“Hisparents have a real appreciation for waterfowl. His brother's name is Crane.”
“Kenny,are you pulling my leg right now? Because you know how I—”
“Oh,my God, yes, I'm pulling your leg,” I grumbled, rolling myeyesand laughing. “I have no idea where he got the nickname from. He won't tell me.Anyway, yeah, I mean, I like him, but it's nothing like that. He's agood-looking guy, sure, but he's got a girlfriend and—”
“Isit serious?”
“Jesus,Mom …”
“What?I'm just saying, relationships don't always last forever.”
“Well,even if he and Tracey didn't work out, I'm with Brendan—”
“LikeI said, relationships don’t always—”
“I'mnot breaking up with him over a stupid, little crush!” I exclaimed, laughing atmy use of a word I hadn’t even thought of since I was a teenager.
“Oh,so, you admit it's acrush,” Mom jabbed teasingly, triumph in her voice.
Thefluttering in my belly encouraged a bout of guilt that left my eyes stingingwith tears. I shouldn't be talking about another guy like this, regardless ofwho he was to me. Without my stubborn resolve to be right getting in the way, Iwas able to consider that maybe Brendan was right. Maybe it really wasn'thealthy. Hell, if I was honest, hadn't I repeatedly let my feelings for Goosego too far since the day I met him? And it wasn't helping now, to have mymother encouraging me to consider my crush as something closer to apossibility, rather than a total fantasy.
“Kenny,you know I’m just giving you a hard time to be an ass,” Mom said gently. “Idon’t mean to upset you, you know that.”
“I’mjust not in a good place to talk about this,” I muttered uneasily, wrapping anarm tight around my middle.
“Okay,so let’s change the subject,” she said, her voice bright and determined. “Thereal reason I called was to ask what you wanted to do for your birthday.”
Igroaned at the mention. I wasn’t in a good place to talk about that either. “Idon't know. Surprise me,” I muttered, as I wondered what Goose was doing onSaturday and if he maybe wanted to do something.
Ithad been a kneejerk reaction of my brain, and it immediately bothered me that Ihadn't first thought of Brendan. He was my boyfriend and the father of my baby,but no matter how many times I reminded myself of that, he was never my firstchoice. It was possible that, after the years of back-and-forth commitment, mybrain had become trained to simply not consider him. But my thoughts of Goosewere consistent. And if I had finally met the guy who could put a stop to myreluctance to commit, then maybe it was him I should be with and not Brendan.
But,theflutters in my belly said,you're still having his baby, and Goose is stillin a relationship.
Andfor the first time since meeting him, I wished I had never walked into his bar.
Chapter Seventeen
“Ilove what you've done with the place,” Goose said, walking past me and into theapartment with boxes in hand. He shot a look over his shoulder and grinned.“Happy birthday, by the way. I brought everything a pregnant lady could everwant.”
“Andwhat's that?” I asked, closing the door before crossing my arms over my aching,leaking boobs.
Helaid the stack of boxes out on the table and opened each one, as he said, “Cakeand lots and lots of wings.”
Ilaughed, as my heart lurched. “You really know how to make a girl feelspecial.”
“Well,itisyour birthday,” he said, pulling his leather jacket off anddraping it over a chair. “I wasn'tgonnalet you notcelebrate.”
Ihad planned to grab the train and head to my parents' place for dinner, cake,and presents. But I'd woken up in such a state of overbearing exhaustion andfeeling as though I hadn't slept for nine hours straight that I had toregrettably called my mom to ask for a rain check. Luckily, she hadn't cookedor gone to the bakery yet, and after I thwarted her numerous offers to come outfor the night, we finally agreed to get together when I was feeling better.
Butit had felt wrong to do nothing, and I was sick of having to constantly cancelmy plans with my parents. Brendan couldn’t get out of work until much later, soI texted Goose and asked if he and Tracey wanted to do something in themeantime, and he accepted the invitation.
Ijust hadn’t expected him to show up alone.
“Where’sTracey?” I asked, as the butterflies awoke in my stomach.
Heshrugged. “Working, of course.” Then, as he walked to the kitchen, he glancedin my direction, without quite meeting my eye, and asked, “Where's Brendantoday?”
“Uh,working and grabbing some stuff for the baby’s room.”
