JAX (The Beckett Boys #2) - Olivia Chase Page 0,59

up, then comes right back to my side. Wraps me in his arms. We fall asleep that way, curled against each other. My favorite place to be.

My stomach is a writhing mess. I sit beside Jax in the car in the driveway, staring at my parents’ front door. I feel like I want to puke all over the place.

“Hey, you okay? I’m getting worried about you,” Jax says, a frown marring his face. “Are you that concerned about your parents?”

The drive here was trouble-free and smooth. But I wasn’t able to relax and enjoy it, despite Jax making a special road trip mix for us—a sweet gesture that warmed me. The whole eight hours, worries filled my mind and I struggled with how to find the courage to talk to him about it.

He grips my clammy hand. “Talk to me. If you want to turn around and head back, we can. Though I could use some sleep—”

“I’m pregnant,” I blurt out. Oh shit, this wasn’t how I wanted to say it. I gather my courage and look him in the eyes.

His mouth is a wide O and he’s staring at me.

“Um.” I clear my throat. “I…I’ve been sick the last several mornings, and I realized my period was overdue, so I snuck out and got a pregnancy test, but I didn’t have the balls to take it until this morning, and it came back positive.” I suck in a breath to feed my starving lungs. “I’m sorry. I…know this is a shock for you.”

“I’m going to be a dad.” The words are quietly delivered.

I nod. “I mean…assuming you want to keep it.”

“Of course we’re keeping it.” Jax’s brows draw together and he stares hard at me. I can’t read his face. Then the realization of it all hits him, and his eyes widen with wonder. “Oh my God. I’m going to be a dad.”

Hot tears prick the backs of my eyes. “Are you okay with this?”

“How did it happen?” I can see him doing mental math.

“It wasn’t that night on the car. I already did the same math. Had to have been another time we had sex.” A flush rises up my throat. “I should have been on the pill to protect against this.”

His hand reaches out, and I see it’s shaking. He touches my face. “Oh God, this is really happening.” Then he leans over and presses the softest kiss to my mouth, and my heart erupts in another surge of love for him.

“You’re not mad?”

Jax pulls back and looks at me in confusion. “Why would I be? It’s not like you got into this alone.” He grips my fingers, which are still cold, and rubs them. “We’re already going to get married. This is just going to…change our timeline a bit. But we’ll make it work.”

“I think I’m due sometime in January,” I tell him. “So maybe I can take the spring semester off school to raise the baby and start again next fall.”

The baby.

Shit, I’m having a baby. A real baby.

Jax reaches his hand down to cup my lower belly. “Are you feeling okay?” Concern is clear all over his face. “We’re getting you into the doctor as soon as you get home. And no more long hours at the bar—I know you’re trying to help, but you need to rest.”

I can’t help but laugh. He’s already moving into protective mode. My sweet man.

The front door opens, and my sister is standing there, eyeing us both with a raised brow. No doubt she’s wondering why we’re just sitting in the car.

“Time to go in and face the firing squad,” I joke.

***

The first hour or so of our visit, things are kind of awkward. Despite my mom regretting how our earlier lunch went, she’s still unsure how to act. When Dad takes Jax into the living room to show off baby pictures of us, and Mom’s in the kitchen finishing up dinner, Della pulls me aside in the bathroom.

“He seems different,” she says to me in a conspiratorial tone. “I don’t know why, but that wild edge to him is gone.”

I can’t stop looking at her through a new light, knowing that I’m pregnant, knowing that she went through this on her own. It makes me feel a rush of admiration for her even more. I reach over and give her a big hug, my eyes filling with tears. God, I’m barely pregnant and I’m already a hormonal mess.

“Whoa,” she says with a laugh, patting my back. “You