so much discomfort at this point. Not that I’m trying to mansplain your pregnancy to you or anything. I just wondered. But that’s nosy of me, right? Sorry.”

Skylar blinked. “What are you? An obstetrician?”

He looked confused. “I work for a non-profit that’s trying to protect our natural resources?”

“So that’s a no then?” She put her hands on her hips.

“Right. No. I …” Julius dragged a hand through his hair. “My co-worker was dealing with PGP for a while last year during her pregnancy and I started googling stuff and it was kind of fascinating. Did you know the pelvis widens by three millimeters during pregnancy and birth?”

Skylar stared at Julius and Nico smothered a laugh.

Oh, this was going so much better than Nico could have hoped. He truly hadn’t orchestrated this meeting but the result of it was fucking hilarious.

Nico took the opportunity to study Julius as he stared wide-eyed at Skylar like he’d seen the second coming and well, Skylar might hide it better but there was a definite glint in her eyes as she looked him up and down.

Julius was indeed hot.

Not August hot but still hot.

It was a little eerie though.

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