Page 148 of Darling Obsession

Harlan ignores them all. All the girls are staring at him, but his gaze has locked on me.

“Get out of the car, Quinn,” he says evenly.

“Uh… Danica, this is Harlan,” I tell her. My heart is thumping. I’m notnothappy to see him. I slightly don’t mind being rescued from this party limo right now.

But I definitely don’t appreciate being abducted by my baby’s father in front of my girls. Especially when he’s acting like a belligerent caveman.

Danica being Danica, however, shuffles over to the open door and offers her hand. “Oh, hi! So nice to meet you, Harlan.”

He doesn’t even glance at her.

“Quinn,” he growls warningly.

“Maybe if you asked her nicely,” Dani says coolly.

He just stares at me. Danica withdraws her hand and scoots back into her seat.

“Please, get out of the car, Quinn,” he says with restrained fury.

I glance at my friends. Dani gives me a look like,Don’t you dare, you crazy, horny pregnant woman.

“Okay, I’m just gonna go.” I scoot toward the door.

“Quinn!” Nicole says. “What about limo karaoke?”

“Yeah… I think my baby daddy is in a mood. I’ll catch up with you girls another time.”

Dani frowns.

Harlan offers me a hand. I take it and he lifts me out of the car, setting me on my feet.

I wait for him to shut the door before I smack him on the chest. “What are you doing? You can’t just show up and bark orders at me in front of my friends!”

“I said please.” He laces his fingers through mine and pulls me toward his SUV, which is parked directly in front of the limo,blocking it. Manus waits for us politely by the open back door, as if his boss isn’t acting like a total psycho.

“You need those etiquette lessons,” I mutter.

“We’ll talk in the car,” Harlan growls.

We climb into the back of the SUV, Manus shuts us in, and we get rolling, while I quietly fume and recover my dignity.

“That was embarrassing, you know. You need to apologize to my friends, the next time you see them.”

He scoffs. “Sure. After they apologize to me.”

“Are you kidding? That was hella rude. Dani paid for that limo.”

“Yeah?” He pins me with a glare. “How rude is it when they talk about me, and my child, like I’m not even there?”

I balk. “When did they do that?”

“Every single time I see them.”

I think about that as I gradually calm down. My girls have been around a lot, that’s true. As in, pretty much every time I see him these days.

It’s been weeks since I told him I wasn’t moving into that apartment above the bakery space he wanted to buy for me, and the only time I really see him is when he drops in unannounced at my house. And usually, at least one of my girls is there. It’s like they decided to start taking shifts to babysit me after I became pregnant—and my situationship with the baby’s father became such a disaster.

I don’t mind the extra love from my friends. They’ve really rallied around me. Because that’s what great friends do.

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