“No, but it’s better safe than sorry.”
Johanna, all beautiful with brown hair and doe eyes, pushes past my brother. Her flushed cheeks expand as she deeply breathes in and out, her lips pursing at me. “Men should be like seahorses. They can get pregnant and give birth. I read they’re amazing fathers while the moms are dead-beat sea animals.”
I shake my head at her. “You need to relax. You’re getting all red and shit.”
Johanna hasn’t changed in the ten years I’ve known her, always one to get flustered during tense situations. She was the type who ripped me a new asshole for turning in our lab report at the end of class rather than at the beginning. While other high-school girls chased my dick for an all-access pass, Johanna ran after me to complete my homework and study for tests. Unlike others, she didn’t let me slide by because of my Formula driving. I have her to thank for graduating from school in the first place.
She shakes a finger at me, her brown eyes shining. “You can tell me to relax when you have to shove a baby the size of a watermelon out of your body.”
My brother looks at me with a face of horror. I could live a happy life without that visual ever again because I happen to like watermelon.
“Don’t give me that face. This is all your fault.” She stares at Lukas while pointing at her belly with two index fingers.
“I didn’t hear you complaining during the act.” He smiles at her.
She waves him off. “I forgot the repercussions of our actions.”
I offer Lukas a telling grin. “You are the one who got her pregnant three months after having your first kid. Territorial much?”
“I love how she glows from pregnancy.” Lukas tugs Johanna into him before planting a kiss on her head. He inherited his preference for gross displays of affection from our parents, the king and queen of too much groping.
“I hope you like the post-pregnancy paleness because the only glow you’ll get is from the fridge at 2 a.m. when you feed Kaia,” Johanna mumbles into his chest.
I, for one, can’t wait to meet Kaia, Johanna’s watermelon and the future addition to our crazy family.
“Doesn’t she have a way with words?” Lukas’s arms tighten around Johanna before letting her go.
I fake-gag. “You both make me nauseous.”
“When you get married, you’ll understand. Until then, I can shower you with appreciation for picking me as your lab partner. Turns out the hottest guy in bio had a brother to match.” Johanna winks at Lukas.
“Leave it to Lukas to stake a claim before I could try.”
“You never had a chance. One look at me and she was a goner. We only had to wait until she was no longer jailbait,” my brother says over his shoulder as he runs upstairs.
Johanna sends me a wobbly smile. “Sorry you got friend-zoned hard all those years ago. Who could resist the team captain of the hockey team?”
“I was hoping that you, the President of the United Nations Club, could, but now you’re pregnant with my brother’s spawn. I thought you’d want me for my wit rather than Lukas for his brawn.”
“Seeing as I’m a neurosurgeon resident…” Lukas cautiously comes down the stairs, a sleeping Elyse in one arm and a weekend bag in the other.
“I really dislike how you two gang up on me now. It used to be the other way around before Jo turned eighteen.” I cross my arms against my chest.
“Don’t be that way. Look at you, a big bad Formula 1 racer who recently won his first World Championship. You traded books for brawn after all.” Johanna pulls me in for a hug. Her bulging stomach makes it difficult, but she wraps herself around me, hitting me with her rose scent.
“I never traded the books,” I scoff. “The only thing that’s changed is how girls don’t meet me at the library anymore.”
“I really hope you settle down sometime soon. You don’t want those types of grid girls long-term because they prefer you for your name rather than your heart. Plus I can’t be your one friend of the female variety. You’re kind of needy.” She sticks her tongue out at me before she waddles toward the front door.
“What? Since when? This is the first time I’m hearing about this.”
“Since always, man. Just a few months ago, you drunkenly texted Johanna at 3 a.m. asking her to sing you a lullaby so you could fall asleep. Not that I’m complaining because your calls wake us both up.” He shoots her a smirk I can live without seeing ever again.