“You guys should go ahead,” I say. “I’ll get some coffee into Star.” I seriously can’t believe I just said that. She wiggles her ass in my lap, and I wrap my arm around her waist to get her to be still.

“We should take her with us,” Peck says, looking really worried, but Sam cuts her off.

“Josh will sober her up and bring her to the hospital later, right, Josh?”

“Yep.” I am a fucking idiot. I look down and see boob. Oh, holy hell. Her top has come unbuttoned in the most delicious of places. I can see the edge of her pretty lace bra. It’s pink and so is her skin. And her nipple…

I swallow hard and adjust her shirt, buttoning it up to her throat, and I force my hands back down. Paul scowls at me as it’s going on but then he focuses all his attention on Peck and getting her into the car with Sam.

Star giggles. “Are you getting a boner?” she asks me.

Apparently, I am. I pick her up and move her over so that more of her leg is on me than ass. “Be still,” I tell her.

“You are, aren’t you? I was worried all your parts didn’t work, but apparently…” She waggles her eyebrows at me and I have to bite back a chuckle. Star is a whole lot more fun drunk than she is in normal life.

To tell the truth, I wasn’t aware that my dick could get hard either. Ever since my accident, nothing has worked the way it used to. But damn if my dick isn’t proving me wrong.

“Josh, are you sure you can take care of Star?” Peck asks me.

My heart expands to about twice its size because Peck is trusting me with one of the most precious things in her life. I know that.

“You can trust me. I’ll take care of her.” There was a time when no one could trust me to do anything. But I got this. I got this. If I say that a million more times, I might convince myself.

Paul stands on the sidewalk and stuffs his hands in his pockets. “I think you might have bitten off more than you can chew.”

Star is currently kissing her way up the side of my neck. It’s kind of sloppy and I can feel her tongue lapping at my skin like a kitten with a bowl of milk. I slide my hand between her tongue and my neck and leave it there long enough for her to sit back. But she doesn’t. She lays her head on my shoulder and snuggles into me.

“You smell good,” she whispers.

So does she. Like wine and warmth and woman. I can almost taste pink cotton candy on my tongue just sniffing her.

Her sisters rush out of the building and stop short when they see her curled into my lap. She has even drawn her knees over the side of my chair. “Oh, shit,” Lark says. She motions toward Star. “Come on, honey,” she says. “Let’s get you home.”

Star grabs my shirt with both fists, holding tightly. “No. I want to stay with him.” She looks up at me, and I swear her eyes cross. “What’s your name again?”

“Josh,” I grunt out.

She lays her head back on my shoulder and says, “I’m staying with Josh.”

“You can’t take her to the hospital like this,” Paul tells them.

Lark heaves a sigh. “What do we do?”

I take a deep breath. “You guys go ahead. I’ll bring her to the hospital later.”

Lark freezes. “Why?”

I shrug and Star’s head bobs on my shoulder like a dashboard bobblehead. “I told Sam and Peck I would.”

“We’re about to be aunts!” Fin screeches. She’s the smallest of the sisters, but she’s also the loudest.

“Go ahead,” Paul says. “Josh has this.”

My gut clenches. Someone is trusting me with something precious. Lots of someones. “I’ll take care of her,” I say again. “And I’ll bring her to the hospital in a couple of hours. Just call me if something happens before we get there.”

This is a first baby. I think they’re supposed to take longer, or something like that.

Paul puts the girls in a car and stares at me. Suddenly he blurts out, “Don’t fuck her.”

I’m startled and every muscle in my body clenches. “Fuck you.”

“You know what they say about guys who just got out of prison,” he says, and I realize he’s joking. Thank God, because I was about to bust his kneecaps. “Insatiable and all that shit. And you got a whole lot of really pretty woman in your lap.”

I did just get out prison, but I don’t fuck drunk chicks. I don’t fuck anybody. “I think I can restrain myself.”

He nods. “I trust you.” His eyes meet mine. He does trust me. I think he really does trust me.

I turn the chair and roll toward a diner I know is on the next corner. They have coffee. Lots of coffee. But when I look down at Star, she’s sound asleep on my chest. I swear, this is the closest I have been to another human being in a really long time, particularly one with a vagina, and I don’t want to stop holding her. So instead of taking her to the diner, I push her seven blocks to my apartment building and into the elevator.

My arms are burning like they’re on fire by the time we get there, but it was worth it, because she keeps burrowing closer and closer to me. Her breath tickles the side of my face, and then my ear, and then she tucks her head under my chin.

I open my door and I have to adjust her body to get inside, tucking her into a tiny little space in my lap for a minute. She mumbles, but I can’t make out what she’s saying.

I could sit and hold her like this all night, but I think she’d be more comfortable if she weren’t bundled up in a ball on my lap. I roll her into my bedroom, pull my covers down, and lift her onto my bed. Her high heels are still on her feet, so I unbuckle them and take them off, and then set them gently beside the bed. Her toenails are painted pastel pink and I run my finger across her toe.