All Fixed Up by Linda Grimes Read Free Book Online Page A

believe it? I’m going to be an aunt!”
    Billy’s eyes got big. “Way to bury the lede, cuz.”
    â€œHey, it’s your own fault. I was going to call you as soon as I got home, but then I saw the roses, and you were there in my bed, all shirtless and sexy, and I hadn’t seen you in a whole week, and then you started kissing me, and then…” I shrugged. “I forgot.”
    â€œExcellent excuse.” He grinned, and leaned over to kiss me again before turning his attention back to his pizza. “Hell, they aren’t wasting any time, are they? Unless maybe that was the reason for the blitzkrieg wedding your mom pulled out of thin air?”
    â€œNo, they only found out today. Laura called me from the doctor’s office. Apparently, they hadn’t planned to start trying until next year. Thomas was still in shock.”
    â€œI can imagine. God, impending fatherhood would send me running for—” He shuddered almost imperceptibly, a strange cross between speculation and fear blooming in his eyes. “You don’t think … I mean, there isn’t any way…”
    My latest sip of beer exited through my nose on the updraft of a cough. “ What? No! No way. Jesus, Billy, don’t say stuff like that.”
    He mopped my face with a napkin, pounding me—softly—on my back when my coughing fit continued. “Sorry,” he said. “Forget it, okay? We’re careful. So, Laura still gave you a lesson? Bet Tommy-boy wasn’t keen on that.”
    â€œNo, she sent Mark as a substitute,” I said, under control again, keeping it breezy. No biggie, right?
    A small muscle contracted in Billy’s jaw. “Mark? Guess he thought it would be a good opportunity to go over your NASA job? Two birds with one stone.”
    I shrugged, and forced myself not to look away from Billy’s eyes, holding back a blush. “Not so much. You know how he is with the need-to-know bullshit. Whatever’s going on with the photographer, apparently I don’t need to know.”
    Billy nodded, looking at me thoughtfully. “The spook give you a good workout?” he asked, not an inkling of innuendo in his voice or eyes. So why could I still feel it?
    â€œHe went all drill sergeant on me,” I said, squelching my stupid guilt. “And here I’d been thinking Laura was tough.” I shoved some pizza in my mouth and concentrated on chewing.
    Billy put his slice down, and took mine from me. He dropped it beside his.
    â€œHey, I’m not finished!” I mumbled, chewing faster.
    He took me by the hand and led me back upstairs. “Neither am I,” he said, a determined gleam in his eye.
    *   *   *
    I woke to a jarring clash of cymbals followed by my mother’s voice saying, “Answer your phone!”
    Gah. Ringtone hell. Odds were ten to one Billy helped Mom install it on my phone when I wasn’t looking. Great in the sack or not, I might have to kill him.
    The cymbals crashed again. “Answer your phone!”
    Was it my imagination, or did the recording sound more insistent that time?
    Thomas and Laura must have told her the news. I pried my eyelids open and looked at the clock beside my bed. They’d made incredibly good time. Maybe if I didn’t answer she’d give up and call Auntie Mo to lord it over her instead.
    Auntie Mo was Billy’s mom. Well, stepmom. (Not that it makes a bit of difference, except to cement the whole cousin issue with Billy as Absolutely Not Perverted.)
    Crash! “Answer your phone!”
    I sighed. Nothing could douse the sleepy afterglow like a conversation with my mother. Billy had left me practically radioactive when he’d had to skedaddle back to his job; the glow was finally calming down enough for me to relax into the land of Nod. Frankly, after the two workouts I’d had—professional with Mark, recreational with Billy, both