Stepping out the shower, he dried off, then went into the bedroom to dress. He gave the bed a longing glance and told Suki to stay before going back downstairs. In the time he had been taking a shower, the club room had filled with even more women, who were watching him like a hawk.
He was relieved to see more men than he expected. Calder, Dalton, Stud, Viper, Shade, and Train grouped around at the bar, looking as miserable as he felt.
Moving behind the bar, Reaper took a bottled water. “How did Lucky manage to get out of coming?”
“Prayer meeting,” Razer answered, coming out of the kitchen to take a bottle of beer before he could shut the fridge door. “I volunteered to sub for him, but the lucky bastard turned me down.”
“Why don’t we go and hang out in the kitchen?” Reaper made the suggestion when Sex Piston and Fat Louise began talking about their experiences during child birth.
“And leave them alone with a bar full of liquor?” Viper snorted. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Half of them are pregnant.” Reaper wasn’t ready to give up the idea of escaping.
“The others aren’t. Those are the ones I’m not taking my eyes off of.” Viper positioned himself in the space between the bar counter and wall, when Killyama came out the kitchen carrying a tray of drinks.
Not put off by Viper’s presence, she held the tray out for him. “Place that bottle of Effen Blood Orange on for me.”
Viper’s shoulders went up two inches. “No.”
“You want me to put the tray down and get it myself?”
The sickly-sweet smile that Killyama gave Viper made the skin on the back of his neck crawl for his brother. Viper must have experienced the same side effect because he took the bottle of vodka off the shelf.
“None of the brothers were drinking it, anyway.” Viper made the excuse for himself after Killyama disappeared into the crowd of women.
“I would have given it to her, too.” Dalton gave a mock-shudder. “Train, I don’t know which of you I admire most. You or Calder.”
“Calder gets my vote.” Train laughed from the end of the bar. “At least Killyama won’t kill anyone unless they point a gun at her. All you have to do is look at Crazy Bitch the wrong way.”
The men spent the next painstaking fifteen minutes having to listen to the horror stories of childbirth experiences. The stories sent his gut twisting in worry for Ginny and the child she was pretending wasn’t resting below her heart.
At first, he’d mistakenly assumed she was waiting to tell him until after she knew for sure. Then, after her arm was sprained and she never mentioned birth control again, he assumed she was waiting until the perfect moment. Each day that passed, Reaper came up with a different reason until he came to the realization that he wasn’t capable of figuring how Ginny’s mind worked.
His best guess so far was that Ginny wasn’t going to admit she was pregnant until he admitted they weren’t married. The woman didn’t know him at all if she thought he was going to cave. He could be just as stubborn as she, or at least until he convinced Lucky to give him permission to marry her, which, by the way that was going, Ginny would be on their third child before Lucky conceded. He told himself to be patient, he could outwait her. Time was on his side how much longer could she pretend to be pregnant before she started showing?
Jerking his thoughts away from killing a man of the cloth or ask him how far along Willa was when she started showing, Reaper tuned back to the conversation the men were having, then wished he had stayed in never-never land at hearing Viper and Razer arguing about whose wife had the worst child birth.
“Beth had two kids during a blackout, in the middle of the night, while men were trying to kill her and breaking into her house,” Razer bragged.
Viper made a slicing wave of his hand. “Winter might have had only one kid, but she nearly fucking died when that drug cartel was ….”
Reaper switched off, going back to what the women were saying. At least their conversations didn’t involve death.
“Did you hear the new doctor in town has two sisters?” Willa shared with the group. “One is a midwife, the other is a doula.”
“Really? I didn’t hear that.” Trudy paused while opening a present. “Is it too late for me to use a midwife?”
“Yes, it is,” Dalton provided the information, proving he wasn’t the only one listening.
“When I have a baby, I plan on using a doula and a midwife,” Ginny stated implacably as if it was a forgone conclusion.
“Oh … hell, you’re not. Your ass will be sitting in a hospital, begging for an epidural,” Reaper yelled.