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“Morgan needs me in PA. Katie’s at PT. She has appointments the rest of the week, so she’ll join me after her last appointment. She has Marcie, Lucia, and Hayden with her, so I thought I’d take Foster, Celeste, and Scott.” I explained.
My dad was just as skeptical as my mom, but they were like two peas in a pod. Neither asked for more information. I knew I’d be grilled by Dad later, but I was okay with that.
Evan and Olivia, and Anthony and Ava came over from the island. Evan asked, “Do you want me to come with you?”
Having Evan with me would be great. He, Morgan, and Anthony were my best friends. The people I confided in outside of Olivia and now Katie, but I wasn’t ready for that yet. I knew Morgan and Anthony wouldn’t push, but Evan was a bully when people he loved struggled. He would keep asking and pushing until you opened up.
I shook my head. “Nah. We’ll be okay, just the two of us. I’d like it if you stayed here and helped watch over Katie.”
He nodded, hugged me, and headed back to the food with Ava and Anthony. Olivia pulled me away from where Mama and Dad sat watching us, or rather me. I’d seen that look before. Many times. It said, “I know you’re up to something, but I’m going to wait you out.”
When we were alone in the living room, Olivia asked, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Morgan is trying to get everything ready for the wedding and called me to help.”
Liv and I were closely bonded. Not like any of that stupid bullshit about reading each other or sharing our thoughts and feelings, but we were attuned to one another, so I knew she knew I was lying.
I waited.
And so did she.
Neither of us said anything. We just stared at one another until Foster walked past us.
“Let’s load up. Traffic at this time of day will be a bitch.”
I nodded, then said to Olivia, “I’m fine. Or I will be. I’m just working through some shit.”
“Jackson…”
“I’ll call you when we get to Morgan and Charlotte’s.” I kissed her forehead, hugging her tightly before walking to the garage and grabbing my luggage.
By the time we were seated on the plane, I’d spiraled into a shitty ass mood. The internet wasn’t my fucking friend. If Katie was suspicious that she might be pregnant, she could be as little as four weeks pregnant. That wasn’t fucking possible because conception would have been like two weeks ago—that math didn’t math, but it didn’t matter because it was impossible. We’d not been together since the day we were taken. Katie was still healing from what that bastard had done to her. Which made me an even bigger fuckstick for pushing her like I did yesterday.
As the jet taxied down the runway and took to the air, I felt a strange tugging at the center of my heart. That place I felt Katie the most. I turned my head away from the others as tears leaked from my eyes and rolled down my face.
Two weeks isn’t possible.
I pulled my phone back out and kept searching. The web said four to six was the norm. Katie’s suspicions that she could be carrying Caleb’s baby were correct. She was going to be a mama, and I would have to come to terms with that.
I tried to remind myself that the baby could be mine, but my heart and head just couldn’t get on board. Yes, it was a possibility, but even though the baby could also be mine, I didn’t think it was.
With as shitty as our luck is, there’s no way I’m that baby’s daddy.
Fifteen
Jackson
Morgan and Charlie met us at the airport, and you could see the happiness rolling off them like heat on asphalt in the summer. I tried my damnedest to keep up the happy spirits, but seeing how besotted they were with one another just made the situation Katie and I were in so much worse.
As soon as I stepped onto the tarmac, I hugged Morgan, swooped Charlie up in my arms, and spun her around in a circle, ticking Morgan off.
“Dude, I asked you to come out here to keep her from overdoing it. That includes spinning her around like a fucking top,” Morgan said as I sat her back down.
Ignoring his surly ass, I whispered to Charlotte, “Congratulations, little mama.”
She beamed at me but then looked at Morgan with an evil eye. “You aren’t supposed to be broadcasting that, you jerk.”
He pulled her toward him, kissing her soundly before saying, “He’d have figured it out when you tossed your cookies every morning from daybreak to noon.”
