Enjoying Trouble (Trouble #3) (28 page)

“We need to talk first,” she whispered, suddenly looking vulnerable again.

I pulled back to look at her expression, my eyes narrowing. Talk? I was ready to take her up against the wall in the closest bedroom and she wanted to talk first?

“About what?” I asked.

She looked away from my eyes and pushed up from under me. “I don’t want to talk here.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, alarm bells going off somewhere in my head as the blood returned.

“Nothing,” she said as she shook her head. “I mean…look I don’t want to talk about it here.”

“Am I going to like what we need to talk about?” I asked, my heart beat starting to race.

“I honestly don’t know,” she said in anguish.

“Ivy, what the Hell is going on?” I asked.

“I can’t Noah; not here, like this,” she said emotionally.

“Fuck,” I muttered, standing up and heading down the stairs. I had no idea what the Hell was going on and what was about to happen but I felt panicked as I headed back down into the party. I didn’t work properly without my Ivy and if she wanted a break I honestly didn’t know if I would cope. We were forever. We had a house together, our lives were intricately entwined. I shut the music down and everyone turned to look at me.

“Party’s over!” I called out. “Everyone out!”

There were groans and shouts, but people started to leave. I said my goodbyes, looking up to see that Ivy had disappeared from the stairs. I let out a frustrated sigh and shuffled everyone out.

Locking the door, I turned to go and find her. She was coming down the stairs, not looking at me as she seemed to concentrate on the steps. She reached the bottom step and then proceeded to pick up empty bottles.

“Leave them,” I said, stepping towards her.

She shook her head and with a determination, picked up more.

I watched her put the bottles in a bin in the kitchen and then collect more, wondering how my night had gone from feeling like the luckiest schmuck on Earth to this.

“Talk to me,” I said.

She frowned and continued to clear surfaces. “I don’t know how to say it.”

“Jesus,” I said rubbing my hand over my face in despair. “Look, I don’t know what’s happened, Ivy but I can’t not be with you. If this is some sort of fucking break up speech then I don’t want to hear it.”

She stopped in mid bottle pick up and stared at me. “I don’t want to break up with you,” she exclaimed.

I felt the relieved sigh of release from me. Okay. If we were together, I’d handle anything she was going to throw at me.

“I never want to be apart from you, ever,” she said emotionally.

“Good,” I said heading towards her slowly. “So tell me what else is going on, let me fix it.”

“You can’t fix this,” she said swallowing hard.

“I’ll do anything to get the smile back on your face. Just tell me.”

“I’m afraid of the outcome,” she said softly.

“Outcome of what?”

“You, me, our lives changing forever.”

My eyes narrowed as I reached her. “What is it?”

“Promise to be honest when I tell you,” she said.

“Honest about what?” I asked, taking the bottles from her hands and putting them down on the bench behind her.

“Your reaction, your thoughts,” she said.

“You are really scaring me, again,” I said with a frown. “I’ve just had to survive five minutes of thinking you no longer wanted to be with me and now this. Just say it.”

She let out a sigh and ran her hand through her hair.

“Tell me. You want to stop college? You want to sell the house and move to a farm? You want us to join a sex cult? Fuck, are you proposing to me?”

“I’m pregnant.”

The words hit me, took my breath away and dived their way into my brain. Pregnant.

My girl was pregnant.

With my baby.

My baby was growing inside her.

“Say something,” she said in anguish.

I wanted to swear, I wanted to laugh and I wanted to shout with some sort of alpha joy. I was going to be a father. Fuck me. I focused on Ivy.

“Say something Noah, I know this is huge. Tell me what you are thinking. Do you feel like running away? I understand if you do, I don’t know how the fuck I’m going to be a mother. I found out – ”

I pulled her to me and kissed her fully on the mouth, silencing her questions. I cupped her face with both of my hands and held her to me, feeling fear and joy all at the same time. She pulled back slightly to look at me with questioning eyes and asked, “You’re happy?”

“We’re having a baby,” I stated with a grin.

“Which will change everything,” she confirmed.

“Everything,” I said, still grinning.

“What if I’m a bad mother?”

“You won’t be.”

“I’m still in college.”

“Keep going with it. Or stop it for a while and then go back to it,” I said.

“A baby, Noah,” she said like she was confirming it to herself.

“A baby - you’re growing my baby inside of you, right now,” I said with a laugh. “I can’t fucking believe it.”

“You ready for this?” she asked.

“I was born ready,” I said with a wink.

              She laughed for the first time that night and I captured her lips in a kiss. “We are so going to rock this,” I said against her lips.

“I hope so,” she whispered.

              I lifted her onto the kitchen bench behind her and cupped her face again. “I honestly don’t think you’ve been any hotter to me than you are right now. I feel like a caveman and have this urge to beat my chest or roar or something.”

She laughed again. “I love you Noah.”

“Love you more.”

Two days later

Will

“You sure you want to do this?” asked Zac, leaning against the door frame, his hands in his pockets.

“I’m so sure that I would have done it months ago,” I said, running some wax through my messy mohawk. I had grown it back because Janey loved it and I loved her loving it, so it was here to stay. She liked to pull on it roughly when I was between her legs and the thought of that made my zipper instantly tighten. I looked at Zac in the mirror behind me and instantly cleared my head. I couldn’t get a boner now, especially with her brother in the room.

“Why didn’t you?” asked Zac.

“Huh?” I asked. I’d never been successful in getting my wicked woman out of my head.

“Why didn’t you do it months ago?” he asked again.

“She wanted to come back here and be with you.”

“You never know; the idea might rub off on him and he will want to do it next,” said Noah walking in with a bottle of scotch and three glasses.

“That I would like to see,” I laughed, doing one more check in the mirror before turning around to them both.

“How do you fuckers know that I haven’t already done it?” asked Zac.

We both paused and looked over at him, noting his serious face.

“No way,” said Noah.

My eyes narrowed onto him. Janey and I had been gone for months, travelling around Europe and just getting lost together, there was the possibility that he had already done it and we were all none the wiser but he used to be so against the idea that I couldn’t see it happening.

“Not buying it; there is no way that Ava would have kept that a secret,” I said.

“I guess you’ll never know,” he said, standing away from the door frame and stepping inside the room.

“Get Ava in here,” said Noah, pouring a shot of scotch into each glass. “She can tell us if they have or not.”

“Ava is better at keeping secrets than me,” said Zac with a smirk, taking a glass and putting it to his lips.

I watched him closely as I put my own glass to my lips. “No way; you wouldn’t have done it without your sister being there. She would kill you if you did.”

Zac shrugged and then threw back the scotch in silence.

“How we going in here?” asked Dean at the door.

I looked over to my father and smiled. We had furthered our bond together before I left for Europe. He and I kept in regular contact and I was truly better for having him in my life.

“Just getting some courage,” said Noah, holding up the bottle. “You want some?”

“No, I better not,” he said with a smile. After his visit to the hospital and two operations later, he was looking after himself. “So you ready for the rest of your life?”

I nodded and said, “Ready.”

He winked at me before turning to see Ryan appear beside him.

“Bad news,” said Ryan, looking a little worried. “It’s raining.”

“So we get wet,” I said with a shrug. Nothing was going to stop me from marrying her today. Nothing.

“Oh no, your hair will get wet!” moaned Noah.

“Oh shit, we can’t have that,” said Zac.

I gave them both the middle finger before letting out a breath. “Let’s do this.”

Janey

It was raining. I was getting married on the beach, in the rain.

“Apparently it’s good luck,” said Ava.

“I don’t need it,” I said confidently. “Let the rain pour down.” Nothing was going to stop me from marrying Will today.

I took a deep breath and looked at myself in the mirror. I was standing in a place that I thought I would never get the chance to be. I was wearing a wedding dress for starters, a veil too. I had my two sisters fussing around me and I was about to go out and meet my future husband. If the old me could see me, she would have looked on in disbelief. Life had changed. I had changed.

I was still me, under it all; just a little happier version of myself. I still had my moments and would forever be a little complicated. I was always going to be that Janey but now I was also a Janey that put a smile on Will’s face. I actually liked her.

“You look beautiful,” said Ivy.

“Thank you,” I said with a smile as I looked at them both in the mirror. My sisters; two beautiful girls who had changed in more ways than one.

“I’ve been gone for a while haven’t I?” I said next.

They both nodded.

“You both needed to get away and explore the world,” smiled Ava. “Find yourselves.”

“A lot has happened while I’ve been gone,” I said knowingly.

“Like what?” asked Ivy.

My eyes narrowed onto Ivy before I turned around from the mirror and faced them both. “Really?” I asked.

“What?” asked Ava innocently.

“Really?” I said again.

Ava and Ivy looked at each other and then back to me.

“Sisters shouldn’t keep secrets from each other,” I said to them.

There was a knock at the door and then Dean’s voice. “Sweetheart, they’re ready and in place.”

“Coming,” I called out, moving away from the mirror and grabbing my bouquet. I had asked Dean to give me away and he was so chuffed that I had asked him. I turned to look at my two bridesmaids, both unaware that they were doing a terrible job of hiding their guilt.

“So, after the ceremony, we celebrate,” I said to them. “We celebrate my marriage and all of our futures.”

Ava smiled and nodded. Ivy looked pale for a moment.

I smiled and shook my head. “Ivy, if you need to get rid of some morning sickness before we walk out onto the sand, do it now.”

“What?” she said, her eyes widening at me.

Ava swung around to her and said, “You’re pregnant?!”

“She is,” I said calmly. “Just like you’re married.”

“You’re married?!” said Ivy to Ava.

“I can’t believe you are both keeping secrets from me and expecting me not to find out,” I said shaking my head again. “Shame on the both of you.”

“But – ”

“No buts,” I said, walking over to the door and looking back at them. “Get those bouquets and let’s do this.” I opened the door to Dean who was waiting patiently.

“You look amazing,” he said with a big smile. “Ready?”

“Ready,” I confirmed.

“How did you know?” asked Ava.

“You have a new ring with a ginormous rock around your neck that is meant to be on your finger,” I said whilst looking back to her. “You can put that where it belongs now.”

“I didn’t want to take anything away from you on your big day,” said Ava, already undoing her necklace, sliding the ring off the chain and then onto her finger.

“It’s beautiful by the way. My brother has good taste,” I said putting my arm around Dean’s arm. “But we always knew he did, all those years ago,” I said with a wink to her.

Ava’s eyes welled up with tears; she went to me and hugged me as gently as possible.

“Don’t make me cry just yet,” I said trying to compose myself. I looked to Ivy and smiled. “I can’t believe you’re going to have a baby.”