Page 178 of Begin Again, Part 2

"You are so gross!" Cassandra grumbled.

"So you are still not a thing?" Sienna joined the fray.

"I think I'm falling for him, you guys!"

And they all squealed, attracting Erica and Lois' attention from across the room.

"I'll be right back," Eden excused herself and strolled over to chat with them for a bit.

"Not much longer now, Edie?" Lois said as she touched her belly.

"Yeah," Eden agreed. "In two weeks, she'll be here."

"Have you guys picked a name?"

Eden shook her head, even though they had. But she and Liam had promised they wouldn't tell anyone until the baby arrived.

But across town, on his therapist's couch, while his son pushed his car on the floor and prattled to himself, Liam couldn't stop talking about Riley Anderson.

"I can't wait to meet her, Linda. She has the cutest face. Did you know how realistic 4D scans are?"

Linda nodded and smiled at him. "I have three boys, Liam. I knew about 4D scans before they became a thing in your world."

"Thanks, Debbie Downer; why couldn't you let me have this one?" Liam growled as he sat up. "Anyway, I bet you don't know what Riley means!"

Linda shook her head and shut her notebook.

"Me neither," he laughed and picked Aiden up. "Your assignment this week, Linda, is to figure out what Riley means and call me with your research."

"You can just google it, Liam."

"Then why do I pay you if I can just google everything myself?" he asked, his eyebrows arched and his eyes flashing with amusement.

"Bye, Liam. See you next week," she laughed and waved them out of her office. "Bye, Aiden!"

Aiden waved back at her. "Bye-bye, Linda. Be good!"

They were at Anderson Logistics fifteen minutes later, where Liam spent a large part of his afternoon with Aero Shipping and LUSSO, discussing their quarterly earnings. Despite his initial misgivings about Andrei, the man had stuck to his part of their agreement and hadn't rocked the boat. But personally, Liam still thought he was an asshole.

His opinion was firmly cemented as soon as the meeting ended, when Andrei just had to brag about the new painting he bought at Fugue. "I own a piece of your wife now, Anderson!"

"No, asshole, you own a piece of her creativity!" Liam growled and stormed off to his office, his cousins following him.

"Why do you always let him rattle you like that?" Julian asked as he warmed them all up with a round of drinks.

"Wouldn't you be riled up if the man kept talking shit about your wife?"

"It's Andrei!" Matthew added his two cents' worth. "He's an asshole. That's what he does. Anyway, you must be relieved the other crazy twin is finally behind bars."

"He got off easy." Liam scowled. He'd never be happy with the light sentence Aleksei got. Six years was too short for trying to take someone's life. But he had to make peace with it at some point.

"When is she arriving?" Sensing his darkening mood, Matthew changed the subject as they watched the view of Castle Bridge and sipped their whiskey in silence while Aiden tried to peek through the telescope even though he couldn't reach the eyepiece.

"Two weeks," Liam replied.

"So soon?" Julian panicked on his behalf. "I mean, are you even ready for her? You just got married and haven't even gone on your honeymoon because you were so paranoid shit would go wrong."

And it had, Liam thought sadly. They'd had two scares with the baby, but thankfully both times, the doctors had managed to avert their worst nightmare. None of their family members knew because they'd kept the harrowing incidents to themselves.

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