Page 94 of Breakaway

She blinked at him, then looked at the cigarette. “Uh…having a cigarette.”

He strode across the room and yanked the slender cylinder out of her fingers, then grabbed the entire package. He crushed the package in one fist, the cigarette in the other. “You can’t smoke when you’re pregnant!”

She took a step back, her perfectly groomed brows rising. “When did you become such an expert on pregnancy?”

“Jesus, Brianne! Everyone knows that!”

“I can’t quit, Jase. I’ve tried before.”

He rolled his eyes. He’d never liked her smoking. She’d tried not to do it around him, so it bothered him less, but he knew she did. He could smell it on her clothes and sometimes her breath. He knew how terrified she was of putting on weight, and every time she’d tried to quit, a couple of pounds on the scale had her breaking open the tobacco again. He’d put up with it, didn’t bug her about it, because—it was her life

But now it wasn’t just her life. It was their baby’s life.

“Yes you can. We’ll talk to your doctor. Maybe there’s something they can do to help you.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you aren’t putting the baby first.”

“I am!” she cried. “I do care! It’s just not that easy.”

“That’s what being a parent is,” he said shortly. “It’s not easy, but you give up things for the sake of your children. Because you love them and they’re the most important thing in the world.”Remi…

She nodded slowly. Jase went into her bathroom and crumpled the cigarettes into the toilet and flushed them. There.

When he returned, Brianne was sitting on her couch, leaning back, arms folded across her chest, her full lips even fuller in an angry pout. “So what did you come to talk about? Other than my smoking and eating habits.”

“I will not let you endanger our child by putting nicotine in your body when you’re pregnant,” he said through clenched teeth. “You’re going to quit, Brianne, and I don’t care if you put on fifty pounds in the next week. I don’t care about your goddamn contracts. I’m here to help financially, I’ll make sure you’re okay, but you are not going to smoke.”

She stared at him, hands on hips. Her bottom lip trembled. “Financially?” she asked. “That’s what this is about?”

He closed his eyes. What did she expect from him?

“Well, I guess that’s one more good thing about sleeping with a jock. Not much intellectual stimulation, but you’ve got a great body and at least you’ve got lots of money.”

His stomach bottomed out at her careless words and he stared at her. What the fuck did she just say? She did not just call him a stupid jock. His head whirled.

Stupid. He was not stupid. Remi knew that.

But he wasn’t irresponsible, either. Not anymore.

“I wanted to talk about how we’re going to do this,” he said heavily, sitting down in a chair across from her. “I’m the father of this baby and I have a responsibility to the baby and I want to do the right thing.”

Jasmine woke Remi up Sunday morning, later than she should have slept, but once again her night had been restless and agitated, with bad dreams that had her waking up sweaty and shaky. Her head throbbed, her eyes felt gritty from crying and her stomach ached.

This time Jasmine knocked on her bedroom door, but this time there wasn’t any worry about interrupting anything.

“I saw the For Sale sign outside! So you’re going to sell the house, that’s fantastic!”

“Yeah.” Fanbloodytastic. Remi yawned and walked to the kitchen to make some coffee, shuffling in her flannel pants andbare feet. “The realtor seems pretty optimistic that it will sell quickly.”

“That’s so great!” Jasmine clasped her hands in front of her. “I can’t wait to get the money. Ethan and I are going to look at some open houses this afternoon.”

“Maybe you should just hold off until we’ve actually sold it. It will take a while before things go through.” She didn’t even know how that all worked. She’d never bought or sold a house before.

Jasmine just waved a hand. “We can look. This is so great. And you can put conditions on the sale to make it go through quickly.”

Remi leaned against the counter, arms folded across her chest, and looked at Jasmine. “And what about me?” she inquired quietly. “Where do you think I’m going to go if we get things ‘through quickly’?”

Jasmine frowned.

“You know, I wish once in a while you’d think of someone other than yourself.”

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