“I mean, theoretically, sure. She’s just the first person I’ve ever known to actually have one. It’s wild—a few hours ago, that baby was inside her. All this time, that little baby has been right there.” He shook his head at the screen.

“That’s usually how it works.” I held out my hand for my phone, amused.

He sighed and passed it back. “Someday, that’s gonna be us. Someday, Tess is going to have a baby—my baby, if I play my cards right.”

“And that doesn’t scare you?”

“No, it really doesn’t. Because it’s Tess. Things that should scare me just don’t anymore.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t explain it. But I figure if I have her with me, I can do just about anything.”

My smile tilted as I leaned against the table across from him, folding my arms. “Never thought you’d commit, Lucas.”

“Everybody’s got to grow up sometime. Isn’t that what they say?”

“That’s what Mom says. I dunno about anybody else.”

“How about you?” he asked. “Things going good with Lila?”

“They are. So good. Probably too good.”

His brow quirked. “What’s that mean?”

“We came clean last night and it went well. It went so well, in fact, that I woke up this morning terrified something will go wrong.”

“How doomsday of you.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve seen my track record,” I joked.

But he didn’t laugh. “Come on. You don’t actually believe she’s anything like the rest of them.”

I didn’t—in fact, I knew she was nothing like the women I’d dated. But I couldn’t explain to my brother that when I’d woken up with her in my arms, my unbound joy was immediately dashed at the thought of losing her.

That fear rose swiftly and without warning, and I’d struggled to contain it ever since.

“I know she’s not,” I answered, defaulting to levity. “But you’ve gotta admit, things like this happen to you, not me. I’m not the one who gets the girl and rides off into the sunset. I’m the one who has the girl for a minute before she rides off with a guy like you. Or in this case, a guy like Brock Fucking Bancroft.”

“Fuck that guy,” Luke shot. “And if she doesn’t want a guy like you, then fuck her too.”

My brows drew together. “Watch it.”

“I’m just saying. If she’s going to be a snob, she doesn’t deserve you.”

“I wouldn’t know a Gucci bag if it hit me in the face. She lives a life full of things I can’t even wrap my tiny little brain around.”

“A life she affords just fine on her own. She’s not looking for a meal ticket, Kash.”