drove each other nuts too, but they were still best friends.
"Lee?"
"I don't want to be someone's responsibility. I want to be the love of someone's life."
"Who says you won't be the love of his life? You said that I know you don't have time to date, but what you meant was that you don't want to date. You don't want the complications or the potential heartbreak. And I understand that. Your brothers haven't exactly been the best examples. But who's to say that he wouldn't fall in love with you if you gave him half a chance?"
I stared at her, knowing she could see the hope I was feeling. Then, I shook my head.
"How could that possibly happen? Pregnancy doesn't lend itself to falling in love."
My mother scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Stop looking for excuses not to give the poor guy a chance. Though, if I were you, I'd get started on the dating/seeing if you can fall in love portion right away before your brothers find out about him and try to run him off."
My stomach clenched at her words. She was right. My brothers were insanely protective of me, which was crazy considering how they'd treated women in their teens and early twenties. Robert and Scott were still single, but my oldest brother, D.J., had been married and divorced. D.J. eventually remarried to a wonderful woman. He must have learned his lesson because they seemed to be happy, even though he could be a knot head at times, and they had two little boys together. But, God, the path to getting there had been rocky. Robert hadn't made it to the state of wedded bliss, but he had lived with the mother of his daughter for a couple of years before they'd finally had it with each other. My middle brother, Clayton, was the only one of them who'd gotten married the first time and seemed happy to stay that way.
"They'll kill him if they ever find out who he is," I murmured.
"Now, honey, you know they won't."
I took a deep breath and dove right in. "Mom, it's J.J. McClane. He's the father."
"You're right. We'll just keep this between us for as long as we can." She drank more tea before she asked, "Maybe he should look into getting a bodyguard though, just in case it does get out."
I pushed my now empty cup out of the way and laid my head against the kitchen table.
That rushing sound I heard was all my attempts to keep my life simple being flushed down the toilet.
6
I had houses to clean and a shift at Crave the next day.
I also had less trouble with the morning sickness because I took my mother's advice and kept a can of 7-Up and a little baggie of crackers next to the bed. I ate one as soon as I opened my eyes, waited a few minutes, then sat up just enough to take a few sips of the lemon-lime soda. Then, I'd lain back down and read a book on my phone for fifteen minutes.
When I finally risked sitting up, my stomach still rolled but the nausea wasn't severe enough that I thought I would puke.
Mom had warned me that it could get worse as the first trimester went along. Or that I might hit the five- or six-month mark before it went away. Or that it might never go away.
She'd laughed when I'd replied that at least I had something to look forward to.
I walked to the bathroom in slow, careful steps, used the facilities, and washed my hands and face. I stared in the mirror, looking for any visible signs that I was pregnant in my face or upper body.
Nothing.
I looked the same as I always had, though my eyes were puffy from lack of sleep.
Abandoning my study of the mirror, I went back into the bedroom, munched on another cracker, and carried my soda into the kitchen with me.
After another day of a breakfast of toast and tea, I took a shower, dressed, and headed out to clean my first house of the day. I wasn't due at the shop until five that afternoon, so I was going to fit two cleaning jobs in this morning and early afternoon, take a short nap after, then go to work.
Cam was planning to leave when I got there, so I would need to arrive a bit early so I could talk to her about moving to full-time and getting benefits.
The sooner that