Sin With Me

9

“When you tried to kiss me,” I correct.

Brody’s gaze drops to my mouth. “I don’t know, when two people’s lips meet, I think that’s technically a kiss.” When he looks back up into my eyes, his own are burning.

This is how it’s been since the first time our eyes met. That click, like something snapping into place, the aha! when you remember something you’d forgotten. Kat took Chloe and me to see Bad Habit play a gig at the House of Blues and there he was, up on stage, slinging his guitar around his hips like he was f*****g it. He looked over at me standing in the shadows offstage and grinned at me, and I just about had a heart attack.

He was the sexiest man I’d ever seen. Every cell in my body screamed “I want!”

I’ve been avoiding him like the plague ever since.

“It’s not a kiss if there’s no tongue. Besides, you wouldn’t know what to do with me.” I was going for playful but there’s a distinct edge to my voice, almost like a challenge.

Wonderful. Even my voice has a lady boner for this guy.

Brody moves closer so I can smell the soap he uses, the wind-clean fragrance of his skin. He leans in and whispers into my ear, “I know exactly what to do with you, Grace. And you know I do. So when you’re done with your latest disposable boy toy and find the guts to give me a chance, you know where to find me.”

Then he turns and walks away, leaving me flushed and flustered, heart racing, hands trembling, full of exquisite longing for something I know I can never have.

Fate doesn’t play favorites with girls like me.

Exactly one hour later, just as Thomas is about to try to get an update on Chloe’s progress, A.J. and Chloe’s mother appear around the corner of the waiting room wall. She has her arm linked through his and is carefully leading him, murmuring directions in a low, somber voice.

A.J.’s cheeks are wet with tears.

My stomach drops. Everyone falls silent. Sitting next to me, Kenji grips my arm with a little gasp of horror. From one breath to the next, the mood in the room goes from happy to terrified.

If A.J. Edwards—biggest, baddest badass of them all—is crying, it can only mean one thing.

Disaster.

From the chair on my other side, Kat leaps to her feet. She cries, “A.J.?”

He exhales a long, shuddering breath. His mouth works, but no sound comes out.

Elizabeth pats his hand. She says quietly, “It’s all right, dear. Tell them.”

Everyone stands. No one makes a sound except for Thomas, who jerks forward a few feet and sputters, “What is it? What’s happened?”

A.J. makes an awful choking noise. He drags the back of one hand across his eyes. Then he sucks in a deep breath and shouts at the top of his lungs, “IT’S A GIRL!”

A beat of silence.

Then we all start screaming and rush him, everyone talking at once.

I throw my arms around the huge bulk of A.J.’s shoulders. I hear the guys’ gruff congratulations, Kat’s happy wail, Thomas’s curses of relief. Kenji’s scream sounds like an air raid siren. We’re a big ball of laughter and tears, arms entangled around one another, hugging, euphoric, jumping and jostling, making a scene, but not one of us cares.

Chloe and A.J. have a little girl.

For the first time I can ever remember, I start to cry.

“Congratulations, big guy,” I whisper, my wet face resting against A.J.’s shoulder. “You’re a daddy.”

Blubbering like a baby, A.J. drops his forehead to mine. He’s crying so hard his whole body shakes. “I’m a d-daddy,” he repeats hoarsely, and then bursts into another round of sobbing.

I start to laugh through my tears. Happiness expands inside my chest, so hot and big it feels as if it might break me wide open.

Elizabeth says, “I hope we didn’t scare you too much! A.J. wanted to be the one to tell you all, so I had to give him a moment to compose himself.” She beams up at him, her eyes shining with pride. “He was a rock for Chloe in the delivery room, but as soon as the doctor put the baby into his arms . . . well. You can see.”

A.J. sobs again.

I’ve never seen anything more adorable.

“How’s Chloe?” I ask.

“Perfect,” answers Elizabeth. “Her doctor said he’s never seen such a fast, easy first delivery. She only pushed for seventeen minutes! And Abigail’s already nursing. Things couldn’t have gone better.”