Hollywood Triplets - Layla Valentine Page 0,51

of my apartment.”

He nodded. “I’m not going to try to excuse that,” he said. “It was unforgivable. I should never have done it.”

“Why did you?” she asked quietly.

Curt swallowed. “Like I said, there’s no excuse,” he said. “There’s no justification. But I can try to explain the reason.”

Annalise nodded. “I want to hear it.”

“The thing is,” Curt said. “I’m in love with you, Annalise.”

“You’re in love with me?” Her eyebrows shot up. “That’s why you walked out on me when I told you I was pregnant?”

“I haven’t been myself,” he said. “I’ve been… well, I’ve been terrified, to tell you the truth. I’ve been caught up in thoughts of how I can possibly hope to keep you in my life without sacrificing my career. I’ve been trying to figure out how that can possibly be fair to you.”

“Maybe it can’t,” Annalise said. “Maybe it doesn’t work. When we were just sneaking around and seeing each other in secret, I thought it was hot. It was hot. But now…” Her hands came to rest on her belly. “I need someone who’s actually going to be around, Curt.”

“I know,” he said. “I know you do. That’s why I broke things off with my agent and quit the film I was working on.”

Annalise stared. “You did what?”

“I told them about your situation. Our situation,” he amended quickly. “I gave them the chance to back me up. But they didn’t. So we went our separate ways.”

She raised a hand to her mouth. “Oh, Curt… you shouldn’t have done that.”

“I had to,” he said.

“You gave up on your movie?” she said. “You didn’t need to do that.”

“Yes, I did,” he said. “The terms of the contract were going to make it impossible for me to be involved with the baby for at least two years, and that’s not acceptable to me.” He drew a sharp breath. “I mean… I know you and I haven’t agreed—you haven’t said that you’ll allow me to be involved in the baby’s life. And after the way I’ve acted, I wouldn’t blame you if you told me to go to hell. But I don’t want my career to be the thing that gets in the way. I’ll do anything for you and for our child, Annalise. I’m sorry it took me so long to see what was really important.”

“I can’t believe you gave up your job,” she whispered. “Acting means so much to you.”

“This is more important,” he said.

“Will you be able to get another role? You told me you were worried that you might not.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But it doesn’t matter. What I’m telling you now, Annalise—you need to believe me. This is more important to me than acting. If my career is over, it’ll be worth it.”

“You really want to be involved in our children’s lives?” Annalise asked.

“I really do,” Curt said.

Then he heard what she had said. “Did you say children?”

She smiled for the first time. “I did.”

“It’s twins?”

“It’s triplets.”

“Oh,” Curt breathed, his head spinning. “Triplets?”

“Come here,” Annalise suggested, moving toward the couch and beckoning him to follow. “Come and sit down.”

Relieved that she was willing to hear him out, at least, Curt followed her and took a seat on the sofa. Annalise picked up a book she’d had on her nightstand and flipped to the middle, pulling out a small photograph that had been serving as a bookmark.

“Here,” she said, handing it to Curt. “Here they are.”

He looked down. He was holding a sonogram image. He’d held them several times in movies. Once, he had even portrayed a doctor who had been responsible for giving a sonogram. But he had never imagined that he would be looking at a picture of his own children.

“I don’t see anything,” he said quietly.

“Yeah, neither did I at first,” Annalise said, smiling. “The doctor had to teach me how to look at it. Here.”

She took the photo from him and turned it one hundred and eighty degrees.

“I had it upside down?” Curt asked, feeling foolish.

“It doesn’t actually matter much,” Annalise said. “But I find it easier to see them this way. Look, here’s a head—and here—and here’s the third one.”

“Oh, wow.” Now that she had pointed them out to him, Curt could make out the three distinct shapes. He looked from the image to Annalise and back again. “They’re really in there right now.”

“They really are,” Annalise said, her smile widening to a grin.

“Oh my God. And they’re all right? They’re healthy?”

“The doctor says all systems are go