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Is this normal? If so, snaps to any woman who goes through pregnancy more than once because I’m approaching only seven weeks and already a mess.

“Hey.” Jensen walks out of the bathroom and strides toward me. He’s still in the gym wear he dropped me off in earlier and has spent most of today at his place working out. “I was going to pick you up, remember?” He takes my laptop bag from my shoulder and sets it down by the front door.

“Final meeting got canceled, so I took an Uber.”

“You could’ve called me.” He narrows his brows, “No, you should’ve called me. But since you’re back now, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Yeah, sure.” I stand there waiting for him to begin.

Reaching out, he takes my left hand in his. The feel of his palm against mine sparks tingles throughout my body. He guides me toward the couch, his blanket neatly folded over the arm and pillow to one side.

I look around. “Did you get an air bed?”

“Yeah, but I told you, I’ll set up right before bed and take it down each morning.”

“Jensen, just come and sleep in my bed. Or I can clear out the mess in the spare room and set you up a bed if you insist on staying here. Which you don’t need to, by the way. I’m feeling better.”

“Are you Kate? Or are you just pretending like you aren’t exhausted and constantly nauseous?”

God, I hate it when he’s right. Which is all the fucking time.

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

Looking down at his sneakers, he scuffs the floor lightly. “My sister, Hollie, is getting married in a couple of weeks. I want you to come with me. It’ll be a chance to meet my family.”

“I don’t think I can. I have a crazy month in August. With all the time I’ve taken off with sickness, I’m so far behind with my clients.”

“You can’t fly out on the Friday and then home on the Sunday?”

I shake my head. “I can’t takeanytime off.”

I watch the way his jaw ticks, and I can tell what he’s thinking—I’m avoiding meeting his family, and I’m keeping him and his loved ones at arm’s length. “Is this really about work, because in around seven months, you’re going to be off for a year.”

A year? Unlikely. “All the more reason for me to push on with work now.”

“You’re going to run yourself into the ground.”

“I can handle it,” I reply.

“At least let me take you out for your birthday. It’s a couple of days before I have to leave town for the wedding. When I get back, I’ll be straight into preseason conditioning.”

I pull back. “Like as part of the group or just us?”

He turns to me on the couch, and he’s so freakin’ handsome. “Just us.”

“Not a date, though, right?”

He blows out a breath, sounding frustrated. “No, Princess, not a date. I couldn’t possibly subject you to one of those with me. But maybe as your friend? If you’ll consider me as that now.”

I think back to all Felicity said a few days ago and how he’s told me he wants us to be more. I’ve just come out of one relationship with a guy who wanted more, and now I find myself pregnant with the baby of another. It’s too much, too soon. But equally, the more I get to know the man sitting next to me, the more he surprises me with his loyalty. He didn’t run. He’s standing by me, and that earns a lot of respect in my book.

“Yeah.” I smile at him and take his hand back in mine. “Sure, as friends, why not. Just…nowhere that serves meat.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

JENSEN

“So, who is she?” my mother asks.