Only One (Ward Sisters Book 2) (28 page)

She started to cry again. Emily handed her the tissue box, a morose look on her face.

“Jenna, regardless of what happens with you and Liam, Nina will be here for our wedding tomorrow.”

“You're getting married, for real? Christopher said he was pretty sure, but Rob hadn't said anything, so I wasn't convinced.”

Yet another secret she'd kept for Rob – she and Chris both knew, as did Amy and Rick.

“Yes. I asked Rob to keep it quiet so we didn't alert the paparazzi.”

“Why are you rushing it now? Don't you want time to plan? You just got engaged...”

“For one, no amount of planning in the world will make up for the element of surprise. If we can do it on our terms, I'll gladly sacrifice a church, a big, white dress and a party. For another, and more importantly, I'm pregnant.”

Fortunately, Jenna knew that, too. Otherwise, she'd show the shock to Emily instead of having shared it with Rob. When he had explained the whole thing to Jenna, about how unprotected sex with the men in his family always led to pregnancy, she nearly had a heart attack.

How did you not get me pregnant?
she asked him.

I have no idea
, he said,
but you know I'd have married you if I had, right?

Good God. She still couldn't wrap her brain around that. Never had she imagined marrying for the sake of a baby. At least in Rob's case, she'd have been marrying her best friend. He told her that the reason he didn't worry about Emily getting pregnant when they had their little
oops
was that he hadn't impregnated Jenna before, even though she had gotten pregnant on the pill later. He figured he wasn't quite as virile as his father and brother.

So much for that. They had managed to time things right or else she had been more vigilant about taking her pill every morning when she'd been with Rob.

“You are? Oh, that's so great! It'll be so cute for Liam and Rob to have kids the same age. I'm sure they'll love that.” She began to cry again. Damn pregnancy hormones! “Of course, poor Liam didn't get a chance to have a pregnant girlfriend, so he won't be able to tell Rob stuff you can only really ask your best friend.”

Emily came around the desk to hug her, and though she was usually hesitant about things like that, Jenna let it happen.

“Hey, I'm sure he'll be there as much as he can now that he knows. He'd probably have been there sooner if you'd told him. Why didn't Rob say anything?”

“He didn't know for sure the baby was Liam's because I didn't tell him. Rob didn't know that I've only been with Liam the past 5 years,” Jenna lied.

And Rob. Did you know that before he met you, the best sex he'd ever had was with me? No, that's our not-so-little secret.

“You still love Liam, don't you?”

Jenna nodded, coming back from her turn as the green-eyed monster. She might be jealous of Emily's connection to Rob, but she loved Liam with all her heart.

“So much. I know Nina is your friend, but if I have to watch him be happy with someone else, it might kill me. I want him to have a relationship with his son, and I'd be lying if I said I would be okay with him choosing to stay with her.”

Emily nodded her understanding.

The baby kicked. Jenna laughed and said, “I'm okay, honey,” as she rubbed her belly. This baby might be the only person in the world she loved more than Liam and Rob.

God, she hated the idea of sharing either of them.

**********

When Liam and Rob entered the kitchen from the deck, they saw Christopher, Meg, Reggie and Nina sitting at the bar counter. Nina gave Liam a sad smile.

She knows the baby is mine
.

Meg scowled and spat, “They're in Em's office.”

As he approached the door to Emily's office, he heard Jenna say, “He kicks me all night sometimes. Wait until you get to that point. It feels like someone is playing ninjas in your stomach.”

Shit
. This was really happening. Jenna was having his baby, and it was a boy.

Em laughed and Liam knocked softly. Emily called
Come in
, and when he opened the door, she said, “Hi, Liam. You feeling okay?” He nodded. “I'll leave you two alone to talk.” She kissed his cheek as she left and she quietly shut the door behind her.

Liam took a deep breath and Jenna said, “Sit, please.”

He had no idea what to say. They sat for a moment as the ticking of the desk clock filled the silence. There was so much to say and he had no clue where to start, so he went with his gut.

That had always been the best thing to do with Jenna.

“I heard you tell Em that he kicks you a lot at night. So, we're having a boy?”

Jenna's reaction was instant. She held her breath and her eyes filled with tears as she nodded. Her face turned red as she tried to stifle the anguish, but she couldn't hold it in and she started to sob uncontrollably.

Liam jumped up and knelt in front of her. The tears rolled down her cheeks and he wiped them away with his thumbs, cupping her face in his hands. He brushed the hair from her face, like he always did, and it felt like silk to his touch, thicker and more lustrous than ever. God, he loved her hair.

“Did you think I'd question whether the baby was mine?”

Jenna shrugged, still crying. Liam pulled her to him and hugged her. It was harder to get his arms around her with the belly in the way. As his stomach pressed into hers, he felt something hit him. He leaned back and she gave a little laugh.

“He's saying hello, Daddy.”

Holy shit.
He was really going to be a father. The shock must have registered, because she smiled at him like she always had when he'd amused her. She lifted his hand and placed it on her belly, and he felt the baby kick again.

“Wow. He does that to you all the time?”

“He does it more when he knows I'm really emotional. Which I have been a lot lately. I swear, Liam, I didn't get pregnant on purpose.”

She started to cry again. He caressed her face.

“Jenna, shhh, baby, don't cry. I was there, remember? I know it wasn't on purpose. I'm assuming your birth control failed.”

She nodded and sniffed. “I forgot my pill that morning so I took it before I went over to Rob's house. The doctor said that for some women, it's actually really important to take it at exactly the same time every day. I guess I'm one of them.”

“Why didn't you tell me about the baby?”

“You didn't call me. I thought you'd blown me off, that you'd changed your mind or decided that you didn't want to commit. After I knew what had happened with Emily, I thought I'd judged you too harshly. But you never called, and Rob never said you asked about me. And then I missed my period. I've never, ever missed one on the pill.”

“Why did Rob ask me if you were seeing someone else?”

She looked confused. “He did? I wasn't.”

“After the first month, he asked if you were seeing someone else. He thought that you were because you stopped asking about me every day.

“I was mad, at first, and then sad, and then I was pregnant. It's not the kind of thing you want to tell a person over the phone, but you never called me, and you never came back to L.A.”

“I wanted to call you! Every day. But we didn't do that. When he said you were seeing someone else, I thought you were done with me, that you'd found a guy who was ready to get married. I wished that Em would realize she still loved Rob and go back to him, or that he'd stop being a pussy about it and come get her. Then I could go back and see you. I missed you.” Liam started to cry. “I missed you all the time. I loved you so much. I wanted to beg you to take me back.”

It was her turn to wipe away tears. She gently brushed them from his cheeks. “You
loved
me or you
do
love me? Because I'm pretty sure that red-haired girl out there is your girlfriend.”

“How did you know that?”

“Because she panicked when you passed out.”

“I've only been seeing her for a month. Nina is Charlie's best friend. We met at Charlie's wedding.”

“Her name is Nina?” Liam nodded. “She's younger than me.”

“She's 25, yeah.”

“Are you happy?”

“If someone had asked me that before I saw you today, I'd have said yes.”

“But now?”

“I don't know. I like her, Jenna. She's a great girl.”

“Do you love her?”

“No. I don't think I do. Not yet.”

“But you loved me almost as soon as we met.”

She touched his face, his lips. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. And it was true.

“Yeah,” he whispered, nodding. “I still do. Even if you weren't having my baby, I think I'd still be in love with you.”

“But...”

Liam sighed. “I don't know what to do. If there was no Nina, I wouldn't hesitate to beg you to take me back.”

“You wouldn't need to beg. I'm not seeing anyone. I expected to do this on my own.”

“Do you still love me?”

“With every fiber of my being. I don't know how I could ever love anyone but you. I was close to giving up on us. When you said you loved me, too, I realized that I couldn't live without you or ever love anyone else. Then you dropped out of my life, and the only thing I had left to hold on to was this baby. I love you, Liam, so much that it hurts.”

At the same time, they both leaned in and kissed, slow and gentle at first, but quickly their tongues danced and the kiss deepened and by the time they pulled away, they were breathless. Liam rested his forehead against hers.

“God, I missed you. I can't believe it's been more than seven months since I last kissed you. I've wanted to do that for
so
long.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“What do you
want
me to do?”

“I can't choose for you. If you thought you made a mistake listening to me, you'd blame me for it.”

“Do you want me back?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to marry me?”

“I've always wanted that. Do
you
want to marry
me
?”

He took a deep breath and his heart raced. He loved her too much to lie to her.

“Yes. Not just because of the baby. For months, I wanted to tell you that I'd been an idiot and I should have committed to you when I first left L.A. No one else compared to you, but I was afraid to let you in. There's a lot about me you don't know and it's...not pretty.”

“I always suspected you had a life before this that was messed up. I don't love you any less because of it.”

It was a relief to hear that. “I wanted to tell you my secrets. I never wanted that with anyone else. The other girls were never about more than sex. But you, it was
always
about more than that with you.”

“And Nina?”

“I told you, I like her. She's a great person. And, yes, I've slept with her and the sex is good. But it's not emotionally intense like it was with you. If I'm honest with myself, I was trying to fill the void you left in my life. No one could ever fill it but you.”

“Are you really going to commit to me, Liam? Are you really going to end things with Nina and stay faithful to me?”

“Yes, Jenna. I mean it. I meant it before. If I thought we still had a chance, I wouldn't have started things with Nina. I love you. I've
always
loved you.” He kissed her gently.

“I've always loved you, too.”

“You'll need to move here. You know that, right? Rob and Emily plan to live here, which means I'm here most of the time. I've moved most of my stuff from Minneapolis.”

“I can move here. My mom lives in Belmont and I can fly to California to see my dad.”

“Okay. We can talk about it more later.” He sighed. “Look, I have to talk to Nina. This is going to be an awkward weekend. You know that Rob and Emily are getting married tomorrow, right? So Nina needs to stick around.”

“Yes. Emily confirmed it when we were talking earlier. She also told me it's because she's pregnant.”

“Yeah, I figured that out before either of them did. I knew once they confirmed it that they'd push the wedding.”

“We don't have to do that. If you're not ready for marriage...”

“No, I want to be married before the baby comes. There's no point in putting it off. Not when I know I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Did you know you'd say that when you walked into this room?”

“No. But I felt drawn to you as soon as I was close to you again, just like always, and I couldn't deny it. To pretend that I want anything else only hurts Nina more in the long run. I was being unfair to her, anyway, always comparing how I felt about her to how I felt about you. How I still feel about you.”

He kissed her. He'd missed her lips, her touch, her smile, her laugh. He'd missed everything about her.