“Swear jar.” Kiersten stopped walking and crossed her arms. “Now pay up and go away. I want to talk to Garrett.” When he didn’t move, Kiersten added, “Alone.”
His brows slammed down. “Why?”
“Seriously?” Garrett shoved him into the hallway. “None of your business. Now go hang out with your other sister. The one who doesn’t want to be alone.”
Mike shot him a glare that promised a death so painful he would never recover, but Garrett didn’t look very concerned. “We’ll talk later about fools’ missions.”
Kiersten had a feeling that he was talking about her. “Fools’ missions?”
“I have no idea what he’s referring to,” Garrett said, grinning. “I’m never a fool.”
“You’re here with me.”
“Yeah.” He cocked a brow. “And that makes me the smartest man on the planet.”
Her heart fluttered. He always said the right things. “I’m sorry.”
“You like apologizing to me, don’t you?” He waited for more. When it didn’t come, he rolled his hands over each other. “For?”
So much. So many things she’d done, and probably would do. Because it was only a matter of time before she hurt him. But for now…she’d focus on here and now. “For never making you more welcome. She called you just Garrett. That’s…mean. I never thought of it before. You’re not just Garrett. You’re Garrett.”
He cocked his head. “It’s fine. I don’t care.”
“But I do. It’s mean. I’m mean.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Shit, why am I crying? Lately, I’ve been crying over everything. I cried at an SPCA commercial this morning when I took a break from working.”
“Swear jar,” he whispered, pulling her into his arms. He hugged her close, cupping the back of her head with his hand. “It’s the hormones. You’re going to be crying a lot in the first few months. Hell, maybe all of them. I only read up to month five so far.”
She blinked her tears away. She didn’t have time for crying, because she was supposed to be reading, apparently. God, she was a horrible pregnant woman already. “You’re reading ahead? I haven’t even read month one yet—and I’m in my fourth month!”
He chuckled. “I’ll read for both of us. You can ask me questions, and I’ll have the answers.”
“I might have to,” she whispered. “I haven’t even gotten a copy yet.”
He separated their bodies and settled his hands on her shoulders. “It’s just a stupid book. Nothing more.”
She swiped a stray tear away with the back of her hand. She couldn’t even remember why the hell she was crying, for the love of God. Was it because of the book? “But you’re reading it. It can’t be that stupid.”
“I’m only reading it so you don’t have to. I’ll tell you all of the important stuff. Deal?”
“Deal.” She looked up at him, holding her breath at the warmth she saw in his eyes. He might have said he didn’t care about her like he had before, but she swore she saw something in his eyes. And for the first time, it didn’t terrify her. “Thank you.”
She rose up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. His five o’clock shadow tickled her lips. It was hard to step back from him, especially when he gripped her hips tightly as if he didn’t want to let her go, but she did move away from him. She had to, no matter how tempting it might be to curl up in his strong arms and never move. She’d done that before. Look how that had ended.
He didn’t release her right away. “Kiersten…”
“Don’t.” She bit her lip hard and shook her head. “Don’t say it. I shouldn’t have done that.”
His eyes flashed. “Why not?”
Oh, my God. The memories those simple words brought back. “Because we can’t mess this up. Our baby needs us to get along. To stay a pair. And after Pete, I’ve seen firsthand how ugly things can get. I don’t want that for us. This might actually work if we keep to the plan.”
His rubbed the back of his neck. “So no touching?”
“No touching.”
Even though she wanted to touch so badly it hurt. And even though she was starting to want things she had no right wanting. Or maybe that was even more of a reason to stay as far away as possible from him when they were living under the same roof.
Feelings this strong were bound to combust when brought together.
Chapter Six
The next day, Garrett slammed his shoulder into Mike, knocking him down on the court. That in and of itself was nothing too strange, as they all played rough at practices, but Garrett proceeded to plow down his other teammates Stephen and Riley at half court before scoring a three pointer. Instead of smiling in satisfaction, he picked up the ball and turned to his teammates.
He needed to sweat his desire for Kiersten out of his blood.
“Let’s do that play again. We’re playing the Golden Nugget tomorrow. It’s gonna be a rough—” When Garrett turned around, he found his teammates on the floor. “What the hell are you pansies doing on the ground? Taking a nap? Get the f**k up.”
“Okay, what the hell is wrong with you?” Riley asked from somewhere near Garrett’s feet. “You run us down all day long, and then yell when we don’t jump up in excitement for you to do it all over again?”
“Yeah, I do,” he snapped. His eyes roamed over the court. “Where the hell is Al? Did he go home to get a princess Band-Aid on his knee?”
“No, he went to get stitches,” Mike said slow and clear. “You busted open his knee. He left when you were doing your three pointer binge.”
Garrett dropped the ball on the floor, resting his foot on it, and his gaze swept over his teammates. Every single one of them was bleeding or out of breath. Remorse swept through him. They all took their frustrations out on the court, but tonight he’d gone overboard. “Shit. I’m sorry, guys.”
They exchanged looks and stood, brushing off their clothes and mumbling their acceptances of his apology. Yet they all backed away from him except Mike. “It’s fine, but I think we should be done for the night. We got enough practice in,” Mike said, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Time to go home.”
“Of course,” Garrett agreed, averting his eyes from his exhausted teammates. They were suffering because of his pent-up frustrations and fears of the future. He was going to be a dad. A f**king dad, to two kids.