“Good. Don’t.” Jannie gritted her teeth. In the year since the divorce,she hadn’t been with anyone but him.
“Were you pregnant the last time we …?” He took a sip of Grey Goose.
She raised her chin. “No.”
He eyed her belly again, which was too large for any normal five-month pregnancy. “It was five months ago, if I recall correctly.”
Five months and three days.
“It was.”
He nodded and raised the glass to his mouth.
She couldn’t hold back a smirk. “There are two.”
That caught him mid-swallow. Blake’s eyes widened, and he coughed on a gasp. He looked so shell-shocked that Jannie pressed her lips together to suppress a laugh.
Blake coughed two more times, wheezing before he finally managed to compose himself. “Twins?”
“Yes, Blake, that’s vernacular for a dichorionic diamniotic pregnancy.”
He sat there for a moment. “Holy shit.”
She sipped her water. “Mm-hmm.”
“I didn’t … This is …” He closed his mouth and shook his head, and she distinctly saw terror in his eyes.
“A shock. Yes, I know.”
He passed a hand over his face. “When were you going to tell me?”
She looked him in the eye. “I wasn’t.”
“Why?”
Anger flashed in her, hot and swift. “Oh, I don’t know, Blake. Because we’re not together. Because you moved away, moved on, and I didn’t want to interfere in your new life.”
Because you always said kids were a deal-breaker.
For an interminable moment, he stared at her, his tight jaw working. “That makes no sense. Eventually, I would’ve found out.”
He finally looked away. Jannie felt the air leave her lungs in a long rush of relief, but before she could relax, his sharp gaze returned to her.
And dipped to her left hand.
“You’re not wearing them.”
She thumbed the place where her bridal set used to be. “No, I’m not.”
She’d continued wearing the rings after the divorce, feeling nakedand weird without them. And maybe, because he kept coming back, she’d held on to hope that he’d return for good. The last time she’d seen him, she’d worn them. But she was so devastated to hear him and his new woman that day that she slipped them off, and they’d been in her jewelry box ever since.
“Are you seeing anyone?” His voice was taut.
Jannie blinked. That wasn’t a question she’d expected. Her first thought was to tell him it was none of his business, but she found herself saying, “In this state? What do you think?”
“I take it that’s ano?”
Why is he asking?“What about you?”
