When You’re Ready (Ready #1)(47)
Author: J.L. Berg

Taking one quick stride, I was immediately in his arms, completely engulfed in Logan.

“Thank you,” he said fiercely.

“Dude, it’s just us. No need to flipping cry or anything,” Colin joked over my shoulder.

“Flipping?” Logan grinned, turning around to arch his brow in question at his friend’s choice of word.

“Ah, yeah. Ella won’t let me swear in front of the belly anymore,” he confessed, placing emphasis on the word belly as if it were a name or a thing.

“She swears the little monster in there can hear us, and she doesn’t want our baby to have a sailor mouth like me. But that hasn’t stopped her from screaming like a banshee when we’re going at it like – ow!”

I covered my mouth, trying to hold back a laugh as Ella’s elbow found its way into Colin’s ribs.

“What the hell, I mean heck did you do that for?” he asked as if telling a crowd about his wife’s bedroom behavior is totally normal.

“You are impossible,” she huffed, folding her arms over her swollen belly. I could see a trace of a smile sneak its way up before she broke out giggling. Colin was a hard guy to stay mad at. He was just so damn cute. The few times Logan and I had gone out with them, I constantly wondered how the hell Ella put up with him. He was high maintenance, had an ego the size of Texas, and the body to back it up. Being a highly successful lawyer didn’t help. He never backed down from a fight. They complemented each other and obviously made it work.

My brother chose this moment to arrive and we all stood around and introduced everyone. When the women started cooing over Ella’s belly, the men disappeared to go do “guy stuff”. My guess was they were going to play around with the grill for a while, nurse some beers and then eventually throw around a football and talk sports.

“So Ella, how much longer do you have?” Leah asked, her nursing instincts kicking in.

“Two months. Two miserable, long months. Next time he tries to knock me up, make sure I do the math first. Being pregnant in the summer sucks.” Watching her sit in the hot summer heat, I could commiserate. Ella was tiny, barely topping off at five foot two inches, she looked like a dwarf standing next to Colin’s six and a half foot frame. But she was tiny, complaining that she had to shop in the kids department sometimes to find clothing that fit her. Right now, she looked like she was going to topple over. She had a giant belly and two little legs to hold herself upright and we all wondered how she was going to make it to the end without falling over.

“Maddie was born August 11th, so I know exactly how you feel,” I said.

Our baby conversation went on from there. We talked about everything from showers to diapers to breast pumps.

Leah, completely out of her element, excused herself and joined Maddie again who had now moved on to hula hoops. She kept swiveling her hips, but the stubborn hoop fell to the ground every time. Leah picked one up, trying to help, and of course mastered it in one try.

Since her night with Declan James, Leah was different. She said it wasn’t a big deal, but I think she’s still trying to convince herself of that. I tried bringing it up on occasion, but she always managed to change the subject or remind me that it was a one night stand, no big deal. But I think Declan was a much bigger deal than she was willing to admit.

“I wanted to thank you, Clare,” Ella said, bringing my attention away from Leah and Maddie and back to her.

“Why?”

“You’ve gave us back Logan,” she said.

Confused, I asked, “What do you mean?”

“I haven’t known him as long as Colin. They have a friendship that goes way back, and I know Colin has said that even though they’re best friends, there has always been an unreachable part of Logan. But Colin accepted that. He took what Logan was willing to give, and gave back what Logan had always wanted. A family of sorts.”

I could see how much this woman loved Logan, and how many years she and Colin had spent worrying over him. After the childhood he had, he needed people who loved him and I was grateful Ella and Colin had stuck by him.

She fiddled with the hem of her skirt, before continuing. “But after the divorce, we lost all of him. He became cold, emotionless. When he called and said he was moving here to be closer to us, we were ecstatic. We thought we’d be able to snap him out of whatever funk he was in and get him back on track. But he just got worse. He’d stop by less and less, and our calls would go unanswered. He check in every once in a while, but we knew he’d given up on everything.”

Pausing, she said, “But you,” she continued. “You brought him back to us.”

Ella’s words drifted around in my head hours after as we pulled into my driveway. Maddie had fallen asleep in the backseat on the short ride home and Logan helped lift her out as I noticed a familiar car across the street.

“Leah’s here?”

“Yep,” Logan said.

“Do you know why she’s here?” I inquired.

“Sure do,” he answered with a sly grin as we entered the house.

Leah was sitting on the couch, remote in hand, watching some gossip talk shop when we entered. Declan’s face flashed across the screen as he entered a Hollywood club with a beautiful blonde. Leah quickly turned off the TV, clearly not wanting to be caught spying on Declan.

“Hey, I’m gonna put princess to bed. You want to fill her in?” he said to Leah.

She nodded, a sly grin replacing the shock I had seen seconds early. What the hell is going on? Since when do Leah and Logan make plans behind my back?

I turned and kissed Maddie, who was still asleep in Logan’s arms. He gently carried her upstairs to her room.

“Okay, what is going on? Does this have anything to do with what Logan and my Dad were whispering about today?” I asked, still dying to know what my father and Logan were chumming it up about.

“Uh, no. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Right now my job is to take you upstairs and make you look and I quote, “fucking hot” so your boyfriend can take you dancing,” she answered, guiding me up the stairs to my bedroom.

“We’re going dancing?” I asked, my voice full of glee. I hadn’t been dancing since college.

“Yep, lover boy is fan-fucking-tastic. Let’s get you ready!” She walked over to my closet, and pulled out a dress I’d never seen. It was black, and from the looks of it, tight.

“Where did that come from?” I asked, running my hands down the designer fabric.