Reese smiled; she missed her little man. She hadn’t seen him in a while. That was her fault. She was working and having lots of sex with Phillip. Since giving up either of those things wasn’t going to happen any time soon, she needed to make the time to go over to see him and Ally. She promised to do that as Piper said, “So we are finally settled in our new house!”

“Yay,” Reese said with as much excitement as she could muster.

“Yeah, we are pretty excited! I was calling because I wanted to invite you over for a big dinner after Chicago. Hopefully, we can celebrate a winning competition and our house.”

Reese smiled. “Count me in.”

“Awesome, I’m gonna invite everyone. Mom, Dad, Harper, Jakob, Ally, Elli, Shea and their clan, and then Claire and Phillip.”

She didn’t miss Phillip’s name, but there was no way in hell she was going to comment on his going. On one hand, it scared the piss out of her. She didn’t want him in the same room with her and her family, but then, on the other hand, it excited her. She wanted him there but then that freaked her out, so she ignored it.

“Sounds good. Party time.”

Piper was quiet for a moment. “So you’re good with Claire and Phillip?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay good, because I figured since Claire is basically family, since she is always with Harper and we all love her to pieces, and then with how you and Phillip are getting along, it just fit.”

She was fishing, and Reese would not take the damn bait. “Sounds good to me.”

“So you’re cool with Phillip being there? No big deal, y’all are still dating?”

Reese rolled her eyes. “Bye Piper.”

“No! Don’t hang up!”

“What?”

“You know what! Are y’all dating? We all saw you at the airfield. We weren’t sure, but then I saw you kiss him and I knew this was it! Mom is really excited because we knew the day would come when someone else would get close enough. Maybe it will work, and y’all can get married and be happy like—”

Hanging up the phone, Reese threw it down on the bed, rolling her eyes. She knew it was coming, she had told Phillip so, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t annoyed. This was her family, she expected it, but the thing that bothered her most was that she wasn’t just annoyed with Piper—she was annoyed with the fact that she didn’t really care what they all thought. She was good with it. She was good with what she had with Phillip. He made her happy, they had fun, and there was no way she was messing that up. She liked things the way they were and so did he, so yeah, they’d go to dinner and nothing would change. They weren’t together; they were friends.

That was all.

When her phone went off again, she reached for it, about to hang up because she knew it was Piper, but it wasn’t, it was Phillip.

“Speak of the devil.”

He laughed. “Oh no, should I be worried you were just talking about me?”

“Well, if you and Claire being invited to dinner with my whole family at Piper’s housewarming party makes you worried, then worry on, my friend,” she said, rolling onto her back and cringing.

“That doesn’t make me worried at all. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“They’ll have a preacher and a wedding set up?”

He laughed at that, and she smiled at his low chuckle. Even with her dying uterus, he still made her tingle all over.

“You’re crazy. Hey, is there a key down here I can use?”

She paused. “Huh?”

“I’m downstairs. Since you aren’t feeling good, is there a key I can use to get upstairs?”

Shocked, she muttered, “Yeah, under the stone star by the stairs.”

“Okay, see you in a bit.”

She couldn’t believe he was here. He was supposed to be in Colorado, but that wasn’t what was making her panic. She looked like a crazy dead raccoon! He was going to be scared away! She wanted to jump up and try to look decent, but there was no way.

Oh well, hopefully he’d still want to have sex with her after her uterus calmed down.

When her door opened, she looked over at it and was surprised at what she saw. Of course, he looked freaking fantastic in a blue, button-up shirt with a bright red bow tie and khaki pants. His hair was brushed to the side and his eyes were extra bright from his shirt, but he also had his arms full of things. Kicking the door closed, he came towards her, a smile pulling at his lips before he reached the bed and leaned down to kiss her lips softly.

She smiled as they parted, so glad to see him, and said, “What the heck? I thought you weren’t gonna be home for another couple of weeks?”

He smiled as he laid the bags on her bed. “Claire had a parent-teacher conference I had to go to.”

“Oh, cool, everything okay?”

“Yeah, great, she’s on the A-honor roll.”

Reese smiled. “That’s great.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty proud of her. I think I might buy her a car when we get back from Chicago.”

“She’ll love that.”

He laughed. “Yeah, and I’ll probably get a head full of grey hair. Hope you like that type of thing.”

She giggled as she flashed him a grin. “It’s hot.” He scoffed and Reese reached out, cupping his face. “She won’t disappoint you. She loves you.”

He smiled as he shrugged his shoulders. She could tell he still didn’t believe that, but she did. She knew it was true and hoped that one day he would too.