Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“Sorry.” Evander looked regretful. “I didn’t see you there. He hides you well.”
Lark giggled. “He does, doesn’t he?”
I hadn’t realized I’d even done it, but the moment we’d walked up to my brothers, I’d maneuvered her so that she was in the shadows of the club, and my entire body was covering hers.
“And to answer your question, asshole,” I said to Evander. “I’m going to have babies…just not right now.”
The idea of having babies right now literally gave me hives.
“You don’t want babies now?”
“Uh-oh,” Finley said. “I can see that I came at the wrong time.”
Evander snorted and walked away just as fast as he’d come, leaving me alone with my brothers, who didn’t look the least bit willing to walk away like my friend did.
“I want babies,” I confirmed. “But thinking about having them right now makes me want to vomit.”
She stared at me. “If you didn’t want babies, why are we doing things…you know…like we’re doing them? That’s kind of inevitable.”
Tobias snorted, taking a sip of his beer, and clearly enjoying the show.
“No condoms?” Finley asked. “Have you forgotten everything I taught you?”
I flipped him off.
Finley had a pregnancy scare when he was young with his girlfriend at the time. Kind of. She’d been his almost girlfriend.
Later, as he’d matured, he’d told everyone that they needed to learn from his mistakes.
“You’re on birth control,” I felt the need to point out.
“Yes, but that fails.”
The thought of her birth control failing was something that sent me into a cold sweat.
“You really don’t want kids right now, do you?”
I shrugged.
“Why not?”
I thought about how awful all of my brothers’ kids were…and they were awful. The thought of having to share Lark with anyone else right now literally sounded appalling.
“Because I don’t want to share you yet.”
I wanted to have copious amounts of sex. I wanted to go places without having to worry about someone watching my kid. I wanted to fuck her when and where I wanted. And if we had kids—which we would eventually—then that would take away from any spontaneity that we might have in the future.
Her face softened.
“But you do want kids?”
I nodded. “Maybe in a couple years.”
She smiled. “I can handle that.”
Relief washed through me.
That wasn’t something I’d thought about—having kids. At least not in too much detail.
It’d been something we hadn’t discussed, and maybe we should have before our reception dinner after we were already married.
My brothers were all wearing a matching smirk.
“Fuck off.”
All three of them burst out laughing.
“This isn’t funny,” I told them.
“It kind of is,” Finley drawled. “Really.”
I rolled my eyes, and the sweetest sounding giggle sounded from the woman at my side.
“It is,” she agreed. “You should’ve seen the green tint to your face at the thought of having kids right now.”
“It’s Travis’s fault,” I felt the need to add. “His kids are awful.”
“My kids aren’t awful,” Travis said.
“Yes, they are,” I told him, not missing a beat. “Just last night you told me you got maybe an hour of sleep. That sounds like it’s going to suck.”
“I can’t wait for you to have kids. It’ll literally make my day to point out how wrong you are about having them.”
“I want them…I just need time to forget how awful yours are before I do.”
Travis snorted.
“You damn well know they’re not awful.”
Just then, Travis’s child projectile vomited on the floor.
It landed halfway across the dance floor.
Everything went silent for a few moments after that, and then Travis started to chuckle. “Maybe he’s bad…but the first one wasn’t too bad. She was an angel baby. Well, as an infant anyway.”
That was true. But at the time I hadn’t been with anyone that I even considered knocking up. Now I was, and I just knew that I wasn’t at the stage yet.
“Who’s cleaning that up?” Finley wondered.
And that was around the time that the girls made their round around the dance floor where they’d been running.
Leida managed to jump over the puke. The others, however, were not so lucky.
Chapter 22
Your mother didn’t spend nine months with you on the inside just to deal with your bullshit on the outside.
-Lark to Baylor
Lark
“It purely amazes me that you’ve never done this before,” the vet tech, Marissa, said. “I can’t believe that you’re so good at this. And they trust you when you do it.”
I shrugged. “I used to be a phlebotomist. It’s fun…but this is actually a lot more rewarding.”
“And it’s acceptable for the patient to lick you after you’re done.”
I started to laugh at Dr. Castleberry.
Dr. Castleberry was a balding man who looked like my great, great grandfather.
He told me when I’d first started a week ago that he wasn’t a ‘day over seventy plus fifteen years because that’s what war does to you.’
I didn’t know if he meant actual war or not, but I wouldn’t put it past him. He looked the type. Oh, and barked orders like he was used to having them obeyed.