Page 81 of Nailed (Dad Bod Contracting 3)
Ryder laughs. “Yes, Laurel, I have enough room.”
I frown at him. “Why is that so funny?”
“Because you haven’t seen where I live. It’s a giant old six-bedroom farmhouse. It’s always been way too much house for one lonely old bachelor, but I bought the place because the barn was already set up as a mechanic’s workshop, and it’s got a giant pole barn too, so I have somewhere to store projects.” He shrugs. “I also just fell in love with the property. It’s beautiful, and peaceful, and also not even half an hour from this area where most of my jobs are.”
I look at Ryder, and then at Nate, and try to imagine us all living together all the time…
And it’s not difficult at all.
“I have a question,” Nate says.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Can we get a dog?”
Chapter 15
Ryder and Nate are with Jesse, Franco, and James at a guys-only paintball extravaganza; Nova, Imogen, Audra, and I are with James’s daughters Nina and Ella, and the six of us are at a girls-only spa day extravaganza; it’s all part of an elaborate plan to surprise Jesse. The men are playing paintball, the women are getting our hair and nails done, and then, later this evening—as far as the men know—we’re all going to meet at a local restaurant for what we’re calling a “family dinner.”
Our original idea was to make Jesse think it was a fake birthday thing, but then we realized how stupid that was, so now we’re making him think it’s just a get-together after we all have our respective outings. Nova has rented out a private room at a restaurant and the six of us women spent the first part of the day decorating it: there’s a tower made of packages of diapers, a bunch of rattles and baby bottles, pink napkins and blue napkins—because obviously Imogen doesn’t know the gender yet. And, to top it all off, a massive sheet cake with pink and blue icing, and the words “Congratulations, Daddy!” on it in pink and blue icing.
None of the men know any of this, though. We figured the best way to make sure it stayed a surprise for Jesse was to not let any of the men know, and keep the planning in-house, so to speak.
We’re all super excited.
I’m in a spa chair between Audra and Nova, and we’re all getting pedicures, the last of our pampering treatments.
Imogen, on the other side of Audra, leans forward to look at me. “So, Laurel…how are things with Ryder?”
I bite my lip, because I’ve been sitting on my news this whole time, and I’m dying to share it with my friends; I glance at Nina and Ella, James’s daughters, who are raptly listening to every word spoken.
“Um, actually…” I grin. “Nate and I are moving in with him tomorrow.”
There’s about ten seconds of dead silence, and then a chorus of responses from everyone, mostly along the lines of “What?!”
Audra narrows her eyes at me. “Are you for real?”
I can only nod. “I know it’s a little soon, but…” I shrug. “It just feels right.”
“How did this come about?” Imogen asks. “I know you were trying to figure out if it was safe to let yourself fall for him, but it’s quite a jump from that to moving in together.”
“Not that much of a jump, honestly,” I say. “We both realized the whole idea of ‘letting’ yourself fall in love is stupid, mainly because we’d both already fallen in love. So the first step was admitting to ourselves, and each other, that we’re in love, and that it’s safe.”
Nova snorts. “There’s nothing safe about falling in love.”
The other three of us all stare at Nova.
“Someone is bitter,” Audra says.
“I’m not bitter,” Nova snaps. And then she laughs. “Okay, fine, I’m bitter.” She waves at me. “Continue, and please ignore my outburst of un-restrainable bitterness.”
I laugh at her, and pat her on the head with a heaping amount of condescending sarcasm. “Ohhh, Nova.”
“I’ll break your hand,” she says, glaring at me.
I just laugh all the harder, and then continue my story. “So anyway, admitting we’re in love was step one. And then my crazy ex-husband shows up…” I hold up a hand. “Wait, let me go back. Ryder came over and stayed the night, which was the next big step, because I’ve never let anyone stay the night, because I didn’t want to confuse Nate. So. Ryder stays the night, and we’re all in love and everything, and it’s great. We wake up and I make us breakfast, and the greatness and wonderfulness and happiness continues.”
“And then your crazy ex shows up?” This is Nina, James’s older daughter.
I nod. “And then my crazy ex shows up.” I sigh. “He showed up at six o’clock in the morning, demanding to know whose truck is in my driveway, and he was absolutely whacked out. Like, totally nuts. Shouting all sorts of craziness and making no sense, and being jealous, mainly because I am, according to him, hotter now than when we were married, and apparently that’s just not fair.”
