Page 70 of Stone Rules

Thoughts of the tiny human being growing within her that we both pray is mine. Thoughts that we will love it to the ends of the earth, even if it’s not.

Chapter Thirty-two

“The club is called Ganache,” I tell Melissa. “Have you heard of it?”

“It’s in SoHo, right?” she asks.

I nod. Melissa has worked for me for two years now. At twenty-six, she’s older than Charlie, but can easily pass for a twenty-two-year-old if that’s what the guy prefers.

I pass her a dossier on him, but it doesn’t have much information. “All I know is that his name is Zach and that he has black hair. He has a friend, Kevin, who he was at the club with. Kevin is married. They went to the club on a Saturday night. In my experience, party-goers tend to hit the same spots. Go every Friday and Saturday night for the next few weeks and see if you can meet him. I don’t think he’s a threat, but use caution. Make sure you aren’t alone. Any information you can get would be helpful, but all I’m really after is his last name.”

“Seems easy enough,” she says, standing and tucking the folder under her arm.

“And Melissa?”

“Yeah, Ethan?”

“This case is personal. Top priority. Whatever it takes as long as you aren’t in danger, okay?”

“You got it.”

Melissa closes the door to my office and I stare over at the couch. The couch that could have been the place my child was conceived. It hasn’t even been forty-eight hours since Charlie gave me the news, but it’s all I can think about.

I visited Cat’s grave this morning. I told her she’s going to have a little sibling. Cat would have been ten years old when the baby is due. I know she would have made a wonderful big sister. I told her how I want to marry the woman who came to visit her grave with me. The only woman I’ve ever brought to meet her.

After I played a song for her, I sat on the bench and thought about the night Charlie gave me the news. She fell asleep in my arms, exhausted from crying, from going through all the emotions she went through that day, from growing a child in her belly. I carried her into the bedroom and put her on her bed. I covered her with a blanket and then I removed my shoes and laid down beside her.

I held her all night. And in her sleep, she held me, too. It was incredible. It was exactly what I wanted my future to feel like.

And when she woke up in my arms, she smiled and thanked me for staying. Then she kicked me out of bed and told me to go make breakfast. While we ate, we talked. She said she didn’t want to rush things. I told her I’d wait as long as she needed.

She agreed not to contact any of the men on the list without taking me along. I have to trust her with that. Just as I’m asking her to trust me with her heart.

I know she wants me. I’m pretty sure she might even love me. But every man she’s ever known has failed her. Including me.

~ ~ ~

“How was your swim?” Griffin asks, dealing the cards for our first hand of poker.

“It was good,” I say. “Uneventful.”

They all laugh. I’m not sure I’ll ever live down that video.

For several hours, we play poker and drink beer. It’s the same routine we’ve followed for over two months. They’ve accepted me as their fourth. Their friend. And I’ve never been more grateful for that. Especially now.

Mason slams his beer down on the table, splashing some out of the top. “Are we ever going to talk about the elephant in the room? Because it’s getting so fucking big I’m about to suffocate in here.”

Gavin and Griffin give Mason a dirty look but then turn their attention to me.

“So,” I say. “I guess you all know the news.”

“Yeah.” Gavin nods his head.

“Do you knowallthe news?” I ask.

“They are sisters, bro. What do you think?” Griffin asks.

It never ceases to amaze me how they, too, consider Charlie family even though not one of them shares blood with her.

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