Page 76 of Secret Baby for Dr. Grump

“Yeah, right. Because that’s the most common scene in any hospital.”

She laughs. It’s a delighted sound that pleases me. “I mean, we’re mostly just working on intuition and speculation, but trust me. Something will happen by the end of this month. Next month max.”

I smirk. “We’ll see about that.”

I can’t believe it. I’m enjoying gossip. I’m not even close to those two, but I know they’re close to Olivia and have made her experience at the hospital a whole lot better. I suppose I’m grateful for that and more appreciative of them because of it.

“Want to bet on it, Luke?”

This time, it’s me who laughs before I shake my head. “No, thanks. I think you and Wanda speculating about your friends is enough. Anyway, is this why you took me out on a date? To talk about your friends?”

I ask it teasingly and don’t miss the way she lights up. But Olivia is tight-lipped, shaking her head and teasing me back.

“No. I brought you here to enjoy all this good food.”

“I love it. I love spending time with you.” I say the last part with more sincerity.

“I love spending time with you, too. But it’s not over yet.” She winks. “We haven’t gotten to the good part.”

“What’s the good part?”

Fifteen minutes later, I get my answer as she walks me to the building next door, which turns out to be a large, spacious bowling alley with neon lights and the funkiest rental bowling shoes I’ve ever seen. Before I know it, I’m learning the ropes of how to throw the ball properly and hitting my first strike in no time. Olivia pouts.

“That sucks. You’re good at everything.”

“No, I’m not.” I grin at her.

When she continues pouting, I kiss her pout away and hold back on my throws so she can score her strikes, too, but I guess I’m too competitive to make it last. It’s not fair to her, anyway, so I give it my all in the last few rounds and am genuinely amazed when she impressively ends up beating me.

Olivia, meanwhile, celebrates more loudly, crowing about her victory before jumping into my open arms. She giggles when I rain her face with victory kisses.

“You should be grumbling that you lost, Luke.”

I hold her tighter. “Do you want me not to share in your victory?”

“No. I want to kiss your grumbling away.”

In response, I kiss her giggles away until she’s moaning for me and we’re sort of getting frisky in the bowling alley. I stop at the awareness that we’re still in public, but I pull her into my lap when I take a seat.

“Is Nancy good?”

She nods. “Yeah. She’s staying another hour or two, so we have time for more bowling.”

“Okay. But first, I want to know why you’ve been antsy with excitement since we left the hospital.”

Surprise crosses her face that I’ve figured her out. I expect excuses, but she smiles instead as she tells me her news—all her news, from getting sold out to the commission request from other buyers and Jennifer. It’s not even my success, yet my heart feels like it’s about to burst.

“Liv?”

“Hmm?”

“You should have told me right away.”

“Why?”

“So that I could have taken you to my place instead and we could have had the best celebratory sex there.”

Her eyes grow warmer. “We can do that later. When Riley’s asleep.”

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