Sidebarred: A Legal Briefs Novella Read Free Page A

can.”
    I take a sip of my drink and nod. “Yeah—I wasn’t at all hoping you’d forget about it or anything.”
    Her face slides into a grin. “Funny.”
    I look back at her, straight-faced. “I’m a funny guy.”
    When she doesn’t say anything for a few moments, I ask, “What’s up?”
    Because now I’m actually getting concerned. My stomach tightens as I brace for whatever’s worrying her—and before I even know what I’m up against, in my head I’m already planning all the ways I’ll take care of it. Because that’s what I do—and I’m good at it.
    But what she tells me next blows my fucking mind.
    “I’m late.”
    Two words—ten thousand thoughts exploding in my head at once.
    I’m a big guy, six-five, 225 pounds of muscle. Guys like me, our voices don’t squeak. But at this moment, mine comes damn close.
    “Like . . . for an appointment?”
    Chelsea’s beautiful face is tense and her crystal-blue eyes are iced over with worry. She takes the biggest breath and says, “No.”
    “Wow.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Fucking, wow.”
    “I know.”
    I’m guessing couples usually talk about having kids before they get married—but Chelsea and I didn’t. Mostly because our plate was already fucking full.
    “How . . .” I begin, then stop myself.
Obviously
I know how. “I mean, you’re still wearing the patch?”
    Chelsea nods. “Yes. But it’s not one hundred percent effective and remember a few weeks ago it kept peeling off?”
    I’m lucky I remember my own name right now.
    My thoughts are still scrambled. Images of a tiny newborn mixed in with the six faces we already have. Ronan was only a few months old when Chelsea and I first met, so I know what’s coming. Midnight feedings, teething, crying for no reason at all. And the diapers—fuck—so many diapers. For
years
.
    On the other hand, I’ve heard pregnancy makes a woman’s tits huge. My eyes are drawn to Chelsea’s already impressive rack. That pro might just outweigh all the cons.
    I scrub my hand over my face. “Have you taken a test yet?”
    “Not yet.”
    In the years before Chelsea, I banged lots of women. Hundreds. But I never had a pregnancy scare because I was religious about condoms. There was an STD scare once—because those can happen even with condoms—but this is brand-new territory.
    “Okay.” I stand up from the couch. “I’ll go buy a test.”
    “I already bought one.” She smiles shyly. “I bought three, actually.”
    “Oh.” My brow wrinkles. “Well, let’s go take them.”
    I hold out my hand and pull her up from the couch. As I turn toward the hallway, her hand on my arm stops me.
    “Jake . . . where are you on this?” She peers up at me, trying to read my face. “I mean, if I am pregnant . . . are we gonna be okay?”
    I’m floored that she even needs to ask.
    “Of course we’ll be okay.” I cup her jaw, holding her gaze. “It’s a hell of a shock, sure, but it’s not like we don’t know what we’re doing. Adding one more to the mix . . . will only make it better. Maybe.”
    When she smiles, it’s full and relieved.
    I kiss her forehead. “Let’s go piss on some sticks.”
    ****
    “I couldn’t believe it when I didn’t get my period. I kept waiting for the cramps to start, I double-checked my calendar, and when the realization finally hit me, I was just like, wow! You know?”
    Chelsea’s talking a mile a minute. She talked while she took care of the three tests and hasn’t stopped to take a breath while we wait to read them. She flutters around the room, like a twittering, gorgeous bird, putting laundry away, shifting things around on the dresser, unable to be still.
    “I was thinking I’d like to have the baby down here with us for at least the first year. They’re so tiny when they’re first born, I don’t want to be too far away. I don’t know if we’ll need to do more construction, to make our room bigger—which will suck—but we have nine months still.