Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

KYLE

" H ow many diapers do you think we should get?" Janey asks from the front seat of the Lincoln Navigator Cole insisted on buying her. Apparently, it got some safety rating thing that made Cole want to package his most precious cargo in it, and nothing else would do. Janey wasn't happy at first, but I've seen the way she's been running her hand over the leather console, so she's definitely not unhappy about her new ride, which is a considerable upgrade from her previous tiny, yellow Subaru. "I feel like we should buy everything they have, but that's probably the nesting talking."

Cole glances in the rearview mirror to Kayla, who's sitting beside me in the second row. I have no idea why he thinks she would know since she doesn't have kids. Cameron has Grace, but she's well beyond the diaper stage, and the rest of us Harringtons don't have babies yet, so we're not exactly knowledgeable on baby supply stockpiling.

Still, Kayla answers with certainty in her voice, "One case of newborns, two of size one."

I cut questioning eyes her way, and she holds up her phone, showing me the article she pulled the information from with a smile. Of course, Kayla's done her research. She wouldn't be caught dead not knowing the ins and outs of everything that might potentially be asked of her.

Once we get to Costco, we enter with the masses of other customers, pulling two buggies with us. I take one and Cole takes the other, and we get started with Janey's list.

"Okay, milk, eggs, diapers, and laundry detergent are that way." She points. "Produce and bakery, over here." She puts a hand on her belly and takes a steady breath. Cole instantly steps in front of her, his eyes filled with worry and this close to freaking out, but Janey waves him off. "I'm fine. He's just being super active right now. Let's do this."

"Why don't we divide and conquer?" Kayla suggests. "I'll take Cole to do the diapers and stuff, and you and Kyle can do produce."

Before any of us can agree or disagree, Kayla is dragging Cole away, talking him off the ledge he's on. His concern for his wife is understandable, especially as she gets so close to delivery, and though Janey and Cole have a super-close, some might say codependent, relationship, he's in real danger of spinning out with how much he's hovering over her. He's probably going to have a full-on heart attack when she actually goes into labor, and the nurses will end up taking care of him, not Janey and the baby.

Janey smiles as they walk away. "That was subtle."

I watch Kayla and Cole turn a corner. "Yeah, Kayla's known for her delicate, gentle nature."

Janey and I meet eyes and then burst out laughing because if there's one thing my sister is not, it's delicate or gentle. She would probably have to look up the definitions of those words the way she did the baby list.

"Come on. If we hurry, we can sneak some peanut butter M&Ms in the cart before Cole sees."

That's enough to get Janey moving, and we grab a family size bag of candy on our way to the produce. She tears open the bag and starts nibbling on them but also selects some apples, strawberries, and a few salad kits before we hit the bakery. "Bagels and croissants… ooh, look at this cake!"

I can't help but smile when Janey holds up a chocolate cake with swirls of frosting and chocolate shavings. There's only one choice in my eyes. "Into the buggy."

"I shouldn't," she says, eyeing the dessert hungrily.

"You should. You are," I insist, taking it from her and putting it safely in the top section so it doesn't get smushed.

"Thank you," Janey says, her eyes bright and her smile lighting up her face. A second later, her eyes pop open wide and her mouth rounds as she presses her hands to her belly. "Ooh, I think he's doing a flip in there."

I stare, gobsmacked and not sure what to do. "Should I get Cole?" I'm looking around for someone, anyone to help me out here because I am way out of my element.

Janey laughs lightly at my panicked overreaction. "I'm fine. Here, you wanna feel?" She takes my hand, placing it high on her stomach, and I feel something kick back against my palm.

"He kicked me," I say, staring at her in wonder as it happens again.

"I know, right? It's amazing."

And then her belly turns into something I've only seen in Alien movies and I yank my hand away, horrified. "Is that normal?"

Janey doesn't get the chance to answer because someone crashes into our buggy and at the same time, shouts, " Pendejo !" I reflexively put Janey behind me, out of harm's way as I turn to see our attacker. "You're married? With a baby coming? You fucking asshole!" she shouts.

Dani has used her flatbed cart of supplies as a weapon and is staring daggers at me while she loudly and angrily curses me up one side and down the other in Spanish I don't understand. From the way she's looking from me to Janey, I get the gist of it, though.

She thinks Janey is my wife and carrying my child and that I'm a lying bastard.

"Whoa—" I say, holding my hands out defensively because along with her rant, she's waving her hands left and right wildly and might actually hit me.

It's the equivalent of telling her to calm down and has the polar opposite effect. She grabs a package of tortillas from the nearest stack and chunks them at me. They smack me in the cheek, but I manage to catch them on the rebound so they don't fall to the floor.

Janey makes a sound of horrified shock at the continuing attack and ducks away from me when Dani picks up another package and takes aim. Suddenly, Cole and Kayla pop out of nowhere. I think I hear Cole mutter something that sounds like, "I knew it was him. Who else would get called that at that volume?" But I can't be sure I heard him correctly because he's panting like he ran pell-mell across the entire store. He comes to Janey's side, cradling her belly. "Are you okay?"

"Daniela! Stop!" I shout the order, knowing it's throwing kerosene on an already raging fire but not sure what else to do.

In the end, I think it's Cole who actually stops her because Dani's not looking at me. She's ping-ponging from him, who seems real up close and personal with Janey now, and then to me in confusion. "What the hell?"

I shake my head, grinning at her jealous display. I'm sure someday, we're all going to laugh at this. That day is not today. "Dani, this is my sister-in-law, Janey, and my brother, Cole. And you have no idea how close to getting me murdered you just were." Because now that Cole recognizes Janey's not about to deliver in the middle of the warehouse bakery, he's scowling at me like he's imagining ten different ways to kill me with what's in reach, which is impressive considering it's mostly muffins and cookies.

"I'm Kayla, by the way," my sister says, waving politely at Dani. But the shrewd look on her face says she's cataloging every nuance of this confrontation for later use in my interrogation.

Dani's head swivels, looking left and right as she realizes that she made a huge scene in the middle of the store and people are staring at us from every direction. Her dark eyes fill with regret and panic as it hits her that she jumped to a very logical, but very wrong, conclusion.

"It's okay," I say, reaching toward her slowly like she's a dog that might bite. Mostly, because I'm fairly sure she might. "Janey's not my wife, and that's not my baby."

"It had better not fucking be," Cole hisses, glaring at me like this is all my fault.

"Everybody freeze," a new voice shouts, drawing our attention.

A worker in a red vest approaches, holding his hands out like he's ready to pull us all apart mid-scuffle, even though the drama is over and we're just standing here.

"We're good," I explain, trying to deescalate the situation. "Sorry about the commotion."

"Sir, this woman assaulted you. Would you like to press charges?"

Assault? Like with the tortillas?

I cut my eyes to Dani, risking my life by flashing her a tiny smirk. "Hmm…" Dani growls, and I only smile wider. "No, there's no need for that. Just a little misunderstanding, that's all. No harm, no foul."

"Speak for yourself," Cole snaps. "Did she hurt you?" he asks Janey, who's holding on to Cole's arm, not for support, but more likely to hold him back from going toe to toe with Dani or me. Cole's not only protective. He's protective . Like he's probably gonna pop an AirTag in their baby before they leave the hospital, or whatever the fanciest, latest and greatest, secret tech in that world might be.

Thankfully, Janey shakes her head. "I'm fine. I think she's the neighbor," she tells Cole.

That has Cole and Kayla giving Dani second and third looks of unveiled interest.

The Costco worker doesn't care about my dating life or our family weirdness, though. "Even if you don't want to press charges, I'm asking all of you to leave the premises immediately."

He's not actually asking. He's telling us to get out.

"Sure, yeah… we can do that," I answer for all of us. I just got Dani out of one trespass ticket. The last thing we need is to get trespassed from Costco too.

But she balks. "I'm not done shopping. I still need to get a few more things and pay out."

The employee gives her a hard look. "Out, now, or I'll ban you."

"Gimme your list," I tell Dani, snatching it from her hand. "I'll have it delivered." I turn to Janey. "Your stuff too." Cole glares at me like that's the least I'll be doing to make up for this.

"Can I just get this cake on the way out?" Janey pleads, turning puppy dog eyes on the worker. "It looks so good and these cravings are a beast." She puts a hand on her belly, rubbing gently.

Cole pulls a fifty from his wallet and holds it out to the worker, who hasn't had a chance to answer. "We're leaving. With the cake."

Cole gently nudges Janey toward the door while she rests her prized cake on her belly, staring at it like she might attack it in the car before they get home. Kayla arches a sharp brow at me, letting me know that she's going to have questions, so many questions. And I hold an arm out, letting Dani go first as I bring up the rear.

On the way out, people stare at us, whispering, and I see a few with their phones up like they recorded the whole thing. We're definitely going viral as something catchy like Crazy Costco Tortilla Attack .

Out front, Dani starts to walk away but Janey calls after her, "Do you want to come over for cake?"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," I sigh.

I have every intention of going with Dani to talk about this. But putting her in front of my family with zero warning or preparation is asking for trouble. Mine, mostly.

Dani freezes in surprise, turning around to meet Janey's eyes, then looking at Cole, who seems extra unfriendly, and Kayla, who's smiling her sharks-in-the-water grin, and finally, looking at me.

Kayla pushes the invitation over the limit, though, when she offers, "Or you could come to dinner tomorrow? We're all getting together for one more hurrah before the baby comes."

"Kayla," I say sternly, warning her that she's not just tap dancing on the line, she's well beyond it.

She doesn't give a shit, though, and shrugs with a small smirk, doing whatever the hell she wants like always, which includes upping the ante. "We can show you his teenage dirtbag pictures and tell you all the embarrassing stories of his younger days. How many times did the cops bring you home? Three, four?"

Cole deadpans, "Fifteen."

"Is that how you got me out of that ticket yesterday? Because you knew the officer?" Dani demands, looking mad again.

"No," I say, looking between her and Kayla in exasperation, because while that's not how I did it, she also just gave my family a big breadcrumb to nibble at. Between Kayla and Cole, they'll have the officer's report, body cam footage, and probably face-to-face interviews within the day just to see what had me dealing with the police… again.

Dani hears me but doesn't look like she quite believes my answer. "Thank you for the invitation. I'm not sure Kyle and I are there yet, especially after that." She waves back toward Costco. "I'm really sorry for coming up on you that way and causing a scene. Best of luck with the baby. It was nice to meet you all, though I'm sure you can't say the same about me."

She's nearly sprinting away, and I throw up a wave to my family as I chase after her. She's not getting away that easily.

Behind me, I can hear Janey and Kayla talking. "You should've seen it! She called him something in Spanish and I swear it was like somebody stuck an electric rod in him without warning. Just… zzzzzzt!" Janey says.

I'd roll my eyes at her exaggeration… except it's true.

I follow Dani to her car, sliding my body into the space by her driver's door while she's still fishing out her keys. "You're not driving my car," she scoffs, glaring at me and holding her keys hostage like I might snatch them from her hand.

Glad she didn't say I couldn't go with her, I say, "I'm trying to open your door."

"Oh."

She deflates like she was expecting more pushback than that, and despite my not trying to fight with her, she's obviously not ready to call a truce.

She pushes the button on the fob and I open the door, standing stoically as she climbs in, still glaring at me. I shut her door… she's glaring through the window. I walk around the hood, wondering if she's going to lock the doors so I can't get in. Hell, half-wondering if she's going to drive away and pretend this whole thing never happened. Not just Costco, but us.

And though her dark eyes are full of fire, she doesn't.

I climb in next to her, but I don't buckle up because we've got some shit to deal with first, so I half turn in the small space to face Dani.

"I'm sorry I didn't come over yesterday. I was covered in concrete, wasn't sure you'd want to see me, and I honestly would've been shit company after dealing with Kathy all afternoon. I didn't want to screw things up any more with you because I was so mentally done with it all." I run my fingers through my hair in frustration, but I'm more than willing to take full accountability for my fuck-up, because whether it was done with good intentions or not, the impact is what matters. And the impact was that Dani felt dismissed, so I take a deep breath and plunge ahead. "But I should've come over and apologized. I'm sorry I didn't, and I'm sorry for inserting myself into the situation instead of letting you handle it."

After all that drama with the police and Kathy yesterday, which continued well into the afternoon because Kathy sure wasn't letting it—or me—go that easily, I'd been ready to tell the whole world to fuck off. So, though I'd wanted to straighten things out with Dani, I'd taken the coward's way out and gone home before I could wreak any more havoc, but in doing so, I still screwed up.

Dani blinks in surprise, like she wasn't expecting an apology.

"I respect that you can put your ego aside, say you made a mistake, and apologize. It's rare, especially with men, in my experience. The true test is in changing the behavior, though. I need you to understand why it pissed me off and not do it again."

I nod, listening intently, open to whatever she's about to say as long as it's not ‘fuck off and leave me alone', because I'm well beyond that. That option is no longer available to either of us.

"You made me look weak," she says, her eyes falling to her hands, which are picking at the steering wheel cover. "You made me feel weak."

I laugh bitterly. "Dani, the last thing anyone would ever call you is weak. You're probably one of the strongest people I know, and I know some badass people, women, especially." When she sharply jerks her head my way, I swallow a smile and explain, "Like my sister and sisters-in-law. Some of them have been through hell, but they've come out the other side stronger. Doesn't mean I wouldn't change what happened to them if I could, though, and that's what I was trying to do for you yesterday. I didn't want to be the reason you got a ticket, didn't want to be the cause of any more trouble for you, especially if I could prevent it easily."

She thinks on that a moment and then says, "You said your name is a blessing and a curse. If you didn't know the officer from previous run-ins, why would your name make him suddenly not care about Kathy's lies?"

I shift, physically turning away from the question to sit straight in my seat and throw my head back to the headrest. She has no idea what she's asking , I remind myself. For most people, it's a perfectly reasonable question. For me, it's something much deeper. "That's a bigger question than you think it is and one I'd rather not dive into yet, if that's okay. I don't want to talk about my family."

She flinches, and at first, I think it's at my shutdown. But then she says, "Shit, your family… I'm really sorry for what I did in there." She looks at the big bay doors of the store across the lot. "I totally thought you were pulling the whole ‘neighbor next to my latest job' deal when I saw you with your hand on her belly. I assumed the worst—I have a habit of doing that—and I made a fool of myself in front of your family."

"Dani, I?—"

She holds her hand up, stopping me.

"If it's important to me that you put your ego aside and admit mistakes, I have to be willing to do the same." She sighs heavily, like she's fortifying herself, and I'm hanging on her every word, sensing that I'm about to get another rare peek beneath her prickly defenses. "I had an ex cheat on me, and seeing you brought back those feelings of not being enough in some ways and being too much in others. Back then, I felt stupid for not realizing he was lying, and when I saw you, all that came rushing back to me like a tidal wave. I took it out on you, not because you deserved it, but because I just started thinking I could maybe be okay dating you, and then yesterday happened and then today happened and I…"

She trails off, probably because I can't fight the big, happy, goofy grin stealing across my face. I know it doesn't make sense when she's spilling her damage out, but I heard something that means too much to me to hide. "You want to date me?" I tease, purposefully making my voice lighter than the situation calls for because what she revealed is heavy for Dani, and I can help her carry it. If she'll let me. And the only way that'll happen is if I don't make her sit in the dark past but promise a brighter now and a happier later.

She stares at me in surprise. "I said ‘maybe be okay dating you', emphasis on the maybe."

"You love me. I knew it." I nod cockily.

"I do not."

Her mouth is arguing with me, but her eyes are flashing with laughter, which is exactly what I wanted, so I hold my hands up, surrendering. "Okay, way too soon for that, but you don't hate me. One might even say you…. lllll… What's that word? Like ?"

She arches a brow, glaring at my playful prompting. Finally, she rolls her eyes and admits, "Fine, I like you. A little." But she's smiling too as she holds her finger and thumb up a skinny inch apart to show how itty-bitty her like for me is. But it's a total lie. She's got to be at least halfway, maybe more, gone for me, which still means she's well behind me, but I'll take it as good progress.

"Say it again."

"What? That you might not be as much of an asshole as I first thought?" She's trying her damnedest to add a little spit and vinegar to the words, but she fails spectacularly because all I hear is she likes me.

"That'll do it." I pointedly adjust myself in my athletic shorts so she knows the effect her sweet nothings are having on me, and Dani scoffs, muttering something unflattering about men thinking with their dicks. "Seeing you get all jealous over me with another woman was hot as fuck, woman. Trust that I'll never give you a reason to actually be jealous, though."

I make sure to say that solid and clear, no hint of a tease. I want her to hear the truth in my words and believe them because I mean it, one hundred percent.

"You're a mess," she says, but it sounds like a compliment, not an insult. "What's worse is that I'm a bigger mess than you are." That part is definitely self-deprecating, but Dani is not a mess, not by a long shot. She has her shit together probably more than anybody I know, taking care of not only herself, but her parents in ways I'm not sure they even realize. She might be a little off-balance right now, thanks to yours truly, but I think—or at least hope—that's a good thing to her, because it is to me.

"Tacos are a mess too, and everybody loves them. Also, did you know that if you put another tortilla down when you're eating a taco, the fillings that fall out will land on that second tortilla and boom, another taco?" I hold up an imaginary taco to demonstrate. "Wanna know something else? Which way you tilt your head when you eat a taco tells a lot about you? Are you a leftie or a rightie?"

She narrows her eyes, skeptical, but responds, "Right."

I nod like I'm considering her answer for deep insights into her character. "That's a good way. My favorite is right up the center, though." I stick my tongue out, flicking the tip in the air like I'm mid-oral sex.

Dani's eyes widen in shock, and then she bursts out laughing. I don't think she expected that at all.

I lean toward her. "Now that I've reminded you why you love me… I mean like…" I wink at her dramatically. "What're you doing today? Other than an infamous, probably already viral on social media Costco trip, I mean. Like, are you busy?"

"Are you trying to get me back to your place? Now?"

I wasn't, but it's not a half-bad idea. I might even venture that it's an all-good one. "Always. But I actually have something else I need to do today, and I thought you might like to come along."

"Am I dressed okay?"

She's wearing black leggings that show every luscious curve, an oversized T-shirt with a tiger on it, and her work tennis shoes. Her hair is up in its usual bun, and her face is bare. She's dressed for hauling bags of rice and beans, not going on a date, but it's perfect for what I have in mind.

"You look gorgeous, as always. But I need to get my truck and Peanut Butter, so can we run by my house?"

Her angry glare returns instantly. "That's the biggest line I've ever heard." She throws her voice low, imitating some guy that sure as shit isn't me, "Oh, yeah, just one little stop, it'll be super-fast… come on in for a second and then we'll go."

I hold my hand up. "Boy Scout's honor. I won't try to get you inside, or get inside you. This time." I add the caveat at the end just in the nick of time to not make myself a liar later.

"Too bad," she teases, tilting her head and giving me sexy eyes.

"Besides, come in for a second ? I'm insulted." I curl my lip like that's downright offensive but then point at her pretty face and add, "And you're gonna make me lose every single one of my Boy Scout patches if you keep flirting like that."

As she pulls out of the parking lot, she asks, "Were you really a Scout?"

I give her a devilish look and spread my thighs a bit more, giving my cock room to breathe. "Nope. Never even been camping, but I've pitched a few tents."

I don't miss her eyes dropping to my crotch or the way her breathing speeds up.