“Sorry we’re late,” Lucas chirped. “Liam had trouble deciding whether to wear his black T-shirt or his black T-shirt.”
I turned and craned my neck in time to catch Liam smack Lucas’s chest.
“Where’s blondie?” Lucas asked, scanning the crowd by the pool tables. Why he thought Sarah would be playing pool instead of sitting with us was beyond me.
“She couldn’t make it.”
I caught Amanda mouthing blondie and Matt whispering Sarah Matz’s name.
“So it’s just the five of us?” Lucas asked.
“Seems like it,” Liam said.
Lucas eyed the bar as though he were contemplating heading over there, but Liam must’ve spoken into Lucas’s mind, because he cringed and dropped into a free chair. Unfortunately, not the one next to me. Liam took that one. And then he draped his arm over the top of my chair.
I leaned forward so that my shoulders didn’t touch his arm.
Kelly came back with my drink and beers for the boys. She apparently knew them so well she’d preempted their order.
I bet she also knew what August drank.
After we’d ordered food, Liam said, “Heard Matt made you run twelve miles this morning.”
“Twelve? Felt closer to forty.”
Liam chuckled.
Even though the music was getting progressively louder, making conversation was surprisingly easy. This could’ve been due to the number of beers we’d put away. Kelly seemed way nicer toward the end of the meal. Especially when she delivered three extra orders of fries.
I probably overindulged, because my stomach was as hard as a pool ball. I caught Liam looking at the hand I held against my abdomen, before twisting around and scowling.
I turned.
It wasn’t the hedonistic meal that was causing the stomach cramps.
Sitting at the bar with Cole was August.
And taking his order was Kelly, who suddenly didn’t look especially pleasant anymore.
“Hey, Cole’s here!” Amanda bellowed loudly. She waved to get his attention.
I spun my almost empty beer bottle between my index and middle fingers, contemplating ordering another drink.
If they came over to the table, I’d definitely need another.
They didn’t come over, but a couple minutes later, two girls showed up: Tamara and Sienna. Lucas grabbed some chairs from a neighboring table and scooted them around ours. Where Sienna smiled at me, Tamara didn’t even glance my way.
I caught Lucas sniffing the air. Even though Tracy’s was riddled with smells that ranged from bacon grease and tangy barbecue sauce, to perspiration and pungent perfumes, I felt like Lucas, who was a tracker, would detect the baby growing in Tamara’s womb. When his black eyebrows jotted up and his gaze narrowed on Tamara’s midsection, I took it he’d figured it out. He cast a glance in Liam’s direction, but our Alpha was busy laughing at something Sienna was saying. I stared at Lucas steadily until his gaze met mine. Blinking, he shot to his feet and came around the table.
“We’ll be right back,” Lucas said as I got up.
We walked toward the pool tables where the noise level had grown almost deafening.
“What the fuck?” Lucas snapped.
“You’re going to have to give me some more to go on, because I’m not sure how to answer that question. Was it even a question?”
He growled a little. “You knew?”
“I . . . inadvertently found out.”
He scraped his hand through his chin-length black hair. “Fuck.”
“We shouldn’t be making a scene, Lucas.”
“Not making a scene? She’s fucking pregnant!” he whisper-hissed.
“Keep your voice down. Besides, maybe it’s not his baby.”
“Tamara hasn’t been with anyone else.”
I didn’t ask how he knew that.
Concern, anger, and disbelief contorted all of his features. I wasn’t sure what warranted the anger. “He’s going to be furious.”
He was speaking as though it was all Tamara’s fault.
“It takes two people to make a baby, Lucas.”
“No shit.” Then in a low voice, he grumbled, “The last thing he needs or wants right now is to be a daddy.”
I folded my arms in front of the leather tank top I’d dug out of Sarah’s bag. It was pretty bad-ass and also pretty tight. “He should’ve thought about that before forgoing using a condom.”
“He would never have forgotten to suit up. And why the fuck are we discussing Liam and condoms?” Lucas’s jaw twitched. “He’s about to fucking duel an Alpha . . . Trust me, he doesn’t want to discuss diaper rashes and formula.”
“Well, it’s not like he has a choice.” I glanced over Lucas’s shoulder at our table. Thankfully, everyone was chatting again, even though the banter felt stilted.
Lucas grumbled something unintelligible, then looked over his shoulder at Liam. “I’m surprised he hasn’t picked up on it yet.”
Of course, the instant he said that, Liam’s shoulders tensed. Had he heard our discussion or the stirring of life in Tamara’s womb? He rocketed up so fast his chair skidded and toppled over. After setting it back on its legs, he looked toward us, froze, but then shook himself out of his stupor. Tamara’s face paled as he leaned over and whispered something in her ear. Even though I stood at a distance from them, the tremors going through her body as she rose didn’t elude me.
I chewed on my pinky’s nail, worried he was angry, but from what I could see of his face, it wasn’t anger . . . more like shock. He placed his hand on her elbow and steered her through the rowdy bar and then out onto the street.
Lucas started going after them, but I clapped his forearm. “Let them be.”
“But-” He looked at me, then at the glass door, then back at me.
“They need to talk. Let them talk.”