I hadn’t taken his advice.

In the end, I didn’t need to. Merry and I finally got there, and looking back, even though Benny’s advice was solid and he’d given that advice to me a couple of years ago, years some might consider were wasted, I believed in my heart it had to happen this way.

Merry needed that time to travel his path how he needed to travel it.

I was just crazy-lucky it led to me.

But I knew, walking in the bar that night, that Benny knew I’d scored Merry.

And he had a dick, so no doubt he was going to give me shit about it.

“Do not say a fuckin’ word,” I warned the instant I got close to the gang.

His handsome, white smile got huge as his hand came up to his broad chest. “Me?”

“Just shut it,” I ordered.

“Cher!” Frankie cried, just having seen me.

She popped off her stool and rushed to me.

I stopped glaring at her husband and smiled at her, moving her way.

Frankie was one of those bitches who had the ultimate power—she could look all class showing skin, and for her, the tighter the dress, the higher the heel, the better.

She obviously didn’t change when she was pregnant. Great figure, big, beautiful belly, all encased in a long-sleeved, skintight dress that showed cleavage and had a skirt that hit her three inches up from her knees. And on her feet, six-inch platform stilettos.

She looked amazing.

We hugged.

“Cher hugging. Already, gettin’ laid regular is makin’ her a girl,” Colt remarked.

I let Frankie go and turned on Colt.

“I hug bitches I haven’t seen in months. Get over it.” I gave both Benny and Frankie a look. “And you guys have shit timing. Ethan’s birthday party isn’t until next weekend.”

“We know,” Frankie said. “We brought him a present. But I’ve still got that work thing I told you about happening next weekend, so we had to come down and celebrate Vi and Cal’s news this weekend. And anyway, we had to come to cut the crazy since Vinnie and Theresa are here too. The good news with that is that they’re lookin’ after the kids. A night out with my man, reconnecting with our posse in the ’burg, there is no bad news.”

Vinnie and Theresa were Benny’s parents. The whole family was Italian (or, in Frankie’s case, her being a mutt, only the dominant parts of her were Italian), so they could find a reason to celebrate the sun rising.

Even so, Vi was my girl and I had no idea what news they were celebrating.

But I could guess.

I looked her way and guessed.

“Are you knocked up again?”

Vi smiled and shrugged.

I did not give her shit for not telling me. I understood she was giving me time with Merry.

And anyway, this wasn’t big news. The bitch was always pregnant.

I looked to Cal. “Jesus. How many do you need?”