Page 692 of Love Bites

“Babe was so proud,” Sunny said, her eyes glittery with emotion. “So proud.”

“Well.” Ruth stood up. “This calls for celebratory ice cream to go with the cobbler.”

“I really am falling in love with you, Ruth,” Willy said, as she scooped up her last bite of crust. “I’ll take more of both.”

Ruth practically danced with pleasure to her freezer.

Sunny leaned over to me. “Now that all the niceties are over, I want details.”

I played stupid. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I bet he’s really good at the horizontal make-it-rain dance.”

“That’s not a saying.”

“He probably knows how to slide into home plate for a double touchdown and a two-point goal.”

I concentrated on the baby I was holding. “You're mixing your sports metaphors.”

“I bet he makes you scream so loud it makes dolphins on the west coast blush.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“Tell me all about how his wooly mammoth avoided the ice age by hiding in your heated cave.”

“Sunny!” Ruth exclaimed. Willy laughed so hard tears ran down her face.

Frankly, I nearly peed my pants. “You are truly awful! Besides, there is nothing wooly about his mammoth as you well know since you got a really good look at it the other morning when you went all Peeping Tom at his bedroom window.”

“I’m not a Peeping Tom,” she said, managing to sound genuinely hurt. She glanced my way, her gaze meeting mine, a sly grin growing out at the edges of her mouth. “Though, wowza, you’re right. There is nothing wooly about that genuine mammoth.”

Willy hooted. I blushed. Ruth had the good sense to pretend we were talking about the weather.

I glared at Sunny. “Didn’t you say you were meeting Babe and some of the council members for lunch?”

“Crap. Yes.” She looked at her watch. “I need to get going. I’m already late.”

Her shirt was a pretty shade of kiwi green, a color that really brought out her eyes. I held up Jude. “I think the baby’s hungry.” I followed this line with just the right high-pitched cry.

“Chavvah!” Sunny’s hands covered her leaking boobs, which did little to stop Niagara Falls from whooshing down her chest.

“You’re welcome,” I said. “Tell my bro I say hey.”

She grabbed a receiving blanket and draped it across her chest. “I’ll get you for this, chick.”

I smiled sweetly. “You’ll try.”

“It’s a good thing I love you.” She took Jude from me.

“Ditto that,” I told her, and with all my might, I believed it. I thanked my stars every day that Sunny Haddock, make that Trimmel, loved me. It was one of those rare miracles you get in life.

“Knock, knock,” said the voice of my sexy ass man. He stood in the back door. “Am I interrupting you ladies, or is this a no-wooly-mammoths-allowed zone?”

The look on Sunny’s face, the red-hot embarrassment crawling up her cheeks onto her ears, had made all her taunting worth it. “Uhm.” She nodded down to Jude. “I’ll see you all later. Baby needs feeding.”

Billy Bob held out his hand to me, and I took it, so happy to let him pull me into his arms. He walked me out the kitchen door into Ruth’s lush back yard and pulled me in close, his fingers pushing my hair away from my ear. He leaned down and whispered, “I have a certain dinosaur looking for a hot spot to hide out for a while.”

My eyes widened.

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