Page 50 of Undeniably Convenient

“We will. But later.” Because suddenly two redheads, a blonde, and a brunette surround me. Keegan, Kenna, Wren, and Tinsley are all over me.

“Yeah, leave her alone!” Wren shouts at Owen, who is her older brother. “She’s ours to get the dirt from.” She turns on me, flipping her insanely long blonde hair back and leveling me with a don’t bullshit me stare. “Please tell me you’re screwing the hot doctor I just met before my brother came in and stole him from me. Because holy shit is he freaking delicious. A bit old for me, but for that”—she waves a finger in his direction—“I’d make an exception.”

“I’m screwing the hot doctor,” I tell her as I grab a Diet Coke from the table by the pool and pop the top on the can.

“I knew it!” Keegan shouts triumphantly. “I freaking knew it. That took you all of… what? Not even two weeks. We should have had a bet on it. Why didn’t we have a bet on it?”

I poke her with my elbow. “Stop. I hadn’t planned to sleep with him, and it’s not what you think.” I swallow, suddenly feeling a little nervous and shy. “We’re sleeping together because we’re trying for a kid.”

“I’m sorry. What?” Kenna is about to shake me.

“He’s going to hopefully be my baby daddy.”

I get four sets of round eyes. “Your baby daddy,” Tinsley parrots.

I nod. “Yep.” I take a long pull of my soda.

“That beautiful man over there is going to be the father of your kid?” Wren looks like she’s about to pass out.

“That’s the plan.”

“And you didn’t freaking tell us?!” Keegan yells, only for Kenna to roll her eyes at her twin and calm her down with a hand on her shoulder.

“It all just happened last night and this morning,” I explain, taking a sip of my soda and then rolling the can between my hands. “His mom is sick with cancer, and he wants to be a dad for himself and to give her a grandchild, but he just ended a horrible marriage and doesn’t want a relationship. It’s perfect.”

Kenna snorts, eyeing me dubiously. “Uh-huh. I think I’ve read that book before.”

“And seen the movie,” Keegan follows up.

I shift my weight, some of my bravado and spunk slipping a little as I explain this to them. “It’s not like that.”

“Yup. Sure,” Tinsley mocks. “At least not now, it isn’t. But there’s more. I can see it on your face. What aren’t you telling us?”

I sigh because I hate that their sarcasm has a point, and if it were reversed, I’d be saying the same things to them. Only this is different. “Listen, you can’t say anything to anyone. I mean it.” I point a stern finger at all of them, especially Keegan since she works in the hospital with me. “This is a secret baby-making mission, and it has to stay that way.”

“We get it,” Wren promises.

“Good. Because I’m moving into his place.”

“No wonder Owen and Vander look like they’re popping aneurysms,” Wren states, and I glance over to find Owen, Stone, and Vander still talking to Bennett. Owen does appear a little flummoxed, but overall, they seem to be getting along well.

“They need to get over it.” I turn back to the girls. “It’s just until the baby is six months old or so. He wants to be part of it. The pregnancy, the delivery, the newborn stuff. He wants to be a full-time dad without the full-time wife attached to it. He’s coming out of a bad marriage, and I had a bad thing. Neither of us wants to complicate this any further.”

“And yet you’re moving in with your boss and having sex with him,” Tinsley deadpans. “Good luck with all of that. Because your heart and your vagina aren’t besties or anything.”

“They’re not always,” I defend indignantly. “Sometimes they hate each other too and aren’t on speaking terms. I messed around in college with that guy for a couple of months and didn’t catch feelings.” I’m getting a little huffy because I don’t like the insinuation that I can’t maintain a separation between sex and love.

“True,” Kenna agrees, holding up a consolatory hand. “You did manage that with that guy. How’d that go with Zane since, if memory serves, you said the same thing when the two of you first started?”

I push past them and hop in the pool because suddenly it’s very hot on this roof. I turn around and drop my forearms on the hardscape, setting my soda down and looking up at them. “Zane was different. He plied me with words of love and fed me every line I wanted to hear. Bennett won’t be doing that. We’re going to have a contract. I know it sounds bad, and if I were you, I’d be all over me about it too. But Bennett and I talked about it.” Sorta. Okay, maybe we didn’t talk as much as we should have. Maybe I threw myself into the deep end with this headfirst. But we can fix that. “Trust me, the sex is just, well, for sex. For procreation and nothing more, and it’s only going to happen when I’m ovulating.”

“So you’re not enjoying it then?” Keegan folds her arms, giving me a motherly stare. “He didn’t kiss you or make you orgasm? There was no foreplay? It’s simple fornication and nothing more?”

I flush and stare down at my hands. “No sense in having bad sex.”

“So the sex is good?” Tinsley asks, and I nod.

“How good?” Wren presses.

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