Need You Now (Martha's Way Series Book 2) (15 page)

“You’ve never heard of those little
things called condoms?” Jason added.

“Has she seen a doctor?” Forrest, the
forever practical one, asked.

Adam’s head pou
nded
from the questions thrown at him. He shrugged and answered in one breath. “I
don’t know. We are casual and she’s on the pill, so I don’t know what
happened.”

“I’m guessing the usual age-old thing.”
Jason grinned. “You know, boy and girl got naked, rol
led
around, and stopped thinking.”

He shot his friend a long, hard look.
Unfazed, Jason leaned
back and continued to drink his beer as if he
were at a parade.

“You’re the one who was having sex with
Minka without any protection. Do I need to bring up Chapp
aquiddick?”

“Hey
.
”
Jason
wav
ed
his hands defensively but
still looking relaxed in his chair, “
T
hat
was only a few times. She
went on the pill for a while.”

“A while?”
Adam asked.

“We want to start a family but seems
like you’re a few steps ahead of us.”
Jason tilted
his beer to Adam and took a swig.

“And us,” Blake chided.

“And you should know antibiotics lessen
the effectiveness of birth control,” Forrest said, shaking his head.

Adam
frowned.
“Speak English.”

“Last time you went to visit her, you
told us
she was sick as a dog and on antibiotics. I’m
sure that didn’t stop you from…”

“I got it,” Adam growled, cutting his
friend off. But shit, how did he not know about how antibiotics and birth
control worked before?
Because he’
d
always used condoms in the p
ast, that’s how.
But with Lily, they had
thrown that extra caution to the shit. They relied on her being on the pill. He
was screwed.

“So what are you guys going to do?”
Blake asked

“I told her we’re getting married.”

His friends sat a little straighter. A
ll three placed their bottles on the table. A dull pain hit
Adam in the back of his head. He rubbed the still stinging spot and turned to
Blake. “What was that for?”

“For being an idiot,” Blake snorted.
“First of all, you told her to marry you.”

The others
nodded in agreement.
Fuckers.

“Second, you don’t ask a woman to marry
you because she’s pregnant.”

What. Why not? “She’s pregnant with my
child.”

Jason leaned his elbows on the table.
His sharp blue eyes ne
ver wavered from Adam’s face. “
You do realize we
are living in the twenty-first century, right?
The
me
man, you woman
approach no longer works.”

Adam took a swig of his beer, ignoring
Jason.

“You’re missing Blake’s point, dude,”
Jason continued. “What was her reaction when you
told
her to marry you? Did she jump into
your arms with joy?”

Adam groaned and shook his head. “No.
She cried and locked herself in the bedroom.” He stared blankly at his barely
touched beer.

“You’re still not getting it.” Jason
shook his head in dismay, which
drew an amused smile
from Forrest and Blake.

“Love,” Forrest said after a heavy sigh.
“You know, Blake and Keely, Jason and Minka kind of love.”

“You and Claire too.”
Adam added just to be an
asshole. On days like today when he was obviously the butt of t
he joke, he didn’t mind going for a below-the-belt shot.

Forrest sat back on his chair. His grey
eyes dark. “Claire and I are not together.”

There was
always a high level of tension between the two, which Adam found exhausting.
He would have pointed out
to
his friend mental love still counted, but chose to
let it go for now. “Are you even getting laid?” he asked instead.

Forrest laughed. “Are you offering?”

Adam flipped him the bird.

“Have you seen all those women who are
always sick?” Blake put his hands u
p for the in air
quotation, “sick.”

A pretty brunette approached the table
and made small talk with Forrest. She reminded him of her appointment then
sashayed her tight butt away to the bar, confirming Blake’s observation.

“Back to you,” Jason said, once t
he brunette was out of view. “You’re an idiot for telling
Lily to marry you.”

“Fuck you,” Adam responded
automatically. He rubbed his brows, the tension slowly leaving his body.

“No thanks, man. I’m getting ready to
marry Minka. Oh, yeah…” He smirked.
“We’re getting
married because we love each other, not because of a child.”

“While I’m happy you found happiness, I
don’t believe in that love shit.”

“What did you do for her birthday?”
Forrest asked.

Adam searched
his brain. Oh, yeah.
“Flew to New
Jersey.
Bought
her flowers.”
Spent the weekend naked in her apartment.

Blake nodded but didn’t look that
impressed. “Did you take her out to dinner or spend the whole weekend screwing
her brains out?”

“Jesus, Blake!” Truth be told, he had
done exactly that. Surel
y, he had taken her out to
dinner at least once, although at
the moment
he couldn’t remember one
occasion where just the two of them had been to a restaurant. Whenever they
went out they were always surrounded by the three Stooges
along with
Keely and
Minka.

How the hell had he never taken Lily out
to a restaurant before? He’d done so with women he liked much less. Adam took
another swig of his beer.

Blake shrugged. “What do you know about
her?”

Let’s see, he knew she had long, toned,
beautiful legs tha
t he loved best wrapped around his
waist, whether standing up or lying down. He loved her legs. And her lips
around him, he loved that too.

“Besides all the wonderful things she
can do to your body,” Blake added.

He searched the faces of his friends.
They
were looking for answers with substance. Adam
drew a blank. He couldn’t think of anything. He groaned.

“She needs a cup of coffee every
morning,” he said, picturing Lily without her cup of caffeine in the morning.

“She has three brothers,” Blake added.

Ada
m’s eyes
widened.
Three.
He knew she had brothers
but he never took the time to ask how many.

“You didn’t know that, did you?” Forrest
drawled, sounding almost disgusted.

Adam was starting to regret reaching out
to them. He could do without the interrogati
on today.
“I knew she had brothers. I imagined two.”

Blake grinned.
“Three big bad-asses.
I think one is a
photographer, one is a Navy SEAL and the other is a big-shot engineer.”

“How the fuck
do you know so much about her?” Adam growled. He didn’t like th
e tone of Blake’s voice.

“She’s Minka’s
best friend,” Blake answered, like
duh
. “You don’t
even know what college she went to, do you?” He paused, waiting for Adam to
answer.

Shit. Adam
regretted calling them.

“She went to
Yale with Minka. That’s where we
met.” Blake shook
his head in obvious disgust.

“And her brothers are coming to the
wedding,” Jason announced. His voice filled with pleasure.

Adam swore under his breath. “A
photographer isn’t a badass in my eyes, and that engineer one, I bet you I can
t
ake both of them.” The third one, whoever he was,
had Adam’s utmost respect. The military required a certain breed, a certain
level of toughness.

“You’ve been together for a year now,
how did you celebrate your anniversary?” Blake continued to probe.

Anni
versary
.
That word was for
couples.

Jason smirked. “Fuck buddies celebrate
anniversaries too, at least they want to. They just don’t say it.”

“Like you did with Rita,” Adam mumbled,
reminding his friend of the incident between him and Rita before Minka
came into his life.

“Touché.
See, that’s how I learned
my lesson. Even fuck buddies have expectations.”

“We don’t celebrate anniversaries,” Adam
grunted. “We don’t celebrate anything. We fuck.”

“And now you’re having a child with
her.” Forrest
added,
his voice low and
controlled. “I suggest you get her to like you, maybe even love you a little
,
if you really want her to
consider marriage.”

What was happening? The man who couldn’t
get the woman he had a thing for to look his way was giving advice on re
lationships.

“From what I know of Lily, she’s her own
person and stubborn,” Forrest continued.

“Like most women,” Jason added for good
measure, and Blake nodded in agreement. Adam shared their pain.

“But,” Forrest paused, choosing his
words carefully, “she
has to feel something for you
to continue this no strings attached but exclusive bullshit. No woman can go
that long without getting somewhat emotionally invested.”

Adam heard those words before from his
mother. If he didn’t know how alpha Forrest was, he
would have insisted he turned in his Man Card. The other two dumbasses nodded
their heads as if Forrest’s words were gospel. Okay, so maybe his friend had a
point.

“You just have to make her want to admit
it. And perhaps you should try to look beyond her
ability
to fuck your brains out on a daily basis. You know, try liking her back.” This
came from Jason, the man who spent most of his life thinking with his dick
first.

“I do like her.”

The admission didn’t surprise Adam. It
was true, he did like Lily.
 
Ot
herwise, sex or not he would not have hung around this
long. But he’d never admitted it before. He never even considered whether he
liked her as a person.

“Then show her.” The three men said
collectively, as if they’d spent their whole lives waiting for th
is moment.

“I fucking got it,” he growled, though
now he was a whole lot less pissed off.

Jason was the first to push his chair
back and rise to his feet. “Good, because Blake and I have
work
to do and Forrest has sick fake
patients to see. Good luck
,
bro.
That’s
some deep shit you’re in but fun for me to watch.” He patted Adam’s shoulder
then started toward the door.

Blake and Forrest did the same, leaving
Adam sitting by himself at Vapor. He reached for his phone and scrolled to
Lily’s number. She was qui
ck to answer.