Page 50 of The Jackpot Screwer
“Oh, my God,” I gasped. “She’s gorgeous. What is she?”
“She is he,” Carter replied, getting down onto the floor with me. “Definitely a Golden Retriever and not real sure of the other; possibly a Coonhound.”
Picking up the little bundle, I could see where he was coming from.
“He’s beautiful, babe. What’s his name?” I looked over to Carter, my eyes shining—damn hormones.
Carter’s head dropped and a little blush came to his face. “You can change it, if you want,” he replied.
“Tell me,” I urged.
He took a deep breath and his eyes met mine again. “Mani.”
It was only a name, but my heart felt full to bursting with love for the gorgeous redhead in front of me. “You named him Mani? Oh my God, Carter, thank you so much.” I flung myself at him, peppering kisses over his face. “He’s gorgeous and he has the best name ever. I love the real Mani and I love this Mani too.” I paused from kissing him, a thought hitting me in the head like a sledgehammer. “He is for me, isn’t he?”
Carter’s face softened. “Oh course, he’s for you, Lollipop. I just wanted to have him all ready and trained before I gave him to you.” He looked down at Mani and rubbed behind his ears. “It was to show you I could be responsible. If I could take care of a puppy, I could take care of a baby.”
I began to laugh and stroked a hand down his cheek. “Thank you, it’s a beautiful idea and I love him.” I took in a deep breath. “And I love you too.”
My lips parted, waiting for Carter to pounce but he just sat there looking at me. Love shone from his eyes, but the lust I was used to wasn’t there. They were so void of it I was pretty sure I could’ve danced around naked with my hoo-hah lit up by fairy lights and he still wouldn’t have made a move.
“Anyway,” I sighed, feeling a little awkward. “I just wanted to say thank you for the groceries, and Mani of course.”
“My absolute pleasure, Lollipop. You’ll visit him, right. Until he’s ready to come home with you, because I don’t want you to have to do anything. No stress or worry, okay.”
There was no hint that we might both be Mani’s human parents together, here in Carter’s apartment, and that hurt me. Problem was it was my own fault. I’d been the one to push him away and now I’d seen the light, it appeared that he’d got bored of waiting.
“Hey,” Carter said. “I have an idea. Why don’t you stay and visit with Mani? We can order takeout from the café and watch a movie. What do you say?”
Looking from him to Mani, I nodded. “That would be great. I’d like that.”
“Excellent.”
A couple of hours later after eating Delphine’s lasagna, we curled up on the sofa and watched the Secret Life of Pets for about the fourth time. We both laughed at the antics of Max and his pals but all the time my heart felt heavy that Carter didn’t want me any longer and the realization that I’d been a complete idiot.
“Happy birthday, my baby.” Mom squeezed my cheeks together and kissed me. “I can’t believe you’re twenty-seven. I still remember pushing you out and hearing that cute little scream of yours. Although, you do know you ruined me down there. Your dad said it looked like—”
“Mom, please,” I groaned, interrupting her. “I don’t want to have to think about your… well, just please don’t.”
Dad started to laugh, dropping his head back. “You remember honey, how he came out covered in shit.” He turned to me. “Typical of you, you couldn’t damn well wait. Just like now, when you gotta shit, you gotta shit.”
“How did I not know that?” Ellie cried, clinking her beer bottle with Hunter’s. “That’s such good shit to have on him.”
“Hah, quite literally.” Hunter joined in with my dad’s laughter. “Oh, you are so going to wish I didn’t know that.”
Throwing a glare at my best friend, I touched my ring finger and raised my brows. “Hey, Ellie,” I called. I knew it was a dirty trick, but that fucker was not using my birth against me.
“Yeah.”
Hunter narrowed his eyes on me and turned to my sister. “We probably shouldn’t mention the poop thing again. He couldn’t help it.”
“What?” Ellie cried. “Are you turning soft on me, Delaney?”
“No, no.” He frowned and shook his head. “I just think there’s much better things we can burn him with.”
He shot a gaze at me, a look that said this wasn’t over. I knew that as soon as his proposal to Ellie was out of the bag all bets were off. Me shitting myself on the way out of my mom’s cooch was not something that would go away.
Ellie shrugged and took a swig of her beer. “I guess so. The fact that he’s ginger is enough.”
