My mouth dropped open.

Eddie looked at me, his eyes moved down to my belly then back up to my face. Then he turned to Lee.

“That didn’t take long,” he said.

“I’m not pregnant,” I said, (perhaps wishful thinking).

Tex came up with the coffees and handed them around.

“All right, boys, get to work,” he said.

Eddie walked to the couch and sat down, putting one cowboy-booted ankle on the other knee, spreading an arm along the back of the couch and taking a sip of cappuccino. He was looking at me and grinning in a sexy way.

Great.

Lee snagged my neck and pulled me to him.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he said.

I nodded even though I didn’t believe him.

He kissed me and walked out.

Ally waved at Lee, who was getting on his bike as she walked in, and announced, “You have to miss a period, but I bought a couple pregnancy tests anyway, just in case.” And she waved around the boxes.

I looked at Eddie.

Eddie smiled.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Long-Lasting Reliability

I filled Ally in on the Cherry explosion and the reason for my new bodyguard.

Ally said, “There are a lot of things I imagined happening to her after she tried to trap Lee, that wasn’t one of them.”

Then, she put some Black Crowes in the CD player and turned up the volume.

Ally wasn’t one to reflect, she preferred rock ‘n’ roll.

More customers came in and luckily, we were busy enough to keep our minds off the latest disaster.

I was sitting behind the book counter, finishing an emergency order for coffee because if we continued at this rate, we’d run out by the end of the week, when my cell rang.

It was Dad.

“Hey Daddy-o,” I said.

“Hey, sweetie pie.”

His voice was soft and mushy. My Dad wasn’t a soft and mushy type of guy.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Kitty Sue called. If it’s a boy, you gotta name him after your Grandpa Herbert. I promised him if your mother and I had a boy, we’d do it and we never got ‘round to it so it’s up to you.”

I was sitting frozen to the spot, like a statue.

“Indy?”

I stayed silent.

“Okay, you can use Herbert as a middle name.”

“I’m not pregnant!” I shouted and everyone looked at me.

“Then why’d Kitty Sue call me asking me to your baby shower? Though, I’m not into this co-ed baby shower shit. I’ll send a gift.”

“I’m not pregnant!” I repeated.

“You’re not?”

Man, this was embarrassing.

“I’ll call you later.”

I flipped the phone shut and glared at Ally. “You called Kitty Sue.”

“No I didn’t,” she replied.

Duke was edging to the door.

“Duke!” I yelled.

“Gotta go see a man about a…” he started.

“Stop right there! Did you call Kitty Sue?”

He turned to me. “Nope.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Did you say anything to Dolores?”

He scratched under his bandanna. “I might have mentioned it.”

I flopped my head down on my crossed arms on the book counter.

My life was shit.

I looked up and in the general direction of where one of Lee’s hidden cameras had to be and talked direct to Command Headquarters.

“Lee! Your mother is planning a baby shower. Call her!”

I grabbed my purse, threw my phone in it, stormed around the counter and pointed at Eddie. “You! Macho man! Come with me,” and out the door I went.

I was flipping and flopping down the block, double time. Eddie caught up to me and grabbed a handful of my belt and the waistband of my jeans, forcing me to a stop.

“Hang on there, chica.”

He threw his arm tight around my neck and my front was pinned against his side. I started up again, walking like a crab for a few paces then his arm loosened and I could walk normally. Even so, I walked normally with his arm wrapped around my neck, his hand dangling down and my shoulder and part of my body tucked into him.

He had his mirrored shades on but I could tell he was scanning. I realized he was being watchful and the way we were walking made him the easier target. This made me feel warm in my belly. He also smelled good which helped that warmth to spread.

By the time we got to Walgreen’s and went inside I was in a little Eddie Daze.

See what I mean? Eddie didn’t need to sweet talk you or toss you a line, Eddie was just… Eddie. That in itself was potent stuff.

He dropped his arm and took off his shades when we went inside the drugstore and I shook off the daze.

I roamed the aisles, trying to remain focused on my task and thus ignore the cosmetics and candy aisles.

Then I found what I wanted and I came to a halt.

I turned to Eddie. “Okay, I’ve never done this. This is the guy’s department. What do I do? We need to get Lee’s size and we need industrial strength. Show me which ones to buy.”

Eddie looked at the display and looked at me. “You’re askin’ me to help you buy condoms for Lee?”

“Industrial strength condoms,” I reminded him.

Eddie stared at me like he was re-thinking his crush on me.

“Okay,” I said, trying to be helpful, “we’ll break it down. We’ll start with the size.”

He shook his head. “First, I’m a little worried you’re lookin’ to me to tell you Lee’s size. Lee es mi hermano, but we aren’t that close. Second, they don’t come in sizes.”

I couldn’t believe it, that couldn’t be true.

“You mean it’s one size fits all?” I asked.

He didn’t bother to answer.

“That’s impossible,” I said, and it was. It wasn’t like I’d seen millions of them but I knew they weren’t all one size.

He remained silent but his eyes got kinda scary.

Yikes.

“All righty then, let’s go on to the next category, strength, durability, that kind of thing.”

Eddie walked away.

My cell rang, I grabbed it and saw it was Lee.

“Where are you? The guys said you freaked out about a baby shower and took off with Eddie behind you,” Lee said by way of greeting.

“Your mother is planning a baby shower.”

“Where are you?”

“You have to call her.” I told him.

“Where are you?”

“Lee!”

“I’ll call her, where the f**k are you?”