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“I hope you’re right about that, too. I’ll see you this weekend at Jill and Andrew’s, right?”
“Sure, I’ll be there,” Chad said, knowing it probably meant he’d see Jennie, too. He was beginning to dread seeing her at work and every weekend. Seeing her hurt like hell.
Chad crossed to his door and stuck his head out to the large area outside his office that held twenty desks spread through the room. He always thought of it as the bullpen.
“Jennie? Can I talk to you?” He called out across the room.
As he watched her approach, he couldn’t help but notice how shaky she looked. Something wasn’t right. He was positive. Only he didn’t know what it was or why she wasn’t telling him.
They’d been fine since they came home. Sure, the sexual tension that surrounded them was still there, but Chad knew it always would be. It wouldn’t disappear simply because they’d decided not to act on it. If anything, it was worse after their one and only encounter.
But in the last week or two something had changed. Jennie wasn’t herself.
“Shut the door,” he said quietly when she walked in.
She shut the door and sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk crossing her legs and wrapping her arms around herself in an almost protective gesture. Instead of going around to the chair behind his desk, he sat beside her in the second guest chair. He studied her face but all he could see was exhaustion.
“You feel okay, Jennie? You look pretty pale.”
“Mmm hmm.” She nodded. “I think I’ve caught a little bug, but I’m okay. Just a little drained.”
He didn’t let up his stare as he assessed her. She was more than a little drained. She was pale and he could see dark circles under her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. Finally, he spoke.
“I wanted to fill you in on the investigation in Florida, but I want you to go home and rest after that. We don’t need you for the rest of the day.”
“I’m okay, Chad. I don’t need to go home.”
“Yeah, you do. You look like hell. I want you to go home.”
She nodded. The fact that she didn’t fight him too hard or have a wise-ass response told him how crappy she was feeling.
“It looks like you’re off the hook for giving an official statement to the FBI for the moment, but I think they’ll ask for one sooner or later. For now, they’ve sent the Masters brothers back in to gather evidence for them. Apparently, Rick Bandon has been on their radar for some time, but they’ve never been able to build a case. They had a guy come forward once after Bandon tried to extort money to make some problems on the guy’s building site disappear, but the guy died in a suspicious accident a week later.
“I’m hoping you won’t have to make a statement on the record yet, but I won’t take any chances with you if it does come to that.” Chad glanced to the door but then continued, leaning toward Jennie. “If it gets to that point, I want you to come stay at my place and let me protect you until you testify.”
“Chad, no. I can’t do that. You said yourself, it could take years for this to come to trial. I can’t move in with you for years.”
He almost had to laugh at the look of horror that crossed Jennie’s face and stayed there at the idea of living with him. He probably would have laughed if it wasn’t so damn sad. If his life hadn’t become such a laughable joke.
He loved a woman who couldn’t possibly love him back and he’d managed to put her in danger. She wanted so little to do with him that she wouldn’t even let him protect her.
Before she could argue any further, she blanched and became even paler, if that were possible. Chad could swear she was about to pass out.
“Okay, I’m taking you home. Time for bed, Jen.”
He was surprised when she didn’t try her usual negotiation with him. She didn’t put up a fight at all as he led her out of the office. He grabbed her purse and helped her out to his truck. She didn’t even try to argue when he left her car at the office or during the car ride to her house—he could see how worn out she was.
He got her settled in bed with her Labrador, Zeke, babysitting her, and was walking down her front porch when it hit him. Something had been needling at Chad’s brain for weeks. He froze as he realized what it was.
He knew Jennie’s body like he knew his own. And her breasts were larger than they used to be. His mind flipped back to the Sutton Capital softball team’s game over the weekend. Jennie drank water instead of beer when they all went for pizza after the game. He remembered starting to pour her a beer, but she shook her head and pointed to her water. She’d shrugged it off when he raised an eyebrow.
Oh, Christ Jen.
Chad closed his eyes against the pain of knowing what Jennie was hiding from him. Such a small handful of details shouldn’t be enough to tell him the truth, but he knew in his gut, he was right. Knew with certainty that Jennie was pregnant.
And, she hadn’t come to him. Hadn’t told him.
Oh, Jennie.
