Page 24 of Can't Take Moore

Skylar lifted one of her hands to cup his cheek while she insisted, “I’m fine. Really. It’s already passed.”

“How long was it?” I looked at my watch. “Ten seconds? Twenty? How long are contractions supposed to last?”

“I am not in labor.” She glared at me. “So stop freaking out before he decides to take me to the hospital.”

Baxter looked as though he thought that was a good idea. “I really think—”

“No. Nuh-uh. Not happening.” She shook her head. “I had plenty of these when I was pregnant with Simon. It’s just my body getting ready for the real deal. There’s nothing a doctor can do for me right now, and today’s going to be an extra busy one since I have a new employee to train.”

Baxter didn’t look convinced. “But—”

“I’m not going. They’ll just tell us that it’s false labor and send me right back out the door.” Her eyes narrowed as she added, “And then I’ll have to hear that ridiculous term again…geriatric pregnancy. As though I’m too old to have a baby when I was only thirty-six when I got pregnant.”

“Geriatric?” I mouthed to my cousin, suddenly feeling old since I was the same age.

I hadn’t made a sound, but Skylar’s mom radar was in full force. Her head jerked in my direction, and she pointed a finger at me. “Don’t get me started.”

I held my hands up in a gesture of surrender. “No, ma'am.”

“Now is not the time to ma'am me,” she hissed.

Simon made a slashing motion with his arm, shaking his head frantically. I wanted to laugh at his reaction to his mom’s irritation, but I knew better. So I pressed my lips together to stifle the impulse and nodded in agreement with her.

Once Skylar was satisfied that she’d made her point with me, she turned her attention back to Baxter. “I love you, and I know you’re just worried about the baby and me, so I’m trying to cut you some slack here. But I need you to trust me when I tell you that I don’t need medical attention.”

“When you put it like that”—my cousin straightened with a sigh—“I guess I’d better let it drop. But only if you swear that you’ll let me know if you have more of them or if they get worse.”

She reached out to grab his hand, giving it a squeeze. “I promise.”

Baxter’s lips were pinched together when he turned to me and rubbed the back of his neck. “Did you want two Earl Grey teas, too?”

“Yes, please.” While he got to work making my tea, I asked, “A new employee to train?”

Skylar nodded. “Yeah, I hired a manager to help run the place while I’m out on maternity leave.”

“After interviewing just about everyone in town looking for work, she finally found someone,” Baxter muttered.

“I wasn’t going to trust just anyone with my baby.”

Just as I was thinking about making a crack about how she was carrying an actual baby—as compared to her shop which she’d just referred to as her baby—Simon made another frantic gesture. Figuring his mom was equally as sensitive on this subject as that of geriatric pregnancies—but seriously, what the hell was up with calling it that—I wisely kept my mouth shut.

Skylar got up and wandered into the office while Baxter set my to-go cups into a carrier. When she was out of earshot, he leaned over the counter and whispered, “It’s good you’re robbing the cradle. You and Vienna can have children while you’re still young…or at least she is.”

“Ha ha, very funny.” Rolling my eyes, I raised my voice as I added, “What was that you were saying about—”

He shoved my order across the counter and grumbled, “Take the tea and muffins and get the hell out of here before you get me into trouble.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Feeling victorious about our verbal sparring, I smirked at him as I grabbed my order. Then I went back to my car to drive to Vienna’s place again. I’d only been gone for about thirty minutes, and the door was still unlocked from when I left, so I let myself back in. Heading up the stairs, I called, “I brought you something, princess.”

“I’m still in bed,” she yelled back. “Somebody wore me out.”

“Maybe this will help.” I stopped in the doorway to fully take in the sight before me. Vienna’s dark hair was spread across the pillows, her brown eyes were sleepy, and the sheet was pulled to just above the swells of her perky tits.

“C’mon, don’t be a tease.” She beckoned me closer with her hand. “I want my treat.”

I strode over to the side of the bed and handed her a to-go cup of tea and a bag with a couple of blueberry muffins. “With you looking so fucking sexy, it will be damn hard for me to leave again.”

“I guess it’s a good thing you brought these to distract me so I wouldn’t try to tempt you too much.” Setting the bag on her lap, she held the sheet to her chest as she sat up. “But you better be careful because a girl could definitely get used to this kind of treatment.”

---