Page 26 of Shotgun Spouse
Teddy didn't care if they talked about him. What he didn't want was for them to speak a word against Bunny.
And then there was his nosy neighbor, Mrs. Hargrove. When did she get here? She didn’t even bother pretending she wasn’t snooping, craning her neck to peer inside.
Teddy tensed, glancing over his shoulder toward the living room. Bunny was standing there, cradling the baby in her arms. She was wearing his shirt—his shirt—and the sight of her like that sent a protective, territorial instinct surging through him.
He moved to block their view, but it was too late.
“You must be Bunny,” his mother said, her tone sharp but not unkind.
Bunny’s eyes darted to Teddy, then back to his mother. “You have me at a disadvantage,” she replied evenly, though Teddy could see the tension in her shoulders. “You are?”
His mom didn’t miss a beat. “Your future mother-in-law, it would seem. Now let me see my grandbaby.”
His mother’s words hit the room like a thunderclap. Gasps rippled through the small crowd. Mrs. Hargrove’s hand shot to her chest, clutching her pearls as though they might offer some form of divine intervention.
“Mother-in-law?” she breathed, her voice full of scandalized delight. “Well, I never?—”
Bunny’s horrified expression froze as though her brain had short-circuited. Her grip on the baby slackened. Sgt. Carter smoothly stepped in and scooped the infant into her arms.
Grant's grin widened like that cat in theAlice in Wonderlandcartoon. His glare went dark and calculating. His jaw tightened, and his nostrils flared in triumph. Teddy didn’t have to guess what was running through the man’s mind—Grant’s ambition practically radiated off him like heat.
Preston, on the other hand, had the opposite reaction. His usually unshakable calm cracked. His eyes widened comically, and his thumbs began flying across the screen of his phone, likely crafting the perfect text to secure his next position in some other politician's cabinet now that the Carter boat was rocking.
Teddy’s mother, blissfully unaware—or entirely unconcerned—about the firestorm she’d just ignited, cooed softly at the baby.“Aren’t you the sweetest little thing? Yes, you are. Teddy, she has your eyes.”
Teddy let out a slow, measured breath, but the heat crawling up his neck betrayed his frustration. "Mom, that's not?—"
“What's my grandbaby's name?"
Bunny shot Teddy a wide-eyed look. "We never named her."
"Haven't named her? She has to be six months old, and you still haven't named her?"
Did his mother even hear the words coming out of her mouth? How could he have hidden a six-month-old baby from her? Let alone a nine-month pregnancy? This was getting so far out of hand. Teddy had to put a stop to it.
He turned to Frank, but the man was eyeing Bunny like he'd never seen her.
"I'm hoping there's a secret wedding that I wasn't invited to in your past?"
Wait. What?
"That's the only way we're going to spin this to our advantage," Frank continued.
"Secret?" said his mom. "Not my son. We'll have a proper church wedding, with this one”—she held up the cooing baby girl—"as the most adorable flower girl in the whole wide world. Yes, we will. Yes, we will."
Preston cleared his throat, still staring at his phone as though it might shield him from the awkward tension. “Uh, should I, you know, get ahead of this...narrative? Maybe draft something for the press?”
“No.” Teddy forced himself to take a deep breath, his eyes meeting Bunny’s once more. Her shoulders were stiff, her hands curled into fists at her sides. But when their gazes locked, he saw the storm of emotions there—panic, anger, and something softer, something vulnerable. It was time to take control of thesituation. His mother may have thrown the first grenade, but he wasn’t about to let the fallout spiral out of his hands.
"The two of youaretogether?" asked Frank.
"We're not…" But Teddy didn't finish that sentence. He couldn't. Because more than anything, he wanted to be with Bunny.
"And you had a baby? Out of wedlock? I cannot make this work unless you put a ring on her finger."
"It's not my baby," Teddy managed to get in.
"You can't deny parentage," Frank growled. "That'll look even worse for your election campaign."
