“You didn’t tell me we were expecting company!”
He shrugs his shoulders. “It’smyhouse, too. Didn’t think I needed your permission.” He sticks his tongue out at me. The playful glimmer in his eyes turns me on instantly. My God, I love his sense of humor.
A knock on the back door pulls my eyes from his and I’m already ready for whoever is here to leave so I can drag Cass to bed. Cass winks at me before walking across the kitchen to open the door. Mindy and Linc walk in, shivering and covered nearly head to toe in leather. Mindy’s blonde curls peak out from under the handmade crochet beanie I made her last Christmas, and the sight makes me smile so hard my cheeks almost hurt.
We’ve all been so busy lately that I have hardly seen Linc and Mindy. Instantly forgetting my naughty thoughts of dragging Cass away, I run across the room and pull my best friend into a hug.
“Ladies! If y’all could hug a little further inside so we can shut the door and not freeze anymore, that’d be awesome,” Linc says, his hands on Mindy’s back slowly pushing us back into the house. He closes the door and shakes Cass’s hand.
“I missed you!” Mindy cheers, taking her gloves off.
“I missed you too! So much. What have y’all been doing? I’m sorry I’ve been so busy.”
It’s been chaos since the last time I saw her. Thanksgiving Day was the last time they were here and that’s highly unusual.We’ve been in our house eight months now and Mindy and Linc were normally here once every week, at a minimum. Or we were hanging out at the club house. Mindy still works for us at Creek’s, and I’ve been back behind the bar a little bit in the last few months with holidays and losing Ryan at the bar because she found a job more suitable for her.
“Gah, what have we not been doing?” she says, grinning at Linc who’s watching her from across the room where he and Cass are standing.
Linc and Cass both have a beer in hand, and I wonder when they walked to the fridge but don’t question it.
“We’re going to go out and make a fire in the firepit out back. We’ll have it ready in a few minutes for you two,” Cass says, walking away with Linc behind him.
I drag Mindy to the couch in the living room and sit down.
“Y’all are still coming over for Christmas, right?” I ask.
“Well, yeah! It’s Christmas and you know you two are our closest family. That’s something I was hoping to talk to you about.”
“What?”
“Okay, so. You’re my best friend and Linc and Cass are pretty close, too, right?”
“Yeah…”
“I found out right before Thanksgiving that we’re pregnant! And we want y’all to be the godparents.”
I squeal with excitement and tears of happiness prick the back of my eyes. “Oh my God, Min! I’m so happy for the two of you! Of course, we’d love to be the godparents!”
She squeezes me in a hug, laughing and crying all at once.
“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”
“I didn’t want to jinx it. I wanted to wait until we’d gone to the doctor and confirmed and had an ultrasound and found out everything. I was so nervous.”
“You should’ve said something! I hate that you were so worried, and I had no clue. You know I’d have been right there with you.”
“I know, it was just something that Linc and I were dealing with together. It brought us even closer, if you can fathom that.”
I laugh at her sarcasm. “I’m so excited for you. You found the happiness I could only have ever hoped you’d find. Linc is the perfect guy for you, and I can’t wait to watch you with your baby.”
“There’s something else I need to talk to you and Cass about, too.” The big smile she donned moments ago was gone.
“You’re leaving the bar.” It isn’t a question. I know that’s exactly what she’s doing. We’ve talked about this so many times in the past few years whenever we’d get on the subject of the ‘if’ we ever found a guy and the ‘if’ we ever got pregnant scenarios that we played out so many times.
“Yes. But I’m giving notice and I’ll wait until we find someone to take my place before I leave!” she says defensively.
“Mindy, I’m not mad! Cass won’t be either. I’m glad, actually because the last thing you andmygodchild need is to be stuck inside a smokey bar!”
Her shoulders relax at my words. “Okay, good.”
