20. River
CHAPTER 20
River
A group of us were invited over for a gender reveal for Sam and Ash’s baby. It’s crazy to think in a few months, there will be a little one running around amongst the friends.
Clay is covering a shift at the station today, so I told him I’d let him know the big news once it’s revealed. Kennedy and I also had to devise a plan, seeing as we are going behind everyone’s back and having to play off our usual banter. I had to swear my entire firehouse to secrecy in case they run into Ashton or Sam and decide to open their big fucking mouths.
As much as we are keeping what we’re doing under wraps, the guys at the station don’t usually mingle with our outside friends. It’s hard to keep things from my firehouse family because we pretty much live together when on shift. Not much gets past them when it comes to day-to-day life.
The moment I enter Ashton and Samara’s house, I know something’s up. I walk in and when I spot Samara, she looks to be scheming while Ash is hiding behind his wife, not making eye contact with me. We haven’t even made it past the foyer, and I already know I should have mentally prepared before showing up here today. I was naive to think this would simply be a big gender reveal when, in fact, I’ll be subject to one of Samara’s little plans.
“Finally, you’re here, River,” Sam says as she pulls me into a big hug. “I’m so excited.” She wastes no time pulling my hand through her house and into their little backyard.
The moment I see the tall brunette look my way, I know exactly what Sam is up to. I get confirmation when Ashton stands by my side and whispers, “I tried to stop her.” Then he scurries to the side of the deck. Fucking coward.
“Willa, look who showed up!” Samara’s acting like my attendance was optional.
The woman Sam is introducing me to would usually pique my interest if it weren’t for a green-eyed blonde who has recently taken hold of my thoughts.
Willa has bright blue eyes and long, wavy brown hair, with a figure I’d usually drool over. But the only thing I am really doing is looking at her and mentally comparing her to Kennedy, which is a red flag in more ways than one. Too bad Kennedy and I discussed how we’d approach dating while at this party, and we both agreed it would just lead to more questions if we said we were dating someone . Knowing Sam, she would sniff it out of one of us before the night was over.
I’m holding the potato salad I was instructed to bring to Samara and extend my hand out. The woman smiles brightly. “It seems Samara finally got us in the same room. It’s nice to meet you, River.”
I try to plaster the kindest smile I can and return the greeting. “I’m glad one of us is in the know. Sam here is great with surprises.”
Sam snorts and it’s a bigger reaction than I expect from her. I look over at my best friend’s wife while she composes herself, who bats her eyes like she’s some sort of matchmaker for the stars.
“I can already see the sparks flying.” She claps her hands together and rushes off before I can protest.
“So, this is probably awkward,” Willa says, although she keeps looking at me like I’m her next meal. Willa is quite bold because immediately following her long perusal of my body, she rubs her hand up my forearm and bicep, squeezing my muscles in appreciation. Kennedy is not going to like this.
As if my thoughts conjured her up, I hear a squeal behind me. I already know it’s Kennedy because she makes the same sound when I catch her off guard and carry her to the bedroom. I look over to find the best friends embracing, then see Kennedy’s eyes find mine once she’s pulling apart from Samara. I see when her gaze jumps to the hand grazing my bicep and watch her face turn to stone. She covers it up quickly by reaching to touch Samara’s belly.
Sam must be filling Kennedy in because while I have my eye on her, that green-gold gaze shoots back up to mine as she sizes up the woman next to me. While I’m sure Kennedy is putting a spell on either me or Willa, Ashton, clueless to the facial assault Kennedy is subjecting me to, hands me a beer and starts making conversation, probably realizing the awkwardness of setting me up at his baby’s gender reveal.
I finally pull my gaze away from the woman I was just inside two hours ago and try to engage myself in the conversation happening around me.
Turns out Willa is studying to be a lawyer, which is hard to find any similarity to as most of my experience with lawyers comes in the form of ambulance chasers.
“So, where are you going to law school?” I ask, hoping to keep the conversation casual, keeping my distance without making Willa too uncomfortable with the fact that I am not interested in that way. At least she’s taken back her hand, not before doing one more squeeze of my muscles and telling me how fit I am. I internally roll my eyes at her attempted advances.
She’s about to answer when she looks over my shoulder, and her expression changes from intrigue to confusion.
“Hey, I wanted to come by and introduce myself. I’m Kennedy, Sam’s best friend.” She plasters a smile across her face, and it doesn’t take a genius to see she’s being completely fake.
“Oh, hi, I’m Willa. I met Sam at the supermarket a few months back, and we’ve become fast friends,” Willa answers, having no idea Kennedy is going to eat her alive.
“Isn’t that sweet.” Her gaze swinging my way is anything but sweet.
Ash must sense the tension and steps away, brows reaching his hairline. I wish I could join him.
“Yeah, Willa was just telling me about law school.” I take a nervous sip of my beer, hoping this nightmare ends soon.
“How cute is this? Don’t you two make the cutest pair,” Kennedy seethes through her teeth. She’s fucking pissed, and I sort of like it. Jealous Kennedy might be my new favorite. Maybe we can fuck the jealousy out of her later.
My smile grows, and I decide to piss her off a little more, probably because I have a death wish, and I reach my beer over to Willa’s glass and clink in cheers.
Kennedy watches my movements, and then something snaps in her.
“It was nice meeting you, Willa. River, always a pain in my ass.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and turns toward the rest of the guests. Then, in a not-so-subtle attempt to make me overhear, she yells over to Sam, “Didn’t you say Brad was coming to this thing tonight?”
A tight smile takes over my features as I feel my blood boil. My plan backfired, and I’m not sure I’ll last without being a dick to Brad. I already know who the guy is. He’s some bigwig exec from Samara’s building who she’s tried to set Kennedy up with for the longest time. For so long, I couldn’t care less, but now, it’s making my eye twitch.
Willa, probably sensing something’s off, pulls my attention back to her. “So I hear you’re a firefighter. How do you like that?”
“I love it,” I say, taking a long swig of my beer and letting my eyes roam the backyard, searching for Brad in the crowd.
The moment my eyes connect with Douchebag Brad’s blond hair, I see Kennedy embrace him. I swear I see him close his eyes and move his face inward to get a smell of Kennedy. She’s mine, fucknut. It’s taking every muscle in my body to stay put.
“How long have you been a firefighter?” I can tell Willa is really trying to get my focus to return to her, but I honestly don’t think I can look away. I pushed Kennedy with my little charade, even if it was minimal, and if I know her at all, she’s going to milk this for as long as she can.
Sure enough, the moment she pulls away from Brad, a huge smile that I thought she only reserved for me is being given to that dick noodle. Then she swings her gaze my way and winks. Fucking winks. I’ll make her pay for that later.
“I’m sorry, Willa. Do you mind if we take this conversation over to that area over there to sit?” I point to an area closer to where Kennedy is standing.
“There’s a couch right here—” she starts, but I’m already grabbing her hand and moving us further into the backyard. At one point, I move my hand to the small of her back, and when Kennedy sees that, I swear she’s going to throw her wine glass at me.
Two can play this game, sweetheart.
“What were you asking me earlier?” I bring my focus over to Willa again, not quite feeling awful that I’m using this situation to make the girl I’m fucking jealous.
“Oh, I asked how long you’ve been a firefighter for?”
I’m interrupted before I can answer.
“Hasn’t it been about six years, Riv?” Kennedy pipes in, bringing herself closer to my conversation with Willa, yet pulling Brad by the hand for him to follow.
“Yep, that’s right. Weird that you remember. Obsessed much?” I take a sip of my beer, narrowing my gaze at her. What’s her angle?
“Yeah, I remember because the day you graduated from the academy, you had that questionable rash you kept telling us about. You know, in your nether regions.” For added effect, she moves her hand around her bottom half as if her words weren’t descriptive enough.
Of course, the moment she says that, Brad and Willa nearly projectile spit their drinks out. Fucking Kennedy.
Before I can even throw something back, Willa must feel the discomfort between Kennedy and me and decides now would be a good time to excuse herself. “I think I’m going to top off this drink.” And she scurries off to the kitchen.
I see Sam in the distance make a face and follow her, and I know this will bite me in the ass later. Oh well, worth it if I can hopefully get Brad to beat it and leave me be with Kennedy.
He seems to sense the tension and excuses himself too; however, he seems to make a promise that he’ll chat with Kennedy later. Over my dead fucking body, pal.
A satisfied smile takes over Kennedy’s face, and as much as I want to give her shit, I can’t help but laugh at what just happened.
“Way to keep it real, Skip,” I say as I take a seat, then tap the spot next to me, hoping she’ll risk sitting near me.
She’s reluctant at first, then decides the hell with it and makes her way over. She keeps a distance, and I’m fighting the desire to pull her on my lap and claim her as mine. Fuck Brad, Willa, and the rest of our audience.
We both open our mouths to say something when a seething Samara comes stomping over. “You fuckers. You couldn’t be nice to one another for one party, my party.”
Right then, Ashton yells, “Our party,” as Sam ignores his protest.
“And for once,” she continues, “you couldn’t just let yourselves explore something with people I think would work for you two? Why are you two like this? It’s so childish!”
Right then, to drive the point home, Kennedy and I point to each other, Kennedy saying, “He did it,” while I exclaim, “She started it!”
“Ugh! Don’t talk to me for the next twenty minutes,” she demands, and Ashton gives me a look like I should have done better for his sake.
“She’s still pretty testy. I guess it wasn’t a first-trimester thing,” I say when I feel an ice cube hit my arm. “What the hell, Sam!”
“Don’t fuck with me, River!” she whisper-yells at me, and I can’t help the laugh that escapes.
Ashton once again throws me a look like, What the fuck? , and I just shrug my shoulders.
Once the two of them are off to the other end of the backyard and no one is too close to hear my conversation, I turn to Kennedy.
“I hope you know you’re getting spanked later after you let that guy put his hands on you.” I point the bottleneck of my beer in her direction.
“Oh, look who’s talking. She was groping your arm when I got here. Then you grab her hand and move her along the backyard. Who got handsy first, Riv?” Kennedy has this way of sounding calm, but she has this uncanny ability to shut you up quite quickly. She’s not wrong; I one hundred percent pushed to see her react.
The afternoon turns into evening, and the anticipation is now full throttle to find out this baby’s gender. We’ve played guessing games, recorded a video for the baby with a message, and we even wear pins with a color to depict our prediction.
I went with girl, and Kennedy went with boy. We both just want a healthy baby like everyone else at this party; however, deep down, I’m a little scared if Sam doesn’t get her girl. She’s been pointing to her belly and calling the baby a girl from the moment she told us, so I’m a little worried her anger issues will only grow if she doesn’t get her way.
They bring a large balloon out and hold it above their heads. They’re about to pop it when her work colleague walks out with an identical balloon.
What the hell is happening?
I look over to Kennedy, and she has tears coming down her face. She moves closer to me and whispers in my ear, “They’re twins!”
“Surprise everyone! We’re not just having one baby, but we’re having two!” Samara announces, and her smile is goddam infectious.
Everyone screams with excitement, and I can see a little fear come over my friend Ashton. Obviously, he knew there were two prior to the party today, but I can’t imagine it’s an easy pill to swallow.
My mom always said as fun as it was to have two little kids growing up together, the amount of mischief we put my mother through was pretty crazy. Now that I’m older and can reflect on our behavior, I’m surprised she didn’t have more gray hair at an earlier age.
Once we’ve settled our hoots and hollering, we begin the countdown. They’re each going to pop a balloon. It feels like everyone has a phone out, but I just want to soak up this moment, this feeling, when everything is going to change for our friends.
“Three… two… one…” POP!
Everyone is going wild, and I reach my hand out and squeeze Kennedy’s hand while everyone is distracted. She’s fully crying now, and as much as I’m soaking up this big moment for my friends, my eyes keep looking over at her, enthralled by the love she holds for these amazing friends of ours.