Page 62 of Can't Win 'Em All
“Obviously not.” He cocked his head. “Have you considered telling my sister you’re in love with her?”
I made a sputtering noise and reflexively released my hold on him. “What are you even talking about? That is the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard.” I wasn’t in love with Ruby. Why would he even think that?
“Okay, maybe love is a stretch,” he conceded, holding up his hands in supplication. He smiled at a server as she passed.Nothing to see here, move along.That’s what his expression said. He was intense when he turned back to me, though. “Whether you want to admit it or not, you have feelings for Ruby.
“Now, it’s possible that seeing her pregnant and knowing you’re the one who got her into that state is filling you with unexpressed testosterone,” he continued. He smiled as Cal stopped a good twenty feet away and stared at us. He didn’t stop smiling until Cal started walking again. “It’s also possible that all the time you’ve been spending together has drummed up real feelings.”
“We’re raising the baby as friends,” I insisted. Frustration the likes of which I’d never felt before flooded me. “We don’t feel that way about each other.”
“I think maybe you do.”
“We don’t,” I snapped loudly enough that several heads in the general vicinity turned in our direction. I didn’t care about the guests—nothing was going to stop them from feeding the slot machines—but the fact that Ruby and Link were now looking at us bugged me. I had to force myself to calm down. “We’re raising a baby, and that’s it.”
Zach should have let it go. He didn’t, though. He kept pushing. “Yes, that’s why you take her lunch every day and sit and go over lists with her.”
“We’re having a baby. Those lists are necessary.”
He made an exaggerated face. “Oh, please. Ruby has more lists going than she’ll ever need. You’re placating her because you know it keeps her calm, and you’re not just doing that for the baby. You’re doing it for Ruby too.”
I was suddenly uncomfortable. “No.” I vehemently shook my head. “I don’t … no. We’re friends.” I was going to stick to that narrative until the day I died even though I wasn’t certain it was true any longer.
No, I recognized that the high point of my day was taking lunch to Ruby. My favorite hour was the one we spent together going over her lists. A lot of the time we laughed at how rigid she was when laying things out. Other times we laughed just because we enjoyed spending time together.
That didn’t change the fact that a relationship was out of the question. If we tried and failed, then things would be uncomfortable forever. I didn’t want to fail. Mostly, I didn’t want to fail Ruby. She deserved more, and I was incapable of giving her more.
Wasn’t I?
Zach remained calm. “Just think about it,” he prodded. “I’m not telling you what to do. Just … think about what you’re feeling, because if you keep at it like you are, you’re going to kill any guy who even looks at her going forward, and that’s not going to be a very healthy environment for the baby.”
My stomach was in knots. “We’re just friends,” I insisted. Apparently, that was my mantra now. “That’s how it’s going to stay.”
“Okay.” Zach took a step away from me. “If that’s what you want, then it’s none of my business.”
“It is none of your business.” I was definitely surly now.
“Except she’s my sister and you’re my best friend and I want both of you to be happy. You don’t look very happy.”
And wasn’t that the understatement of the year?
17
SEVENTEEN
Iwas doing my best to ignore Rex’s mood. Ever since the shopping trip, which was days ago at this point, he’d been a sullen mess.
I’d been joking about the orgasms. Sort of. The original comment had been a throwaway. When Rex got so unnerved by what I said, it became a game. I didn’t expect him to turn into a whiny baby because of it.
Of course, I remembered the orgasms. They were hard to forget because they were so good. That didn’t mean I was going to spend my time boosting his ego. He was an adult. In a few months, we were going to have an actual baby. He couldn’t wander around being a child when there would be a real child to take care of.
That didn’t mean his pouting wasn’t getting to me.
Two days before he had glared at me from across the casino floor as I talked to Link about moisturizer. The guy looked as if he’d stepped right off the pages of a men’s magazine. His skin was glorious despite the dry Las Vegas air. Since I was struggling with my own moisturizing routine, I thought he might have some tips. Apparently, Rex thought that was a bridge too far for some reason. He glared and stomped and snorted like a bull about to rage.
I wasn’t going to put up with it. I didn’t know who he thought he was, but he was going to have to get himself together. I was going to demand it.
That’s why, when the knock came on my door when I was relaxing in the middle of the afternoon—fine, I was napping, even though I never napped before I got pregnant—I wasn’t expecting to find him at my door.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted, still hazy from how hard I’d been sleeping. I rubbed my cheek as I surveyed the overflowing luggage cart at his side. He’d obviously borrowed it from the front desk. It was bursting at the seams with bags.
