by Lex Martin
Fuck.
Greer is written on the board behind him, and I can hear beeping, Kendall’s moan, and Evie talking as the door closes.
“I need to get in there,” I growl, trying to get past him.
But the pissed look on his face matches mine, and his arms cross over his chest. “Absolutely not.”
I size him up. We’re about evenly matched in height and weight and stand toe to toe, glare to glare. I’m considering pushing him aside when he rears back his fist and punches me.
FUCK.
“What the hell was that for?” Staggering away from him, I jam my palm against my smarting cheek. While I want to hit him back, the last thing I need is to end up in a brawl right before Kendall delivers and get kicked out. Thank God no one saw.
“Is Kendall all right?”
“Yes. Fucker. No thanks to you.” He stands between me and her door. “Wanna tell me why my best friend is in tears over you? Yes, she’s about to push out two humans, but she’s heartbroken over you.”
He jams his finger into my chest.
Panic seizes me, overriding the need to punch this asshole in the face. Overriding the desire to shout that I’m her best friend. That I’d never hurt her intentionally.
Because it’s starting to settle in.
I might not be allowed into the delivery room.
“I can explain—”
“About what? That you’re having orgies at your house while she’s pregnant with your kids?” His voice is a sneer. “She’s had enough of your lies, Merritt.”
“What orgies? What lies?”
A concerned nurse and a security guard hustle up to us. “You gentlemen need to leave—”
“My girlfriend is in there,” I snarl.
“Leave. Now. Take it outside.” She points to the reception.
“Fine,” we both say.
He and I walk down the hallway while the security guard follows close behind. When we get to the small lobby, I pull Tristan into a side hallway that has some privacy.
“How could you do that to her?” he hisses. “How long has it been going on, Merritt?”
While I hate this guy, there’s nothing to lose with sincerity. I look him straight in the eye. “There is absolutely nothing in my life except Kendall and those babies.”
Then I tell him everything.
Once I’ve spilled my guts to Kendall’s partner and I’m so desperate to get in her room I’m ready to sign away my trust fund to a security guard to make it happen, Tristan finally relents.
“You have some shit luck, man,” he says with a frown.
But I’m done with the inquisition. It’s my turn to ask questions.
“What about you? Are you done making a play for Kendall?”
The asshole stares at me blankly and then laughs in my face. “We’re not like that. Kendall’s like a sister.”
I growl, and he snickers again before he pats me on the back. Lowering his voice, he says, “Actually, when Evie called me and asked me to come to the hospital, I was at Frankie’s house.”
My head jerks up. “My Frankie?” His nostrils flare, and it’s my turn to laugh. “You mean my assistant?”
He shrugs and looks away. “Maybe.”
It finally sinks in.
Tristan’s not into my girlfriend and conspiring behind my back. He has a thing for the Frank-meister.
It’s my turn to be the protective brother. “You treat her right or next time I’ll be kicking your ass.”
“Yeah, yeah. Go find your girlfriend and help her deliver your babies, Merritt.”
My babies. My girlfriend.
Without another word, I spin on my heel and race back down the hallway, my pulse throbbing in my ears.
Please, God, let my family be okay.
40
Drew
When I peek my head into her room, Kendall is strapped to a hospital bed with various monitors surrounding her. Evie sits next to her while Josh stands by the window.
“Hey,” I say quietly. “Do you mind if I talk to Kendall?”
The pain in Kendall’s eyes slashes through my heart. “Get. Out.”
“Please. I need to talk with you.”
A tear trickles down her cheek. “Drew, you have to go. I don’t want you here.” Her lower lip quivers.
“KK, I can’t go another second without explaining what happened tonight.”
She wipes a tear with the back of her hand, and Evie hands her a Kleenex. “You aren’t going to leave me, are you?”
Evie and Josh glance at each other, and Josh nods and leaves, giving me a pat on the shoulder and an understanding half-smile as he walks past.
The fact that he doesn’t second-guess me right now means more than he’ll ever know.
I gesture to Evie as I lock eyes on KK. “Evie can be here, if it makes you more comfortable. Anyone can hear what I have to say, especially our friends. I have nothing to hide. But I need to talk to you before our misunderstandings get any worse.”
Kendall’s tear-filled eyes look to Evie with such agony my chest feels like it’s going to cave in. “Can you come back in a few minutes?”
Evie nods and exits, leaving me and Kendall with the beep of her monitors and her tortured breathing.
“Are you in pain?” I ask.
She grits her teeth. “The contractions hurt like a mother, but I’m hardly dilated. I’m supposed to get some meds to speed things along.”
Then I better talk fast. I sit in Evie’s chair, pulling it right beside Kendall so I can see her eyes. “I love you, Kendall Greer. I’m sorry I haven’t said it until now.”
Her breath hitches, and tears stream down her face.
“Shh, babe. Shh.” I wipe her cheeks with a tissue, trying to be gentle. “I fucking love you so much. I’ve been scared to tell you, because I thought you didn’t feel the same way about me.”
She opens her mouth to say something, but I stop her.
“I had the best day with you at the shower today. Having babies with you is the highlight of my life. But the shit at my house?” I look into her eyes, hoping and praying she sees I’m being one hundred percent honest. “I was on the patio for so long, I didn’t know how crazy things had gotten. Didn’t realize how many people had come over.”
Sniffling, she wipes her tears again, and hiccups.
I grab her hand. “I promise you, I’d never throw a party like that intentionally. In fact, when I went home to check, I thought it was only a few friends, and”—I shrug—“I was so fucking happy about the shower and being a dad and got caught up in celebrating. But I wasn’t drinking. Someone handed me a glass, and I held it but I didn’t take a sip. I didn’t use any drugs. After you left, after I saw what was going down, I kicked everyone out, but God, I’m so fucking gutted you saw that, and it made you doubt me.”
She’s quiet, so quiet, and I can barely breathe knowing she might tell me to go to hell.
But she lets me keep hold of her hand, which has to be good, right?
“What about that girl?” Kendall whispers. “The one who wrapped her arms around you and kissed you?”
Another round of tears well in her eyes. Fuck, she’s breaking my heart right now.
When Tristan accosted me outside and told me Kendall thought I was possibly cheating on her, I’d never felt more devastated in my life.
“KK, she kissed me on the cheek to congratulate me. She’s dating Mark, who was standing right there. I can call him if you want to hear for yourself.”
I pull out my cell phone, about to offer it to her so she can call my friends and clear this up, when a contraction hits.
She scrunches her eyes, holds her belly, and groans. The monitors beep faster. My gut churns.
I can’t stand to see her in this much pain.
“You got this, babe. Like they said in class. Deep yoga breaths.”
“Fuck yoga breaths. They do jack shit.” She grunts, sweat beading on her forehead.
I smile, loving that she�
��s fierce. That will be her next T-shirt. #FierceAF.
She’s trying not to scream, and I’m blown away by her strength. When the wave passes, she closes her eyes.
There’s so much more I need to say, but dumping everything on her in the middle of labor seems wrong. That’s about me, and this needs to be about her.
But she clears her throat, and I look up to see her tired blue eyes studying me. Her raspy voice cuts through the silence. “So there haven’t been any other women? You’ve been leaving in the middle of the night.”
Christ. I hate that I made her doubt my fidelity.
“There are no other women. There’s only you.” I squeeze her hand gently. Some days my name should be Dumbass dot com. “I, uh, I made the mistake of reading about sex and pregnancy with twins on the internet, and it freaked me the fuck out.”
A lump the size of Montana lodges in my throat when I think of all the shit I read. “I didn’t want to jeopardize anything, and you were exhausted. There was no way I wanted to hurt you or the babies if we got too, you know, excited.” I magically fuck up everything, and I didn’t want to fuck up this. “It seemed the best way to keep you safe was to avoid sticking my dick D into your spaces A, B, or C until our children were out and breathing on their own.”
Thankfully, the tension around her eyes softens. “Why didn’t you just ask the doctor?” Her voice is gentle. Curious. Understanding. “You asked her ten thousand sex questions at our first appointment.”
“I almost did. Every appointment. But then—” Shaking my head, I ignore the fear that grips me when I remember what I saw on the internet. “It’s one thing to look up the worst-case scenarios. It’s another thing entirely to speak them out loud. To voice those concerns. To test fate or the gods or whatever.”
I feel like a tool saying all of this, but she has to understand I’m not sneaking around behind her back and never would.
Never, until this moment, did I ever realize I was superstitious.
But yeah, I’d fucking die if anything happened to Kendall and my babies.
Her eyes glance away a moment before they return to me, a regretful slant to her lips. “I think I know something about worst-case scenarios.” The sigh that leaves her weighs a thousand pounds and savages my heart. “I just…I wish you would’ve said something. I thought it was me. I thought—well—that you weren’t attracted to me anymore.”
Fucking hell.
I lean down to kiss her. “Being attracted to you has never, never been the problem. Do you hear me? It was impossible to sleep right next to your sexy, gorgeous self when you were forbidden fruit.” I laugh awkwardly. “So I’d go home alone and beat off.”
She gives me a watery smile. “You did?”
Of course my girlfriend thinks it’s cute I ran off to jerk it. “Sad but true.”
“I was afraid you were leaving to go be with someone else. Someone thin and not pregnant.” She nibbles her bottom lip. “Maybe someone like Frankie.”
“Baby, no.” I wrap both of her hands in mine. Is this how she feels when I give her grief about Tristan? “Frankie’s like my nutty little sister. Trust me, there is no other woman for me. You make me a better man. Why would I want to go elsewhere when I have the most precious, beautiful, amazing woman right here?”
Kendall opens her mouth to speak again, but a nurse enters the room. She notes down some numbers and adjusts Kendall’s blankets. On her way out, the nurse says, “The anesthesiologist will be in here for an epidural shortly.”
“Thank God,” Kendall grunts as another contraction overpowers her.
Once the nurse is out of the room and Kendall isn’t wracked with pain, she lets go of my hand and brushes away a wisp of her hair.
“I thought you were ashamed of me,” she says quietly. “That you didn’t want to be with me. Didn’t want to tell your parents or friends about me.”
Shit. I’m an asshole. That’s what she’s been worried about? Something so easy to explain?
“I’m fucking ashamed of them. You saw them today. I wanted to shield you from them. And my parents?” I shudder. “I told them about us, about the twins, but they were awful. Said horrible, hateful things. And they wanted all this shit. Wanted you to take a paternity test and sign a prenup.” Merely saying those words makes me seethe. “You’ve had a hard enough pregnancy as it is. You don’t need their shit. Fuck them.”
Tilting her head, she stares up at me. “I’d sign off on a paternity test.” She opens her mouth. Closes it. “Or a prenup.” Her eyes widen with understanding. “Would that mean…”
“Yeah. It means…”
My heart beats in my ears.
This moment.
It’s the giant slalom at the Olympics, the chance I’ve been waiting for my whole life but never knew it.
For once, don’t fuck up, my head chants.
I stand up and dig in my back pocket with a fumbling hand, pulling out my wallet. Yes, the Ninja Turtle one Bee gave me. I open it up and dig out something hidden in the flap.
A ring.
The one I’ve been carrying around for months.
Kendall gasps, and I hope it’s not with a contraction.
“I bought this for you a while back, but I didn’t think you wanted to get married.”
“What? You did?”
I’m trying to read her expression here, to figure out what she thinks, but I realize I have to get this off my chest. Tell her how I feel.
It’s now or never.
“When we told your parents about the twins, I got the impression you were totally opposed to getting married. You’re so strong and independent. That’s one of the things I love about you, and I didn’t want to hamper your ambitions or cramp your style. I didn’t think you wanted to get married, but I have to tell you how I feel because if I don’t, I’m afraid I might lose the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I get down on one knee.
“Kendall, I adore you. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you—loving you, arguing with you, making up with you. You are the fiercest, most beautiful, most amazing woman I’ve ever known. And I love you with all my heart. Baby, will you marry me?”
41
Kendall
“Will you marry me?”
A million emotions rush through me. Relief that Drew’s here. That he’s apologized. That the story of what went down at his apartment makes sense.
Although I’m still seriously irked it happened, I get it.
Even his ridiculous reasons for going home in the middle of the night make sense. I’ve read how fathers sometimes get wigged out by pregnancy. By the worst-case scenarios.
And I’ve noticed how cautious Drew’s been with me. How he treats me like I’m precious. Like my cargo is precious.
It all makes sense.
Tears pour down my face because I’m fucking hormonal and still moderately homicidal despite his assurances. I can’t turn off these feelings pummeling through me while my children try to kick their way out of my body.
“I was never opposed to marrying you. I’m so sorry you thought that.” I hiccup and drag my arm across my face. “I just didn’t want us to do it for the wrong reasons. Because you thought you had to propose.”
His eyes get glassy as he takes my hand. “It would be my greatest honor to have you as my wife. Nothing about this moment is about obligation. I’m here, on my knee, because I love you like I’ve never loved anyone before in my life. Let’s do this. Be a family. Be my family. Be mine.”
I swallow the lump in my throat.
“I’m already yours.”
A bright smile stretches across his mouth. “Is that a yes?”
“That’s a yes.”
He lets out a loud whoop and jumps up to pull me into a gentle hug. We’re both laughing because, seriously, drama.
But I guess Drew’s my kind of drama.
People come rushing into my room, probably drawn by Drew’s howl.
“Are you okay?” a conce
rned nurse asks as she rushes toward me. Behind her, Josh, Evie, and Tristan hover in the doorway.
“We’re fine.” When I release Drew’s hand, I realize he’s placed a gargantuan diamond on my left ring finger. I hold it up to our friends. “More than fine, actually.”
They cheer and clap, drowning out the nurse who reminds us this is the maternity ward and we need to keep it down.
But then the monitor beeps, signaling another contraction, and it hits me so hard, I put Drew’s arm in a death grip while I curse and growl.
Vaguely, I register his soothing words. His concern. The way he brushes gentle fingers over my brow to wipe away the sweat.
Despite the pain, so much pain I can barely see straight when it’s over, I realize I’m not afraid the way I was when I arrived.
Because Drew’s here, and he’s not going anywhere.
Then the room is empty again, except for Drew.
He kisses my forehead. Presses another gentle kiss to my lips.
“I’ll sign your prenup,” I whisper again. “I don’t want your money or for your family to think I’m in this for any kind of monetary gain. I just want you.”
“We’re not getting a prenup. What’s mine is yours. Ours.” He laces our hands together. “And I don’t give a fuck what my parents think. You’re the only one who matters.”
Aww, Drew.
His green eyes bore into me, full of love and sincerity. “I’m so sorry I made you doubt me. I promise I’ll be more open moving forward. You’re the love of my life. You’re the only woman strong enough to handle me at my worst, even though I’ve been trying to give you my best.”
“You have—”
“But being partners is sharing equally in the good—and the bad.”
Oh, Drew.
“I’m gonna let that be my guiding principle. Trusting you with everything. No matter what.”
“I promise to trust you, too. To communicate better. I know I’ve been wrapped up in work, and I’m sorry I didn’t make you a bigger priority. Because you are so important to me.”
He kisses my forehead.