The look in his eye did not appear obligatory. It looked…possessive. He’d told her he didn’t like waking up without her, that was before he found out she was pregnant. He didn’t want kids.
Stop, she told herself. No overthinking. No decision-making. Her brain was not to be overtaxed.
She was reminding herself of the doctor’s orders when her phone dinged with a message. She picked it up she saw that the message was from Lauren, her real estate agent.
“Everything okay?” AJ asked.
“Yeah. I need to pick up my keys.” She held up her phone. “At the house.”
AJ turned the stove off, slid the omelet into a Tupperware, and grabbed her jacket from the wall in the time it took her to stand up and get her shoes on. She saw in his eyes he was not going to let her out of the house without him. The thought of AJ taking her to get the keys, of him seeing her house, felt sointimate. Not that being pregnant with his child was impersonal. But everything between them was so…unsettled.
This was one of the biggest moments in her life, if things went south with them, then that memory would forever be tied to it.
“I’ll just tell her I’ll pick them up tomorrow.”
“Are you not feeling well?” In two strides he was in front of her, his eyes scanning her face and pupils. “Do you need to go back to the hospital?”
Poppy wasn’t sure how to explain that she didn’t want him to see her house without raising alarm bells. “No. I’m fine.”
“I’ll wait in the car if you don’t want me to go inside.”
Shit.Could heactuallyread her mind?
“No, it’s fine.”
He continued staring at her.
“Really,” she smiled and bent down to get her purse.
He followed her out the door, and they only made it halfway down the path when Niko’s head popped up over the shrubbery like the neighbor Wilson fromHome Improvement.
“Hey! There you are, Bro! I thought you got abducted by aliens.”
AJ didn’t respond, but Poppy smiled.
“Oh shit, what happened to your head?” Niko’s head dropped out of sight, and the next thing Poppy knew, he was walking towards them up the path.
She felt AJ tense beside her.
“I hit my head on the planter.” She motioned to the planter on the patio.
“Well, scars are sexy.” He pulled his shirt to the side to reveal what looked like a healing wound from a recent surgery on his shoulder.
“Goodbye, Niko.” AJ put his hand on Poppy’s lower back and guided them around Niko.
“Where are you guys going?” He fell in step beside them.
Poppy couldn’t help but grin. Niko was a grown man in his early thirties, star pitcher for a major league baseball team, but he sounded like a kid wanting to tag along with his brother.
“I just closed on my house. We’re going to get the keys.”
Again, she felt AJ tense beside her.
Niko’s eyes lit up like an excited kid at Christmas as he asked, “Can I come?”
Poppy looked up at AJ, and it was clear to her that he didnotwant his brother to join them, but she had no clue how anyone ever said no to the man. It would be like kicking a puppy.
“Sure,” she agreed. It might be better if there were more than just the two of them. It would make it less…intimate, intense.
