Honey Red by Liz Crowe Page B

kitchen, getting dinner together, burgers and a couple of salads he’d made earlier using the labels she’d had printed in Braille.
    He felt strong today but was getting nervous in anticipation of Ian’s presence. He reached out and snagged Alyssa’s arm as she walked by. She gasped when he pressed his ear to her belly. The maddening noise seemed to emanate from her and it was making him nuts. The whoosh-whoosh-whoosh filled his ear, like a drum beat…no, like a heartbeat.
    “Alyssa,” he gripped her hands. “I think you’re pregnant.”
    “What?” She jumped back and he sensed her heart start pounding. He put his hands over his ears. Christ in a sidecar—he could hear people’s hearts beating?
    “Could you… I mean, do you…shit, it’s not my business.” He could not help but smile when he sensed her collapse into a chair and burst into tears next to him.
    “I…I don’t know. How can you tell?”
    “I hear something that has got to be a heartbeat. It’s pretty loud if you must know. You should go do a test or something.”
    “Oh, God. I can’t be. I mean, it’s not…fuck.” She sighed, letting her sobs reduce to hiccups. He pulled her close, kissed her hair.
    “It’s okay. You guys should get married anyway. You’re great together.”
    “Um, maybe.” She leaned into him. “It’s so complicated. He said he had a vasectomy. And I’m just getting his kids to trust me.”
    “Yeah, well, I could be wrong. So go, get one of those home tests, I’ll hold down the fort if they get here early. Besides, you guys bought the giant ranch, right? Why not start filling it up with spawn?”
    She rose and left, trailing that crazy heartbeat noise with her. He smiled, patted the dog, got up and found a glass, drank some water.
    Ian. He was going to be within kissing distance of him again, any minute. The headache was taking up residence in his skull once more.
    The doorbell rang, and Nick got to his feet from his nervous perch on the couch. The dog was at his side already starting to whine with anxiety matching the level of horny that ran up Nick’s spine the second Ian stepped into the living room. “Hey,” he said, “C’mon in.”
    “Where’s Alyssa,” Gavin said walking past Nick into the kitchen. “Babe?”
    “She’s out at the drugstore.”
    “What? Why?” The worry was clear in the man’s voice. Nick sensed Ian blow out a breath. The door flew open at that moment surprising them all.
    “God damn it, Donovan,” Alyssa burst out. Nick tensed.
    “Uh, what did I do?”
    Ian pulled Nick down on the couch, put a hand on his leg. The combination of lust, worry and a strange sense of rightness surged through him. He could sit here forever, Ian near enough to kiss. He put his hand on the other man’s. “I told you,” he said, directing his comment at his sister, sensing her keen distress. He heard Gavin move towards her, sensed him take her in his arms.
    “What is it, baby?”
    “You—did you ever go back and get rechecked, you know, after your vasectomy?”
    Ian let out a snort of laughter. Nick smiled. Then in an entirely natural move, put Ian’s hand to his lips, sucking in huge breaths of everything that represented him, but the other man jerked out of his grip and stood. Nick sighed and sat back. His own fault, really. He shouldn’t be disappointed. He’d pushed him away, and Ian was not a guy you had to tell anything twice.
    “I, uh, can’t remember.” Gavin was saying.
    Alyssa’s voice was muffled as if she were covering her mouth. “Well, congratulations. You knocked me up. Jesus.”
    Ian laughed. “Well done brother. I can’t imagine a more beautiful woman to knock up than this one.”
     
     
     Ian kept moving towards the door. He had to get the hell out of here. Nick looked his usual devastating amazing self—even longer hair hanging around his face in gold waves. His dark blue jeans and bright white button down enveloped his amazing physique with an exquisite