Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

JENSEN

" S o, who is she?" my mother asks.

"Who's who?" I say, playing stupid.

"Don't leave your mother in suspense any longer, son," Dad says, perusing the menu. "Other than the wedding, speculating on who your new lady is has taken over every single conversation."

Checking the time once more, I sit back in my seat and fold my arms across my chest. "I'll be honest with you. I don't have a girlfriend at this point."

"At this point? What's that supposed to mean?" Mom responds.

Scrubbing a hand over my face, I consider my next words carefully. No matter how I put this next thirty seconds, the glass of beer currently in my dad's hand is likely to end up in his lap. "I'm going to be a dad, and the woman carrying my baby isn't my biggest fan. We're stepping into the friendship zone, but she doesn't want a romantic relationship with me."

There, that should do it.

"Jesus," Dad slurs, quickly setting his glass back on the table.

Mom's mouth continues to hang open.

"My intention was to tell you when I came back home for the suit fittings, but you remember how I had to rush back to Seattle, right?"

Mom's head nods slowly, but still, no words materialize.

"She's been struggling with morning sickness, which turns out to be more like all-day sickness." I pick up my drink and take a sip, checking my watch again. "Anyway, I needed to get back and help her."

"Do we know this girl?" my mom asks.

They've met Kate a few times at games, but other than that, I've only mentioned her to my parents in passing and normally as part of a conversation about our wider group. "Kind of. Her name's Kate."

Or Princess .

"Why isn't she here today?" Mom still looks phased out. The news is clearly not sinking in.

"She's at work. She's a lawyer."

"Oh, Kate! Felicity's friend, right?" Dad snaps his fingers.

"When is she due?" Mom asks.

"Actually, we're heading for her first scan this afternoon. We should get a better idea of the date, but it's estimated to be March twenty-third."

"Wow. Jensen, I'm literally speechless." Mom continues to stare at me. "Was it something that just happened? I mean, I know the baby isn't planned, but you seem really thrilled." She smiles at me sweetly.

The smile I've worn this entire time grows wider. "No, it wasn't planned, but it was meant to be."

Mom cocks her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

I think back to the day she told me and specifically the date, July sixteenth. "Do you believe in fate?"

"Absolutely," Dad chimes in.

"Well, this is it for me. She's it for me."

"But you're just friends?" Mom questions.

"For now, yeah. But I'm working on it. She doesn't do commitment."

"Neither have you since…" Dad hesitates before saying her name. "Well, since Lauren."

"She's what I want," I reply. "No girl has come close to her."

Dad nods in understanding. "Then go get her."

"And bring her to the wedding," Mom adds. "I need to meet her."

I wince. "She's working and can't get the time off." I sigh. "She's a workaholic, and this whole baby thing has left her reeling."

Mom smiles empathetically. "You've got your work cut out for you if you want to start dating her and upgrade from a co-parent."

Shaking my head, I raise a hand to attract a server's attention. "Dating is just a steppingstone to being my wife."

KATE

"Katherine Monroe," the sonographer calls out across the empty waiting room.

Jensen leaps out of his seat and smiles down at me, holding out his hand for me to take. "I can walk by myself. You do know that, right?"

"Sure, Princess, but this is the best part. The first time we get to hear our baby's heartbeat. So," he waggles his fingers to invite me once again, "take my hand."

Sliding mine into his, I can't deny that the nerves I've been feeling since the moment this appointment was confirmed die down almost completely.

I look up at him. "You do know you can start using my real name whenever you're ready."

We begin walking toward the scan room when Jensen leans into me. "I'll make you a deal. I'll stop calling you Princess when you start calling me JJ."

I scoff. "Why is that so important to you?"

He goes to answer but doesn't get time to reply before the sonographer speaks. "So nice to meet you both. I'm Jayne, and I'll be conducting your prenatal ultrasound." She looks over at me and smiles. "If you can hop onto the bed here, we need to get everything ready so you can meet your baby for the first time." She then looks at Jensen, but I'm certain she doesn't recognize who he is, clearly not a hockey fan. "Is this dad?"

"Yes indeed," he replies without hesitation.

I kick off my heels and lie on the bed, getting myself comfortable. As I stare up at the poster of the stages of pregnancy, the nerves that Jensen seemed to calm come racing back to me. I can't be a mom. I wasn't built to be a mom. Moms think about their babies years before they're born, and here's me, lying here with no plan or fucking clue what I'm doing.

"Hey." Jensen pulls his chair closer to my bed and reaches out, taking hold of my hand. "All okay?"

"Yep," I reply, still staring straight up at the poster, totally overwhelmed.

"Okay." Jayne tucks a sheet into the top of my work pants and rolls my white blouse up to just below my bra. Holding a bottle of jelly substance, she squeezes some onto the probe. "Let's meet your bundle of joy. This might feel a little cold at first."

She isn't wrong. As soon as the jelly and probe hit my warm skin, I shudder. Jensen squeezes my hand tighter.

"Okay. Let's find that heartbeat."

Moving the probe around, silence falls across the room. Jensen continues squeezing my hand while we both stare expectantly at the screen.

"Where are you, little one?" I ask.

"Oh, don't worry, it can take a moment to find them, especially at this early stage."

I look to Jensen. "Yeah, it'll be fine."

He looks back at me. "I know. Jayne was responding to you, Princess."

Wait, did I say that?

"Oh right, okay," Jayne says in a surprised way.

Jensen's eyes flash to the screen, as do mine.

"What is it?" he asks, his tone less relaxed than before.

"Well, we don't have a ‘little one.'" She smiles at us both warmly. "Rather a little two!"

"Ohmygod!" I gasp as Jayne makes some adjustments to the image, and two tiny heartbeats come through the speaker into clear focus on the monitor.

"I, I…" I turn back to Jensen, whose head is dropped between his shoulders.

When I squeeze his hand, he raises his head, and I see the tears shining in his eyes. "Two?" he croaks out and then clears his throat. "We have two babies?"

"Yes, both with healthy, strong heartbeats."

"Wow." I watch the screen in awe—in awe of nature, of my body, and the magic unfolding before me. The whole experience feels surreal.

"Congratulations to you both. You have an instant family." Jayne begins cleaning me up. "As you're eight weeks, you do now have the option of a blood test to determine the sex of the babies. Is this something you would like? It's a very personal choice, of course."

I look over at Jensen, who gives me a nod, indicating it's my call. "Can we make that decision afterward? It's just with this news and all the information…" Plus, I kind of had my heart set on finding out the sex via a scan. Something about that feels more special.

Jayne smiles. "Of course. Your next scan will be scheduled for eighteen weeks, and there is an opportunity to find out then, when you've had more time to talk."

Jensen squeezes my hand in reassurance and then rises from his chair and stands over me, placing a chaste kiss on my forehead before whispering, "I'm so fucking proud of you."

The drive back to my apartment is drenched in silence, John Legend playing softly in the background.

Jensen eventually speaks first. "The season will be in full swing in March."

Jayne mentioned that with twins, I'm unlikely to go the full term, but even if they do deliver the babies early, it will still be right in the middle of the NHL season.

Babies, as in more than one. I will not hyperventilate. I. Will. Not.

I swear to God, if someone had told me back in June that I'd be expecting twins in March with Jensen Jones, I'd have checked on their drug of choice.

"I'll have plenty of people around if anything happens and you're not with me."

"Hmmm." He signals to take a left onto my street. "I'm going to buy us an SUV. Your Mercedes is too small, and I want something safer."

He's probably right about my A-Class. "This is fine," I say, looking around his Tesla.

"I'll keep it because it's a great car. But I want something bigger for family days."

"What did you have in mind?"

He looks over at me, his sunglasses hiding his eyes but not his smirk. "For the car or family days?"

I can't help myself; I want to know. "Family days."

"Well, first, we'll need a bigger trunk for a double stroller. Then, we'll need to buy a bigger diaper bag for double the stuff. Then you've got all the toys and equipment."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"And my girl. She doesn't travel light."

"You never stop, do you? Any excuse to goad me."

He pulls into the allocated visitor space next to my car and takes off his glasses. "I'm not goading you, Princess. I just want you to stop fooling yourself."

He climbs out of the car and rounds it, pulling my passenger door open. Holding out his hand, I slip mine into his for the second time today. "I'll give you one thing."

He waggles his brows at me in jest. "Oh yeah, what's that?"

"You're more of a gentleman than I gave you credit."

We walk across to the stairwell and begin climbing the couple of flights to my apartment. "You are going to make some lucky girl very happy one day."

Jensen stops, coming to a complete halt.

I turn around and look at him. "I mean it. You really will."

I'm three steps higher than him, and even though he has several inches on me at six-three, I look down at his constricted pupils.

He counters the difference and steps up so we're face to face and only inches apart. "Kate. Have you not been listening to a thing I've been saying these past few weeks?" His breath heats my entire body.

"I could say the same thing. You know what this is, Jensen. A friendship."

Shaking his head, he looks off to the side and then back at me. "I could make you so damn happy every single day. And when you finally drop your walls and let me in, you'll wonder what your life looked like before you had me holding you, kissing you, and warming your body each night." He reaches out and runs a hand through my hair, his palm coming to rest at the back of my head. "There are two hearts on the line here."

"I don't think that's true. People co-parent all the time and provide loving surroundings for their children."

"No. That's not what I mean." He closes his eyes, almost like he's in pain. "I'm not talking about our babies; I'm talking about us . You won't be only denying your heart a chance at happiness. You'll crush mine, too. There's only one place it wants to be, and that's in your hands. You're holding it in your hands. Just be careful with it, okay, Princess?"

My knees go weak. Holy fuck.

"That's what I'm trying to do, Jensen. I'm trying to keep the lines between us clear. I don't want to hurt anyone in all this. I think you're going to be the best daddy ever, and I don't want to fuck anything up between us. We're building a great friendship."

"Stop using the F word."

"Fuck? I use it all the time."

He smirks. "I know you do, potty mouth. The other F word. Friendship. It offends me when it leaves your lips."

"But that's what this is. A friendship, and we're a team."

"You know when you fall in love with me, I'm never going to let you live this down. Every time I slide inside you, I'm going to remind you that friends don't do this." He looks down at my pinched, traitorous thighs and then back up at me, his brown eyes more of an amber from the flames. "Just like your body is reminding you of that night. The night I put not one, but two babies inside you."