Page 41 of No Second Chances

18

KENNEDY

The front door slams open with a loud crash downstairs, and I fall off Linc and out of bed so fast that I hit the floor and end up wrapped in the blanket like a burrito.

When I finally manage to untangle myself, Linc is standing there in a pair of gray sweatpants with a gun in his hand, headed toward the bedroom door.

“A gun, really?” I wheeze quietly as I try to get up. “Where did you even hide a gun? Or the sweatpants?”

We haven’t slept the entire night and are actually in the process of fooling around again when the door opens. He’d been naked. I know he’d been naked because I’d been sitting on his dick, and all of a sudden he now has clothes on while I’m still trying to figure out how to breathe.

Yeah, I definitely need to work out more. Or at all. Except I really want pizza. And tacos. And maybe some donuts.

“Grab a shirt or something,” he says while staring at the blanket I’m clutching to my chest. “They’re in the drawer over there.”

I grab one without looking and pull the dark-blue shirt over my head. “This is stupid,” I tell him. “You know it’s got to be one of our families. You don’t need the gun, Linc.” While I’m talking, I grab my pants so that we don’t go downstairs to family with my ass hanging out.

He looks at me, then the gun, and then back at me before he sighs. “Fine. But if it’s Emma, you’re gonna wish that I brought that gun, ’cause she’s never gonna leave.” When he scoops me up into a kiss, I wrap my legs around his waist instinctively. Linc’s still-erect body presses against mine as the kiss deepens.

“No,” he says suddenly. “Not until we get rid of whoever is interrupting.”

“I’m gonna murder them,” I admit quietly.

Footsteps downstairs distract both of us, followed by a laugh that has to be Remy’s.

“Hey, Uncle Linc!” Nox screams up the stairs at the top of his lungs. “Why is Auntie Kenny’s machete at your house?”

Linc bites his lip and shakes his head while he looks at me. “They didn’t.”

“Clearly,” I tell him, “they did.” Taking him by the hand, I lead the way downstairs a lot like I did the night before.

“Auntie Kenny!” Nox exclaims loudly when he sees me. “What are you doing here?” He watches with a shrewd expression that would fit more on an adult than on a child, then gasps when he comes to a conclusion all on his own. “You spent the night with Uncle Linc. You better not have slept in my bed.” He is off, racing past us up the stairs to make sure that his room is completely untouched since he’s never actually spent the night at Linc’s.

Unfortunately, Nox isn’t alone. Both Remy and Parker sit at the bartop island in Linc’s kitchen, watching us while drinking coffee out of travel cups.

“You better have brought some for me,” I snap irately at my brother.

With a chuckle, he nods toward the other side of the kitchen, where two more travel cups sit with steam coming from the lids.

“Good. I’d hate to have to murder you in front of Nox.”

I ignore the obviously curious stares and grab the coffee, trying not to wince as I walk. Maybe it is a good thing they’d interrupted, because after a night full of sex, I think Linc may have broken me. Everything hurts, but in the best way possible.

“We need a favor,” Parker says as soon as I take my first sip of coffee. She shoots Remy a hard look. “I know Remy asked you to watch Nox today just so that he could interrupt your plans and be a cockblock, but that’s not why we’re here.” When Remy moves to object, Parker spears him with the most intense look I’ve ever seen.

Ignoring the two men in the room seems like the best idea, since I can already hear Linc’s protest forming on his lips. I nod toward the back door, and Parker follows me to the back porch with her coffee.

I wait until we are both sitting down on the porch swing before launching into the interrogation I can feel boiling up inside. “What’s going on? Is something wrong with Nox?”

We start to swing back and forth slowly, the metal chains creaking the only noise of the early morning. While I wait for her to tell me what prompted the early morning trip and interruption of the best sex of my life, I take a long drink of my coffee and try not to push her for information until she is ready.

“I think I’m pregnant. And I can’t say anything to Remy about it until I know for sure, because you know how excited he’ll be. My doctor can’t even get me in until tomorrow, and I don’t know what to do. Will you go with me?” She hiccups, and I know better than to say anything. It’s not like I know what to say anyway. Not for a long time. We sit there, swinging quietly, and I put my arms around her in a tight embrace.

Parker and I talked a lot about children through the years. Her decision not to have any more if she can help it. My futile attempts to move on from Linc so that I can have a family. All of it.

“Does Nox know?”

Parker sniffles. “No.” She sobs, and I feel a dam burst in my friend’s body. “What the fuck am I going to do, Kennedy? I don’t think I can do this again. What if something happens to the baby? To me? Who’s going to take care of Nox?”

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