To Professor, With Love (22 page)
"Man may have discovered fire, but women discovered how to play with it." -Candace Bushnell
~NOEL~
Well, fuck. It was never a dull night at Forbidden, but usually the action happened
during
hours, not after.
After Lowe’s cougar friend dropped her little bomb, Mason stared at her as if frozen for a good five seconds before he turned away and disappeared down the hall without saying a word.
The woman moved to follow him, but I growled, “Don’t even think about it.”
“Dude.” Ten appeared at Aspen’s side. “Doesn’t he have a girlfriend he moved all the way from Florida to be with?”
I sent my roommate a shut-it scowl and turned back to Mason’s...problem, who wouldn’t stop glaring at me. “Well, you heard the man,” I told her. “He said to say your piece and get out, so...time to go, lady.”
I had tried being polite with her, but that hadn’t worked. So I didn’t mind being direct. Hell, I was eager to get downright rude to this...person. She left a nasty aftertaste in my mouth for some reason. Maybe it was because she looked at me as everyone from my hometown had always looked at me. Like I was trash.
“Did you not hear what I just told him? We need to discuss this...together.”
I chuckled. “Honey, if he’d wanted to discuss anything with you, he would have. But he didn’t. So go.”
When she didn’t budge, I stared her hard in the eye and called out to Ham, “Yo, Quinn. Escort this
fine
lady to the door, would you?” The virgin needed a nasty task for his first night on the job.
Lowe’s problem was too busy killing me with her glare to notice the way Ham jumped and widened his eyes as if he wanted to piss his pants rather than go anywhere near her. But he calmed himself just in time to scare the shit out of the bitch. She spun around when he approached and yelped out a sound as the six-foot-six, two-hundred-forty-five-pound tight end made eye contact with her. She didn’t need to know he was as harmless as a kitten. His size was as intimidating as his gravelly voice when he said, “This way.”
She hopped into gear without complaint and was out of the club in moments.
After the door closed and silence descended in the bar, I glanced toward Aspen. She lifted her face, and we shared a look as if to say—
“Well, shit,” Ten exploded. “Guess Lowe isn’t as devoted to that girlfriend of his as he pretended to be.”
I sighed and shook my head. “I wouldn’t go making assumptions about something we know nothing about.”
“Was it just me, or did that woman creep anyone else out?” Quinn asked, appearing on the other side of Aspen at the bar. Shivering, he rubbed his arms and glanced back toward the front door as if to make sure all the evil was gone.
“I thought she was kind of hot,” Ten said and wiggled his brows. “Don’t blame Lowe for bumping uglies with a cougar like that. I’d certainly bang her.”
At the word cougar, I explicitly remembered Lowe saying he didn’t like cougars. At all. Eyebrows furrowing, I frowned, utterly confused about what had just happened.
“Well, he’s puking his guts out,” Pick announced, strolling out of the back hall. I guess he’d gone back to check on Lowe. “Impending fatherhood must not suit him.”
Aspen let out a breath and opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, but then she closed her lips and remained silent. I sliced her a glance. “What?”
With a small shake of her head, she sent me a tight smile. “Nothing.”
I knew it wasn’t nothing and studied her a second longer, but a ringing by the cash register interrupted the quiet room.
“Is that Lowe’s phone?” Ten asked.
The five of us in the bar shared a glance. I think we all knew the ringing of his cell phone couldn’t be good news. Since no one else was budging, I stepped forward and glanced at the lit screen as it continued to chime. The picture of a girl with long, silky brown hair and a nose ring peered up at me with a cute, carefree smile. The name under her picture read Reese.
“It’s Reese,” I said, wondering if—
“That’s his girlfriend’s name,” Pick answered, confirming my suspicions.
Shit.
“Should we answer it for him?” Quinn was the first to ask.
I spread my arms. “And say what? Sorry, but your man can’t come to the phone right now; he just found out he’s going to be a daddy...to another woman.”
Ham winced and shut his mouth. I glanced at Aspen. She lifted her brows as if telling me she’d support any decision I made. But I didn’t answer the phone, and it finally fell silent. The room exhaled a collective breath of relief.
Until the phone started ringing again.
“I have a feeling she’s going to keep calling,” Pick said. “She must know something’s up.”
Damn it. I glanced toward Aspen again. Her steady green gaze gave me the boost I needed to pick up the phone. I pushed
Accept
, still wondering what to say to Lowe’s woman, when Ten shouted, “Shit! Are you really going to tell her some old chick just came in, claiming Lowe knocked her up?”
“
Say what
?” a girl’s voice screeched from the other end of the line.
Double shit. Panicking, I punched the
End Call
button and glared at my roommate.
“You moron,” Pick exploded, slapping Ten on the back of the head. “He’d already answered the phone; she probably heard everything you said.”
“Oh...fuck.” Ten hunkered his shoulders and sent me an apologetic cringe. “My bad.”
“You mean,
Lowe’s
bad,” I muttered. “Damn it.” I shouldn’t have tried to answer the phone.
When it rang again, I jumped, set it back where I’d found it, then lifted my hands and backed away slowly. Lowe was going to kill me for this.
Mason didn’t return to the bar until after the phone had stopped again. No one had seemingly moved, so when he exited the back hall, rubbing his face, we all turned to stare. He was busy wiping the back of his hand across his mouth and didn’t immediately notice all the attention until he glanced up. When he caught us gawking, however, he jerked to a stop and dropped his arm.
His face was still pale and his skin looked damp as if he’d sweated out a bucket of anxiety. “What?” he croaked, his eyes darting fearfully to each of us. “Jesus, she’s not gone, is she?”
“Um,” I started and tossed him an apologetic grimace. “No,
she’s
gone, but...uh, we might’ve just...accidentally told your girlfriend what happened.” When he merely blinked, I cleared my throat. “Your phone rang...and then it rang again. I was only going to let her know you were away for a minute, but...yeah...sorry, man.”
Lowe dashed around the counter to swipe up his phone. After fumbling in his haste to dial, he pressed it to his ear. “Reese?”
“Let me guess,” a muffled female voice spoke from the entrance of the club. “Mrs. Garrison just showed up to announce you’d put a baby in her.”
I lifted my face to see the picture of the girl off Lowe’s phone step inside Forbidden, followed by a blonde, who was also very pregnant.
Damn, how many women had Lowe put a baby in?
Dropping his phone to his side, Lowe let out a lengthy sigh. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
After a quick glance between the two, I decided Lowe wasn’t going to get beaten to a bloody pulp for his transgressions. He looked like shit with his apologetic puppy dog eyes and his expression a mask of shame and regret. But other than the tensing of her jaw, his girl didn’t look like she wanted to kill him.
I glanced at Aspen, wondering what she’d do if we found ourselves in the same predicament. Though we kind of already had, hadn’t we, when she’d assumed Caroline had been one of my party girls. And no...no, she hadn’t been very forgiving. Lowe’s Reese looked pissed, but she remained rational.
“I had a feeling we hadn’t gotten rid of her so easily.” Reese stormed forward, her pregnant friend trailing behind her. Stopping next to Quinn, she set her hands on the countertop and let out a world-weary sigh. “I say, if a stake through the heart doesn’t work, we try cutting her head off.”
While everyone else gaped at her as if she’d lost it, Lowe actually laughed. He approached and took her hands in his so he could lift them to his mouth and kiss them reverently. Falling serious, he said, “I am so...so sorry.”
Tears glistened in her eyes, but she tried to shrug it off. “Hey, if there isn’t some insurmountable obstacle in our path, we wouldn’t be us, would we?”
Lowe shook his head and kept her hands by his mouth. “You shouldn’t have to deal with this.” He drew in a deep, shaky breath. “You shouldn’t—”
“I think she was lying,” the pregnant blonde spoke up, breaking him off. After tossing her hair over her shoulder, she slid onto the stool next to Reese and reached for bowl of beer nuts, but Pick snagged them away before she could reach them.
When she sliced him a dirty look, he merely winked. “Let me get you a fresh batch, Tinker Bell. Who knows what kind of filthy fingers have been in these all night.”
Her mouth fell open as she watched him jump over the bar and toss the old bowl, only to pull up the box and sprinkle out a new pile, just for her. Then he slid it toward her with an indulgent smile.
“I’m inclined to agree with her,” Aspen spoke up, startling me.
I turned, curious about her input. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I think she was lying, too.”
“Exactly,” the pregnant blonde cried, lifting her hand in a thank-you gesture to Aspen. Her mouth was muffled by nuts as she added, “I mean, hello, she’d have to be nearly as far along as I am, right? Everyone I needed to tell about my baby was told
months
ago. Why would she wait this long to drop the bomb
now
?”
Reese zipped her gaze to Lowe, her eyes sparkling with hope. “Eva has a good point. And what about her fiancé? How does she know it’s not
his
?”
Lowe pulled his bottom lip in between his teeth, looking thoughtful. “Maybe it took her a while to find me.”
“Yeah, right.” Reese snorted. “You know, good and well, that bitch has known every step you’ve made since leaving Waterford. She found out everything there was to know about me within a month. There’s no way she lost track of
you
.”
“So wait, wait, wait.” Ten waved his hands. “Lowe, you seriously fucked another woman, maybe even knocked her up, and you...” He set his gaze on Reese, “aren’t pissed as hell right now?”
“Oh, I’m pissed,” Reese was adamant to claim. “But not at Mason. Besides, this particular...event happened before we hooked up.” Then she cleared her throat and lowered her face before mumbling, “Technically.”
Lowe winced and reached out to run his hand over her hair before leaning over the bar to kiss her temple. “I can’t believe this is happening. You are the only person I’ve ever wanted to have babies with. Jesus, Reese...” He squeezed his eyes closed and pressed his brow to hers. “Can’t we just rewind everything so I can go back do it right the first time?”
I glanced at Aspen because, hell, seeing Reese and Mason’s connection simply drew me to her, wanting a taste of the same bond they shared.
She glanced at me as if she felt the same pull. Her eyes glittered with tears. Then she turned back to the grieving couple. “I’ve had a lot of experience with people like this...Mrs. Garrison, is it?”
Reese turned toward Aspen, wiping her wet cheeks. “That’s right.”
“Right,” Aspen murmured on a soft note. “And I’ve come to learn they give away certain
tells
when they’re lying. Each person’s may be different, but they always do something to denote the lie. And from her behavior, I don’t even believe she was pregnant, much less honest about the child’s paternity.”
Lowe blew out a relieved breath. “Really?”
She shook her head.
“But her fucking belly was out to here.” Ten held out his hand and pretended to waddle. Next to him, Ham nodded, thinking the cougar had looked pregnant too.
“It wasn’t shaped quite right, though,” Aspen insisted. She pointed at the blonde. “Her stomach looks almost perfectly round, while the other woman’s was more...oblong.”
Propping his elbows on the bar, Pick leaned over the counter to check out the blonde’s belly. “You do have the most adorable baby bump I’ve ever seen.”
“And the other woman’s breasts didn’t look nearly as swollen as hers,” Aspen went on.
Pick snorted. “I’d say.”
The blonde shot him a glare. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”
He grinned at her. “Pick.”
She blinked. “Pick what? I’m not picking out your name.”
“No, that’s my name, Tinker Bell. Pick, short for Patrick Jason Ryan. You like?”
“Anyway.” Aspen lifted her voice to speak over Pick’s strange flirting with the preggo. “She didn’t have any of the water retention this girl has in her face.”
The preggo gasped, grasping her cheeks as she whirled to Reese. “I have water retention?”
“What?
No!
No, sweetie. Barely any at all.”
“So I
do
then?”
Gritting her teeth, Reese sent Aspen a scowl. I thought I was going to have to jump over the bar to defend her, but the front door opened again.
Mrs. Garrison had returned.
“Hamilton,” I growled. “Go lock the fucking door before someone else wanders in here, will you?”
If Jessie learned we had this many non-employees in the building after hours, she’d flip. But then, I guess she wouldn’t have to worry about it so much if she bothered to come in once in a while. She could deal with this scene instead of leaving it to us to handle.
“Anyone have a hatchet handy?” Reese growled, stepping away from the bar to face off with Mrs. Garrison. “Because I’m feeling the compelling need to hack a bitch.”
“Dude.” Ten bumped his elbow into Hamilton’s, looking jazzed as he bounced on the toes of his feet. “Chick fight. Awesome.”
Lowe hurtled the bar and was at his woman’s side in a microsecond. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he tugged her back against his chest as he glared at the newest arrival. “I told you not to come back. And I made it crystal clear before I even left Florida that I never wanted anything to do with you again. Why are you doing this?”
