Page 102 of Play the Game
“Fuck yeah, we are!” Noah breaks into our little circle, wrapping his arms around Cooper, sandwiching me between them.
“Don’t squish my baby,” Cooper says, shoving Noah back, but Noah just grins at him.
“You’re having a baby, Coop.”
“You sure as shit are.” Jordan comes over and swings an arm around Cooper’s shoulders, ruffling his hair like he’s a toddler and leaning down to kiss my cheek.
Elliot does the same and then wraps a hand around the back of Cooper’s neck, squeezing. “I’m happy for you guys. For all of us. When’s moving day?”
I shrug again. “Oh, I don’t kno?—”
“Today.” Cooper interrupts me, his voice firm, like he’s leaving no room for argument. “After breakfast, we’re moving her stuff in. All of us. But not you,” he says, leaning down and pressing a kiss to my head.
I turn, narrowing my eyes at him. “And what exactly am I supposed to do while everyone else moves my shit?”
Cooper splays his hand over my belly possessively. “Read a book. Write your next great fanfic. Relax. Order us all around. Literally anything except lift heavy things. Precious cargo in there and all that.”
“Listen to him honey,” Cece says, patting my hand. “Once that baby is born, all you’ll be doing is lugging stuff around. Take advantage of it while you can.”
Cooper frowns at Cece. “No, she won’t. If stuff needs to be lugged around, I’ll do it. She’s growing a whole entire baby. My baby. Mine and hers. She lifts nothing, ever.”
His arms tighten around me, and his tone is affronted, as if the mere idea of me lifting anything is insulting to his very being. It’s so fucking cute that I don’t even bother to remind him that I’m fine, I’m not made of glass, and I’ve been lifting heavy things since long before he ever walked into my life.
“Good boy,” Pam says, nodding at Cooper. “I sure raised you right. I’m one hell of a mom.”
All four Wyles brothers snort out a laugh in unison, and Pam gives them a glare. “Just for that, you’re all making breakfast.”
“But it’s not even midnight breakfast,” Noah complains. “Why do we have to do it?”
“Bad move, man,” Elliot mutters, as Pam pins Noah with the kind of mom glare that I think must be, like, inserted into your DNA when you have a baby or something. I wonder if I’ll get it. I think I like the idea of having that kind of glare in my lawyer arsenal. Imagine the possibilities.
“Seriously stupid,” Jordan whispers, eying Pam like she’s a volcano ready to explode.
“Are you actually saying no to me?” Pam asks cooly. “You’re really standing here and telling your mother, your grandmother, your wife, and your sisters that you don’t feel like making them breakfast? Like, that’s what’s happening right now?”
“No,” Noah mumbles. Hannah stifles a laugh as he shrinks back with the force of Pam’s glare and heads to the kitchen, stomping a little bit like a petulant toddler.
“That’s what I thought,” Pam says, with a satisfied nod as the rest of us laugh.
Elliot and Jordan follow Noah to the kitchen, but Cooper leans down, his mouth hovering close to my ear. “You okay, Rhodes?”
“She’s fine,” Cece says, waving him away. “Go help your brothers.” Cece’s eyes are full of amusement, and suddenly I’m one hundred percent sure she knows all about Cooper’s little kitchen deception.
“Don’t help them,” Pam shoots back. “Dishes,” she says, pointing at Cooper. “Drinks. Condiments. Things that won’t burn or break.”
Cooper chuckles, dropping a kiss on my cheek and heading into the kitchen.
Rob steps in and wraps me in a hug. “I know you had a hard night last night, but I want you to know that you have family here. Always and no matter what.”
I close my eyes against the wave of emotion, at my sudden thought that this might be the first dad hug I’ve ever had. “Thank you,” I whisper.
“Thank you for making my boy so happy. He needed you.”
Stepping back, he gives me a smile and squeezes my hand before he joins the guys in the kitchen, and I take a long, slow breath, trying to get my shit together.
“He speaks for all of us,” Pam says, sitting on the couch and pulling me down next to her. Amelia, Jo, and Hannah pile on too, and Cece takes the chair across from us. “You’re a part of this family now. I don’t need any details to know that your parents upset you, and that upsets me.”
I huff out a laugh, leaning back against the couch. “It’s nothing new. It’s always been that way. They weren’t exactly…thrilled that I waited until last night to tell them I was pregnant. They’re never thrilled with anything I do,” I mumble, staring down at my hands.
