I had Steph come and pick her up under the pretence of a girls’ afternoon getting their nails done or some shit, when really it was all a carefully constructed ruse to get her out of the house so I could finally get all this baby crap into the house and set up.
My designer, Tia, gave me a foolproof layout that she put together a couple of weeks ago, after I got hold of Darcy’s wish list from the baby store nearby. We got everything on the list and one of everything else for good measure it would seem. I’m starting to wonder if there’s anything left in that store or if it’s all at my house now.
I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull this off, but with a lot of help from the store to assemble the furniture in their storage room, and a moving company that went the extra mile, it’s all in here. It might not be styled to perfection like Tia instructed, but it’s not bad for a guy with little to no home decorating skills.
I chuck the cream, knitted blanket over the side of the cot. That wasn’t on Darcy’s ever-so-practical list, but it’s one of the seemingly endless items that Tia added to my shopping cart without bothering to ask for my input.
She knows the drill by now. She helped me ‘put together’ my whole house, because according to Rebel, a couch, fridge and a TV weren’t sufficient and I needed help. I still don’t see the purpose of decorative cushions or little random things that do nothing, sitting on the shelves, but whatever – they add to the aesthetic apparently.
I stand back in the doorway and admire my handiwork for a moment. It’s not bad – I’ll give myself that. It looks like one of those nurserys you see in the baby magazines. No doubt it won’t look quite so composed once there’s actually a little person living in here, but for now at least, it’s pretty perfect.
I can’t believe that in a matter of months I’ll be a father. That a baby who will eventually call me ‘Dad’ will be getting his or her nappy changed on that change table, and sleeping in that cot.
I know it’ll be a while before the wooden blocks are being played with, or the stories are being understood, but I can’t wait. I can’t wait for every single second of it.
I snap a picture of the room and send it to Tia’s cell.
She replies almost instantly with a ‘not bad’. That’s pretty high praise from her. It’s quickly followed by an instruction to change the angle of the chair in the corner because it’s ‘making her eye twitch’ but other than that, I pass with flying colours, and not a moment too soon as I hear the front door open, and Darcy and Steph’s voices fill the house.
I smile as Darcy laughs at something Steph is saying. I love that sound. I could listen to it all day. I haven’t heard it much lately, so rather than rushing out to meet her, I stand and listen for a while.
“Ryan?” she eventually calls out. “You here?”
“In the nursery,” I call out with a grin.
She’s going to shit the bed when she sees this. I just know it.
I cross the room and plant my ass in the rocking chair that’s facing the door – now at the correct angle – so I’ll have the perfect view of her reaction when she walks in the door.
I can hear Steph making some excuse about why she has to leave, and as much as I like Steph, I’m grateful that she’s letting us have this time alone.
I hear the front door open and shut again then I listen for her quiet footsteps as she comes down the hallway towards the room.
It’s the closest bedroom to mine – ours – and it gets the best afternoon sun, like right now as the light streams in the window.
“How was your – woah...”
Her eyes widen as she glances around the room, her jaw dropped open.
“Surprise.” I grin.
“I... what... when...” she stutters, still looking at everything that wasn’t here when she left earlier today. “How?” she finally says.
“I had a little help,” I admit.
She steps into the room and walks slowly towards the cot. She runs her hand gently over the soft blanket hanging on the side.
“It’s the one I liked at the store.”
I was hoping she’d say that. It wasn’t the one on her list – this one was almost twice the price, but I remember how many times she looked at it when we walked past, so I took the risk and got it for us.
“I know. I got all the things you liked. But if there’s anything that isn’t right, we can take it back and get something else.”
“Shut up,” she surprises me by saying.
I stand and she steps towards me. “I can’t believe you did all this.”
She looks like she’s in shock. I hope I haven’t done the wrong thing by doing this without her.
I shrug. “I wanted to surprise you. I know you’ve been stressed lately, and I wanted to do something special.”
“I’m definitely surprised,” she breathes.
“Do you like it? If you don’t we can – ”
“It’s the most beautiful room I’ve ever seen,” she interrupts me, her eyes still travelling around the space. “I love it, I just can’t believe you did all this.”
Relief floods through me. She likes it.
“I did have to resort to blackmail and bribery,” I tease as I reach for her, pulling her chest against mine.
A smile graces her lips. “Who have you been blackmailing?”
“Steph – I needed her to take you out all day... and Sophie from the baby store. I had to convince her to give me the list of everything. And then my designer Tia chose everything else and planned the layout – but she charges a small fortune for her time, so if anything, I’d say she actually blackmailed me.”
“You have a designer?”
“Yeah, she did the whole place for me.”
Her smile grows wider. I don’t understand why that pleases her so much.
I feel my brow furrow in confusion – my expression asking the question before my words get a chance.
“It’s just the first time I came here... I remember thinking that the place was so well put together. It felt like a woman had been here. I was too scared to ask if you’d had a girlfriend or whatever live here before me. I’m still not sure I want to know the answer to that. I’m not sure I could have lived with myself if me turning up pregnant ruined your relationship or something.”
I tuck a rogue strand of hair behind her ear and look down at her with a smile. It’s not funny, but I can’t help but feel amused at her worries.
As if there was anyone I’d rather have had than her.
“There’s been no one but you, Darce. Other than Rebel, I haven’t had a woman in this house for a long time.”
She bites back a smile.
“I know it’s not fair of me to like that... but I do,” she admits. “I was all set to marry your brother, yet I don’t like the idea of you having a life before ours got thrown together... go figure.” She rolls her eyes at herself.
She’s not entirely wrong, it’s a little ironic and unreasonable, but I don’t care. She can be as unreasonable as she likes – she’s carrying my child. Little does she know that there has been no one of any significance in my life since the day I met her. I’ve tried to fall in love again, I really have. I’ve persisted where I should have given up – I’ve tried. I’ve met some amazing women who under different circumstances probably could have made me very happy, but I never got over Darcy. I’m not sure I ever really wanted to get over her. And now I know why.
If I’d truly moved on, if I’d managed to get over her the way I probably should have, I never would have even turned up to their wedding, let alone found my way into the bridal suite and then inside the bride.
I smirk at my crass line of thought. It’s morbid and twisted, but I don’t give a fuck. She’s mine now, and that’s all that matters.
“What are you thinking about?” she asks me curiously. It’s only then that I see she’s watching me – watching my mind tick in a way that only she seems to have a knack for. It’s as though she can hear my thoughts as they
cross my mind.
“I was just thinking about being inside you.”
Her beautiful blue eyes light up. “You’re thinking about getting your dick wet, in our baby’s nursery.” She tsks at me.
I chuckle. “Oh, princess, it’s not just in here, I think about it in all the other rooms too.”
She giggles and smacks my chest lightly. “You’re the worst.”
“Here I was, thinking I was the best,” I quip.
Her cheeks heat, and I can tell by her reaction that I’m bang on the money. I’m the best she’s ever had and I’m more than happy about that.
She sidles closer, her arms tightening around my middle. Whatever stress I was picking up over the past few days, it’s long gone now.
“So you love it?” I murmur as I lower my face towards hers.
“Almost as much as I love you,” she replies against my lips.
I slant my mouth over hers, our tongues duelling, right there in the middle of our baby’s room.
17
Darcy
“I know about the baby.”
That’s all it says. A text message from a random number, about ten minutes ago.
I was on the phone to Freya, gushing over the nursery that Ryan set up for the baby and surprised me with yesterday, when the message came through.
She’s already on her way over here.
It’s probably not necessary, but I’ve been so on edge lately, jumping at shadows, freaking out every time I hear a phone ring... I know I’m going to crack soon. All this stress can’t be good for the baby. I know I should have told Ryan what happened the other day, but I just couldn’t. Everything between us is going so well and I didn’t want to let some stupid, out-of-the-blue phone call from Jacob ruin it. I figured if I ignored it, it would just go away. I’m beginning to think I might have been wrong.
Freya shouldn’t be too far away now – I wish she were already here. I’m falling apart at the seams.
I hear her car pull into the drive and a door shut with a thud, I rush to the front door and fling it open.
“Show me,” she insists, holding her hand out for my phone as she comes inside, and I slam the door shut behind her.
I hand over the phone, glad to have it away from me and follow her through the house.
“What the fuck?” she mutters as she drops into a seat at the dining table.
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “It has to be Jacob, right?” I sink my teeth into my bottom lip. “I don’t know anyone else that would send me that.”
“How would he know though?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug.
“Would Ryan have told him?” she questions.
I shake my head quickly. I may not know what’s going on here, but I know one thing, Jacob definitely did not find out about the pregnancy from his twin.
She gasps and drops the phone to the table. “He just text again.”
“What does it say?” I whisper.
Her eyes widen as she picks the phone back up and reads the new message. “Is it mine?”
“That’s it?”
She nods. “Guess we know for sure that it is Jacob texting... and I guess anyone could have told him, it’s obvious just from looking at you now.”
I don’t feel any relief in that knowledge, if anything, I feel worse. Jacob knows I’m pregnant and he wants to know if my baby is his.
“I hate to ask... but could the baby be his?” Freya questions with a grimace.
I open my mouth to say no, that’s there’s no way, but the reality is that there is a chance. I know it’s Ryan’s, not Jacob’s – I just know it in my heart, but technically, there is a chance.
Jacob and I tried for a long, long time and nothing ever happened. If it were going to happen with Jake, it would have before now. I know it’s not totally foolproof, but it’s certainly logical. Plus, the dates work better for Ryan and me, not for Jacob and me, but again, these things aren’t foolproof – the scans have a margin of error.
“We had sex about three weeks before the wedding,” I admit.
She sighs. Freya and Steph both know everything about Jacob, about us trying for a baby for such a long time, about my night with Ryan... so she knows that the likelihood of the baby being Jacob’s is low – but not impossible. The odds are probably similar to those of getting pregnant from sleeping with a man once, and that’s exactly what worries me.
My phone buzzes again. It interrupts my train of thought and fills me with dread in an instant.
“What is it?” I breathe.
Freya looks at me sympathetically and unlocks the screen. Her head drops forward as she reads the text. “He wants a paternity test.”
My heart thumps in my chest. He wants a paternity test. He has no right to demand anything from me, but I know damn well that if he wants one, he’ll get one. He’ll drag me through the courts if he has to.
I can’t believe this is happening.
“Maybe I should just do what he wants.” My voice is so quiet and broken I almost don’t recognise it.
This man, this pathetic excuse for a man... he broke my heart – hurt me more than anyone else in the world has ever hurt me, and somehow, he’s still controlling me, my life, my decisions.
I can’t escape him.
“I’d put money on the baby not being his, so maybe this is for the best. It’ll prove the baby is Ryan’s and he’ll leave me alone, right?”
Freya opens her mouth to reply, but I’m still rambling.
“He can’t do anything if we have a document saying that it’s not his. It’s a non-invasive procedure, right?”
“D, honey, stop.”
I look up from the table to meet Freya’s concerned gaze.
“There’s one slight problem.”
“Of course there is, this is me we’re talking about, if anything can go wrong, it will.” I sigh. “What is it?”
“I don’t think getting a paternity test is going to help you. Ryan and Jacob are identical twins; their DNA is virtually identical too...” She’s using her sympathetic nurse voice – her clinic voice. The one I bet she uses to deliver crappy news to patients and families.
The penny drops.
They’re identical.
“Even if the baby is Ryan’s, it’ll still be a match to Jacob, and vice versa. It would take a hell of a lot more than a standard paternity test to prove who of the two was the father, and in some cases, it might be impossible.”
No. No, no, no, no, no.
I’m screwed. I’m carrying a baby and I can’t even prove who the father is. I have a history of fucking things up, but this takes the cake. This is a new level of messed up, even for me.
“So let me get this straight.” I hear my voice rise an octave as I speak. “Jacob is saying he wants a paternity test, and even if he’s not the father, the test will come back saying that he is?”
She nods. “In a nutshell, yes. I’m so sorry, Darcy.”
I don’t know what she’s sorry for – this is on me. It’s entirely my own fault. I’m the one who slept with my ex-fiancés twin brother five minutes after her wedding got cancelled. I’m the one who thought it would be a good idea to try and get knocked up by the only person on the planet who shares identical DNA to the man I want nothing to do with.
I did this to myself.
“What am I going to do?” I whisper.
“Do you think he knows the baby is Ryan’s?” she asks.
I don’t know how he could, but I wouldn’t put anything past him anymore. He’s got money, resources and one hell of a habit of holding a grudge. Ryan has been a sore spot for Jacob for years; if he did know that his brother had fathered my child, it would probably only make him more determined to ruin our lives.
“I think it would be safest to assume that he knows everything.” I can feel another meltdown coming on, and I don’t even bother trying to talk myself down off the ledge this time. There’s no easy way out here – there’s only disaster. In every directio
n.
I’m having a baby and I’ll never know for absolute certain who the father is.
I should have seen this coming. It couldn’t be that simple. Nothing in my life ever is. I have no idea what my next move is, but I need to think, and fast.
I managed to calm down enough that Freya agreed to leave me here alone. Thank God. Her pacing and ranting was driving me insane.
Ryan text about half an hour ago to say he’d be home in an hour or so, so I’ve been waiting for him so I can tell him what’s happened. I need to tell him everything so we can plan our next move together.
I know he’s not going to be happy.
His hatred for his brother runs deeper than I knew.
I wasn’t aware, but Freya told me that when Jacob walked out on me at the wedding, Ryan followed him and punched him so hard it broke his nose, so I can’t imagine he’s going to be too thrilled to hear his brother is attempting to contact me again now. Even less thrilled when he finds out that Jacob could be trying to claim he’s the baby’s father.
I’ve had no more texts at least, but I know Jacob, and he doesn’t give up that easy. There will be more, but Ryan and I, we’ll deal with it together.
There’s a knock at the door and relief floods through me. He’s home. Obviously forgot his key again, but he’s home.
I rush to the door and fling it open without even checking to see it’s him.
It’s not. It’s almost him, but not quite.
“Jacob.” I choke out his name.
“Hello, Darcy.”
His eyes rake over me, starting at my face and moving lower. I recoil in horror at the knowledge that he’s seeing my protruding stomach for what I assume is the first time.
He doesn’t linger at my belly though, his eyes sweeping down to my feet and back up to my eyes again.
He gives me no reaction and it’s somehow more terrifying than yelling and screaming would have been.
I was right. I can tell by looking at him that he knows everything. He knew where to find me, which means he knows about Ryan. Nothing about this interaction is unexpected, I acknowledge.
The First Rule: A Standalone Second Chance Romance Page 13