AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sure you have other things to do,” Xavier told him. “We appreciate you looking into this.” He set the paper down on the table and held out his hand for a shake. “Iappreciate it. Thanks, mate.”
Derek examined him like he was expecting the act of gratitude to turn Xavier into a pillar of salt. When it didn’t, he nodded slowly before taking his hand.
“I’ll have Elsie find someone, then.” Xavier was already reaching into his pocket for his cell phone.
Derek stood, then looked at me. “Walk me out?”
“Sure.” I glanced at Xavier, whose blue gaze only flickered up at me and back to his phone before he tapped his watch to indicate the time.
No sign of jealousy, though. Not even a whiff.
I wasn’t sure why that bothered me. Hadn’t I told him to reel it in?
I accompanied Derek to the front stoop, where he turned to me while I held the door open.
“You okay?” he asked, casting another look down the hallway toward where Xavier remained on the couch. “Things seem…weird between you two. Not that the guy isn’t kind of weird already, but…”
I shrugged, not really wanting to get into it. “He’s just feeling protective. Maybe more than usual.”
“He wasn’t around for over a month, and now he’s living here? I guess you guys are working it out after all, huh?”
I swallowed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but how did you know that? It’s not like we talk.”
Derek just shrugged. “I worry about you. But so does your brother. He asks me once a week to come by and check on you.”
I huffed. “Frigging Matthew.”
“He said something about you and Nina expecting around the same time?” Derek glanced down at my belly, obviously a bit doubtful since there still wasn’t much to see there yet. “I was up there last weekend. She’s, uh, showing a lot.”
I bit my lip. Apparently, all my business was on blast. “She’s a little farther along. But, yeah, Nina and I will be about a month apart.”
No one had known it at the wedding, but a few weeks after Italy, Nina and Matthew had revealed to the family that they were expecting. It explained a lot—mainly why Matthew hadn’t been checking in on me himself since these letters arrived. Or come to kick Xavier out of the house.
“So, you and the Brit are…”
I glanced over my shoulder at Xavier, who was staring steadfastly at the sheet of paper and pretending not to watch me and Derek. Then I turned back to the detective. “We’re complicated.”
Derek nodded. “I guess so.”
I swore Xavier’s mouth curled at the edges. It wasn’t quite a smile. But it was almost there.
SEVENTEEN
“God, I’m getting fat,” I muttered as I checked myself out in the wall of mirrored cabinets beside the ultrasound chair.
We’d only just arrived at the obstetrics center at Beth Israel in time for our appointment, where we were quickly ushered into a large imaging room equipped with several big screens and a much bigger ultrasound machine than the one we’d seen before.
I stuck my chin out toward myself in the mirror. “Check out these jowls. I’m going to have a double chin by Christmas, you watch. I’m already starting to look like my great aunt Valentina.”
Xavier had been brooding since Derek stopped by. At least more than usual. Brooding, but not snapping. I could live with that. My instinct when things were tense was to offer a bit of levity. Call it practice from three and a half years of redirecting eight-year-old brains from imminent drama over spilled milks and lost Pokémon cards.
“I think you look bloody beautiful,” Xavier said quietly from the stool on the other side of the room.
I turned at the sound of his sincerity. “I—thank you. But you’re supposed to say that to a pregnant woman. I know the glow is bullshit. It’s just the sweat leftover from nausea and running about a degree above normal. I’m basically an oven cooking this little bun. You could bake a soufflé in here.”
I expected at least a chuckle but got absolutely nothing. Instead, Xavier just watched me solemnly as I laid back into the ultrasound chair, my legs covered by the disposable drapes.
“You’re more beautiful than I’ve ever seen you,” he said. “And before you ask, I’m not saying it because I expect anything. It’s just the truth. You’re absolutely stunning.”
