Chapter One
Friday, August 5, 2022
The sliding door at the back ofthe house flew open, dragging Brantley Walker’s attention from the iPad in his hands to the woman taking refuge inside his house.
“Hell yes! I smell coffee!”
He set his tablet down and regarded his best friend with a frown. “Not from outside, you didn’t.”
“Pregnancy nose, B. Keep up.” Jessica James, a.k.a. JJ to anyone who knew her, slid the door closed harder than necessary. “Tell me there’s coffee, B.”
“Is that really a thing?”
Her eyebrows slammed down. “Coffee?”
“Pregnancy nose.”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.
“Can you track scents like Tesha?”
Amusement glittered in her eyes. “I see what you’re doin’.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“What am I doing?”
“You’re tryin’ to distract me. That, or you’re stalling. Which is it?”
“Why would I do either?”
“You don’t want to share your coffee.”
He flashed a smile and picked up his mug. “You can’thavecoffee.”
“Sure I can.” She rushed toward the kitchen island, moving as fast as her pregnant belly would allow. “Just don’t tell Baz.”
Although JJ was the one to put herself on a caffeine diet, she’d enlisted Baz to hold her to it. And Brantley got the feeling JJ was just as worried about disappointing her baby’s daddy as she was overdosing her unborn baby on caffeine. Love really did look good on her.
Brantley glanced out the door to ensure Baz wasn’t standing there, ready to bust him. He knew if the man caught him supplying coffee to JJ and their unborn daughter, he would not be happy. It was bad enough that each week he had to hear at what stage their child was in—based on the book JJ was reading, at twenty-nine weeks, the baby was now over a foot long and close to two and a half pounds. He seriously doubted something that size needed the caffeine.
“Come on, B,” JJ pleaded. “I promise, the peanut won’t care.”
Peanutwas the nickname they’d given their unborn child back before they found out the sex of the baby. Now that they knew, he wasn’t sure why they didn’t refer to her as princess or baby doll or some other unnecessary nickname. It would’ve been simpler if they’d given her a name already. Then Brantley could start learning it, and he wouldn’t risk forgetting by the time she arrived.
If she ever got here. No one told him that pregnancies—while being nine months long—felt like they lasted an eternity. He couldn’t remember his sisters’ pregnancies dragging on like this. He couldn’t imagine how JJ felt.
The coast was clear, so Brantley set his mug on the counter and turned to the refrigerator.
“Oh, I love you, B.” JJ pulled out a stool and dropped her laptop bag on the countertop. “More than you could ever know. Cream, please.”
He grabbed the bottle off the top shelf, shut the door, and turned back to his best friend.
