Page 29 of Break

I head to the kitchen and grab them out of the drawer. Since having him and Landon over, the girls and I have been shoving them in there instead of them being all over the fridge.

I hand them over and he frowns at the images, his brows furrowing as he looks at them for several moments. “Two? Twins?” I nod slowly and he whistles. “Ain’t that some shit. Is the dad in the picture?”

I shake my head and lean back on the cushions. “Nope, just me. The girls come with me to my appointments, I have their support. Dr. Patterson knows what’s going on, and I’m workingat the rink with him until I pop… I’ll be able to save up plenty of money and figure out childcare eventually.”

He sends me a look and shakes his head, setting the images down on the coffee table. “You have the team, too… I hope you call us if you ever need anything. Did James freak? Is that why you moved out?”

“No. He doesn’t know I’m pregnant. Period. And that’s how it’s staying.” I send him a look and he raises his hands in surrender with a sigh, shaking his head. He still looks so shell shocked.

“I’ll tell Landon, if that’s okay with you, I’m sure he’ll want to come around more for support? I’ll tell him to keep it to himself. Is there anything you need?”

I shrug. “Not really. I haven’t started buying anything or decorating the nursery yet. I will find out in six weeks what the genders are, hopefully.”

He wraps his arm back around me and pulls me closer to him. “Well, we’re here for you. Seriously, anything. We’ll paint, put together the baby shit. Shop… Figure out how to change diapers.”

I chuckle and nod against his warm chest. “Thank you. I’m still processing all of it, but it feels more real every day.”

I end up falling asleep on him as he watches movies and I wake up alone the next morning in my bed. Burrowed in my blankets and pillows. Confused and out of it, I sit up and stare out the window at the cloudy skies. What time is it?

When I finally head out to the kitchen to make some tea and breakfast, I find him sitting up on the couch, drinking coffee and watching the news.

“Hey. I ended up passing out on the couch… I woke up and took you to bed though. Eventually.” He winks at me and sips his coffee. “I have practice in about an hour. Can I make you anything?”

I shake my head and pull out the eggs and bacon. “I got it. You relax. Thanks for getting me into bed, I was wiped.”

He waves his hand around and meets me on the other side of the island, leaning down on his tanned forearms. It’s so hard not to stare at him. Or those impeccable veiny arms. “Don’t worry about it. I called Landon this morning and he’s on board with Project Twins, or Project Secret Twins… He swore on his balls that he wouldn’t tell James or anyone else on the team.”

I press my lips together and nod. So I guess I just have to trust him until James sees my swollen belly and we have that conversation, I don’t have the balls to tell him.

Nolan leaves after breakfast and the girls stroll in around lunch time. We spend the day relaxing and I sit out on the patio watching them swim and gossip in the jacuzzi. Another pregnancy nope. I sigh to myself and I’m starting to get hungry again. At least the nausea is pretty much gone now.

“Hey girls, I’m heading in to get ready for dinner at James’s house… Are you still going to join?”

They share a look and Caroline slowly nods. “Sure. Give us an hour.” I wave them off and head to my bedroom. My bare feet sink into the soft, plush carpet as I shuffle to the bathroom and start up the shower. I’m too exhausted and hungry to do anything aside from wash my body and toss on some comfortable clothes.

I pull on a pair of leggings, a loose sweater, and let my wet, wavy hair air dry. I stare in the mirror in my closet and frown.My face looks a little swollen and puffy. But other than that, I have some color back on my cheeks. I don’t look as pale since I’m not vomiting a million times a day anymore.

I’ve also already gained ten pounds. Brenton let me know I’m fine and I’ll be gaining quite a bit of weight with twins. Yay. I wrap my hands around my bloated stomach and close my eyes. Everything is going to be just fine. Plenty of women are single moms, most with no help or support at all. I got this.

It won’t be much longer until I’m a hippo, though. I step back and pull on my shoes and head into the living room to wait for the girls to finish up getting ready.

I mess around on my phone to find texts from both Nolan and Landon.

Nolan:Let me know if you want me to crash the dinner tonight…

Landon:Congrats, Marie!! I’m here for you. Let me know if you need anything… Like breaking the baby daddy’s face.

I snort as I reply to both of them until I hear the girls’ voices trailing down the hall.

“Are you bringing anything to eat tonight?” Alyssa asks as she pulls out her car keys from her purse.

“Nope. I’ll see what James throws together.” We head into the garage, piling into Alyssa’s car. A perk living with teenagers that drive, live-in chauffeurs. They even grocery shop without asking! It’s magical.

We listen to music on the way over, all of us basically holding our breath for whatever nonsense he’s going to spew tonight.

Hopefully with him asking to talk, he can just apologize and act like the James we all know and love. And everything can fall back into place. I don’t think it will go back to how it was, but we can try. Right?

We sit in the car for a few moments after we park and I stare out the windshield at the house we’ve lived in for years. I sigh as I step out of the car, shutting the door behind me. I grab onto their hands as we head up to the porch and let ourselves in. It smells good at least… Like garlic and tomato sauce.

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