That was an apt way for her subconscious to say it.Jace had not only bid on Steve’s auto shop, saving it from predators like Puckman, but he’d recorded a call from Puckman threatening Jace’s life if he dared intervene again.How he knew to do that—make the recording—was something she’d have to ask him if they ever spoke again.
Looking down at her friend lying on the bed, intubated now that the internal bleeding had rendered her brain dead, Aurelie knew Jackie would never get to meet her daughter and kiss her husband again, and here she was, actively avoiding a man she cared for more than she would admit.
Heat burned the back of her eyes, sending a few rogue tears sliding down her cheeks.
“Hey there, lady.Any day now your daughter is going to join the rest of this crew,” Aurelie said.She talked to Jackie each time she was in the room, convinced the baby could hear it, too.“We’ll never let her want for anything, and we sure won’t ever let her forget you…”
She couldn’t finish her sentence, not without dissolving into a puddle of tears.Again.She just couldn’t imagine a life without Jackie in it.Though Jackie was arguably Sophie’s best friend, and Sophie was closer to Paige than anyone else since she was married to Brad, Jackie was still an integral part of the fabric that wove them all together.
The idea that her life—and therefore theirs by proxy—was cut short, was unconscionable.
Aurelie took Jackie’s hands in hers.They were warm, more fragile than last week, all the nutrients going to the fetus now.Aurelie understood that on a level she hadn’t shared with anyone.It was the kind of understanding that came with two pink lines on a plastic stick.That one night—their first night together—had upended everything for her.
Aurelie wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, sweat beads a constant these days.The wave of nausea rolled over and through her, but abated enough that she didn’t retch the contents of her lunch.
Ugh.Who the hell ever did this on purpose?
Yet, even as she thought the words, her hand flew to her stomach, which was still flat and guarding her secret.That wouldn’t last long, though.She was what, three months along?
No, no matter how miserable the pregnancy made her—more so by the day it seemed—she couldn’t help but see it as a gift.As long as you can keep it fromhim, her subconscious drummed up by way of playing devil’s advocate.
As if she could have forgotten about that little detail for a moment.Another detail she would never forget was how utterly tragic it was that she and Jackie would give birth within months of one another and never get to see the other raise their child.
It wasn’t fair.Especially since she couldn’t shake him no matter how she tried.Her body, heart, mind, and soul wanted him.It was obnoxious.
It was that last part—her connection to Jace that wasn’t fading—that worried her the most.What if he found out about the pregnancy and wanted to stay with her because of the baby?Sure, it would be honorable, but she’d always wonder if he’d chosen her because he loved her, or because it felt like the right thing to do, much as she would have if she’d continued their romance after their marriage of convenience.
“Marrying Jace was a mistake,” Aurelie whispered to her friend.She hadn’t meant to say it, but the moment the words escaped her lips, the truth washed over her.Though she’d have given anything to make it otherwise.“Not for the reasons you’d think.I’m so glad we did it because it let me stay here with you.But I fell for him, Jackie.He told me not to, and I did anyway.He married me to save me, but he can’t.There’s nothing he can do about my annoying feelings, so I need to let him go.I’ll never be able to offer him enough to even the scales, and I can’t live like that.”
“Do you believe that?”
Aurelie flipped around.Jace.He’d changed.Maybe not so much that anyone else would notice, but Aurelie saw the difference in the softening around his eyes, the way his shoulders rolled back with ease.His smile was loose, the left corner of his mouth turned up higher than the right, giving him a playful, youthful appearance.
He looked good.Too good.
Aurelie cleared her throat, and he finally met her gaze.
“You’re here,” he said, his voice breathy and too damn sexy for her to take seriously.
“I was going to say the same thing to you.”
Jace looked far too handsome to be in the death and destruction wing of the hospital, as Paige and Aurelie called the ICU.He wore a black button-down chambray and Wranglers that hugged hips that had given her more pleasure than she had any right to expect.
The stubble on his chin and jawline looked more than a week old and, of course, made him even more ridiculously handsome.
“So, do you believe it?What you just said?”
“I-I do.”
Jace crossed the room in a single stride, taking her hand in his and giving her the most dangerously thrilling chills.
“Can we talk outside?”She nodded and followed him to a beautiful courtyard where ivy grew over a pergola, acting like a canopy.“You don’t owe me anything except honesty, Aury.Certainly nothing for helping you out.We did the favor for each other, remember?”
She nodded, not sure words would work outside her head.Heck, with Jace this close, looking like sex and smelling like heaven, she wasn’t sure they were working inside her head, either.
“But I agree.I regret marrying you, too.”
Her words came quickly after all.“How so?”And how dare he take this moment of weakness to kick her again?
