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“I’m seventeen, but I’ll be eighteen next month.”
I don’t want to respond because I don’t want to come off as judgy. It’s her life. Being pregnant at seventeen seems like it will be hard, but her parents are rich, and maybe they will help her out.
Jealousy rears its ugly head and burns in my chest. I look down at the concrete ground scattered with leaves, then I swallow thickly. I will never have a chance to have a family, and I’ll never hear the soft cries of my child, or have to clean up their mess, or have them clinging to me when they are scared, or see them smiling. I’m starting to regret marrying Jasper. I married the wrong person. When I meet Jasper’s eyes, he quickly looks away and tosses his half-eaten ice cream in the trash. Guilt flashes in his eyes, and he slides his hands into the pockets of his basketball shorts.
He keeps his gaze glued to Lacey. “Have you told your parents?” Jasper asks.
She shakes her head, and we sit on the bench, watching a group of elderly women stroll by. “If they find out, I would be in big trouble. You know how Dad is, he’s a hothead and I don’t want to receive the backlash from it. He only cares about his image. He’ll probably make me abort my child, and I’m not going to do that.” She pauses, combing her fingers through her hair. “And you know how Mom is, she wants me to marry someone who is wealthy, and I don’t want to.” She rubs her hand over her belly, like she’s happy about being pregnant. My envy grows even more like weed. She has exactly what I want. I would divorce Jasper after he signs his contract, but it would risk losing my mother a second time, so the whole idea is out the window.
Lacey’s phone plays a weird tune, and she grabs it from her purse.
“I have to take this.” Then she steps out of earshot.
Jasper watches me slowly, his eyes trailing the length of my body, up and down, before his pupils concentrate on my lips.
“Why do you keep staring at me?”
“Because you’re beautiful,” he simply answers, smoothing out my hair.
“We don’t have to pretend anymore, Jasper. We’re married to each other. And I’m sure Lacey knows this relationship is fake.” I exaggerate the wordfake.
I’m not falling for his charms again. Every time I try to get close to him, he shuts me out. I’m convinced he doesn’t even know what he wants.
“I’m not being fake,” he says.
Lacey watches the interaction between us as she speaks on the phone.
Several moments later, she taps on her phone and places it back into her designer purse.
“I never thought in a million years that my brother would grow to like someone.”
I’m well aware of Jasper’s feelings toward me, but I’m not going to put up with his hot and cold behavior.
Jasper shoots Lacey a glare.
“I’m going to head out, my friend is waiting for me.” She leans down and kisses me on the cheek. “We need to get together to host my baby shower, Poppy.”
“We will.”
She gives Jasper a hug and I watch her disappear past the entrance of the park.
The sun sinks between the colorful trees, and my ice cream drips onto the pavement, so I lick as much as I can.
Jasper sits too close to me. “How was work?”
I cock my eyebrow. “What’s going on with you? Why are you acting funny?”
He never takes the time to ask how my day is going, which is odd.
“I’m trying to get to know you. We spend a great amount of time together.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, and usually you ignore me.”
He sighs and stares out at the sky as a look of grief flashes across his face. “When I was in grade school, my mother used to buy me ice cream and bring me here and we’d walk.”
He has never shared with me about his past, unless I ask, and even then, certain topics were off-limits, like Gemma and Harper. Though he’s never mentioned his mom either.
“Then she used to take me to this steak house afterward.”
