Bled Dry (Vegas Vampires #3)(28)
Author: Erin McCarthy

He kissed her forehead. “Let me take you home.”

“No, you should stay. You’re learning a lot.”

“That is true.” He gave a rueful smile as she pleased him by dropping her head down onto his shoulder.

It was a comfortable feeling, her resting on him, and they sat in contentment. Silent, but together.

And after Alexis had picked Brittany up fifteen minutes later, Corbin strode back into the classroom. He had to do this. He had to show Brittany they could be normal parents, whatever normal might be defined as.

“Alright, men,” Sam was saying. “Down on the ground.”

The guys all glanced at each other, unsure what to do.

“I mean it! Down on your stomachs. Crawl. You need to get a perspective on what the world is like for a baby down there. Then we’ll talk safety and babyproofing.”

Determined to do this right, Corbin got down into an army crawl beside Travis, the floor hard and cold.

“It’s freezing down here,” Travis complained.

“Point number one. Always bring a blanket for the baby to lie on. The ground might be cold or hard or covered with nasty germs.”

Corbin glanced around as his fellow classmates all crawled around the room, trying to get into the exercise, but all looking distinctly uncomfortable, except for Dave, whose enthusiasm had him zipping around the entire room. Travis had flopped onto his back.

“Is it time for my bottle and a bath yet?” he asked Corbin, and they both started laughing.

If this was Brittany’s idea of normal, then Corbin was damn grateful they were probably never going to fit in.

“Why couldn’t he drive you home?” Alexis demanded, peeling out of the hospital parking lot at sixty miles an hour. Brittany thought sometimes Alex forgot how strong she was post–blood drinking. With little effort, she could probably push that gas pedal through the floor, literally.

“Can you stop with the lead foot? You’re going to get me killed. Not to mention the whole reason I wanted to leave was because I have a stomachache.”

“Sorry.” Alexis eased up on the gas. “But what a shithead, I swear, Brittany, the hell with him. You don’t need to be treated like this.”

Rubbing her stomach, Brittany tried not to notice that her sister smelled tinny. Like she’d just been hitting the blood buffet. Since her pregnancy, her own sense of smell had heightened, and this was a bit gross. A lot gross, actually. But it was still Alexis, her sister, and she was going to have to get used to it. She was surrounded by bloodsuckers. Regardless of whether or not she and Corbin ever got their act together as a couple, he was still the father of her child.

“Alex, calm down. Corbin is not a shithead. He was going to drive me home, but I told him to stay. The class was helpful for him, since he knows as much about babies as I know about raising alpacas—which is nothing, by the way. The instructor had his baby there and Corbin was playing with him. He likes kids, Alex, he just doesn’t have any experience, and so his confidence isn’t all that great. This class was good for him, and I wanted him to finish it.”

Alexis was grimacing, focused on the road, hands gripping the steering wheel of her huge black SUV. Brittany had often thought Alexis was compensating for her lack of height with her beast of a car.

“If I could change one thing in life, I would have you pregnant with a normal man’s baby. This just complicates everything.”

That stung. Brittany knew Alexis wasn’t being judgmental, she just wanted everything to be easy for her, but it still hurt, like a paper cut. Small and unintentional, but powerfully painful.

“I didn’t set out to complicate everyone’s life. And while I’m sure you, Ethan, and Corbin all wish we could go back in time and erase the fact that we had unprotected sex, we can’t. So get over it. This is reality, and I’m trying to learn how to deal with it, and I’d appreciate you helping me instead of complaining.” So there.

Alexis slammed on the brakes on the side street that led to Brittany’s apartment complex. “Brit, geez, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Flicking her blond hair out of her eyes, she shook her head vigorously. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded… I just want to make things easier for you, sweetie.”

“I know. But there is no easier. This is it.” Brittany patted Alexis’s knee. Her sister looked sick, her light blue eyes clouded with anguish. “And it’s not so bad, honestly, in terms of me and Corbin. I know you don’t like him, but we get along. He treats me really well.”

“It’s not that I don’t like him, I just don’t approve of his research. He’s dabbling in scary stuff. And he killed a woman.”

“That was greatly exaggerated.” Brittany found it interesting that when her sister raised doubts about Corbin, conversely Brittany’s own doubts evaporated. “And he says once the baby is born and we get married, he’s going to retire.”

“Get married?” Alexis’s look of terror warring with extreme disgust showed Brittany her sister’s take on her getting hitched to an undead outcast. “That’s… that’s… ”

“A possibility, not a given. We’ll see how it goes.” Brittany felt remarkably clearheaded. This conversation had been good for her. It had shown her how futile worrying was. What she needed to do was just live her life. Take charge and stop waiting for everyone else to act, while she would react. “I think there’s a car behind us. You should probably start driving again.”

Alexis made an incoherent sound, but she lifted her foot from the brake and started them rolling forward.

“Does Gwenna have e-mail? I was hoping I could ask her a few questions. Mother to mother.”

Pulling into a visitor’s spot, Alexis shook her head. “I doubt it. According to Ethan, she lives in some moldering old castle in York. No electricity. No cell phone tower. It’s like the land before time. Ethan sends her stuff snail mail, or if it’s important, global express. But the thing is, and do not repeat this to Ethan, but… ” Alexis bit her fingernail and gave her a shrug. “I think Gwenna’s a few cards short of a deck. Not the best person to be doling out advice.”

Brittany discounted that. Alexis was such a logical, tell-it-like-it-is person that anyone who was slightly left of center struck her as weird. She saw life as black and white. But Brittany figured everyone was weird to a certain extent, and a little oddness hanging around a person didn’t mean there wasn’t a little brilliance in the mix as well. She wanted the comfort of talking to another woman who had given birth to a child with unique genetics.