Page 30 of A Vegas Crush Collection #3

told me what?

Grant

For however long I’ve been pacing this waiting room floor, it feels like fucking forever.

I head to the nearest nurses’ station. Again. “Please, can you give me an update on my friend? Devon Pearson?”

“Sorry.” Nurse Julie shakes her head at me. “You’re not listed as family or an emergency contact, Mr. Gerard. Unless she consents, we can’t share any information.”

“Well, her friend is back there. Will you at least go ask her friend Gia to come out and talk to me?”

They say they’ll pass along the message, so I head back to a row of seats and shove myself into the chair, legs bouncing nervously. I send probably the fourteenth text to Devon, asking if she’s okay.

When tiny, pixie-haired Gia comes out, she points at me in annoyance. “You. Slow your roll. Stop texting an injured woman. She needs to rest.”

“Well, no one will tell me what is going on. I’m worried about her, okay?”

“Well, I’m here now. And she’s okay. She just needed fluids. She was dehydrated.”

“Oh.” I let out a breath of utter relief. “That’s it? And her head?”

“Couple of stitches. She’s probably mildly concussed but nothing significant.”

“Can I please see her?”

“Sure. As long as you’re not going to be all extra about it.”

“Extra? Me?”

Gia lifts one eyebrow.

“Fine.” I throw my hands up in surrender. “Calm as a cucumber over here.”

“Isn’t it cool as a cucumber?” Gia directs a calculated smirk in my direction. I get the distinct feeling she knows way more than she’s telling. “Come on, lover boy, I’ll take you, but remember what I said. Chill is the way to play this.”

Oh-kay.

Chill is the way to play this?

Whatever that fuckin’ means. I have no idea what is going on with Devon, but I feel like something is.

I don’t get into it with Gia, either. I’m so done with the cryptic vibe of bullshit everyone keeps feeding me.

I need to see Devon, and I need to see her right the fuck now before I expire from worry.

So, I keep my mouth shut and nod once, following Gia back into the patient rooms, knowing every step I take brings me that much closer to Devon.

She looks up at me, and her eyes fill with tears the second I come into her room. “Devon?” I can’t get to her fast enough. But when I take her hand, the tears start spilling. I gently touch the bandage on her head. “Does it hurt? Are you in a lot of pain? You really scared me.”

She shakes her head, eyes closed as tears still slip down her splotchy but still beautiful face. “It’s just a cut. And I’m b-b-barely c-c-concussed.”

“Shh, it’s okay.” I reach down and put my arms around her, just grateful to have her close again. Visibly upset and crying, yes, but she’s conscious, and from all accounts, not seriously injured. “What, then? Can you tell me? I want to help.”

A doctor interrupts us, trailing a medical equipment cart along behind him as she pulls herself out of my arms.

“Devon Pearson.” He greets her with a professional smile. “Okay to get started with your visitor in the room, or would you like a little privacy?”

I look from him to the cart and back to Devon again as she shakes her head. “It’s fine. He can be here. I just haven’t told him yet.”

“Told me what?” I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up at the odd sound of her voice.

Devon’s hand slips from mine and she rests it on her abdomen. “That I’m”—she shakes her head and frowns—“no, that we are pregnant.”

Time stops.

Just…fucking…grinds…to…a…dead…halt.

The earth stops spinning in its orbit around the sun.

I know I forget to breathe, just like I know my mouth is hanging down to the floor like a cartoon character in shock.

And when the record starts to spin again, I feel my eyes get hot with tears. She’s PREGNANT?

The doctor moves over and has Devon lift her gown, exposing what I now see as the smallest little swell of a baby bump.

He squirts some gel onto her skin and turns on the machine, pressing the wand end against her stomach.

A whooshing sound fills the stunned silence between us as we look at the black-and-white image on the screen.

“We’re having a baby.” I breathe, still processing the news.

“Yes, we are.” She gives me a smile that’s a mix of half-happy and half-worry before I jolt with panic. “When you fell, it didn’t—I mean, you’re okay, right? Everything looks okay, right?”

Devon peers at the screen. “The blob looks a little different than it did last time, but heck, I don’t know. Is that what it’s supposed to look like at this stage?”

The doctor chuckles. “Well, first, you’re not having a baby.”

My heart drops. “What do you mean?”

He grins. “You’re having two babies. Twins. See, there are two distinct little bodies in there, and each one has its own healthy heartbeat.”

As he points out each feature, I start to see the outline of two little people. They look like tiny candy bears. Devon looks as dumbfounded as I feel.

“I’m sure there was only one at the last ultrasound,” she says shakily. “They can’t just multiply in the womb, right?”

Laughing, the doctor assures us both. “No. Sometimes we can’t identify multiples early on.

One fetus might be hiding behind the other in early images.

As they get bigger and need more room, they usually reveal themselves.

Honestly, this is probably why you’ve had such horrible morning sickness.

The more hormones in your system, the sicker you are, in most cases.

Also, this makes your pregnancy slightly higher risk.

But everything looks fine and good, and you appear to be the picture of twenty-eight-year-old health.

Nothing to worry about from the fall. I’ll get you some discharge paperwork, as well as a referral to a high-risk specialist. Dr. Reilly is excellent if you decide to go with him. ”

He finishes the ultrasound, printing off a few of the grainy, black-and-white images and handing them to me before wiping the goo off Devon’s belly. On his way out, he offers a congenial, “Congratulations, Mom and Dad.”

We sit in stunned silence for a few moments, holding hands. Finally, Devon speaks, asking timidly, “Are you upset with me?”

“Why would I be upset with you?” I’m genuinely confused.

“Because I didn’t tell you. And I pushed you away.” Devon’s eyes fill with tears again.

I scoot closer to her, leaning in, my forehead touching hers. “No. I’m not upset.”

“Are you sure? I plan on having them, but I won’t—wouldn’t ask you to—”

I stop her speech with a kiss.

As I sit back, I use my thumb to wipe away her tears under each eye. “Devon, I couldn’t be happier. This is the best news I’ve ever heard.”

“Really? But this just makes things so much more complicated.”

“What’s complicated about it? I’ve always wanted kids. I’d just about given up on it because I didn’t think it was possible. And I care for you. You care for me. We’re really good together. We’re going to be the best parents ever and make a beautiful family.”

“Grant, us caring about each other doesn’t make our work situation go away.

We met for the first time barely three months ago.

And let’s be honest, it won’t be you who loses your job over this.

You’re the new golden boy, the whiz kid manager who’s doing everything right.

They can find a new nutritionist much easier than they can find a great GM. ”

“I can’t replace you, though,” I say firmly. “I value your work and I’ll walk if they try to fire you. Besides, what kind of bullshit double standard would that be? It takes two to tango, as they say. Plus, we met before I started here.”

The more I speak, the more impassioned I become.

We haven’t done a thing wrong. Our relationship—and yes, I’m calling it a relationship—started before we became employees.

I’m deliriously fuckin’ happy. “We didn’t do anything wrong, as you’ve said, my beautiful Devon.

I’ll fight for you. For us.” For my children. Fuck.

Devon, still teary, doesn’t seem all that convinced. “This pregnancy is high-risk; you heard the doctor. I don’t want to be stressed-out at work, worried what people are saying and thinking. I want to be calm and healthy for the babies. I don’t want something bad to happen.”

I lean in and kiss her again. And even though we’re in a hospital and the news is a lot to take in, the feeling of her lips beneath mine calms me. This feels like home to me. Like everything is clicking into place as it should.

“Nothing bad is going to happen. I will not allow it.” I hold her cheeks in my hands.

“Devon, I would be devastated if anything happened to you or these babies, so I hear you. But I need you to hear me when I say this will be okay. Better than okay. And we’ll figure it out together.

It’s going to be fine. I promise. Please don’t worry for a moment.

I’m going to take care of all of you and I’ll keep repeating it until you believe me.

I’m going nowhere. I’m here to take care of all three of you. ”

“You are?” she whispers, her dark brown eyes filling with new tears for me to wipe away again.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, my gorgeous, twin-baby mamma,” I whisper back before kissing every tear from her beautiful face.

More fiercely than I’ve ever felt anything in my life, I know this.