Janie (The Casanova Club #15) - Ali Parker Page 0,2

herself. It was a picture of me and her the day we moved into our apartment—the apartment I still lived in—surrounded by moving boxes and mismatched furniture we’d acquired at thrift stores or on sidewalks with cardboard signs on them declaring “Free Stuff.”

She and I had come a long way. For starters, we were just kids in that picture, hardly old enough to live on our own at nineteen years old and fresh out of high school, and I was still very much in my dark and sultry stage where I thought the only eye shadow worth wearing was a smoky eye and concealer-covered lips with gloss was a good look on my fair skin.

Yikes.

I answered the call and lifted the phone to my ear. “Hey there, baby mama. I was just thinking about you.”

“Oh, were you now?” Piper’s voice was as enthusiastic and cheerful as ever. Since she’d moved in with Wyatt, I’d yet to talk to her when she was having a bad day. “What were you thinking about?”

“Moving into the apartment together and how neither of us had a clue of what we were doing with our hair and makeup. Or our lives, for that matter.” I chuckled and leaned back in my chair. “And look at us now. A mother to be.”

“And a boss bitch in her own private office at the Casanova Club,” Piper mused. “Who’d have thought we’d both get exactly what we wanted before we even turned twenty-five?”

I sighed. Yeah. Who’d have thought?

“How’ve you been?” I asked before the silence became the kind of thing Piper would take note of and start to worry about me. “What’s new? How’re you feeling? Still suffering with any morning sickness?”

“I’ve been doing better,” Piper said. The first few weeks of her pregnancy had been rough on her. Wyatt doted on her hand and foot, of course, and she got out of a lot of chores on the ranch, but it turned out she didn’t like that very much. She wanted to be out in the fields or the barn with her man and their two goofy ranch hands, Boone and Dodge. “No more throwing up, no more headaches, and no more aversion to the smell of cooking meat. Praise the lords.”

“And how’s that handsome cowboy husband of yours?”

Piper giggled. “Wyatt has been letting things slip on the ranch a little bit because he’s spending so much time baby-proofing the whole place.”

“Poor bastard. He knows babies can’t do anything besides shit, sleep, and cry, right?”

“He’ll figure that out soon enough. He just wants to be as prepared as possible.”

I could understand that. “And how did your doctor’s appointment go yesterday?”

“I got a clean bill of health. Baby and I are doing great. We heard the heartbeat and everything.” She lowered her voice like she was afraid someone might overhear her. “Wyatt even teared up a little bit.”

I smiled.

What must it feel like to be with the person you were going to spend the rest of your life with while you held their hand and heard the telltale sound of your child’s heartbeat together?

Magical, I thought.

“He’s going to be a wonderful father,” I said.

“I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

I chuckled. “You didn’t get lucky, Pipes. You busted your ass and went through hell and high water to get where you are now. Don’t ever forget that. Wyatt, too. You fought for each other.”

Piper sighed dreamily into the line. “We did, didn’t we?”

“Yes, and not everyone can say the same thing, so don’t diminish what you guys went through by chalking it up to luck. Your baby is going to be so lucky to have parents like you guys. So lucky.”

“Thank you, Janie.” Piper was quiet for a minute. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too. So much it hurts.”

“Same. When are you coming to see me?”

“Soon,” I told her. “I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to step away from work again but as soon as I do, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Good,” Piper gushed, “because I can’t bring myself to go shopping for anything for the baby without you. I haven’t bought so much as a pair of socks.”

I smiled. Even though I was more than disenchanted by my job and my life at the moment, at least I had a healthy bank account and would be able to pitch in and spoil the little baby brewing in my best friend’s belly when I flew to Austin. “I can’t wait to go shopping with