Free Cherish Me (The Protected Love Series) by Jennifer Culbreth Page B

done the doctor didn’t tell them. Instead she placed the gender on a note inside of a sealed envelope. The bakery gets the envelope and they make a cake. The inside of the cake is the gender of the baby.” She laughed as the puzzled look on his face only grew deeper. “Pink if it’s a girl, blue if it’s a boy. Once they cut the cake it will be revealed what the baby is. Until then it’s a secret.”
    “Oh, ok. I think I get it now.” He said taking her hand as they walked towards the front of the apartment.
    “Good morning, Mase.” Judy said as Mason hopped off the couch.
    “Morning you two. I feel like I am getting ready for my first day at school.” He laughed as he pulled at his tie.
    “You look great. Remember if you get scared or anyone bullies you just tell them you’re my brother. She winked up at him.
    “Yeah, tell them that and they might go running and screaming in the opposite direction.” Jace laughed. “Don’t worry about a thing. We are only going in for a few hours before the party. I just want to introduce you to the guys and show you around the office.”
    “Ok, well you guys have fun. Mark and I will be plan ning a party.” She said looking enthusiastically over at Mark who was desperately trying to assemble the diaper cake.
    Jace laughed as he and Mason headed for the door. “Take away his gun and he doesn’t know what to do with himself.”
    “Ha. Very funny.” Mark chimed in from the corner of the room. “No, but Judy seriously if I stab myself with another straight pin I am taking this thing out back and putting it out of its misery with my Glock.”
    “Oh come on, Mark. It’s not that complicated.” Judy rolled her eyes and made her way across the room. “You just take the diapers and roll them like this.” She said taking the diaper from his hand and rolling it up and pinning it together. “Ow, shit!” She shouted as the end of the straight pin stabbed through to her finger. “Ok, yeah. Fuck that. We will just give her a box of diapers and write congrats on it.”
    Mark laughed as he continued his pursuit of the diaper cake. Judy made her way back into the guest bath in search of a band aid for her freshly wounded finger. As she stood in front of the mirror wrapping the small band aid around her finger her mind drifted to Ashley. Judy wondered where her friend was, what she was doing. Was she ok? Hurt? It amazed her that in just a few days she was learning more about her friends than she had in all of their years of friendship.
    Not only had she lost Ashley, but she was also losing Alexis too. Her chest tightened thinking back to Alexis and what Mason had said the night before. Yeah, Trent. Man, he was a prick. Pretty boy who cared about nothing but himself. He used to get her to do all kinds of dumb shit for him. There was no way that Alexis would participate in tormenting her own friend if Trent wasn’t holding something over her head. Even if she hadn’t seen or heard from Alexis in a long time, there had to be a reason why she hadn’t reached out sooner. If only there was a way she could find out what was going on with Alexis; a way to get a glimpse inside of what had happened between her and Trent.
    She stood unthinking in silence for a brief moment as the thought came into her head. She tried to push it out, act as if she hadn’t thought of it but she couldn’t, it stood out prominently at the front of her mind. Quietly she slipped out of the bathroom and walked down the hall to Jace’s office opening the top drawer of his desk and writing down the address from the piece of paper folded on the top of the stack. She took a deep breath and brushed her hands down the front of her dress as she walked back out into the front room. She looked up at the clock sitting on the mantel. She had two solid hours to get this done if she was going to do it.
    “Mark, I need you to take me somewhere.” Judy smiled manipulatively down at him.

chapter nine
    “Oh yeah?