Double The Love (BWWM Pregnancy Romance Novel) (17 page)

“I know,” Jasmine said. “I'm
sorry. I'm going to miss your award ceremony. I feel terrible.”

 
“Don't worry about it,” Liam said with a shrug, turning onto
his side to look at her. “I'll probably miss it too.”

“Liam!” Jasmine exclaimed,
giving him a soft nudge in the side. “Are you ever going to attend one of
those?”

“I guess it depends.”

“On?”

“On whether or not I can attend
with my wife.”

Jasmine pursed her lips. “I
look forward to meeting her,” she teased, giving him a devious smile before
leaning in to kiss him. The next three months would be excruciating. Right now,
it was important that they made their time together count.

Chapter twenty-nine

It wasn't that Jasmine wasn't
enjoying her and Andrea’s private tour of Vienna. It was a breathtaking city
rich with history, but being away from Liam and Maya had proved a lot more
difficult than she’d anticipated, and she couldn’t find it in herself to fully
enjoy it. Despite reassurances that everything was fine back home, she couldn’t
help but worry.

“You’re doing it again,” Andrea
spoke up, exhaling a deep sigh and shaking her head.

“What?”

“That furrowing thing you do
with your brows when you’re thinking too hard,” Andrea explained, waving a
finger at Jasmine’s face. “You aren’t starting to have regrets are you?”

“No, of course not,” Jasmine
insisted, studying her hands. “It’s a great opportunity. I guess I’m just a
little homesick. I miss Maya something fierce…”

“And Liam?”

Jasmine’s heart skipped a beat
at the sound of his name. “Yes,” she admitted. “More than I thought I would,
actually.”

“Have you told him so?”

“God no!” Jasmine looked out
the window of the taxi they were in and sighed. “This is what I wanted. I was
the one who kept pushing the independence thing. I don’t want him to think I’m
starting to have second thoughts.”

“But you are, aren’t you?”

Jasmine shrugged. Vienna was
the last stop of the tour, and deep down she was relieved. They’d only been
here a week, and they’d already attended dozens of events. Time was going by at
a snails pace, and she was more than a little exhausted. All she wanted to do
at this point was snuggle up in bed beside Liam and Maya, but she’d have to
survive four more long days before she could do it.

The conversation tapered off,
and Jasmine returned to her hotel room to change into something more formal for
another event she and Andrea were hosting later that night. As she struggled to
zip up her dress, she glanced out the window and found herself wishing she
could share the view with Liam and Maya. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be
here. She just wanted them here too.

Once she finished getting
ready, Jasmine phoned home and was relieved when Liam picked up right away.
“Hi,” she said, smiling and taking a seat on the edge of her bed.

“Hi yourself,” Liam said,
taking a seat on what was once Jasmine’s side of the bed.

“How's Maya?”

Liam picked up on the
underlying worry in her tone. “Jazz, she’s fine,” he assured her. “You have to
stop worrying baby.”

“I know…it's just hard being
away from her.” Jasmine’s voice cracked an octave, and her vision blurred with
tears she wouldn’t allow to spill over. She didn’t want to ruin her make-up
after taking so long to put it on.

“I know it is, trust me I do,
but we’re both so proud of you. You’re an amazing singer. It’s about time you
get the credit you deserve.”

Jasmine closed her eyes and bit
down on her bottom lip to keep from crying as a wave of emotion overcame her.
She parted her lips to speak, but a loud knock on her door kept her from doing
so. “Shit,” she muttered, glancing at the alarm clock on her bedside table.
“It’s Andrea. I…I have to go. We're off to another event.”

“When’s the big one?” Liam
questioned, referring to the farewell party the label was throwing to
commemorate the last show of the tour.

“Saturday,” Jasmine said,
grabbing up her purse and casting another glance at her appearance in the
bathroom mirror. “Anyway, I'll call you later tonight.”

“Try to have fun,” Liam
insisted.

“I’m not sure that’s possible
without you,” Jasmine said so quietly she barely even heard herself.

Liam heard, however, and he
couldn’t help but smile.

When she arrived at the party,
Jasmine circulated the room and did the publicity thing like her label
expected, but she had trouble hiding her amazement when she saw some of the
notable people she was brushing elbows with. So far she’d spotted a famous
couple that were both actors, and a well-known basketball player whose
autograph she’d managed to snag for Liam.

Jasmine couldn’t believe her
luck. These were people who had yachts, multiple vacation homes, and more
awards than they knew what to do with. She couldn’t help but felt out of place
as a young mother who was only here because she wrote a couple good songs.

Jasmine was glad that it gave
her something interesting to share with Liam when she phoned him again later
that night, but she was also annoyed that she couldn’t bring herself to stop
thinking about him. He was always there, somewhere, hovering in the background
of each one of her thoughts.

It was late when Jasmine
finally returned to her hotel room, and she quickly stripped of her clothing
and climbed into bed. It was just after midnight in Vienna, which meant it was
around three in the afternoon in Newport Beach.

Liam picked up on the first
ring. “How was it?” he questioned, putting Maya down in the living room to
watch TV before walking into the kitchen for some quiet.

Jasmine began her spiel, giving
him a blow-by-blow account of everything that had happened. “Oh, and I got you
some autographs too,” she added when she was finally finished.

“Anyone interesting?”

Jasmine told him and smiled at
his upbeat reaction. “So how's Newport?” she questioned, relaxing against her
pillows as she listened to him ramble on about life at home.

Liam fell silent when he
realized it had been a awhile since Jasmine had said anything. “You still
there?” he questioned.

“Yeah,” Jasmine managed,
swallowing hard when she realized that her hands were inadvertently resting on
her stomach. She’d caught herself doing that a lot lately, and it was in that
moment, in a lonely Vienna hotel room thousands of miles away from home, that
something occurred to her.

She was in love with Liam
Manning.

And maybe she always had been.

“Jazz,” Liam spoke up, breaking
Jasmine’s train of thought. “You keep spacing out on—”

“I’m in love with you,” Jasmine
blurted out, cutting him off in midsentence.

Liam hesitated, not entirely
sure if he’d heard her correctly. “I love you too,” he said with ease, smiling
as wide as he ever had.

“Good,” Jasmine whispered.
“That makes what I’m going to tell you next a lot easier.”

“Which is?”

“I’m pregnant.”

Chapter thirty

Jasmine knew there had to be some
logical explanation for why Liam was ignoring her calls, but that didn’t stop
her from worrying. She couldn’t help it. Everything was fine with them before
she broke the news to him that she was pregnant, but it had been almost two
full days since then, and she still hadn’t heard from him.

Jasmine was no fool.

She could tell that Liam was
avoiding her.

It didn’t take long for Andrea
to grow sick of Jasmine’s moping. “Jazz, he’s madly in love with you,” she
pointed out. “There’s not a chance in hell that he would ever leave you. You
have to stop stressing yourself out. Just give it a few days before you go
jumping to any conclusions, alright?”

Jasmine obliged by shifting her
focus to her tour duties, but when Thursday hit and she still hadn’t heard from
Liam, she was damn near crawling up the walls. Enough was enough. She returned
to her hotel room shortly after breakfast and angrily dialed his number,
cursing under her breath when she got his voicemail instead. There wasn’t any
use in leaving a message. She was too angry. Whatever she had to say now would
probably be something she’d regret later.

Jasmine and Andrea arrived at
one of the top record labels in Vienna later that afternoon for a signing, and
a representative provided both women with a hairdresser and make-up artist.

Jasmine finished first.

“You look amazing, Jazz,”
Andrea said when she emerged from her dressing room looking like a million
bucks, offering up her arm to her friend before nodding at the stairs. “Come
on. Let's go do this, shall we?”

Jasmine nodded and followed
close behind her. These days she was used to the flashing lights that engulfed
them whenever they entered a room together. It wasn’t all that rare for someone
to cheer too, although they were mostly from pre-teen girls who came to the
signings with their mothers. Jasmine couldn’t lie. She was flattered by the
fact that so many young girls looked up to her. It was one of the only things
that kept her going.

Jasmine and Andrea took their
seats behind a small table in front of two long lines of people, and a very
exhausting looking mother approached with a gorgeous biracial girl who looked
to be about ten or eleven.

“What's your name cutie?”
Jasmine questioned, exchanging a smile with the girl’s mother.

“Maya,” the girl managed after
a few stammers, visibly star struck. She was clutching tight to a picture of
Jasmine that she’d torn straight from the pages of some teen magazine, and her
mannerisms made it clear that she was shy.

Jasmine's heart damn near leapt
out of her chest at the sound of her daughter’s name. She couldn’t believe her
ears. “That’s a beautiful name,” she spoke up once she’d gotten over some of
her shock.
“As
a matter of fact…my daughter is named Maya. Would you like to see a picture?”

The girl nodded and Jasmine
reached inside her purse, pulling a small photo from her wallet and holding it
up for her to see. “That's my girl,” she announced with a proud smile. “She
just turned two.”

Jasmine signed the photograph
in the young girl’s hand and proceeded to make friendly small talk with her
mother. “I love your album,” the woman remarked. “Maya and I listen to it all
the time. Her father died in the line of duty about a year ago, and your songs
have been one of the only things that have gotten us through.”

Jasmine was at a loss for
words. “Oh my…I…I’m so sorry. My condolences.”

The woman gave Jasmine a sad
smile and squeezed her daughter’s shoulders. “It's okay. We’re surviving. I
just…I wanted to let you know that your music has been a big part of our
healing process. It’s so relatable and raw. That’s a rarity these days.”

Jasmine had never felt so
humbled and flattered in her life. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes
as she tried to find the right words to respond, but she couldn’t come up with
anything suitable, so she came around to the other side of the table and pulled
the woman into a silent hug instead. “It was lovely to meet you, Maya,” she said,
bending down so that she was eye level with her. “You’re a beautiful girl.
Never forget that, alright?”