“Maybe even smaller. They don’t grow fast. She’ll be a peanut for a while.”
“Moving yet?” He is so curious about this whole situation. Couldn’t explain why beyond Addison being the first pregnant woman he’s met up close. “No, that’s too soon, right?”
“Much too soon. Though I could swear there’s already a bowling ball on my bladder.”
“So that’s why you get up to pee ten times a night,” he scowls.
She gasps in fake offense. “You try having a watermelon on your bladder and see how fun that is.”
“Went from peanut to watermelon real quick just now.”
She nods toward a bowl of plastic fruit on the counter, covered in dust. “Keep it up, and I’ll throw an orange at you.”
“Is this one of those mood swings I’ve heard about?” he teases.
Her eyes flare, and she reaches toward the counter.
“Okay, okay. I’m done,” he snickers, holding his hands up.
She leans back against her chair with a sigh. “Think they have morphine at the library?”
“This is the boondocks, probably got LSD and Molly in there too. Get you trippin’ just right. That baby will slide out without you feeling a thing.”
“Mix it with some of those pills in your stash, and I won’t even remember my own name, let alone that I had a baby at all.”
He nods. “Are you sure you aren’t from here? Pretty sure half the population in this town was born that way.”
Addison laughs, and the candlelight glints off her shiny hair, forcing him to go slack-jawed before he can control his own face.
She starts telling him a story, smiling and gesturing wildly, but all he hears is the Charlie Brown teacher muffled in thebackground because he’s too distracted by how beautiful she is. Calling her pretty when he was hallucinating was one of the few things he’d said clear-minded. He’s been able to ignore it for the most part, but lately, it’s become difficult. He sits at the table across from her, nodding like he’s paying attention, but mesmerized by the freckles dotting her skin.
“And then a T-Rex ate him, and they lived happily ever after,” she finishes.
He squints. “Wait, what?”
“Where did you go just now?”
“Sorry.” He runs a hand across his face, internally scolding himself.
When he looks up again, she’s watching him with that same algebra floating above her head that the kid had at the shooting range. Then something seems to click because she looks away, suddenly shy.
She may have figured something out, but he’s still clueless as ever.
It’s not until he’s in bed later that night that his confusion starts manifesting in a new way. He can’t stop thinking about Addison.
Granted, this has gradually become a problem before tonight, but this time, he’s bombarded with a truckload of mental images he can’t shake.
The way she smiled at the table. Soft and sweet, like the extra sugar in her tea.
How soft her skin was when he brushed against her at the range.
That backlit, golden shimmer in her hair from a candle flame.
It’s innocent at first, but the more he tries to think of anything else, the more his thoughts stray into unfamiliar, x-rated territory. And that’s right around the time he realizeshe’s very attracted to her. Doesn’t need this bullshit swimming around in his head. She deserves better than him having dirty fantasies about her. And yet, his brain won’t listen. It twists and turns and crooks a finger to pull him closer, whispering that what he imagines doesn’t mean anything and can’t hurt anyone.
He’s confused and horrified by his own reaction. Sure, he was attracted to his ex-wife until she broke his heart and then trampled the pieces. He’s jerked off to porn a few times since then. He’s not dead yet, but his imagination has never run this wild, not even for the woman he was married to. It’s got his head spinning, trying to think of any number of disgusting things to turn off this unexpected attraction.
What if it never goes away? Is he expected to live with it for the rest of his life? How does anyone function like this? He’d do just about anything at the moment to make it stop, but his cock must be purple by now, and nothing works.
