Page 51 of Time Out

“Reese.” She clapped her hands together and then was rushing toward me. “That’s so wonderful,” she cried right before she threw her arms around me. She was so much shorter, her arms only wrapped around my waist but I let go of the pan and held her tight. “You have a niece, that’s so cute. I’m so happy for you!”

“Thank you.” I squeezed Maggie back. If being friends with her got me hugs like this, I’d take it. “I think we’re all kind of freaking out.”

I’d already talked to my parents before they left for the hospital. Mom cried. Dad mumbled something about “here we go again. All this girl shit…” while tugging on his brown work boots. He didn’t fool me. I had no doubt they were headed to Walmart to fill their house with every pink thing they could find for when the baby was at their house. Hell, my own Amazon cart was obscenely long, but Annie had always had boys. Reese needed her own things like blankets and bibs and clothes and pink pacifiers.

“I bet.” She gave me a tight squeeze and loosened her hold. When she did and glanced up at me, her cheeks were flushed and eyes bright. I wanted to slip my hand to the back of her neck, tilt her chin up and press my lips to her swollen cherry red ones but refrained. Barely.

Friends.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked instead. Because I hadn’t just been shopping like a man possessed for the last hour, I’d been planning.

Reese’s birth only reminded me of how much Maggie was getting ready to go through and she might have Belle, but this was my responsibility, and I was damned if I was letting her go through it alone.

Besides, I wanted to be involved. Wanted to be there for every moment.

“Like I was sleeping on clouds, your bed might be the most comfortable thing I’ve ever slept on in my life.”

Well… perfect.

“Do you need anything?” As I asked, her eyes went to the omelet in the frying pan.

“That.” She pointed at it. “And fast.”

“Take a seat.”

I plated the omelet that was now close to burning and grabbed a plate. Once I had that in front of her, I poured her a glass of juice.

“I want you to give some thought to something.”

“What’s that?” She was eyeing the eggs like she hadn’t eaten in days.

“Move in with me.”

“What?” Her head whipped up and eyes widened. “No. Absolutely not.”

I’d expected that. “Hear me out. Please?”

“You’re freaking out because of Reese, and that’s understandable, but I’m not moving in here because your sister had a baby, and you’re missing out, Davis.”

Ouch.

When she put it like that, I wouldn’t want to live with me, either, but that wasn’t exactly the case.

“That’s not all there is, I swear it. You’re carrying my child, Maggie. Our child. I want to be there. I want to help you and cook your breakfast and make sure you’re eating okay and I want to massage your feet when they’re sore after work or run you a bath when you’re tired. I know you know this from your mom, and I know it from my sisters, but pregnancy is a ton of hard work. I not only want to be there for it, I want to be there for you, and my place has more room. The pool for when you’re in the third trimester and miserable.”

“Thanks,” she deadpanned. “Needed that lovely reminder of how horrible this is going to get.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know you didn’t, but this… I wasn’t expecting to wake up to this morning.”

I wasn’t expecting to demand she did it this morning, either, but here we were.

“So what now? Will you consider it?”

Chapter 16

Maggie

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