Page 27 of Break

But he’s obviously pissed off anyway. He needs to get over himself.

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“Everything looks great. The babies are both measuring a little over twelve weeks. Your urine is good... I’ll send the ultrasound images over to the MFM and I’ll call when bloodwork comes back.” Brenton murmurs and Caroline and Alyssa squeeze my hands, still staring at the screen.

Gosh, they almost look like real babies now, it’s a trip. Still sort of oddly shaped and blobby though.

I nod at Brenton and smile at him. “Thanks. I’ve been feeling so much better lately… I just feel bloated.”

He smiles and chuckles. “You’re only going to get bigger. Just think, only six more weeks until we find out the genders, are you excited?”

I smile and listen to Caroline and Alyssa whispering over my head, placing bets. “Sure am.”

“Oh, before I forget. My parents are finally home this weekend, if you wanted to head over to dinner with me? The girls are invited, of course.” He smiles and washes his hands. Gosh, why is he so nice? And so good looking. “Let me know what day works for you.”

“Sunday would work for us, I think. The team is leaving for away games that day so I won’t be working.”

He waves on his way out and I stand up after cleaning my belly.

“Damn, Marie… You should totally date him,” Alyssa whispers in my ear as we walk out.

I clear my throat and shoot her a look. “First Nolan, then Landon… Now my doctor? Make up your mind. I’m going to say the same thing I’ve been saying for weeks. No. I’m not getting involved with anyone, especially not now. Plus, he’s probably already taken. A man like that isn’t single… ever.”

We all laugh as I walk over to the reception desk and set up another appointment.

We all jump in my car and I start to drive us back home to eat dinner before the game. “But seriously, Marie. He’s smart, tall… absolutely gorgeous… Why else would he invite you to his parents’ house? You should ask him if he’s single.”

I send Caroline a look in the rearview mirror. “Because his parents own our house, you little demon. He’s just being nice, he thinks I need a friend, and he obviously knows that I need one right now.”

Alyssa and Caroline share a look and I focus back on the road, letting them gossip with their twin telepathy.

“What do you girls want for your birthday?” I murmur, trying to change the subject.

Alyssa snorts and shakes her head. “Yours and James’s birthdays are coming up first. Ours isn’t until March, why are you asking so early?”

I shrug and park in the garage. “Because I like to get a head start. I already have almost all of my Christmas shopping done. And I bought James’s gift months ago for his birthday…” Maybe I should return it at this point.

Or I can just throw it at the porch anonymously and Alex can take the credit for it.

Alyssa hums and stalks over to the door to head into the house. “How about a spring break trip? We can head to the lake and we can make it a baby moon!”

I look over to Caroline to see if she agrees and she nods enthusiastically.

“All right, I’ll book a house, good thing I asked in advance.” I wink and head into the kitchen to start on dinner. This weekend is going to be interesting. First, dinner with James, then dinner with Brenton and his parents.

At least I’ll have the girls as a buffer for both.

Nolan and Landon have been wonderful, I feel awful about neglecting them while I was separating myself from James. They don’t give a shit, since they’re men and they don’t care much about the drama. But it’s still nice to have them around again.

Just without alcohol or staying out too late now.

Neither of them have hit on me, so they must know something else is up. And only Nolan has met Alex, I guess. Notsure when or how, but when I asked why the rest of the team hadn't, Landon explained that Alex doesn’t want to meet any of the guys until her and James are more ‘serious’. Which makes no damn sense.

It’s so fishy and I fucking hate it.

But mostly, we don’t talk about James at all. We talk about hockey, work, new restaurants, and puck bunnies. Our favorite past times. The amount of times I had a call at three AM to come pick them up from hotel rooms is staggering.

Landon had a serious girlfriend for a few months, and apparently broke up with her when he found her in his bed with another man… and she tried to pass it off as her brother.

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