“I’m tired too. Let’s go to bed.” Alex reached for my hand. “Jen, don’t leave tomorrow before we have that talk about the caretaker job.”
“I won’t.” Jen hugged her and I heard her whisper, “take care of him.”
Alex nodded and led me into the bedroom. The air was ice cold between us when we undressed and got into bed. Thankfully, Alex didn’t press me for more information or scold me for keeping information from her. She seemed to know what I needed. Which, for now, was for her to let me spoon her until we fell asleep.
Leave it to me to fuck up my first night back.
By morning I could sense my world was moments away from crashing down around me. I just knew it.
I kept it inside, but I was panicking at what this all meant. If Alex freaked out when she had her own pregnancy scare, our odds were screwed if this baby turned out to be my kid.
Something inside me knew. Regardless of what Cassie told Jen. I just felt it in my bones. That baby was mine.
Which meant that Alex and I were over before we had a chance to start.
Chapter 20
ALEX
We didn’t talk about it. We had to talk about it, but Jace never brought it up. So, I didn’t bring it up.
Instead, during the week since Jace had come back, we buried ourselves in projects. Our biggest task was creating an extension to the guest house. Luckily, Jen and Becca knew exactly what to do. Working together, we framed, wired, and sheetrocked two additional rooms.
At night, Jace and I made passionate love.
But there were no discussions.
I was sitting on my front porch sipping my coffee watching Jace chop wood when my phone rang. I was happy to see it was Zoey. I planned to let her know that Jace had been staying with me in the spirit of outing ourselves as a true couple.
“Hey!” I happily chirped into the phone and ducked into the house.
“Hey! You are never going to believe it, Alex.” Zoey’s voice was half-excited, half-emotional. “I saw Ty.”
I knew from Jace that Ty went to great lengths not run into Zoey since she moved back to Seattle. Including spending most of his time in LA. “Where?”
“He hired my law firm to work on his new foundation, I’m his lawyer,” she said with more enthusiasm than I’d heard in a long time.
Considering how happy I was with Jace, I was hopeful for her. It had been too long with too much unnecessary drama. They really needed to be back together. “Wow! How are you handling it?”
“We talked, but he wants to talk more. I’ve got to keep things professional because of ethical reasons. I mean, I’m his lawyer. Oh, Alex. he’s so beautiful. And sweet.” Zoey’s sounded like my high school friend for the first time in eight years. “I’m in so much trouble. I can’t let myself go there. But the energy between us. Wow.”
“That’s really cool, Z. I hear what you’re saying, but I’m really hopeful for you two.”
Jace walked into the room, shirtless, sweaty, and stunningly sexy. His hair was loose and unruly. The wood-chopping manly thing was so sexy. He kissed my neck before he got a bottle of cold water out of the fridge. Even though I was on the phone, I couldn’t help but watch his Adam’s apple glug as he drank the entire thing. He could be in any commercial, that’s how good looking he was.
Quickly saying my goodbyes to Zoey, I moved back toward him.
“Zoey and Ty—” I began.
“Yeah, Ty texted me.” Jace sucked air in. “He’s kind of freaking out.”
“Jeez.” I wrinkled my nose. “She is too.”
“I really want to stay out of it, Poppy.” Jace put the bottle in the recycling. “We’ve been dealing with the Zoey and Ty fallout for too many years. Let them figure it out. I don’t want to jump back on the train.”
“I agree. But, Jace?” I pointed at him. “You and I need to talk. We are building something together and we should clear the air about Cassie.”
“I really don’t want to talk about it, Alex.” Jace crossed his arms and looked down. “I just want to go back to a few days ago.”
“For someone who is so able to take care of everyone around him, you’re not great at taking care of yourself.” I stroked his back, eager to show him that I was there for him.
“Are you going to leave me?” Jace looked at me tensely, a vulnerability shone in his eyes that I’d never seen before.
“Why would you think that?” I was completely taken aback by his comment.
He leaned against the kitchen counter, staring at me for a few minutes before speaking. “Because knowing Cassie, she’s going to drop a bomb on me.”
I had time to think about it and while he didn’t owe me an explanation into his love life during the time that we were apart, he needed to be able to open up to me if we were going to have a future. Especially about something like this. Especially if a child was involved. “Well, what happened to you is shocking, Jace.”
“You know I don’t need to have kids, Alex.” Jace reached out and took my hand, avoiding my comment. “I want to make a life with you.”
“I want that too, but you need to trust me.” I squeezed his hand, hopefully reassuringly. “You can’t be worried about doing or saying something that might break us up. If we’re going to be all-in, we need to be all-in. Kids or no kids.”
“I’m all-in.” Jace gripped me tightly. “Alex, this is it. I’m not letting you go again. Promise me we are doing this.”
“Of course we are doing this. It’s decided. No matter what.”
The conversation ended there, but I couldn’t help but feel as if he didn’t believe me. Truth be told, I didn’t know if I believed it myself. I didn’t know how to talk
