Double The Love (BWWM Pregnancy Romance Novel) (3 page)

“Celebrating?”

“Not exactly,” Liam said with a
sigh of annoyance. “I just found out that Jazz got herself knocked up.”

Jason whistled but appeared
sympathetic. “Shit,” he said after a few seconds of surprised silence. Suddenly
the reason behind Liam's weeklong binge drinking rampage made sense to him.

Jason knew Liam better than
anyone. He was one of the few people Liam shared personal information with, and
he knew enough to know when he was bummed about something. Now was one of those
times.

“Fuck, I'm sorry dude,” Jason
spoke up.

Liam shrugged but didn't say
anything. The look on his face was purely complacent.

“How far along is she?” Jason
questioned, attempting to carry on the conversation despite Liam's obvious
discomfort.

“Twenty weeks according to my
mom.” Liam exhaled another sigh and took a seat on his bed. “I fucked up. I
made the mistake of going to her show last night and it all went to shit.”

“Hold up...twenty weeks?” Jason
spoke up, furrowing his brows. It didn’t surprise Liam that he was doing the
math in his head. He always was the analytical type. “So the kid was conceived
during the summer then. Weren't you two still together?”

Liam stared at Jason like a
deer in headlights. His mind wouldn't stop racing. The only thing he could
think about was why this hadn't occurred to him sooner.

Chapter four

Jasmine heard her doorbell rang
and hesitantly approached her front door. She knew who it was without having to
look, but she did anyway. When she saw Eli lingering on her front porch, she
exhaled a deep sigh and rolled her eyes before propping open the door. “Goodbye
Eli,” she called out to him, unlocking the top lock but keeping the chain
secured so that he couldn't push his way inside.

“Come on Jazz,” Eli begged. “I
thought you said that you wanted me there for the big scan. It's today isn't
it?”

“I said I'd
think
about it, which I have,” Jasmine
corrected with another roll of her eyes. This whole arrangement was shaping up
be far too suffocating for her tastes. If she wasn't honest with Eli now, she
felt like she'd never get him off her case.

“Look, Eli, I really appreciate
all the support you've given me these past few months,” Jasmine continued.
“It's been invaluable and I can't thank you enough. It's just...the tours
almost over. I think it would be best if you just let me take things from
here.”

Eli didn’t bother to mask the
look of defeat that surfaced on his face. “Alright,” he finally managed. “But
will you at least let me take you to your appointment?”

“I don't think that's a very
good idea. I mean, what if the paparazzi catch us going in together? All it's
going to do is make people think we're together. They already think you're the
baby's father. I don't need that assumption lingering over my head too.”

Eli placed his hand on
Jasmine's and forced her to meet his gaze through the crack in the door. “Would
that really be such a bad thing?”

“Yes,” Jasmine shot back. “It's
not true.”

She couldn’t bring herself to
say what she was really thinking, which was,
‘you’re old enough to be my father’
.

“It could be.”

Jasmine narrowed her eyes at
Eli and pried her hand out from under his. “I think you’re misunderstanding
things here. You’re my friend, Eli, a very good friend, but a friend all the
same. Please don’t make this anymore complicated for me than it already is.”

Eli’s hopeful expression faded
as he slumped off Jasmine’s front porch towards his car. When she was sure he
was gone, she closed the door and went to go change for her appointment. Her
wardrobe was so bland lately. She had to resort to maxi dresses and overly
loose tops because she was already so huge. Her mother had informed her of what
a healthy-sized infant she was, so she knew there was a chance that her baby
would be big too, but this just seemed flat out insane.

After she was dressed, Jasmine
glanced at herself in her bathroom mirror and debated on whether or not she
should put on some make-up. The image obsessed Jasmine would have done so
without question, but that wasn’t her anymore. This Jasmine didn’t see much of
a point. Any chances of her looking like a supermodel for the paparazzi were
made null and void by her pregnancy.

Jasmine knew enough to know
that no one cared about how her face looked anymore. With a deep sigh, she
grabbed her purse and went outside to tell her driver she was ready. When they
arrived at the hospital, she turned down his offer to escort her inside and
shivered as she entered the freezing corridor that housed her obstetrician’s
office. This all still felt so new to her, and it didn’t help that all the
other elite mothers-to-be in the waiting room were sporting wedding rings. Most
even had their spouses there with them. Being one of the only single mothers
there was more than a little uncomfortable, star status or not.

Jasmine pushed her
embarrassment aside as she walked up to the reception desk and checked in using
her real name as opposed to her stage one.

“Have you followed the
preparation instructions?” the receptionist asked, giving Jasmine a look that
made it clear that she knew who she was.

Jasmine nodded even though she
hadn’t. She hated the whole ‘needing to drink a half-gallon of water an hour
before the scan’ thing. It seemed so counterproductive to her. She actually did
it for her last appointment, and by the time the scan was performed, her
bladder felt on the verge of exploding. This time she did it right. She downed
a couple bottles of water during the drive here, and though she was still
aching to pee, it wasn’t anywhere near as uncomfortable as that first time.

Jasmine turned her paperwork in
to the receptionist after filling it all out and froze in place when she turned
back around. Liam had entered the office and was sitting in the empty chair
beside hers. Not wanting to make a scene, she forced herself to regain her
composure and took a seat beside him, picking up an outdated maternity magazine
along the way. "What the hell are you doing here?” she hissed from behind
its pages, feeling all too aware of the presence of the other parents-to-be.

“Ten surefire ways to induce
labor with sex huh?” Liam exclaimed instead, nodding towards the page Jasmine
had open.

Jasmine’s face flushed. “Liam,”
she pressed, keeping her voice low. “Answer me or I'll have to go get security
to escort you out.”

Liam shrugged and picked up a
magazine of his own, idly flipping through it. “I'm just here to support my
oldest friend in her pregnancy, that’s all.”

“We’re not friends,” Jasmine
bit back. “If I needed support, I’d have called someone who actually is.”

“Come on, Jazz,” Liam said. He
laughed but it came out as more of a sneer. “I have a right to be here and you
know it.”

Jasmine’s blood ran cold. “
Meaning?
”

Liam looked at Jasmine
pointedly. She briefly met his stare, but it was far too intense for her
liking, and she quickly looked away. “Why did you let me think it was that
assholes kid?” he whispered, sounding equal parts angry and desperate.

“I didn’t let you think
anything,” Jasmine said after awhile, still not looking Liam in the eye. “You
assumed. There’s a difference.”

Liam exhaled a deep breath.
Jasmine didn't need to be looking at him to know that he was clawing his hands
through his hair. “So he’s mine,” he finally spoke up, glancing at her stomach.

Jasmine wasn’t sure if it was a
comment or a question. “Or she,” she corrected. Her voice came out so quiet
that she could barely even hear herself.

Liam didn’t say anything. He
didn’t know how to play the role of supportive father-to-be, but he could charm
the panties off a woman from miles away. It was a skill he’d utilized when he
called Jasmine's assistant to obtain the date, time, and location of this
appointment. However, now that he was here hearing the truth for what it was,
he wasn’t sure how to react.

Fate worked in mysterious ways.
For some people it was fatal. For Liam and Jasmine, it was a broken condom on
the last night they spent together before parting ways, with her taking off on
tour in celebration of her first self-entitled R&B album, and him beginning
his last year of law school at UCLA.

Jasmine gave up on reading her
magazine and placed it back on the table between them. “Say something,” she
whispered.

“What do you want me to say?”

“I don't know...”

“Were you really planning on
not telling me?”

“I didn't see any point in
fucking up both of our lives,” Jasmine finally admitted, studying her hands. “I
still don't. You’re in school, Liam. In a few years you’ll be this big-time
attorney, and I’m not going to be the one to screw that up for you. I won’t.”

Liam started to interrupt but a
nurse called Jasmine’s name before he could. “I'm coming with you,” he said
instead.

“Liam,” Jasmine hissed. “I
really don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I don’t care.”

Jasmine sighed and turned away
from the nurse to meet his gaze. “Look, you can read my notes, and I’ll even
give you copies of the sonogram pictures. But other than that…”

“I'm coming with you,” Liam
said again, this time more firmly. The look on his face was one Jasmine
recognized all too well. It was one that told her that there wasn’t any point
in continuing to argue with him, so she didn’t.

Jasmine made her way down the
hall with Liam lingering close behind her. They entered the sonograph room a
few seconds later, and she began her usual routine of climbing up onto the bed
and pulling up her shirt. The sight of her stomach in all its glory made Liam's
breath hitch in his throat. It looked a lot bigger than it did beneath
clothing.

The ultrasound tech smiled at
her before glancing at Liam. “And who might this be?” he questioned, not
wanting to make any assumptions.

“I'm the father,” Liam answered
before Jasmine could say anything, causing her to scowl at him. He extended his
hand to the tech, who gave it a brief shake. “Names Liam.”

“Well it's nice to meet you,
Liam,” the tech said before turning back to his computer screen. “If you
wouldn't mind shifting just a little to the right, you'll be able to see the
screen a lot better that way.”

Liam nodded and did as he was
told. The tech pulled out a paper sheet and tucked it into Jasmine's pants
before reaching for a tube of what could be best described as goo.

“Don't worry,” the tech assured
Jasmine when she braced herself for the cold gel to make contact with her
flesh. He motioned to something on his cart. “My gel warmer is up and running
today.”

Liam looked confused but he
didn't ask for an explanation.

“When was your last period?”
the tech questioned, glancing down at Jasmine's paperwork.

Jasmine told him and he went on
to mention her due date based on its correlation to the conception date. “Does
that sound about right to you?” he questioned, looking up at her from his
clipboard.

Jasmine glanced at Liam and
swallowed hard. This was the moment of truth she'd been dreading. “Yes,” she
managed. “That's correct.”

“Great, well, I'm going to turn
on my monitor now and make sure everything is okay, then I'll talk you both
through what I see. Sound good?”