He nodded, lifting a hand to brush his dark blond hair to the side. “Sure can, but can we wait until I’m done with dinner?” He winked, and I watched the unsuspecting woman instantly swoon.

“Yes, yeah. Thank you so much,” she rushed out before turning around and taking two steps away before coming to a stop. Then she turned around and walked back, shaking her head. “I don’t know what I was doing,” she admitted in a rush, and I smiled at her again. “What can I get you to drink? I’m sorry.”

I went first when neither one of them made a move to speak. “A frozen house margarita, please.”

My cousin rattled off some craft beer, and Zac said, “Water for me, please and thank you.”

But the reality of what Boogie said really sank in then. Not the marriage to a woman I felt didn’t deserve him. Not the fact that he’d asked me not to tattle to his mom who was going to lose her shit either way, but the part before that. The part about why he was getting married—maybe in the first place.

His girlfriend—fiancée, whatever—was pregnant.

With my Boogie’s child.

My Boogie was having a mini Boogie. A girl Boogie. A boy Boogie. Who knew? Who cared? The point was, it was a mini Boogie.

And just like I’d felt when Connie had been pregnant with my niece and nephew, joy, this pure, pure joy, filled my entire soul. And I could barely make the words sound louder than a whisper as I said, “You’re having a baby.”

And it said everything about Boogie that he hadn’t gotten initially hung up on the fact that we hadn’t cried out in happiness the instant he’d implied that his lady was pregnant. That now that we—or I—had really realized what he’d said, it felt like the greatest gift I’d been given in a while. Someone with half his genetic makeup was going to be born!

“Boogie!” I whisper-hissed at him before clapping my hands right in front of my boobs. “Holy shit!”

My wonderful, amazing cousin instantly beamed. Happy. Nervous, I could always tell he was nervous. But mostly, he was happy. Very happy.

“I know,” he agreed.

I reached for his forearm and shook it.

Oh my God, I mouthed.

Oh my God, my cousin mouthed back.

“Is it a boy? Is it a girl? Do you know?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. Soon.”

I put my palms against my cheeks and opened my mouth again in a silent scream, and he grinned back.

“Ya know, it took me a sec, but I just realized what you said. I didn’t think about it,” Zac muttered, sounding like he was in a daze at that point too. “I’m gonna be an uncle again?”

Again? He didn’t have any siblings, not that I knew of.

His dad had never been in the picture, period. It was why he had Travis as a last name. No one ever talked about him.

“Yup,” my cousin replied, still smiling wide.

Zac slid out of the booth like freaking water and bent at the hips before suddenly swooping down and hugging Boogie, who moved to the side after a split second and hugged him right back.

They were so cute, it killed me.

All hugging and loving and making these happy guy noises as they gave each other affection.

The waitress arrived just as Zac slid back into the booth, giving me another big, beaming smile that I returned for about a second before looking back at my cousin instead.

“Would you like to start with an appetizer? Or do you know what you want?”

I rattled off my order, and so did the other two as she set our drinks down, all the while sneaking glances at Zac literally every other second. I had to give her props though. She hadn’t told any of her coworkers, even though she knew damn well who he was. So they wouldn’t stiff her out of serving him? So she could be the only one to get a picture? Maybe just to be nice and give him his privacy?

I nudged my cousin as the waitress said something to Zac. “Psst.”

He glanced at me.

“I’m just throwing this out there, but Connie said doing Kegels before giving birth was the best thing she could’ve done, so maybe that’s something Lauren should look into,” I whispered.

Boogie frowned. “Do what?”

“Kegels,” I repeated. How the hell did he not know what Kegel exercises were?

“What’s that?”

I blinked at him.

“Am I supposed to know what that is?”

I nodded.

Boogie turned to his best friend just as he put his glass of water to his lips. The waitress had walked away. “Do you know what that is?”

“What is?” Zac asked before taking a sip.

“Bianca said Lauren should start doing Kegels—”

Water sloshed over the rim of the glass a split second before a big laugh shot out of Zac and made its way through the tiny dining area.

I smiled a little; then I smiled even more at Boogie’s confused face.

But Zac’s eyes were on me as he asked, “You said that to him?”

I nodded, feeling my smile drop a little. I hadn’t meant for Zac to hear, but….

“Should I do a search to figure out what that is?”

Zac and I both said, “Yes,” at the same time, and we smiled at each other right before I looked away again.

We spent the rest of dinner talking about Boogie’s wedding and his baby.

After he’d moaned and groaned following his search to find out what “Kegels” were—pelvic-floor exercises. Even me explaining quietly that men did them too didn’t make him groan any less. It probably didn’t help either that Zac cracked up the whole time Boogie and I bickered over it. “Everyone should do them” wasn’t legit enough for him.

Anyway.

If I thought I was surprised about the baby and the wedding, Zac seemed to be even more surprised over it. His smile never faltered, I noticed, even when I cut my own smiles short when they met his.

Thankfully, it wasn’t until we were back in my cousin’s car that the conversation moved to something other than a baby and a wedding. What never got brought up, I’d realize hours later, was what was going on with Zac and his career.

“B, have you thought up anymore recipes?” Boogie asked randomly, about three seconds after we all buckled in.

“Yeah, a couple,” I told him vaguely, staring at the back of Zac’s head. He’d been looking at me a lot while we’d been eating—these long peruses of my face—and a couple times, I let myself wonder what he thought. Then I tried to be an adult and reminded myself that it didn’t matter. “Did I tell you that Connie’s driving down next month, and she’s bringing Guillermo with her?”

Guillermo was my favorite nephew—my only one—and one of my viewers’ favorite guests. They were visiting so he could film a couple videos for my channel with me. More than a couple if we could fit it in, but I wasn’t holding my breath. Things always went wrong when they came over. It was part of his appeal, besides being adorable and great.

“They’re coming down for the weekend?”

“Yup.”

“I haven’t seen him in forever. Tell me when, and I’ll see if I can make it work with Lauren.”

It took a lot of effort not to sneer at her name. But I was going to try my best. Because: Baby Boogie. I wondered what he or she was going to look and act like. I hoped they liked me.