“Is Malachi around?” Ro said in reply.
“Nah, he had an appointment this morning. So, I’m all yours.”
“Well, if I tell you something, can you keep it between us?” Ro asked. He hated putting Alfie in that situation, but he also wasn’t ready for it to go around.
“You don’t want Chi to know?” He could hear the curiosity in his brother’s voice.
“Well, I’d rather not, but I understand if you need to tell him. I just don’t want it getting out…” His voice trailed off. “At least not yet.”
“Swear down, I won’t say owt to him,” Alfie said.
“Well, Mik and I kind of got together.” Rowan didn’t have to wait for his brother’s reaction.
“You what?” Alfie’s voice was surprised filled. “Is he there?”
“I swear down.” He shook his head even though Alfie couldn’t see him. “Nah, just in me car in town. Left his hotel a bit ago,” Rowan snorted. “Actually, I legged it out of his hotel, more like.”
“Give over,” Alfie sounded excited. “I swear, I thought you was going to wait.”
“Well, I had planned on, but have you seen him? He’s well fit, and I don’t know… must have lost my head.”
“I get it, Ro. I remember that feeling like you can’t stay away. When I first turned up here—actually, no. When Chi turned up at the hotel, I was definitely not checking for him… or anyone, to be honest.” Ro understood. His brother had been getting over a bad breakup. “But even when I didn’t know what it was, I was drawn to him.”
“Yeah?” Rowan wondered.
“Trust me, I had just sworn off guys, and then there he was, and my brain is like, ‘oooooh.’”
Rowan couldn’t help chuckling at Alfie’s description, but he sobered quickly and blurted, “I might be pregnant.”
Alfie squealed. “Swear down?”
Rowan sighed at his brother’s excitement. Maybe he should have called Axel instead.
“He claimed you?” He would swear his brother was hopping in excitement even though he couldn’t see it. Alfie was definitely clapping.
Rowan groaned. “Not exactly, but because he says we are fated, and we knotted”—his cheeks heated at that—“it could happen.”
“Didn’t you use a condom?”
Ro heard Alfie snicker on the other end of the line. “You’re the one that have the talk about rubbers and safe sex.”
“The condom broke,” Ro said in a low voice.
“Ahhh,” Alfie said.
“I don’t know what to do, Fi.”
“What do you mean?” Alfie sounded confused, then his voice lowered. “Do you want to get rid of it?”
Rowan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I don’t even know if I can.”
“Good point,” Alfie replied. “Never thought about it, but I bet there is a way if you wanted to, or if you didn’t want to keep it, I bet Mikhail would.”
Rowan’s heart clenched at the thought of handing his child over, even to Mikhail.
“No,” he said firmly. “No, I wouldn’t give it away, and I guess I don’t want to get rid of it.”
It occurred to Rowan he was making decisions on a maybe baby.
