Only you | Derek Morgan

Derek, you're visibly sweating

D E R E K ' S   P O V

"Take a right up here."

Following Layla's directions, I flick on my blinker and turn right down into a quiet residential street. Our flight to Chicago got in about an hour ago and we loaded our bags into the rental car and set off straight for her brothers house.

We're in one of the nicer suburbs of the city and all these houses along this street get nicer and nicer the further we drive along. "When did they move here?" I ask Layla. When we worked together Adam and I lived in equally shitty apartments a couple blocks from each other so this is definitely a step up.

"They bought their house after they got married," Layla says, pointing out the window. "Turn left."

"Damn." I've been buying, renovating and selling properties for years now so I'm pretty good at estimating the price of real estate. I know nothing about Violets salary but having worked with him, I know what Adam's is so I'm curious now. "How did they swing this?"

"You know what?" Layla responds with just as much curiosity as me. "I don't actually know. I never asked them."

Since we're here to meet Layla's new niece and not pry into her brother and sister in laws finances, our conversation about that is parked there and forgotten about when Layla lets me to turn left again into the driveway of one of the nicest houses on this street.

Layla clicks off her seat belt the second the car rolls to a stop. "See you in there," She smiles, leaning over and pressing a quick kiss to my lips before she basically throws herself out of the car. I love seeing her this happy. She's practically beaming on her toes as she rushes towards the front door.

Still chuckling at her giddiness, I kill the engine and climb out of the car before I grab our bags from the backseat. Yes, bags. Layla and I are only here for the weekend so all of our clothes fit comfortably into one duffle, but the other two bags are practically filled to the brim with presents for the baby and Violet.

Even though he's her brother, when I joked that maybe we should get Adam a present too, Layla looked me dead in the eye and said 'you only get presents if you push a baby out of your fucking vagina.' I laughed. The elderly woman shopping in the aisle next to us was appalled.

I make it up the porch steps and walk through the front door. The living room is just off to the left and Violet and Adam are standing there and I'm not surprised one bit that Layla is already cradling the baby in her arms.

"She just pried the baby from my arms," Adam says, sweeping his hands out towards me. "No hello, nothing."

"You should have seen her all week." I laugh because I'm not surprised one bit.

Layla's been radiating excitement and showing the the photos to everyone around the office. She's not a morning person but she was up at the crack of dawn this morning and dragged me out of bed to make sure we made it to the airport on time because there was no chance she was letting us miss that flight.

"Derek," Layla coo's, not even paying one ounce of attention to our conversation about her. She's completely focused on the baby. "She's even cuter in person."

I step into Layla to get a better look. The sweet baby brings her tiny thumb to her mouth, tucking it between her small, pouted lips as she begins to settle in Layla's arms and let's out a cute content hum.

"That's it. I want one." Layla says. Her eyes land on me and they're screaming now.

Violet silently winces as she slowly sits herself down on the couch. "You might rethink that when I tell you how many stitches I had to get. Spoiler, it's a lot."