Complete We (A Her Billionaires Novella #4) Read Free

knocking over a stack of DVDs.
    Shit. Her (and Alex’s) apartment was about as childproofed as Jennifer Lawrence’s cell phone was secure from hackers.
    Which was to say: not .
    “Sorry,” Dylan muttered, bending down to pick up the DVDs. He grabbed a small stained-glass candle holder from a lower shelf and handed it to her. “Jillie will destroy this, so you might want to put it high.”
    “And secure your car keys,” Mike said pleasantly, sitting in one of her chairs, legs stretched out. He was just a tiny bit taller than Alex, and his legs nearly touched the TV cabinet. When Josie sat in that chair, her legs barely touched the ground.
    “Yeah,” Dylan said, laughing. “She threw mine down the vent again.”
    “No vents here,” she said, pointing to the silver-painted radiators. “Just those.”
    “Good thing it’s summer, then,” Laura added, walking in behind them, carrying a diaper bag the size of an Appalachian backpacker’s supply pack. “We wouldn’t want her to burn herself.”
    “Geez, I’d never thought of that!” Josie exclaimed, looking at her apartment through what felt like new eyes. Childproofing? Kids losing car keys? Tiny toddlers getting burned by parts of her everyday life that seemed perfectly benign?
    Parenting sure wasn’t for wimps.
    And Alex, she knew, wanted kids. Her heart started to spin in circles and she changed the subject. “Coffee, anyone?”
    Three “yeses” later and she found herself gratefully making brews for the group. Jillian was drinking from the tap when Josie returned with the coffee, Laura settled on the couch next to Dylan, shirt pulled up.
    “You’re still nursing?” she asked, regretting the words instantly.
    “You’re still breathing?” Dylan asked.
    “I wasn’t being judgmental. Just…you don’t see too many people nursing a thirteen-month-old. Not where I’m from, at least.” She frowned. “Then again, I never paid much attention. Maybe they did and I didn’t notice.”
    “You ever see thirteen-month-olds drinking from bottles and using pacifiers?” Mike asked evenly.
    “Yes.”
    “Same thing, right?” He had a point.
    “How about we switch topics and talk about Laura’s uncle. You said he came to the office?” Dylan’s voice was flat and chilling, making Josie’s heart return to that spinning sensation, like she had a wound top inside her chest that had been released. She’d read Laura’s texts after coming back from coffee with Janet and had texted right back, rushing home.
    To her surprise, Laura had wanted to meet here .
    She recounted the story with as much detail as possible, careful to convey every subtle gesture, every calculation Frank had seemed to make during their encounter. Laura was, by turns, upset, shocked, chagrined, dismissive, and worried, and it hurt Josie to think that she might have contributed to some sort of growing issue.
    “Why now?” she asked. The looks on all three faces told her it was a question they’d been pondering, too.
    “Money,” Laura said with a sigh. Jillian popped off Laura’s breast and shouted the word, making them all laugh.
    “Wan Bub Gup,” she said, pointing to the television.
    Josie gave Laura a perplexed look. “Bub Gup?”
    “The only television show she watches. We put on Bubble Guppies once a day.” Laura seemed guilty. Josie couldn’t fathom why. Television had been her babysitter as a kid.
    “I don’t know what that is. Is it on PBS?”
    Dylan named a different channel.
    “Oh,” Josie said apologetically. “Sorry. We don’t have cable.” When Alex had moved in, they’d gone over every single bill each had, an exercise in financial nudity that still left her feeling weirdly vulnerable. Sharing expenses but also revealing debt loads made her woozy. It was one thing to know he had enormous student loans from medical school, but quite another to admit how much she spent on coffee at little shops, or to show him her Victoria’s Secret credit card