I shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know.” My gaze was drawn back to Ruby. She’d moved on from the servers and was talking to one of the bartenders. Link Barton. He had flowing blond hair—dude seriously thought he was Farrah Fawcett or something—and muscles for days. My understanding was that he did quite well with the single ladies, although he made sure to keep his antics off the Stone Casino grounds. I hated him on principle alone, especially when Ruby threw her head back and laughed.
“She looks good,” Cal said out of nowhere.
“Who?” I was uncertain who he was talking about until he inclined his head toward Ruby.
“Oh.” I nodded. “Yeah, she looks great.” There wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm attached to the statement. “She always looks great, though.”
“She does,” Cal agreed. “I guess that’s why you got in there with your super sperm, huh?”
Super sperm? “Um…” It wasn’t that people didn’t know I was the father of Ruby’s baby. We’d agreed that hiding the information was stupid. Word was going to get out. The casino was like a small town. Everybody knew everybody’s business. Nobody really gossiped about it, though. At least with me. I had no doubt they gossiped in their free time. Nobody brought it up to me, however, which I appreciated.
Cal was apparently going to be the sacrificial lamb when it came to that particular slaughter.
“I’m just saying,” Cal continued as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “You must have some super sperm for it to bust right through the condom the way it did.”
Was that the story that was spreading? I could see that. Somebody had probably made that assumption—a broken condom wasn’t unheard of—and then they’d all run with it. I had no intention of setting the record straight. It wasn’t just that I looked irresponsible, no matter how drunk, for not wearing a condom. Frankly, it was nobody’s business.
“Pregnancy sure does look good on her, though,” Cal mused. He was staring at Ruby as if she was the last porterhouse at the steakhouse. “People say that pregnant women glow, and she does. If you listen to my mother, pregnancy was the worst thing that happened to her. Ruby looks happy, though.”
She did look happy. Sure, she was a little bigger around the midriff, but the weight looked good on her. Heck, everything looked good on her, including the cleavage she was rocking these days. Okay, her cleavage was always out of this world. Like … really, really amazing. Her boobs were almost twice as big as they had been the night we lost our heads, and they weren’t small to begin with.
“Stop drooling over her,” I ordered before I realized I was going to say anything. “She’s not a piece of meat.”
Rather than being properly chastised, or even embarrassed, Cal smirked. “Okay. Sorry.” He held up his hands. “I didn’t realize it had gotten to that point.”
My brow furrowed. “What point?”
“You know … the point where you’re absolutely gone over your baby mama.”
“Um … I’m not gone over her. Why would you even think that?” It wasn’t that I was offended at the thought—I would be lucky to have Ruby—but I didn’t want those sorts of rumors spreading. Ruby and I were determined to raise the baby as friends. Nothing more.
Cal finally caught on that I was irritated and began to squirm. “I … um … it’s nothing.” He flashed a smile that didn’t touch his eyes. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just thinking that maybe…” He stopped himself and straightened. “You know what? Forget I said anything.”
My temper got the better of me. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve let it go. These were far from normal circumstances, however. “Listen, if you and the other little gossip hounds want to giggle over cocktails and make fun of the situation, I can’t stop you. Ruby should be treated with respect, though, so knock whatever it is that you’re doing—including the ogling—off.”
Cal’s expression was impossible to read. He stared at me, hard, then nodded. “Sure, boss. Sorry. I didn’t realize that it was going to bother you so much.” He looked appropriately apologetic. “I’ll tell everybody to stop gossiping. It’s not respectful.”
We both knew that was an unreasonable request. Gossip was part of the human condition. It was normal—even healthy sometimes—to gossip. I wasn’t in the mood today, though. “I don’t care what you say about me,” I replied. “Just don’t say anything about Ruby. She’s creating human life out of thin air for crying out loud.”
My response—over the top and ridiculous—had Cal fighting a grin. “I’m not sure that’s exactly how it works, but I’ll do my best,” he said. “Um … I’m going to make my rounds.”
“Yeah.” I waved him off and went right back to glaring at Link, who was clearly telling some story to Ruby because she looked engrossed and enamored with whatever he was saying. “I’ll see you around. I should make my rounds too.”
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, I WAS IN THEexact same spot. No rounds had been made. No happy head bobs had been exchanged with the other workers. Everybody was giving me a wide berth. That probably had something to do with the surly look on my face. Even though I told myself not to sit there and glower, the more I watched Link work his magic on Ruby, the more furious I got.
Just who does he think he is? He’s not the resident lothario, that’s for sure. He shouldn’t be hitting on a pregnant woman. Actually, he shouldn’t be hitting on anybody. He has a job to do, and it doesn’t involve telling ridiculous stories to my girl and making her giggle.
My girl?Where had that come from? When had I started thinking like that?
There was definitely something wrong with me. Maybe I was getting sick. I’d never heard of an illness that made men think delusional thoughts about the women carrying their children, but it was probably some jungle sickness. Yeah, that made sense.
My emotions were getting tangled, and the rational part of my brain kept tripping over the vines. The more I watched Ruby talk to Link, the angrier I got. I was one blown gasket away from marching over there, grabbing that stupid blond hair, and yanking him out of the casino. In my head, he was going to fly fifty feet when I threw him out the front door. Yeah, that was a good picture.
“What’s with that evil smile?” Zach asked as he joined me. I hadn’t even seen him crossing the casino floor, so I was surprised when he moved to stand next to me, crossing his arms over his chest to match my stance and staring out toward the bar. “Are you plotting against my sister?” He sounded alarmed.
“Of course not.” I shook my head. “I would never plot against your sister. I respect her more than I’ve ever respected anybody.”
“Because she has to push a baby with your big head from her vagina?”
