Irresistible Bachelors: Books 1-5 Landish, Lauren (top 10 most read books in the world txt) 📖

“Too bad we have a very strict no fake fur, no fake bitches allowed policy.”

I laugh, pulling my wife in for another hug. “Yep. But her husband’s being transferred somewhere for work. I’d hate to be that poor schmuck, but it’s not my problem. I’m only worried about two things—my queen and our new castle.”

“Castle, huh?” Mindy purrs. “I like the sound of that, my king.”

It’s good to be the king.

Extended Epilogue

Mindy

I wipe away a little bit of extra base ingredient from my forehead with my hand towel. It’s just one of the hundred little ways that Oliver’s supported me. Looking around our home kitchen, I can’t help but smirk.

We could film a cooking show in our kitchen, to put it lightly. A commercial-grade stove dominates the granite-topped central island of the kitchen, and arrayed around the outside is an exact copy of every machine in Mindy’s Corner. We’ve got a blender, a juicer, a cappuccino machine, all of it. The only thing we don’t have is the brick pizza oven, but we’re working on it outside. Oliver likes to call it my mad scientist corner, and I’ll admit to forcing him to drink a few concoctions that will never make it to any menu in my coffee shop.

“You finally get it the way you want it?” Oliver asks, sighing.

“Well, that new place is opening a half mile away,” I explain again. “The new frappe is my idea to not lose business.”

“Okay, I get that. But I mean, frappes are frappes, right?” Oliver asks, suddenly looking nervous when I glare at him. “What?”

“Oliver Steele, we’ve been married over a year now. You’d think that you’d have learned a little bit by now,” I tease him, hitting the switch on the BlendTec. “Now, try this. Whether you get the clear, blue, or pink, it’ll taste the same.”

I pour some into a glass for Oliver and pass it to him. He sips, and I watch his oaken jaw and sensuous lips work as he sips and swirls the drink around, letting all the flavors roll over him. Finally, he swallows, nodding. “It’s good. A little nutty?”

“That’s the almond milk. We’re getting a lot of vegan customers.”

Oliver sips again, then nods. “I like it. It’s refreshing.” Oliver comes and wraps his arms around me from behind, kissing the back of my neck right where it makes me shiver and rubbing my belly. “So you really want to do the reveal this way?”

“Yep,” I say, moaning lightly as his hand brushes the underside of my sensitive breast. It’s one of the nice things about being pregnant again. “Why do you think I’ve been working so hard? I thought it’d be so cute.”

The door to the kitchen opens, and Tony comes in. Oliver steps back, surprised. “Tony? What are you doing here?”

“Helping out, why else?” Tony says as I hand him an envelope out of the pocket of my apron. Oliver seems surprised that I’m trusting Tony with this, but I’m not worried. “So you want me to open this somewhere else?”

“Yes, I want us to find out with everyone else. Now, don’t mix things up! You screw things up, Tony, and I’m sticking your head right into this frappe machine!” I threaten.

“Relax, I got this,” Tony says, wincing a little as he thinks about what I said. “But I could use some advice from you two in exchange for doing this. If you don’t mind.”

“What?” I ask.

“I met two girls,” Tony says, and I can’t help but laugh.

“Not girl, but girls?” I reply, shaking my head. “You’re never going to change.”

“Yeah, well. Mina and Tina—they’re identical twins. Bad news is, I can’t tell them apart. Good news is, they don’t care. They both want me.

The sound of Oliver face-palming cracks through the room, and even I have to shake my head. “Please tell me you’re fucking with us” Oliver says. “You must really want your head in this machine.”

Tony grins. “Hey, someone’s got to keep you on your toes. Listen, I got this. Relax.”

Oliver and I both give him a ‘don’t fuck this up’ look, then laugh.

* * *

“So, how’d you do this again?” Roxy asks as she holds the tube of clear fluid. It’s clear, but it’s dye. Only Tony knows the color.

“Science,” I reply, making sure that everyone has a vial and a frappe. “For people like you, Roxy, that means hard work.”

Roxy rolls her eyes. “Could have saved yourself a lot of work and just done a cake reveal party instead.”

“Well, this is going to be my new drink to compete with the new shop opening down the road. Two birds, one stone!”

I look over at Oliver, whose hands are shaking so hard he’s about to spill his drink. I can understand. This is going to be a surprise for me, too. Brianna notices and whispers, “Don’t tell me you don’t know either, Oliver?”

“No,” Oliver says, and I grin. “She insisted neither of us should. Mindy said that if I peeked at the damn results, she was going to beat my ass. Tony’s the only one who knows if we’re having a boy or a girl. I hope he gave out the right dye or he might not live to see tomorrow. If I start seeing a color other than blue or pink, I’m going to need a new brother.”

Roxy laughs, making a whipping sound. “Woo, you’ve got him tamed well, Min!” She sits back, taking the vial and her frappe, looking at them. “So when do we get to find out?”

“Okay, okay, I can’t wait either! Go ahead, everyone.”

Everyone upends their vial into their glass and stirs until like magic, the whitish frappe and clear fluid suddenly bloom into a pink flower that swirls through the frappe. “Oh, my goodness, it’s a girl!” Mom yells above everyone.

I take Oliver’s hand. I’m on the verge of tears. After Trent, I was secretly hoping for a baby girl to spoil and treat