Mom: Ooh, GTG! James is here. He’ll be so proud of me. :D <3
I smiled wide and swayed back and forth, pushing my phone back into my pocket and trying to figure out what to talk about with the other people here. I hadn’t really socialized that much ever, and I was shit at making conversation unless it was with Serena or one of the guys. Attending a party with a bunch of people I only kinda knew had definitely been a bad idea.
What was I even thinking?
Grabbing a water bottle from the kitchen, I leaned against the refrigerator and took a deep breath, trying to blow out all the pent-up anxiety rattling inside me. I had only been here for less than an hour, and I was ready to go home.
“Mind if I join you?” Cam asked, leaning against the doorframe.
I kicked myself off the refrigerator and forced the best smile I could muster. “Sure,” I said. “I don’t know anyone else here as well as I know you.”
He stepped closer to me. “Don’t know or don’twantto know?” he asked, cracking a sinful smile that would’ve made me swoon if I hadn’t had a man already.
Cam was fairly attractive himself with dark hair and even darker eyes; he’d fit right into the frat scene, probably gotten all the girls when he was in undergrad.
“You could know everyone if you talked to them,” he said, taking a sip of his beer. “But you don’t talk that much, do you?”
I walked over to the kitchen table, leaning against it. “Way to call me out,” I joked with him, sipping on my water. “I don’t know what to talk about,” I said honestly.
It wasn’t only that … but I’d also been getting some stares lately at my growing bump. Chelsea’s friends had been avoiding me like the plague for some reason tonight.
I rested my hand on my stomach, grazing my thumb over the bump and smiling to myself. Maybe this would be a blessing in disguise. I’d have my hands full, and I wouldn’t be invited to parties like this ever again.
Cam looked down at my stomach and gave me a half-smile. “Mason’s?”
I nearly choked on my water when Mason’s name came out of his mouth. I waved my hand in front of my face, trying to cool my flaming cheeks, and shook my head. “No, definitelynotMason’s babies. I think I’d die if he got me pregnant.”
“Babies?” Cam said, brown eyes widening. He leaned forward. “More than one?”
“Three,” I said, actually kind of excited to talk about it.
Since the doctor’s appointment, I’d calmed down a lot. I was still so worried about having three kids at once, but Michael was so reassuring.
“Three?!” Cam asked, biting down on his bottom lip in excitement. “God, Mia.” He chuckled. “You’re going to have your hands full. Do you know the gender or anything about them yet?”
“Two boys and a girl,” I said. “At least … I hope.” Because I’d bought clothes for both boys and a girl. “The doctor almost totally missed two of the kids in the beginning.”
Cam leaned forward and started speaking about something, but I couldn’t focus on him because the devil himself walked into the living room behind him. I stepped to the side to get a better view of Mason talking to Chelsea. He glanced around, as if looking for someone, and then his eyes landed on me.
CHAPTER9
MIA
Cam followed my stare and stared at Mason with wide eyes as he approached. Standing up taller, Cam placed down his barely drank beer. “What are you doing here? Nobody even fucking invited you,” Cam said, standing in front of me, blocking Mason’s view of me and my growing tummy.
My heart pounded in my chest, an uneasy feeling sitting in the pit of my stomach. Whatishe doing here?It was supposed to be people from the psych grad program, and that was it. Nobody else.
Chelsea—one of the first years, like me—stepped forward. “I invited him.”
Cam clenched his jaw. “Do you know who he is? What he has done?”
Chelsea rolled her big brown eyes. “Don’t lie about something like that,” Chelsea said to Cam, arms crossed over her chest, pushing out her boobs. “It’s disgusting that you’d ever even suggest that about him. He wasn’t charged. It was all fake. You can’t spread lies about him like that.”
Just listening to her say that Mason was innocent, that what had happened to me wasn’t real, that she didn’t believe all the rumors—which were one hundred percent true—about Mason hurt way more than it should’ve. I wanted to speak up against her, tell her it was true, but Mason was glaring at me from across the room, and … and … I didn’t want him to try anything, especially now that I was pregnant.
“Cam,” I said, tugging on his arm. “Just leave it.”
“No, Mia,” he said. “Everyone deserves to know not to trust him.”
