Page 16 of Just One More Affair
“You fucked—”
“Hey, watch it. Don’t talk about her like that.”
Aiden’s eyes opened wide. “So you still have feelings for her and you knocked her up.” He held up his hands. “I mean, you got her pregnant.”
“Better. And yeah.” He raised his glass and Aiden did the same. They took a drink and set them on the table.
“Can I ask you something? Did you kids ever hear of condoms? Or, I don’t know, abstinence?” He waved a hand. “Sorry, I shouldn’t joke. But seriously. Charlie? She accidentally got pregnant… twice in one lifetime?”
Jared ran a hand across his face. “Apparently, she and Noah used a condom. No idea what happened there. And with me, she was at the end life of her IUD and didn’t know.”
Aiden slowly nodded. “Okay, all kidding aside. How are you doing?”
“I’d say I reacted well, so one point for me. I’m not as freaked out as I should be and I don’t understand why.”
His brother swirled his drink and studied him. “I think I do.”
Jared cocked an eyebrow, waiting for the answer.
“Like I said earlier, you have feelings for her. I could tell when we spoke at Dad’s. You were protective of her just now and you call her Charlotte. Nobody calls her Charlotte. So because you’re invested, the idea of a baby isn’t freaking you out.”
Instead of making a wisecrack, he let his brother’s words settle. They were nothing he hadn’t considered himself. In fact, he’d had the random thought that if he had to go through this with anyone, he was glad it was Charlotte.
He couldn’t say this is the direction he saw his life going and it was going to take a lot of adjustment. But he was managing the news with some semblance of calm. The biggest thing on his mind at the moment was making the time he both needed and wanted for the changes coming in his life.
He looked at the brother who traveled the world but had recently hinted that he might want to give up the danger.
“Aiden… I’m going to need help at work.”
“Good, because I want to come home.”
Jared let out a relieved breath, the tightening in his chest loosening at his brother’s intent. “Thank God. I’m tired of worrying about you. You’ll come work at Sterling?”
“Yeah. You’ve been bearing the brunt of Dad’s illness alone and for too long. I need time to wrap up some things abroad but I’ll be back. This time for good.”
With a nod, Jared said, “I have one more favor.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t tell the family about Charlotte until I’m ready to do it myself.” He didn’t know if she was going to tell the twins and he wanted to talk to her before he blurted it out to everyone. Especially Fallon and Noah. She might want to handle that herself, since it involved telling her girls.
“You got it,” Aiden promised. “Same for me coming home. I need to do it in my own time and my own way.”
Jared grinned. “Whatever you need. I’m just glad to have you back.” And not just because he wanted help at work. He’d really missed his brother.
***
After leaving Jared’s,Charlie went to her hotel and took a nap, something she’d needed more frequently lately. She remembered the exhaustion from her pregnancy with the twins and when she could, she gave in to the need and slept.
As soon as she woke up, feeling more refreshed, the morning’s events came back to her and her dilemma with the apartment swirled in her head.
Not wanting to think about it and torture herself with what to do, she called her BFF, Leo Watson. They’d met when sharing a table at a coffee shop, both working on their laptops. She’d been on a break from the museum, pre-dig, and Leo, a financial analyst, had also been taking a breather from the office. They’d gotten to talking and had been friends ever since.
Their relationship had always been purely platonic and he was like the brother she wished her sibling, Dan, could have been. Leo had been her first call once she’d returned to the States. After the twins, that was. Though she had girl friends from her old job at the museum where she’d worked before going to Egypt, she felt closest to Leo. She’d even told him she was pregnant when her own brother didn’t know.
She’d tried calling Dan and left a message, but she still hadn’t heard back. It was just like her sibling not to call. He was too self-absorbed and always making wrong choices to be there for her or to give her the chance to help him. He worked when he could as a salesman or delivery guy, but usually got fired because he didn’t show up on time or at all.
Tonight, she needed a shoulder and a wise opinion, so she’d called Leo and said she needed a friends’ night, sweetening the deal by promising to bring ice cream for her and a six-pack of beer for him. He could drink; she couldn’t. So vanilla fudge it was.
