The Reed Security Relationship Manual: A Reed Security Romance - Giulia Lagomarsino (best book club books of all time TXT) 📗

thought back to the last few days, seeing the wrappers around the house and in the garbage. “You know, now that you mention it, there have been a lot of wrappers.”

“Are her breasts tender?” Sinner asked.

“Maybe a little more…”

“Well, I would say we’ve solved your problem. She’s either on her period or she’s pregnant,” Cap grinned.

I stopped moving, even fucking breathing, as I stared at him. I swallowed hard as I croaked out, “She should have had her period last week?”

“You’re not sure?” Sinner asked.

“I…I just try not to pay attention.”

“You’re a medic,” Cap said incredulously.

“That doesn’t mean I want to know my woman’s periods like the back of my hand. I stay away from that shit. The last time I had to deal with her periods, I ended up playing rock, paper, scissors for the last box of tampons.”

“So, how has she been getting her womanly supplies?” Sinner asked.

“Well, she gets them on her own now that she’s off house arrest. But before, I had Cara get them for me.”

“Ah,” Sinner nodded. “That explains all the boxes. See, I knew there was something else going on. No woman stocks up on tampons like the flood is coming.”

“And you didn’t think to ask her about it?” I asked. “You didn’t think it was strange and think…hmmm, maybe I should find out if everything is okay with her?”

Sinner narrowed his eyes at me. “And why the hell would I do that? You don’t open that door. Once you start talking to your woman about periods, that opens the floodgates for a whole other range of topics that I’m not ready to talk about, and never will be ready for.”

“What kind of topics?” Cap asked.

“Yeah, what topics?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

Sinner rolled his eyes. “Let me preface this by saying that I’m very scared for both of you that I even have to explain this. It starts with just their period, but it branches off to how heavy it is, clotting patterns, length, and all the other shit that a man just doesn’t even need to know about. And then, after all that, she’ll start discussing what happens when she ovulates.”

“What happens when she ovulates?” Cap asked.

Even I knew the answer to this, and knew it wasn’t something I wanted to discuss.

“Check her underwear around that time of the month,” Sinner said with a grin. “You’ll wish you never knew.”

“Wait,” I shook my head. “So, if Brooke just had her period, then what could possibly be causing all this hostility?”

“You said you didn’t know for sure that she had it,” Cap pointed out. “Can you say without a doubt that she did have her period?”

“Well—”

“Were there wrappers in the bathroom garbage?”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t remember seeing any. I swayed on my feet slightly and had to grab the table for balance. “Oh, God.”

“Congrats, man,” Sinner grinned, slapping me on the back. I stumbled forward, barely catching myself. “This is awesome. Another Rocco baby to join the training center.”

“This…this is not good.”

“Why?” Cap asked. “I thought she was coming around to the whole idea of having Evie there all the time.”

“Yeah, Evie. A new baby? That’s like…I don’t know that she’s ready for that.”

Sinner nodded. “And once a new baby is in the picture, the way a house is run is completely different. Suddenly, every complaint is Why can’t you do this for me? I’m growing a baby inside me. And after the baby is born—” He shook his head and scoffed. “You can forget about ever owning your balls again. From there on out, you’re in charge of doing everything because they have a baby to take care of.”

“If you’re smart, you’ll get that rule book written before this baby is born,” Cap said. “And make damn sure she signs it.”

“And have it laminated,” Sinner added. “There can be no wiggle room in that contract.”

“Yeah, but how the hell am I going to get her to agree to my rulebook when she’s hormonal?”

We all sat there thinking about it for a moment. Sinner grinned and then snapped his fingers at me. “You have a fake one for her to sign. Then, after she’s signed it, you fake her signature on the real one and replace it. Problem solved.”

“Yeah, but that’s not enough. If it’s just that rulebook, it’ll be too easy for her to thoroughly read it. You need to drown her in paperwork.”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that? Should I have her sign a prenup or something?”

“Only if you want her to cut off your balls,” Cap huffed. “A prenup is like saying that you don’t trust her.”

“Either that or you think the relationship won’t last,” Sinner added. “No, what you need is to finish the Reed Security Relationship Manual. You can slip the marriage rulebook in also. Hell, we can all do it with our wives. Slip in the fake and then after they’ve all agreed to it, we’ll take out the fake and slip in the real one.”

“Yeah, but who’s good at forging signatures?”

“I know a guy,” Cap grinned.

“Okay, still, we have one huge problem. If Brooke is pregnant, I need her to sign this ASAP. I don’t have the relationship manual where it needs to be. Not even close. And the further along she gets in her pregnancy, the worse those hormones are going to get. She’ll rip it to shreds, and I’ll be doomed.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Cap said, pounding the table once before walking out of the room.

Sinner walked up to me and clapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Cap’s on it.”

“And if this doesn’t work?”

“Then you’re fucked like the rest of us.”

Chapter Two

Cap

“Hey, everyone quiet down!” I shouted to the room full of people. Everyone that worked here was sitting in on this meeting. We had a lot of shit to discuss and not much time to do it. “Alright, now, I know you’re all wondering why I called this meeting.” I leaned